To Tempt an Irish Rogue by Kaitlin O'Riley Read Free Book Online Page A

recalled from his last visit, she spun around and faced him. Her blue eyes sparkled in her delicate face, her sweet mouth a line of anguish.
    “Mr. Reeves. I mean Lord Cashelmore . . . Oh, I don’t even know how to address you now.” There was a note of panic in her voice.
    He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her. “It doesn’t matter. Call me whatever you wish, Miss Hamilton.”
    She stared at his hand on her shoulder. With a nod of her head, she gently placed her hand over his.
    The moment her hand, so soft and small, touched his, Declan could not breathe. Surprised by the intensity of their contact, he slowly pulled his hand away. “Call me Declan if you like.”
    Her eyes met his and she whispered, “You mustn’t kiss me like that again, Declan.”
    “Mustn’t I, Miss Hamilton?”
    “No.”
    He grinned. “Now you see, if you had said, ‘You must not kiss me again, Lord Cashelmore.’ Or even, ‘You must not kiss me again, Mr. Reeves,’ I might be more inclined to believe that you did not wish for me to kiss you in the future. But you just called me by the more familiar, Declan, which leads to me to assume quite naturally that you would wish for me to kiss you again at another more convenient time perhaps.”
    Paulette smiled at him and that pleased him, for he knew then that he’d read her correctly.
    “Ah, there you are incorrect, sir. I only used your given name because having already . . . kissed . . . it seemed rather foolish to refer to you so formally. It does not imply that I wish for another encounter as such nor that I grant you leave to do so again.”
    “In that case, however,” he countered in triumph, “I would then have leave to call you Paulette.”
    She hesitated for the slightest instant before agreeing. “But of course.”
    “And if I were to kiss you again, you would protest?” He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her response.
    “I . . . Well, I . . . You . . .” Her face turned red as she grew adorably flustered.
    They both knew that if he kissed her again she would not protest and she couldn’t pretend otherwise. An incredible sense of triumph raced through him as he used her given name to drive his point home. “Yes, I can see that, Paulette.”
    She opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself. A long moment passed before her demeanor changed and she suddenly changed into the efficient little shopkeeper. “Well, I believe I know the perfect book for your daughter.”
    Declan watched in fascination as Paulette Hamilton moved gracefully to a small corner shelf of the children’s section and selected a thin volume bound in dark green and brought it back to him. He took the book from her and read the title, Mother Goose’s Melodies . Flipping the pages, he saw that it was beautifully illustrated in color. He smiled at her in admiration. “Mara will love this.”
    She placed her hands on her hips and stated, “Now, for your needs.”
    Her words sent an unexpected thrill through him. Her shopkeeper questions always seemed to him to have a double meaning that escaped her. “I beg your pardon?”
    “Don’t you want a book as well?”
    “A book. Oh, yes. Of course.”
    She eyed him critically, her gaze raking him up and down. Without a word she walked away from him and toward the larger bookshelves in the main area of the shop. Was she going to choose a book for him without asking him what he liked? This he had to see. He followed behind her, admiring the way the finely made, pale blue and white striped summer gown clung to her petite frame.
    Paulette seemed extremely skilled at her job for one so young. She could only be twenty. Not much younger than himself after all. Still, there was a maturity about her that he found lacking in so many girls her age. She managed the bookshop quite well. He’d never seen a shop like it and as he glanced around, it suddenly occurred to him why.
    The arrangement of not only the shelves, but the books themselves,