Along Came a Rogue Read Online Free PDF Page B

tightened. He didn’t trust her not to run for the hills. Or for a kitchen knife.
    “ Major Grey,” he corrected irritably, wanting no misunderstanding that he might still be the young officer she’d wrapped around her finger five years ago with her sweetness and innocence. He’d fallen for her manipulations then, but he certainly wouldn’t fall for them a second time. “This is more than simply not wanting visitors, Mrs. Crenshaw. You shot at me!”
    She sniffed haughtily. “And you rode up uninvited.”
    His eyes narrowed. The brat had grown into a woman, but also into one of the worst liars he’d ever met. And certainly the most infuriating. “Since when do society ladies shoot at visitors, uninvited or otherwise?”
    “Since they—” Her mouth snapped shut on whatever it was she was about to say, and she stopped struggling. Her gaze dropped to his chest as she pleaded in exasperation, “Please, just go away!”
    But the more she demanded he leave, the more determined he was to stay.
    Yet this time when she tugged to free herself, he let her go. To give her enough rope to hang herself with her lies.
    She scrambled to her feet, her restless hands brushing nervously at the bits of grass clinging to her skirt as she backed away from him. “I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing, Major, but I’m too ill to travel. I’ll write to Thomas—”
    “The hell you will!” he exploded as the thin thread of his patience snapped, the curse so fierce she flinched. “You are coming with me to London, and we are leaving first thing in the morning.”
    “No.” The damned chit jutted her chin defiantly into the air. “I absolutely refuse!”
    Slowly, he rose to his full height and clenched his jaw to keep back the ungentlemanly response about where she could shove her refusal. Her eyes grew big as saucers at the white-hot aggravation she sensed in him. Instinctively, she stepped back.
    And he pursued, advancing toward her with each step she retreated. “I’m not leaving without you.”
    “Please, Grey.” Another step back, another advance…until her back hit against the wall of the house, until she raised her hands futilely against his chest to push him away. “You have to go!”
    The pleading tone in her voice, the increasing panic in her eyes—she was desperate to make him leave. “Why?” he demanded, refusing to budge.
    “Because—because you can’t stay—”
    “Why did you shoot at us?” He pressed in closer, trapping her between the house and his body. So close that her hands flattened against his chest.
    “I didn’t know it was you.”
    “Obviously. Why?”
    “Please just go—”
    “What’s wrong here?”
    “Nothing! I swear.”
    “Tell me.”
    “Grey, please !” Her shoulders slumped, and he felt her hands on him change, no longer pushing him away but now fisting into the lapels of his coat to keep him close. Not that he would have gone anywhere until he had the truth.
    In her panic, her breathing faltered, unwittingly drawing his attention to her chest. And that was a mistake. Because it was a very fine chest indeed, the tops of her full breasts rising and falling rapidly against the neckline of her tight bodice with each fast breath.
    She’s the brat , he reminded himself, tearing his gaze back up to hers. Thomas’s sister. The woman who would get him killed at the hands of his best friend if he dared lay a finger on her again. And certainly not a woman he should be looking at as…well, as a woman.
    He locked his eyes on hers and refused to let them stray lower. “You shot at me.”
    “There have been highwaymen—”
    “Brat,” he growled in warning at the lie she was about to tell.
    “There is nothing of concern here.” Then she forced a smile that did nothing to reassure him. “And I promise not to shoot at you when you leave.”
    Despite her attempt at humor, his eyes narrowed. “If nothing’s wrong—”
    “There’s not,” she protested, far too