My Dangerous Rogue, Paula Wong [best books to read for self improvement TXT] 📗

walking away, disappearing through the street.
She blinked, her heart pounded away in her chest. Why hadn’t he done anything? Quickly, she shut the window and threw some logs in the fire again. That did not make any sense. He had the chance to hurt her then and there but he did not do it. By the warning he gave her, it seemed like he was capable of doing just about anything. He was right, by the warning, it seemed like there was more to this case than meets the eye.
Just then the closet door opened, she jumped and let out a yelp her hand flying to her fast beating heart. It was Richard, with a pistol in hand.
“Good God! What in God’s name are you doing here? You scared the living daylight out of me,” she exclaimed turning to face him, then her gaze flying to the pistol.
“What is that for?”
“For that man,” he said coming to the window, looking outside. There was no trace of him left in sight.
“That man? You over heard our conversation? Through the closet door? How in the world did you get in there?”
“I did not overhear you conversation. I saw a man standing by your window room when we stepped out of the carriage. I did not tell you because I did not want to alarm you.”
“And you didn’t even bother asking me to pick another room?” She asked her anger flickering.
“I wanted to see what that man was here for. What message could he have gotten and now I know. He wants us to leave this child’s kidnapping case alone.” By the look on her face, he continued explaining. “The closet was connected to my closet as well. I stood there and simply listened. If he had done something reckless, I would have pulled the trigger, but it seemed he knew that I was here also. Smart and clever,”
Loretta watched him for a matter of moments. He was here all along, protecting her. Well at least was trying to. He had been here. Something she had not expected. “Why did you come?”
Richard put the pistol in his waistcoat pocket. “Because I wanted to know what that man wanted.”
“Is that all the reason?”
His gaze met hers, the fire in the room ablaze making his features look more striking and vivid. She can see every hollow of her cheekbones, every corner of his face. “If I had said yes, then that would be a lie.”
He turned to leave. “If you need anything else, then feel free to call for me. I am only a voice away.” Richard moved over to the closet and opened it indeed there revealed his room. It had the same outline as she but hers felt more like what a woman would use and his was a man. He left it open, she realized maybe in that way, he can be able to watch her better. Why can’t he just ask her to join the room with him? So there he can keep a closer watch on her. Why go through the fuss of keeping his guard up all the time and watch her through the door every now and then?
A knock came in the door and she opened it to reveal Maria with her water. “Thank you,” she said as she readied the bath for her, steam rose in the copper tub, the bathroom surrounded by mists. Maria bowed in goodbye and closed the door behind her. Quickly, she entered the bathroom and stripped out of her gown. Slowly, she sank in the water with a content sigh, her pale skin completely flushed. She picked up the sponge and softly rubbed her shoulders, then putting her leg up on the ledge of the tub to gently scrubbing it also. Softly, she started to hum.


