The Duke's Runaway Princess (Love By Accident) by Elizabeth Lennox Read Free Book Online Page B

said them over and over again, trying to process what he meant but they still didn’t make any sense. “Excuse me?” she asked as politely as possible, but between her conversation with her brother and the way this man made her feel, she wasn’t sure if the words came out very nicely.
    He watched those beautiful brown eyes cloud up with confusion and suspicion. She was different, he realized. Most of the women he ran into were doing anything they could to gain his attention but this slender beauty was going out of her way to avoid him. Not only was he more than interested, but he was definitely ready for a challenge. He wanted her. And he’d just figured out a way to move her into his sphere so that he could spend more time with her. He’d just figured out her secret and he wasn’t above manipulating her desires to get what he wanted.
    He’d been keeping tabs on her subtly with the villagers. He hadn’t spent much time there since her arrival, but he was suspicious of anyone who arrived that might harm those good people. He hadn’t been able to get much information on her background, but he’d asked the people she worked with and had found that she was creative, smart and intelligent, not to mention she was eager to help them out. After looking into her suggestions, he was grateful to her for how she was helping the various business owners.
    But her eagerness to help and her well-thought out suggestions gave him deep insight into her business mind. She wanted a business challenge. He could see it in her eyes and understood that desperate need to prove something. He’d created massive success in business by figuring out what people wanted and giving it to them. He was a master at channeling their desires so that they meshed with his own plans for his various companies, tying everything together so that everyone came out a winner. This woman wanted to prove something to the person she’d been arguing with.
    That was fine with him. He wanted her, he’d give her a business challenge that would give her the proof she needed and he would have her in his bed. A win-win situation for everyone involved, he suspected.
    “You heard me. I’ve been looking into your work. You’ve increased the revenues for several of the business owners in the village. I want you to expand your efforts.”
    Zarah wasn’t sure how he knew so much about her work, but it was disconcerting. She preferred flying under the radar, not attracting attention. Especially the attention of powerful, dangerous men like The Duke of Waren. “I don’t think…”
    “Can’t handle the pressure?” he challenged before she could hear him out, trying to subvert her objections before they could form in her mind.
    Zarah wasn’t sure how to handle him at all. She wanted to run away and hide from him, but that knowing look in his eyes held her feet where she stood. This man was daring her to accept his challenge. “What sort of work are you talking about?” she asked suspiciously, a part of her urging her to run away as fast as possible. Unfortunately, there was another part of her that was too fascinated by him. There was something about him that pulled her closer, making her remember that embarrassing dream.
    “Nothing illegal,” he laughed, amused by the suspicion on those chocolate eyes. Anyone who knew him understood that he would never be like his father. Everything he did, all that he accomplished, was by sheer grit and determination. His father had earned millions by ignoring the law. Derrick had been disgusted at his tactics and had succeeded exponentially beyond his father’s meager earnings and he’d done it all legally and ethically. He was sometimes brutal in his tactics, but that was business and he didn’t pass up an opportunity when he discovered someone else’s weakness.
    She didn’t join in his amusement. “That still leaves a great deal of unscrupulous work.”
    He knew he couldn’t simply tell her that he operated within the