Rogue for a Night by Jenna Petersen Read Free Book Online

worried you.”
         Stone looked at him for a long moment, then turned to pour the drinks. “I see. Well, I wasn’t worried so much as taken aback by the abrupt nature of your departure. All of us were.”
         Rage swallowed. “All?”
         Stone nodded as he handed over a whiskey to Rage and then settled behind his desk. Rage took the seat across from him and sipped the drink.
         “Yes. Even Lucinda asked after you.” Stone shook his head. “Why in the world did you feel the need to rush off so suddenly?”
         Rage shifted in the chair and took another long sip of whiskey as he searched for a good excuse for his hasty actions. “I simply thought this would be an opportune time to make the trip since we are so close by.” He set his drink on the desk across from him. “Did Lucinda – er, Lady Stoneworth say why she was interested?”
         Nicholas stared at him. “Why?”
         “Just curious,” Rage said with a shrug that he hoped signaled nonchalance. “I’m surprised she noticed my departure at all.”
         “Well, she did,” Stone said. “As for why, I couldn’t tell you since she didn’t say specifically. I think she feels a bit distanced from Society since my brother’s death, out of place. Perhaps she sees you as a contemporary in that distance, another outsider.”
         Rage blinked. As much as he desired Lucinda, he had no illusions that they were equal in any way. “But she isn’t an outsider.”
         Stone laughed. “No, indeed she is not, not in reality. And perhaps she is realizing that again. She spoke of marrying again.”
         Rage’s eyes went wide before he caught up his drink and downed it in one slug. The liquid burned as it slipped down his throat and did nothing to ease the sickening ache in his belly. If Lucinda had spoken of marrying again, then that gave him his answer to whether or not she would pursue his confession of desire. And the answer was a no.
     “Did she?” he said when it was clear Stone was waiting for him to respond.
    “I suppose we all knew this time would come,” Stone said with a small sigh. “After all, she is a beautiful woman, still in the prime of her life. It would be foolish and selfish to assume she would wrap herself in grief forever and remain married to a ghost.”
    Rage pursed his lips. He had no response to his friend’s very good points. Only disappointment that he would not have a chance to share even a fleeting moment with Lucinda before she took up some titled man’s offer of marriage and settled back into her life of propriety so far away from his own existence.
    There was a light knock on the door and Stone looked up. “Enter.”
    Rage was just as happy for the interruption. He wasn’t certain he could maintain his composure if Stone insisted on continuing to discuss Lucinda’s future. At least with an intruder in the room, he could catch his breath. Remember himself.
    Except that when he half-turned to look at that intruder, it was Lucinda, herself, who stepped into the chamber. She was smiling, but as her gaze fell on him that smile wavered, then fell and she caught a short breath. God, but she was beautiful. It seemed she grew more so every time he looked at her. Today she wore a yellow gown, cut with a lower bodice and with fine white lace running along the top for modesty. But he could see the slight swell of her breasts before they vanished beneath silk and cotton. And God, how he wanted to taste them. To feel her arch beneath his mouth as he pleasured her.
    She blushed like she had read his mind and then gripped the door handle with a white knuckled fist.
    “Ron-Mr. Riley,” she said, her voice holding just the faintest tremble. “I did not realize you had returned.”
    Stone got to his feet and smiled. “Just a few moments ago, actually. But you aren’t interrupting us. Please, do you need something?”
    She stared at Rage a second more and then forced her