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Guilty
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Italy With A Duke Interloper
Standing before the window in her darkened room, Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and peered into the nighttime murk beyond it. It all seemed still, quiet, exactly like any other remote forest ought to be. Except that every once in a while, she’d catch the brief flash of a tiny lamp—sometimes green, sometimes blue, most often red—and detect movement, and she knew that there were men out there patrolling. She heaved a deep sigh. Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to come here. Reaching out, she fisted the heavy drapes at the sides of the tall, narrow window and jerked them sharply, pulling them closed. She pivoted in the dark, using the dim light through the remaining windows to guide her to the bedside. There, she turned and let herself fall backwards onto the mattress. Then again, the accommodations are a vast improvement over the cramped little hotel room. She stared up at the Murano glass chandelier in the center of the ceiling, glinting with multi-colore
Italy With A Duke Hostilities
Dex perched over the arm of a sofa so he could see down the long hallway that led to the bedrooms. He’d been appalled to watch Jay Ellis invite himself into Rachel’s bedroom, but was even more appalled when the man reemerged five minutes later, and after shutting the door behind him quietly, headed for the bar in the corner of the living area. “Goddamn, that woman is spicy,” Jay muttered appreciatively as he adjusted himself in his expensive slacks, a feral grin plastered over his face. Gritting his teeth, Dex suppressed his envy and watched as the other man poured himself a generous Scotch and tossed it back without so much as a flinch. Rachel was spicy—on that much they agreed—and it annoyed the hell out of him to think that this was the kind of man she’d settle for. “You want something, pretty boy?” At the bar, the other man refilled his drink. Dex arched a brow as his head swiveled towards Jay. The suit the man wore was Armani, and if he was any guess, probably as expensive as
Italy With A Duke Ghost
Duke’s brow furrowed at the question, one he doubted she’d like the answer for. “For the moment, I’d like you to rest and heal.” Beneath him, Caitlyn froze. “You said we were going home. What aren’t you telling me?” she asked in a dangerously soft voice. His long exhale of frustration tickled across her flesh, raising the delicate hairs along her neck and arms in alarm. “There’s nothing to tell, darlin’. We don’t yet know what we’re up against.” Caitlyn processed his statement in a soporific haze. She hurt. And her body was so tired that her exhaustion felt like a drug, her limbs heavy and unresponsive. From the little that she’d gleaned, both from her kidnappers and from Duke and her rescuers after, his statement made no sense. They’d taken out the rogue agents. They’d incapacitated the terrorist agents and turned them over to Interpol. “I thought—.” Her voice trailed off as an irrational panic fueled by fatigue washed over her. If this was l
Italy With A Duke Inadvertent Spy
As soon as Caitlyn woke, immediately she reached behind her, seeking Duke’s reassuring presence and warmth. Instead, her fingertips found only empty space, and she frowned, rolling to her back to look at his side of the bed. Her fingertips hadn’t lied. He was gone, and by the cool feel of the sheets, he had been for some time. She squeezed her eyes shut against the brightness of the sun against the curtained windows, then gave a soft grunt as acknowledgment of her body’s lingering pain. She continued to lay as she was, contemplating all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. All that she’d learned from Richards and Jantzi. All that she’d learned from Duke and his remarkably resourceful and strangely unnerving friend, Jay Ellis and his sister. Her thoughts strayed to what Duke had said about envying Alex. The vulnerability she’d heard in his voice when he’d admitted it made her tense and agitated, and left her feeling guilty and defenseless in an unhappy marriage of roiling
Italy With A Duke Called Out
When he opened the bedroom door, Caitlyn was seated on the foot of the bed. Her hands rested, relaxed, in her lap, and her eyes fixed without seeing on a random spot on the floor. She’d showered, and looked the better for it without the smudges of wiped off blood from the day before, but she was still dressed in her filthy clothes. Now that she was clean, every mark and bruise on her body conveyed the full impact of what she’d been through in aching detail. The fine hairs on the back of Duke’s neck lifted and stood on end suddenly and he cursed himself in his head. She was waiting. Something was very wrong. “Darlin’?” Her eyes lifted and focused as he drew her replacement luggage into the room, then shut the door behind him. When she eyed the new suitcase, he explained. “It’s—they destroyed yours. Had Allie pick you up a replacement that she thought you might like. Your clothes are still here.” “Something from her bag of tricks?” she said softly, but t
Italy With A Duke Brooding
Duke lay along Caitlyn’s side, his bicep pillowing her neck. It had taken a boring wander through the villa’s library, then a long walk through the guarded forest around them, and finally a sedative before she’d relaxed enough to drowse. His fingers twisted into her hair and he pressed a kiss against her unbruised temple, solely so he could inhale the scent off her. His entire life, he’d lived essentially without fear, trained to protect, prepared to die. Which suited him just as well. Fear pissed him off. The paralyzing characteristics of it pissed him off, and he had no use for that kind of emotion. Not in his line of work. But now, he knew what it meant, how it felt to be vulnerable. He’d become all too familiar with being afraid in a way he didn’t like. He slid his hand across her flat belly, gripping her hip gently to pull her closer against him, feeding his warmth into her. Under the effect of the sedative, she never stirred. What the hell am I going to do? He’d wracked his br
Italy With A Duke Blatant and Subtle
The kitchen was busy, with small packs of Jay’s men coming and going. Distracted by all the activity, Caitlyn retreated with a plate to a far corner, watching the goings-on with a keen eye. There were a lot of men here. Big men. With a lot of weapons. An army to protect one woman with only one thing of value. As Rachel entered the kitchen, she saw heads turn to follow the pretty blonde. One of them was Jay’s. Immediately, his chair slid back and he was on his feet following her, despite the plunging mercury surrounding her. “Hey, princess.” Even in the noisy room, Caitlyn could hear him clearly. “Let me fix you a plate. Or something else if you don’t like what’s here already.” Pivoting sharply, Rachel heaved a barely tolerant sigh when he crashed into her, then threw his hands off her hips where he’d caught and steadied her. When she glared up at him, his lazy smirk widened. Beside Caitlyn, Duke leaned in and whispered, “He’s got a thing for her.” She snorted at the understateme
Italy With A Duke Vengeful
Having seen the kind of security detail that Allie and Jay employed, even for their traveling army, Caitlyn knew there was no way the protection at her lab had ever been enough to keep someone out. What she and Alex had always counted on was the fact that little was known about the kind of research they were doing. That few would understand its potential, even if they did.Yet the connection that Allie had found had ties to arms dealers. And Agent Richards had told her the group that had helped him kidnap her was some sort of terrorist organization. What she’d seen as she’d slipped past was that her enemy was a billionaire recluse.One with a penchant for a lot of illegal activities.Unseeing, she drifted by rote towards the room she was sharing with Duke. For an organization based in Europe to have learned of her work, there had to be some more personal connection—a family member of one of her patients, maybe the family member of one of the lab employees. She turned the handle to the
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