Charming a Spy by Elizabeth Chance Read Free Book Online Page B

perhaps Luke Dubois, gave France the information they needed to launch an offensive. The duke was so close to finding out the truth. He should feel relieved. But he didn’t.
    It wasn’t guilt, he told himself. Kissing Katherine Dubois was part of the job he was sent to do, part of his mission. Besides, compromising innocents was expected in the line of duty.
    The nagging annoyance he felt couldn’t be guilt. It was something much more concerning. If he was honest with himself, Geoff enjoyed everything about Katherine in a way he could not afford. She was the sister of one of his suspects and he was a spy. Spies did not have serious relations with women. Of course, they had plenty of frivolous ones, but only in the line of duty.
    In his clandestine line of work, not only would a woman be inconvenient, it could be career ending, especially when Geoff’s best asset was his ability to seduce women. Having feelings for Katherine Dubois was simply not an option.

Chapter Nine
    ‡
    K at never wanted to see the bloody Duke of Stamwell again. She imagined several possibilities of how that might actually come to pass. Perhaps while out driving, Jessica Grier would actually talk Geoff’s ear straight off, not metaphorically, but literally, and he would be forced to stay confined to his home rather than be seen in public with a horribly mangled fleshy hole where his ear once was.
    Or perhaps Stamwell would develop a rare form of leprosy requiring him to move to a colony and eat only maggots for the rest of his days. Or what if instead, Kat’s herself developed a new preternatural ability to make anyone of her choosing invisible. The Duke of Stamwell would be her first victim.
    They were not especially kind thoughts, but he did not deserve kind thoughts. The blasted man had the nerve to kiss her senseless one night and then take Jessica Grier out driving the very next morning.
    Not that Kat was not expecting a proposal after the kiss… even though it was actually their second kiss. Every time he touched her, the entire world seemed to shift, but still she didn’t expect him to get down on one knee. She was not so naïve to think Geoff was madly in love with her. She certainly was not in love with him. He was unfairly attractive compared to all other mortal men, and he created a stir within her she’d never felt before, but it wasn’t love. Besides, even if he did ask for her hand, she wasn’t likely to accept, not with Luke still missing.
    But she’d trusted Geoff enough to tell him about Luke. He’d listened and seemed as though he believed her. For a moment she thought maybe he was different than everyone else. He didn’t treat her like she was crazy. Maybe he would even help her. She’d expected… she didn’t know what exactly… but whatever it was, it should be more from him.
    Jessica Grier! Who would want to court Jessica Grier? Of course, she was beautiful, and it was commonly known she had a large dowry, but how he could stand to be in her presence was beyond Kat. She was a gossip. And worse, a mean-spirited gossip. She would criticize a nun’s habit for not being in the latest style. Yet there Geoff was, out riding with Jessica in Hyde Park for the world to see. That was more of a public declaration than some stolen kisses in a dark library.
    It stung to think his sincerity towards her was an act all along. He didn’t actually care about her search for Luke. Mr. High and Mighty just wanted to use her for some dalliance and then move on to finding a wife. He probably never had any intention of helping her. Geoff probably only intended to use her for his pleasure.
    Maybe that was it . Perhaps she could use his desire to her advantage. At first she thought she could blackmail Geoff into helping her. When that failed she had an instant, or a full night and half a morning to be exact, of thinking that he might help her due to his affection for her. But seeing Jessica parading around on his arm the morning after