All The Ways To Ruin A Rogue (The Debutante Files Book 2) (20 page)
Read All The Ways To Ruin A Rogue (The Debutante Files Book 2) Online
Authors: Sophie Jordan
Tags: #Historical, #Fiction, #Romance, #19th Century, #Rogue, #Viscount, #Love, #Hate, #Friendship, #Distraction, #Friends Sister, #Kisses, #Retaliates, #Infuriating, #Vixen, #Meetings, #Debutante's, #Ruin, #Adult
M
ax opened the door of his bedchamber and fell back against the hard length of the door with a gust of breath. He’d been in meetings all morning with his man of affairs and barrister regarding a new investment prospect. Typically, before his marriage, the prospect would have diverted him, but he’d been anxious to wrap up the meeting and return home. To Aurelia.
His gaze scanned the chamber for her. Now he was free, and only one thing weighed on his mind. Or to be more accurate, only one thing
burned
through his blood like scalded cinders.
He tugged the cravat loose from around his neck as his gaze landed on his wife where she sat before the dressing table. Her gaze lifted and collided with his in the mirror. Color flooded her cheeks. He loved that. Loved that she still blushed when their eyes met. He loved that he still had the ability to make the color rush to her face.
Her lush mouth curved into a slow smile as he took his time assessing her. It was almost shy, beguiling, and that made the skin tighten at the back of his neck. She still had this effect on him. Even after months of marriage. After countless days and nights together where they had each loved and explored each other with unhurried leisure, using their hearts alongside their bodies, he knew it would never be any other way between them.
Still staring at him in her dressing table mirror, she settled back a bit on the bench, her hand drifting to the well-rounded curve of her belly.
Aurelia, ripe with child, was impossibly beautiful. He ached at the sight of her. Garbed in a rich blue dressing robe, her dark hair flowing in waves over her shoulders and down her back, she radiated life and vitality.
His chest clenched when he thought she had tried to leave him. Then it clenched even tighter when he recalled the sight of that carriage tossed on its side. He could have lost her that day. Both of them. Aurelia and their child.
His dark thoughts must have crossed his face.
She pouted at him and angled her head to the side.
Come here,
she mouthed at him in the mirror, crooking her finger.
He didn’t need to be told twice. He pushed off the door and crossed the room to her in a few quick strides. At the bench, he dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around her. She turned to meet him and he rested his cheek against her swollen belly.
From the corner of his eye he spotted a new sketch on her dressing table. “Is that for me?” he asked mildly, picking it up and admiring her work. Watching her sketch had become a favorite pastime. She was brilliant and amusing and he enjoyed offering her his perspectives on the goings-on around Town, honored when she often took his ideas and incorporated them into her drawings. He only insisted that he be the one to leave the drawings around London. If discovered, he would weather the storm better than she. It wasn’t fair, but it was the reality. And she was his wife. He would protect her from anything, small or large.
“I thought we might leave this at the musicale—”
“At Mackenzie’s?” He frowned. “Must we go?”
“Come. Don’t you want to see Mackenzie properly domesticated? She’s a lovely girl—”
“She has my utmost pity.” He snorted.
She swatted his shoulder. “Be nice, Max. You got what you wanted.”
“That’s right.” He folded his arms around her again and returned his cheek to her stomach, turning to press a kiss on the swell of her belly. Glancing up, his heart squeezed at the sight of her glowing face. “I’ve got you. Forever.”
SOPHIE JORDAN grew up in the Texas hill country where she wove fantasies of dragons, warriors, and princesses. A former high school English teacher, she’s the
New York Times
,
USA Today
and internationally bestselling author of more than twenty novels. She now lives in Houston with her family. When she’s not writing, she spends her time overloading on caffeine (lattes preferred), talking plotlines with anyone who will listen (including her kids), and cramming her DVR with anything that has a happily ever after. You can visit her online at
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hc.com
.
Available from Avon Impulse
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALL THE WAYS TO RUIN A ROGUE. Copyright © 2015 by Sharie Kohler. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition AUGUST 2015 ISBN: 9780062222534
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062222527
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