When Tempting a Rogue Read Online Free

did you hear what happened at Saint’s Row last night?”
    “Obviously not, because I was there for several hours and nothing interesting occurred, unless you count Lady Gosling setting her sights on a new conquest. I hope Mason Blayne knows what he’s getting into.”
    Archer leaned his elbow on the table, dangling toast from his long fingers. “He’ll be getting into Lady Gosling, I do believe that’s the point. But that’s not what I meant. Apparently Madame La Rieux shot one of her footmen last night.”
    Trystan’s spine snapped straight. “What?”
    Archer nodded, pale eyes sparkling with mischief. “Caught the bloke en dishabille in her bed chamber. Seems he had amour on his mind—and other body parts. When he refused to leave, she put a hole in him. Winged him. He’s fortunate she didn’t aim lower.”
    “He’s fortunate she didn’t kill him,” Trystan replied. She could have. Vienne is a crack shot. “Is she all right?”
    “I was wondering when you’d inquire after the lady’s health. By all reports, she’s perfectly fine. The bloke will have a deuced hard time finding employment in London after this. Attempted rape of one’s employer tends to diminish the number of available situations considerably.”
    “As it should.” It occurred to Trystan—just for a moment—that he could find out the name of this footman with relative ease—and, with a mere word in the right ear and a few pounds in the right hand, make sure the man never bothered another woman ever again. He could do that. He wanted to do it . . . but wouldn’t. He’d rather cut out his own tongue than let Vienne know he cared about what happened to her.
    He glanced up to find his elder brother watching him with considerable concern—not a usual expression in Archer Kane’s repertoire. For all his flippancy and rakish ways, Archer was a simple man who held family above all else. He never forgot a slight against a loved one, no matter how small. Archer knew that Vienne had broken Trystan’s heart, and that alone was enough to make Tryst squirm under his brother’s crystalline gaze, because he sensed he had forgiven the trespass far more readily than Archer had or ever would.
    “What did you get up to last night?” Archer inquired, taking another bite of toast. “Given the footman scandal, I know you didn’t take another run at La Rieux.”
    There it was, out in the open, although it wasn’t as if this was the first time Archer had brought up his past entanglement. “I played a little cards with Lord Angelwood.”
    His brother’s sharp brows rose. “Did he clean you out?”
    Trystan allowed himself a self-satisfied smile. “No. Unlike you, my dear brother, I know how to gamble and win.”
    Archer scowled. “No one knows how to gamble and win, that’s why they call it gambling.”
    Trystan shrugged, watching his sibling carefully as the waiter returned and set Archer’s breakfast in front of him. He waited until the man had left before asking, “How in debt are you?”
    Archer’s head snapped up. “I’m not. And it’s none of your damn business.” With that, he slapped a wrinkled fiver on the table between them. “Here. Thanks for the loan.”
    “Arch—”
    The older man pointed a fork at him. “ Not a word. Just because you’ve off and made something of yourself doesn’t give you the right to judge me. You think I spend all my time whoring and drinking, throwing money and my self-respect to the wind?”
    “Don’t you?” Trystan inquired before he could silence his tongue.
    Archer’s mouth twisted and his eyes went as hard and cold as ice. At that moment, for what was probably the second time in his entire life, Trystan recognized his brother as a dangerous man. If he told anyone that, no one would believe him. No one in all of London thought Archer Kane anything but a charming, self-centered rake. Five minutes ago Trystan would have agreed with them.
    Then, as quick it had come, the danger was gone,