A Rogue's Rules for Seduction by Eva Leigh

Author:Eva Leigh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

On her own in one of the house’s libraries, Willa studied the chessboard in front of her. She’d set out all the pieces in a specific arrangement, one that had been plaguing her for years, and as she sat in a wingback chair next to the fire, she frowned over the layout.

The rest of the guests were in another room, having repaired there after dinner, and music from the pianoforte drifted through the library’s open door like a half-remembered memory.

“Oh, damn,” Dom’s husky voice said behind her. “Didn’t expect anyone else to be here.”

She turned in her seat to see him in the doorway, resplendent in his evening clothes. There was something so magnetic about him in the austere combination of black and white—it had attracted her when they’d been courting, but now he carried even more allure.

“You’re not dancing with the others?” she asked.

“It never came naturally to me.” He moved into the room, and the firelight caught on the pearl that glowed from the folds of his neckcloth.

“You always seemed to enjoy dancing with me,” she noted.

“I did enjoy dancing with you.” He walked to a table that held a crystal decanter and glasses. “Felt so damn proud of myself, whirling you around ballrooms.”

“Only proud of yourself?”

His smile flashed as he poured a tumbler of whisky. “Randy, too, getting to touch you like that when we waltzed.”

“You weren’t the only one,” she said under her breath. Between feeling his hewn strength under his clothes, and the rhythm of their bodies, she’d always left the dance floor flushed and excited.

At least he was also aroused whenever they’d danced together.

He held up his glass. “Want one?”

“Please.”

After filling another tumbler, he walked it to her. They watched each other over the rims of their glasses as they sipped, and the searing interest in his eyes heated her far more than the whisky.

A pop in the fireplace startled them both. He tore his gaze from hers to frown at the chessboard, and then the empty seat opposite her.

“Where’s your opponent?”

“In here.” She tapped her temple. “Well, more like the recollection of my opponent is here. My father used to have the board set up like this.”

“And you played him,” Dom guessed.

She snorted. “Father played against some of his friends, and Simon. But it was unseemly for a girl to learn the strategies required to win.” She swallowed a mouthful of whisky as she examined the pieces on the board. “I used to watch from the side of the room.”

“When you were supposed to be doing your needlework.”

A laugh flew from her. “The stitches were beyond my abilities, yet I knew I could excel at chess—if given the chance. What was it Lady Catherine de Bourgh said about playing the pianoforte?”

“‘If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.’” He smiled, and she smiled in return.

“I read books on chess and played myself, but I couldn’t ever figure out how I could beat him when the board was laid out this way.

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