The Secrets of a Scoundrel by Gaelen Foley

Author:Gaelen Foley [Foley, Gaelen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Historical romance, Regency
ISBN: 9780062076052
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-06-23T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Nick awoke the next morning with Virgil’s daughter sleeping in his arms, her head resting on his chest. Awareness returned gradually until he opened his eyes to find the flat gray light of morning filtering in through the closed doors of the balcony.

He felt curiously calm. Everything was peaceful. That was the first thing he noticed.

His constant companions, lo these many years—anger and loneliness—were noticeably absent. Gone. An anchor’s weight from which his heart had been unexpectedly cut free.

He marveled at the light sensation as he listened to her breathing, slow and deep and restful, felt the play of each exhalation tickle his chest where he cradled her sweet head.

For a moment, he stared at her, taking in the exquisite rightness of her being there—just where she was, wrapped in his embrace. As if she were always meant to be there.

Damn, he thought mildly, unsettled by his own tenderness as he bent to inhale the flowery warm smell of her hair. What have I got myself into here? He had never been the lovelorn type. In fact, he usually mocked such men, but yet the kiss he pressed to her head was about as besotted as that of a newlywed husband.

Well.

All this was, of course, not what they were here for. And Virgil would certainly not have approved, considering how careful he had been to keep his daughter away from Nick and his fellow agents. No wonder the gruff old spymaster had always been such a mystery.

All those years he had directed his teams hither and thither digging up secrets across Europe, he had been slyly covering up his own.

Ah, well. His handler, her father, might not have approved, but it was too late now after they’d had their way with each other in every imaginable position all night long. A rascally smile passed across his face when he felt her stir.

She awoke tousled and thoroughly ravished, rolled onto her back with a sigh of contentment, taking a catlike stretch beside him. Then she gave him a sleepy little smile.

“Good morning, lovely.”

She touched his face in weary affection. He kissed the dainty fingertip she brushed across his lips.

Then she pushed up from the bed and rose, naked.

“Ow,” she remarked as she walked gingerly toward the screen in the corner behind which the washstand with its built-in chamber pot awaited. “God, Forrester, I can hardly walk, thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied, punching the pillow into the shape he wanted.

“Don’t listen, I have to tinkle.”

He chuckled in sleepy amusement. “You think you have any secrets from me now?”

She shot him an indignant pout from behind the screen before she disappeared again. “You are a bad man.”

“Warned you,” he replied, folding his arms under his head on the pillow and feeling quite the sultan of the earth.

He closed his eyes again, simply relaxing until she returned. Then he savored the sight of her sauntering across the room, every lithe, glorious inch of her nude body.

“Goddess,” he murmured heartily.

Her nipples stood erect in the morning’s chill.

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