An Unmistakable Rogue Read Online Free PDF Page B

awakening by the blonde brigands, however, his dreams turned to nightmares he’d rather not recall.
    As he made his way back to the house, Sunnyledge shone gold against a bright morning-glory sky. He caught the song of a Lark, thought the buds on the trees had swelled overnight, and was filled with a rare sense of hope.
    WARRONNNK.
    Ah. Horn-blower had found his instrument of torture outside the parlor window. His veneer of hope burst like a soap bubble.
    What a horrid jest, with the answer he sought so near to hand, that he should be given an obstacle in the guise of children. He scoffed and shook the excess water from his wilding hair, thinking that perhaps sweet Chastity Somers—so innocent, she’d let a stranger share the house—could trim it for him.
    Damn, that woman needed locking up, or looking after—but not by him. Reed rubbed his thigh. Her brood might be protection enough for her, though. He had the teeth marks to prove it. As to whether her virtue was safe, however, was another matter entirely. Reed fingered his bristly chin, and grinned. Perhaps ferocity would keep all the beggars at bay.
    As he entered the kitchen, Reed came face to face with the objects of his musings, the smallest male heathen dancing clean and naked, horn in hand— WARRONNNK —his two brothers cavorting beside him in like state.
    Bent over a small tin tub, Chastity struggled to keep the man-eater in her bath. Reed knelt to help by holding the little one’s tiny shoulders, to keep the she-devil down, but his touch set off her god-awful wail.
    Chastity glanced at him with apprehension.
    “Are you afraid of me?” Reed asked, and when she bit her lip, he guessed she had not as yet decided. “I am no villain.”
    Humor filled her eyes. “Just what a—”
    “Villain would say, I know, but you have nothing to fear.” He regarded the children. “Any of you.”
    How easy Chastity’s trust—instant and unquestioning; there on her face for all to see—but how weighty a burden to receive it. And he had been right; her smile did brighten a room.
    Even with a topknot of sagging curls, she was a beauty, though water spots dappled her gray striped apron. But the rest of her clothes? Beneath the wide sleeves of her hideous black dress hid a white undergarment, one he could not name, its sleeves wrapped and pinned tight at the wrists, their edges soiled and wet.
    Like a true rogue of the club, seducing her played in his mind, a notion he should quell, and fast. Something about her, innocence perhaps, he was loath to destroy.
    Even as the man-eater’s keening continued, Reed could not take his eyes from the woman, nor she from him, it seemed. She pushed a damp, springy wisp of russet hair from her face leaving suds on the tips of her long, thick lashes.
    Reed warmed and nodded toward the man-eater for distraction. “Best wash her and quick, or we’ll lose our hearing.”
    WARRONNNK.
    Reed regarded horn-blower. “Sorry, did I forget to give you credit for your portion of the din?”
    “Hush, Luke,” Chastity said.
    The scamp called Luke, and his brothers, watched their sister get the scrubbing of her life, and when Chastity sat back and blew hair from her face, those suds clung to her lashes.
    “Done?” Reed asked.
    “Done.” She sighed.
    Reed released the small, bony shoulders, and up came the water-sprite, to run wet from the kitchen, three brothers at her heels.
    “Bother,” said Chastity, kneeling in a puddle. “I suppose they’ll be back sooner or later.”
    “Afraid so.”
    Chastity frowned and rose to throw the bath water out the kitchen door. “How sad that you dislike children. They have so much love to give. Do you dislike them all, or just mine?”
    He passed on questioning her custody any further. “Suffice it to say that I do not dislike every child as much as I dislike their company, especially in groups.”
    “How big a group?”
    “Two?”
    Shaking her head, Chastity refilled the tub with water that had been