Richard lay on his bed, with his boots and shirt off, leaving him with nothing but his trousers. That man wanted something from her. And that answered it was a warning. Stay off the case or die. Something odd was happening here. He was right; something way more was at the present. What could it be?
Loretta is in danger, that is what he is positive about. But what could be so dangerous that it will result to giving her a warning? Her voice filled the two rooms. It sounded like a humming. A melody that sounds pleasant and wonderful to the ear.
A melody that he can drown in.
Hastily, he paced around the room. He wanted to just go ahead and tell her to move in his room or at least let him stay at her room so he can protect her. That is much will be easier than keeping the door opening and expecting for someone to barge in those doors with a gun pointing straight at her heart.
If anything happens to her, then he’ll just die.
Damn it Richard! Get a hold of yourself. This woman does not control. You control yourself. She is nothing. She cannot use her wicked ways like she had done before, where have that got you? You are not going to fall in love with that blasted woman. Never will you love.
Love will only bring weakness, suffering, and grief. It is better not to love than love at all. It will consume you whole. Fill your thoughts of what can be and what could.
Thoughts that can never happen.
He is cursed, that is what whispers the ton, and that is something he cannot ignore. He even believes it himself. Sometimes, he wonders on why he was even brought in life, and then when he drinks, it all disappears. He knows the purpose on why he lived.
To cause havoc on everyone around him.
His hand tightened on his sides as he gaze out of the window, the snow falling yet again. Everywhere he turns to, faces of disgust and disappointed flickered in their gazes.
He showed no emotion at all. One though, is what they said. One emotion he had presented. An emotion of a man who is not afraid to kill, a man who is not afraid to die.
They are right of course; he is not afraid to neither kill nor die. Dying is part of life, when your time has come, your time has come. There is no other way to deny it or ignore it.
Richard looked down at the pistol in his overcoat pocket. He had killed before. He killed plants and animals. But he did not kill a man yet.
Or at least that is what the ton thinks. Of course he had killed a man before.
He can never forget the look on Michael’s face when Richard loomed over him a few months ago, his dying body filled with blood.
He had done a terrible deed, and even he knows that there is no forgiveness for him.
The life he is living now is a proof of that.
A nightmare he can’t ever escape from.
Hell that he can’t ever outrun.
Chapter 12

Richard O’Conner frowned as he heard the bathroom door open. She continued humming. He closed his eyes and tried not to imagine what she was doing. Slowly putting her chemise on, her wet hair masking her pale face, her smooth body fitting the perfect silk night gown.
After what had felt like three centuries later, her humming subsided and he was still awake. He opened his eyes and stood up, walking over to the closet where they’re two rooms collided. “I am calling something to eat do you-,”
He cut off as soon as he had seen her on the bedside, combing her brown hair. She stopped and turned to look at him. By god, she looked like an angel who had just stepped out of the lake that provided youth for humans. It took a couple of minutes for him to recover. He blinked and looked away from her view.
Damn it, he was already hard for her.
No. He should no such thing as view her in that way. Loretta is a woman who is not interested in a man such as him. She made that clearly before.
The walls he had carefully made during his life started to build their way again, guarding his real emotions, showing only a heartless man. Without emotions and without feeling.
“What is it?” She asked softly, her features soft.
“I’m getting something to eat. Do you want anything?” He answered coolly, his arms across his chest, his shoulder on the doorway leaning against it.
“There is no need to do that. We can just call the inn keeper for that,”
She was right. He could just call the innkeeper. But bloody hell, he needs some sort of excuse to get out of this room. If not, then he will only end up running towards her, ripping out her gown and taking her forcefully, like a wild animal hungry for its prey.
Richard shook the thought away and buried it at the back of his head. He should not think such a thing, but he cannot stop the idea. Just as he thought, it was dangerous after all.
Dangerous to be around her. He cannot contain himself. He is always forced to be wild in front of her; just by her green gaze meeting his is enough for him to go wild.
As much as he wants to fetch another carriage so he can go home, he cannot abandon the favor. Pauline had asked for his and her help. He has no choice but to live up to it. As soon as this was over, he reminded himself, I will get the hell away from here: away from London, away from the ton, and away from her.


Loretta watched Richard with concern. She had seen the emotion he had felt earlier. The way he had looked at her with those eyes. The eyes of a person who admires someone, then just as quickly as it came, it was gone.
Replaced with the emotionless man who is standing here before her. He had shut himself away from the rest of the world yet again.
“I insist,” he said with a bored tone. “It is not good for a woman to starve,”
What if that man decides to come back? Where will you be when he comes for me? Stay with me, protect me from him.
Instead of saying those words, she nodded. “Suit yourself. If that is what you want then be my guess. I am not hungry at the moment so it will be alright for you to just get yourself supper,”
Loretta went back combing her hair with her silver brush. She tore her gaze away from him and instead focused on the fireplace. The light disappearing then appearing again, in the midst of the dark room.
“Alright,” Was