Lori Brighton - [The Seduction 02] by To Capture a Rake Read Free Book Online

the carriage bumping down the road, light fading as afternoon gave way to evening. And the entire time they merely sat there, staring at each other as if playing some sort of childish game of who would speak first. Well, let her be the loser, she bloody well couldn’t take the silence any longer.
    “Tell me about yourself,” she blurted, her voice coming out rough and hurried, too breathless. Lord, she sounded like the women who used to sell themselves on the streets where she’d lived as a child, their voices husky with desire.
    His handsome face showed no emotion and no interest, but he surprised her by answering. “There’s nothing to tell.”
    Elizabeth lifted a brow. Hmm, it would be that way then? He’d responded, oh yes, but he wouldn’t give her anything personal. Well, she didn’t actually need his response anyway. Thanks to Mr. Smith’s research, she knew Gideon’s past quite well.
    “He grew up right across the border in Scotland,”
Mr. Smith had told her only a few weeks ago.
“He lived in a tiny cottage that was more of a shack. The placed crumbled away some time ago.”
    “You grew up in Scotland,” Elizabeth said, feeling awfully clever at startling him.
    Much to her annoyance, he didn’t respond. Even if she hadn’t known his past, she knew the answer by the slight accent in his voice. “Near the borders, by the sound of your accent.”
    She was right, but he didn’t acknowledge it, not even a flash of surprise in his cold eyes. She drummed her fingers upon her thigh and narrowed her gaze. He was no fun at all. So help her, she’d get him to break.
    “He was wild, but kind. Even the butcher remembered him. God forbid anyone say a cross word to his sister, the boy would flay the person alive.”
    “My bet is you were in quite a few scraps as a child.” She glanced pointedly at his fingers where the scars crisscrossed his knuckles. Knife fights and sparring matches.
    No response.
    “I tell you this not because I think he is still this honorable lad,”
Mr. Smith had warned.
“But because the anger, the fight, was already in him. He was a boy on the brink of becoming a nuisance or a gentleman. Which do you think he has chosen, after being a prostitute for well over a decade?”
    But surely there was still hope for Gideon. Not that she would know by looking at him. Her irritation grew because she was exhausted, and she was nervous, but mostly because she worried that Mr. Smith had been right and she had been truly stupid to think this would work.
    “Have you suddenly grown deaf?” she boldly demanded.
    He smiled, but there was no warmth to it. No, that grin was more like a slap to her face. She had the awful feeling that he mocked. She despised when people laughed at her.
    “You’re under the impression that you control me,” he stated. “What you don’t realize is that I decide my own fate.”
    She shivered. Cutthroats had nothing on this man. He decided his own fate? What did that even mean? She gave him the slightest hint of a smile, unwilling to show anything but the same arrogance he gave her. She would not be intimidated. “You’re working for me.”
    Still, there was no emotion in his hard gaze, not even anger. She swore his face could have been cut from granite. “I work for no one. I’m here because I choose to be.”
    She frowned. Was he serious? Did he have more power over Lady Lavender than she’d thought? Had he truly chosen to sell his body instead of being manipulated or forced? She’d assumed, as Mr. Smith had, that at the very least he’d needed the money. Yes, she’d have to tiptoe around this one; be very careful indeed. She had the oddest feeling that he took delight in making her uneasy.
    “You have no questions for me?” she asked. When he said nothing, she continued in a different manner. “Have you no thoughts on my expectations?”
    “I told you, I do what I want, and believe me, you’ll enjoy it.”
    She flushed, ignoring that sinful thrill of