Secrets of Seduction by Nicole Jordan Read Free Book Online Page A

bow and let himself out.
    Skye exhaled slowly, mingled disappointment and relief rushing through her. In the span of one more heartbeat,she would have walked straight into his arms. And all her careful plans would likely have been shattered.
    This would never do, she warned herself. She had to conquer her intense attraction for Hawkhurst, for one false move could get her instantly banished from his castle.
    With a grimace of disgust at her lack of self-control, Skye spun around and marched toward her valise so she could change out of her still-damp gown and prepare for bed, quite alone.

Hawk shut his
guest’s bedchamber door with unintended force. Tearing himself away from Lady Skye had been supremely difficult when she was looking at him with desire written all over her beautiful features. The huskiness of her voice, the soft yearning in her wide blue eyes, told him clearly that he could have her if he’d wished to.
    Actually, he did wish to, rather urgently. She was pure temptation. It was absurd, how fiercely she aroused him. When he’d locked gazes with her, sheer lust had blazed through him. He’d forced himself to leave before acting on his primal urges.
    Hawk swore another low oath to himself.
    It was even more absurd how a delicate-looking beauty had put him on the defensive so effortlessly. He couldn’t believe her audacity, barging into his castle, making herself at home, wrangling an invitation to stay for the night, threatening to complain to her aunt about his ungentlemanly behavior. It was a low blow, using Bella as leverage.
    And then she’d accused him of being a recluse and a grump. No one until Lady Skye had dared confront him on his moroseness. He hadn’t always had a taciturn nature, Hawk reflected grimly; it had only developed so over time.
    However, his surliness tonight when she’d asked if he had any dry clothing for her to wear was because she’d touched a still-aching wound inside him.
    Perhaps he could have unearthed some of his late wife’s gowns, but that would have seemed like a betrayal of Elizabeth. Fortunately avoiding comparisons of the two women was fairly easy since they were not much alike in figure or appearance. Elizabeth had been more solidly built with dark hair and more vivid coloring.
    Not pale and delicate and sensual like Lady Skye.
    Not annoyingly persistent or refreshingly bold, either.
    Despite Hawk’s determination to remain unmoved by her arguments, Lady Skye had amused him and even made him laugh for the first time since leaving Cyrene for England three weeks ago. Conversing with her, sparring with her, had provided a welcome distraction from his depressing though elegant monstrosity of a house.
    Especially on a night like this. The storm had dredged up too many excruciating memories, for this was much like the night his wife and son had died.
    By then, he’d been working for the British Foreign Office for four years and married to Elizabeth for three. The hour was late and he was returning home from business in London when he’d ridden through the estate gates to see an eerie glow in the night sky. The fire hadbegun in the nursery and trapped Elizabeth and two year-old Lucas, Hawk later learned. A drenching rain had eventually extinguished the flames and spared the rest of the house, but he’d arrived much too late to help his family.
    His failure to save them had changed him forever. He had survived when he hadn’t wanted to.
    In fact, his grief and guilt were what had sent him to Cyrene in the first place. When Sir Gawain offered him membership in the elite league, exiling himself to a Mediterranean island nearly a thousand miles away had seemed a fitting punishment.
    Instead, the Guardians had given him a fresh purpose. For the past decade, they had filled a huge hole in his life when he’d desperately needed it. And now, to return the favor, he’d come home to Hawkhurst Castle to court Sir Gawain’s niece.
    He hadn’t slept much since his arrival. In