Page 24 of A Remarkable Rogue

When she began to protest her innocence, he put a finger to her lips and silenced her.

“I’ve been watching you. Apparently, so has the man who just walked past. Most likely he followed you all the way from your house.” His brows pulled into a small frown as he stared at her mouth. “But you were out of his sight too long, so he came to check on you to make certain you were still here.”

Her mouth fell open, half from surprise at his audacity and half from the way his fingertip began to rub her bottom lip. “How do you know that?”

“Because I would have done the same.”

That didn’t put her at ease. “If Scepter knows I’m with you, if they believe I’ve confided in you,” she said so softly the whispered confession was barely audible, “they’ll kill both of us.”

“No,” he assured her quietly, but his troubled frown deepened. “They want you alive. For now.”

His hand slid down her neck to stroke across her shoulder and along her arm in long, slow caresses of his palm.

Heavens, he was trying to calm her the same way he’d soothed his horse! She should have laughed. It was absurd…

Except that it was working. His touch soothed the fear from her, eased the shaking in her knees, untangled the knot in the pit of her stomach…as long as she ignored the heat in his eyes, that is. There was nothing calming in those hazel depths.

“Tell me the truth now, Baroness,” he cajoled. “You said you’d received messages of blackmail. What messages?”

Silk. Sweet heavens, his voice wassilk, and she felt the sudden desire to wrap herself in it. And in him.

She pressed her fingers into the muscles of his bare arms to draw from his resilience, but she also knew she was putting her life in danger even as she confessed, “A messenger was sent to my house about six weeks ago.”

“A boy,” he guessed. “A street urchin.”

“How did you—” Then she closed her gaping mouth with a grimace. Of course he knew. He seemed to know almost everything about her. But how would he react if he knew she wanted to be in his arms, kissing him and welcoming his touch? “Yes. I’d never seen him before. Neither had any of my servants.”

The gold flecks in his eyes shined in the lamplight. “What was the message?”

“I was ordered to buy up Henry Everett’s gambling debts.”

He stroked his hand slowly up and down her arm. Goose bumps formed deliciously in his wake. “Why?”

“I don’t know. But I did as I was told. I was too frightened not to. They knew…”They knew about Robert. She paused to consider her words. “They knew things about my past.”

His hand slipped beneath her arm to trail down her side and rest against the curve of her hip. “They threatened you if you didn’t do as they asked.”

“Yes,” she breathed, although her voice emerged far raspier than she intended.

“With what secret?”

“I questioned the boy,” she dodged, “tried to bribe him for information, but he didn’t know the name of the man who’d sent him. He described him as a finely dressed gentleman with brown hair, brown eyes…” She shook her head with frustration. “He could have been anyone. So I followed the boy when he left.”

“Because the man promised to pay him a second coin once the message was delivered?”

She nodded. “But the man never appeared. Eventually, the boy left, and I went home.”

“Following him was brave of you.” His fingers curled into the spot where her hip sloped into her waist.

“It wasn’t bravery.” Her chest heated at the notion that she might have impressed him, but her actions were desperate, not heroic. The threat had been clear. Do as the blackmailers wanted, or they would kill Robert. “I had no choice, so I bought up his debts. One week later, a second boy arrived with another message.”

“To demand repayment from Everett,” he guessed correctly. He lowered his other hand from the wall and caressed down her left side until both hands rested on her hips. “Why?”

When he shifted closer, a long-repressed ache flared between her legs and distracted her so much that she could barely concentrate on what he was asking.

“I don’t know. They never told me what to do with the money if Mr. Everett ever found a way to pay it.” She kept her gaze trained to his bare chest, unable to bring herself to look into his knowing eyes. She was afraid of the accusation and contempt she might see in him and of the shameless desire he might see in her. “I did as I was told.”

“But Everett didn’t have the money to repay you.”