Tender Rebel by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page B

to my intimates. Now do confess yours.”
    She closed her eyes. It was the only way she could think. “Ros—Roslynn.”
    She heard his tongue click. “No wonder you want to marry, Ros Roslynn. You simply want to change your name.”
    Her eyes snapped open to be dazzled by his smile.He was only teasing. It was nice that he felt free to. The other men she had met recently were too busy trying to make a good impression on her to be at ease in her presence.
    She returned his smile. “Roslynn Chadwick, to be precise.”
    “A name you should keep, sweetheart at least until after we become much better acquainted. And we will, you know. Shall I tell you how?”
    She laughed, the husky sound jolting him to his socks. “Ah, you’re trying to shock me again, but it won’t do. I’m too old to blush, and I’ve been warned about men like you.”
    “Like me?”
    “A rake.”
    “Guilty.” He gave a mock sigh.
    “A master of seduction.”
    “I should hope so.”
    She chuckled, and again this was no silly giggle or simper to irritate the senses, but a warm, rich sound that made him want…he dared not. This was one woman he didn’t want to risk scaring off. She might not be innocent in years, but he didn’t know yet whether she was experienced otherwise.
    That fateful upstairs light that had started Roslynn on the path to confusion was suddenly put out. Panic was instantaneous. It didn’t matter that she had enjoyed his company. It didn’t matter that she had felt perfectly at ease with him. They were now enshrouded in darkness, and he was a rake, and she couldn’t afford to be seduced.
    “I must go.”
    “Not yet.”
    “No, I really must.”
    She tried to pull her hand away, but his grip tightened. His other hand found her cheek, fingertips softly caressing, and something unfurled in her belly. She had to make him understand.
    “I—I mun thank you, Mr. Malory.” She slipped into the brogue without realizing it, half her mind on his touch, half on her increasing panic. “You’ve taken my mind off my worries for a spell, but dinna add to them now. It’s a husband I’m needing, no’ a lover, and you dinna qualify…more’s the pity.”
    She got her release, simply because she had managed to surprise him once again.
    Anthony watched her passing in and out of the different shades of light before she disappeared inside, and again he had that ridiculous urge to go after her. He didn’t. A slow smile started and widened. “More’s the pity,” she had said with such poignant regret. The little miss didn’t know it, but she had sealed her own fate with those words.

Chapter Six
    “ Y ou’ve been watching a master at work, Connie.”
    “Seemed more like a comedy of errors to me,” the tall redhead replied. “Opportunity lost is opportunity lost, no matter how you look at it.”
    Anthony laughed as the two joined him under the tree. “Spying on me, brother?”
    James leaned forward to casually rest his forearms on the back of the bench and flashed Anthony a grin. “Truth to tell, I couldn’t resist. Was afraid it was going to get embarrassing, though.”
    “Not bloody likely. I just met her.”
    “And lost her.” Conrad Sharp turned the screw.
    Anthony shot the first mate a quelling look as he came around and propped a foot on the opposite end of the bench, but it wasn’t effective in the dark.
    “Now, Connie, you can’t fault him there,” James said. “She did throw him quite a turn, appealing to the goodness of his heart and in such a quaint Scottish brogue. And here I thought the lad’s halo was perpetually tarnished.”
    “A lass like that could polish any halo,” Conrad replied.
    “Yes, she was rather stunning, wasn’t she?” Anthony had heard enough. “And unavailable.” James chuckled. “Staked a claim, have you, lad? Careful, or I might take that as a challenge.”
    Anthony’s blood ran cold. It had been sport in their younger days to compete for the same woman, those days when they