Charming a Spy Read Online Free PDF

glass ceiling for her to make out the titles. A Way with Words, Dissecting the Aviary, Heavenly Bodies and Celestial Spheres . Kat took a volume off of the shelf, opened the cover, held the worn pages to her nose and closed her eyes. The musty vanilla smell of the old book had an instant calming effect on her.
    Wait, she didn’t have time for this. She had to focus. Where would she find secrets in the duke’s home? Think.
    In the library? Highly unlikely. Maybe he had a naughty book or two tucked amongst the stalks, but it would take hours to find in a room of this size. Besides a naughty book would hardly be enough to ruin a man’s reputation. Especially a duke. She needed something far juicier.
    Perhaps in his office. Maybe he would have correspondence—letters to another man’s wife—bribes for lascivious things he’d done.
    “Do you always smell books like roses?” A voice startled her. She glanced up to see the very object of her thoughts standing before her.
    Kat tried to think of something to say, something witty or seductive to explain why she was alone in his personal library, unchaperoned. Unfortunately, she was several years out of practice with flirtatious banter. Bollocks.
    “Ah, so you’re back to being speechless. What an enigma you are, Ms. Dubois. One moment you are as silent as a mouse, the next you have a serpent’s tongue. And now, back to being a mouse,” Geoff said.
    “If anyone is a serpent, it is you! Look at how you slithered in here and caught me off-guard.”
    “I caught you off-guard? Might I remind you, Ms. Dubois, you are currently standing in my private library?”
    “Might I suggest if you don’t want visitors in your library, you shouldn’t leave the door unlocked with so many guests around?” Kat retorted. Belatedly, she added, “Your Grace.” She probably shouldn’t be so defensive, but something about this man infuriated her.
    “You misunderstand me, Ms. Dubois. I am happy to find you here. Alone.”
    “Spoken like a true viper.”
    “How is it we’ve only met recently and yet you think the worst of me?”
    “Is it undeserved?” she asked.
    He smiled. “Not exactly,” he admitted. “I suppose I occasionally behave wickedly. And you? Do you ever do anything you’re not supposed to, Ms. Dubois?” He was deliberately baiting her and she wasn’t about to fall for it. Above all, she needed to maintain her composure.
    “Never. I am a wallflower. Hermit. I am the least adventurous woman you’ve met,” Katherine insisted.
    “Or so you want me to think,” he said. Blast, he was perceptive. How could he be self-obsessed and strangely aware of others at the same time? “Perhaps, Ms. Wallflower, you would care to share what were you doing in here? Why sneak away if you’re not seeking any sort of adventure?”
    Kat feigned surprised and tried unsuccessfully to flutter her eyelashes.
    “Beg your pardon?” she asked in a hopeless attempt to buy time, still trying to think of a plausible excuse. She couldn’t exactly admit coming here to search for evidence she could use for blackmail.
    “Why are you here?” he asked again, obviously knowing full well she heard him the first time.
    Still, she couldn’t think of anything significant to say that would be remotely believable. “I should be getting back,” she finally said. It was an obvious dodge, but it’s all she had at the moment.
    “No,” he said.
    “Your Grace?”
    “Please call me Geoff. And please stay,” he said. He perched on the arm of a leather chesterfield sofa and gestured to the opposite armchair, inviting her to take a seat.
    It didn’t make any sense. One moment he was berating her for being in his library, the next he requested her to stay. Part of her desperately wanted to stick around and figure him out, but she knew it wasn’t smart. This room, him and her, it was too intimate. Too dangerous. Kat knew she should scurry back to the ballroom to avoid being caught alone with him. Gone