Page 39 of A Remarkable Rogue

“Braxton would face court-martial if he were caught providing these supplies to known revolutionaries. He’d only cooperate if he had no choice, if the secret he’s keeping is so ruinous that he’d rather risk the gallows than have it discovered.” He refolded the note. “How well do you know the general?”

She shook her head. “Only in passing.”

“Yet Scepter knew he’d be here tonight.”

Taking extreme liberties, Nate knelt in front of her and slid her skirt up to midthigh. A sharp inhalation crossed her trembling lips when his fingers brushed against her bare leg as he returned the folded paper to her garter.

When Nate withdrew his hand, his fingers caressed along her thigh before he dropped her skirt and stood. She fought to keep herself from shamelessly begging Nate to put his hand back on her thigh.

She cleared her throat in order to continue as evenly as possible. “Braxton has a certain reputation for being a libertine. The anonymity of a masquerade would appeal to him, especially one like this. If Scepter suspected his name would be on the guest list, it would be easy to confirm.”

“How will you find him if he’s in costume?”

“The general sports a very rotund figure.” A sly smile teased at her lips. “I spotted him earlier with a woman dressed as Lady Swan to his Lord Peacock.”

“Thank you.”

Warmth blossomed inside her. “For finally trusting you?”

He quirked a brow. “For not dressing me as a peacock.”

She laughed, and her shoulders relaxed as her fear eased. The notion was absurd. How could Nate be anything but the dark panther she imagined him to be?

Thank God he was here. She didn’t know how she would have survived the night without him. An increasingly warm, tingling part of her hoped he would be with her until dawn.

“Happy to oblige.” She added with a wink from behind her mask, “My Lord Panther.”

She turned toward the door. Without warning, he swept her up in his arms. He dropped into the chair and brought her down with him across his lap.

She gasped in surprise, then struggled to catch her breath against the thumping of her heart.

“What would makemehappy, Baroness, is to be told the truth.” He untied her mask and let it fall to her lap. “Now.”

The sudden arousal that had sped through her only heartbeats before vanished. Suddenly, she felt trapped. “I told you everything.” She struggled to push herself away, but her feet couldn’t find purchase against the floor. The toes of her slippers barely touched the rug, and she could do nothing more than wiggle futilely on his lap. “A boy came to the house—”

“No.” His arm went around her waist to hold her in place. “The secret you’re keeping. What is Scepter using to make you risk your life like this?”

“Let me up, please.” He wanted to know about Robert, and from the resolute expression on his face, he wasn’t letting her go until she told him. But she wouldnevershare that secret.

“Not until you tell me.”

“Then I’ll scream.”

“Go ahead.” He shrugged. “Anyone who hears will just think we’re enjoying ourselves.”

Gaping at his audacity, she shoved at him, and he grabbed her hand. He leaned over her, putting her further off-balance until she had no choice but to wrap her free arm around his neck to keep from tumbling backward onto the floor. “Let me go, Captain!”

“Lord Panther,” he corrected, deadpan.

Anger flared inside her, flamed by her desperation to keep Robert safe. “Why, you arrogant, pompous—”

“Tell me your secret, Baroness.” He trailed his fingers down her neck to her low-cut neckline, which rose and fell rapidly with her quickening breaths. “What are they using to blackmail you?”

He drew slow circles through the gold dust she’d powdered at her cleavage to make her skin shimmer like fire in the candlelight. It had been the last touch to her costume, one she’d applied in hopes of gaining his attention. Now she certainly had it, but for all the wrong reasons.

The man was infuriating, maddening, exasperating to the last thread of her patience—

His finger stroked down into the valley between her breasts, and her breath choked. Immediately, she stopped her struggling and stilled in his arms as a familiar longing tightened between her thighs.