Captured by a Gentleman (Regency Unlaced 6) by Carole Mortimer Read Free Book Online Page A

continued to study this young woman. Could she somehow be involved in the “accidents” that had occurred this past week? She was here at the inn with him, and the damage to the carriage had occurred during the night, so it was possible.
    He took in Darcy’s appearance. The smooth brow. Clear—innocent?—brown eyes. Creamy cheeks. Full and sensual lips. Small and stubbornly determined chin.
    Was there more than intelligence beneath that smooth brow? Was it possible there was also subterfuge and guile?
    “Why are you looking at me like that?” She shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of his gaze.
    “I am trying to decide whether or not you are an innocent or a viper.”
    Darcy gasped softly. “I am most certainly not a viper!”
    “Why should I believe you?”
    “Because I do not tell lies!”
    He snorted. “Which is exactly what a liar would say.”
    “What am I supposed to have lied about? And why would someone have deliberately inflicted damage on one of your carriages?” she added curiously.
    Ranulf’s mouth twisted. “The two have one and the same answer. Someone, for reasons I do not yet understand, has recently been causing accidents to occur to both myself and my property.”
    “What sort of accidents?”
    He shrugged. “A physical attack on myself as I was leaving a club late one evening. A fire in the kitchen of my cousin’s London home, in which I was staying. Thank God he and his wife are currently in Scotland. Lastly a burr placed under the saddle of my horse, with the intention of unseating, possibly killing, me.”
    Her eyes were wide. “And you believe I am somehow involved in trying to harm you?”
    “You are here after hiding yourself away in my town coach, and the damage to that carriage occurred during the night.”
    “That does not mean I was the one who inflicted it.”
    “It does not mean you did not either.”
    “You are being ridiculous. Well, you are.” She stood up, color flooding into her cheeks as Ranulf raised arrogant brows. “I did not leave my bedchamber last night. I was exhausted and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. And the only reason I am here is because I need to get as far away from London as possible.” Her expression brightened. “That being the case, why would I deliberately sabotage my means of escape?”
    “A question I would also like an answer to.”
    Darcy snorted her exasperation. “I have just given you one.”
    “But you did not deny or confirm you are an innocent,” Ranulf mused under his breath as he stepped close to her.
    Close enough that he could see how dark her eyes had become as she gazed up at him, the pupil melting into the dark brown.
    Close enough that he was able to lift his hand and touch her creamy soft cheek and see the way she flinched at the familiarity but did not move away.
    Close enough that he could grasp her chin as the soft pad of his thumb ran lightly over her slightly moist and parted lips. To feel the way they trembled beneath his touch.
    Close enough Ranulf could see firsthand how quickly her breasts now rose and fell as she breathed shallowly.
    Close enough that he could breathe in her perfume, a combination of flowers and an increasingly heady musk he believed accompanied Darcy’s increasing awareness of both his touch and him.
    Innocent or viper?
    At that moment, Ranulf had no interest in deciding whether or not she was either of those things.
    Or both.
    Darcy remained unmoving as she realized Ranulf was about to kiss her.
    Ranulf.
    The man who had accused her of possibly wishing to do him and his property harm.
    The same man, even though he’d been about to marry her cousin, Darcy had daydreamed and fantasized about kissing since she first saw him a year ago. The same man who had filled her nighttime dreams with longings and feelings which caused her to wake in the morning with aching and sensitized breasts and a dampness between her thighs.
    In one of those dreams, she had experienced