Read Napoleon's Woman for Free Online Page B

waiting to ascend the stairs until the fair woman had done so herself. It could not be her, his rational self argued. But his senses had been sparked, and now his gut was contradicting his mind.
    He reached the second floor of Lord Reynolds’s town home just in time to observe the woman entering the last room on the left of the corridor. The hall was dark, having been made so to indicate that this area was out of bounds to guests.
    His booted feet fell silent on the lush chartreuse carpeting as he approached the door and he noticed that it had been left ajar. Aidan glanced down the hall and then listened to the soft noises emanating from deep inside the chamber. He pushed the door open and slid into the large room, twisting the knob before closing the mahogany door and slowly releasing the latch.
    His efforts were rewarded. The woman did not hear him as she searched the small writing desk on the opposite side of the room. Aidan surveyed his surroundings, looking to block any possible means of escape.
    An ornate four-poster bed dominated the large room with a massive armoire to its right. A blue brocade settee and large chair of quality leather sat at an angle in front of the marble fireplace. The long windows opposite the door were flanked by luxurious midnight blue velvet drapes, which mirrored the colors woven into the intricate pattern of the oval Aubusson carpet.
    The only other exit from the bedchamber was the double doors that led to the adjoining sitting room. His lips curled in a malicious grin as he crept toward her.
    He was surprised by the depth of loathing he felt for this woman, this siren that lured men to their deaths by seducing them with her deceptively angelic beauty.
    "I see a frog has leapt the pond and landed upon our fair shores," he said ferociously.
    Lady Rivenhall stiffened and bolted for the sitting room doors, but they were locked. She spun, lifting her skirts and Aidan was on her, pressing her into the paneled wood while grasping the wrist of the hand that now held her knife.
    Aidan could feel her breast rising against his chest. He looked down into her blue-green gaze and saw no fear, only calculation. He held her cold eyes as he squeezed her wrist until he thought it would break, before she finally relinquished her weapon.
    There was a reason the French had sent this woman, he thought with reluctant admiration. Aidan was disgusted with himself for admiring any aspect of this traitor, and his revulsion quickly dissolved into anger.
    "Why are you here, Lady Rivenhall?" he asked with one brow quirked above empty green eyes.
    "I became lost and wondered into this area of the house," the woman replied with no hint of anxiety.
    Aidan scoffed, amazed at her capacity for lying. "Why are you in England , my lady?" The heat from her bare neck and shoulders rose to warm his down turned face.
    "I am a British citizen, my lord."
    "Yet, you fight against the freedom that citizenship provides," he stated as a matter of course, wondering who else was fighting against that freedom. "Who sent the note?"
    Her eyes remained blank and unreadable. "What note?"
    She gasped when his hand dove into her bodice. Aidan traced the curve of her breast as his fingers searched for the concealed missive.
    "This note," he whispered, feeling the folded parchment.
    He wrapped his finger around the paper that lay beneath her breast then slowly withdrew it, unable to avoid grazing her nipple that had hardened to an enticing peak. She shuddered against him, and Aidan felt a primal satisfaction in her response before he opened the note and read the brief communiqué.
     
    First floor, east wing, last door on the left.
     
    He pulled himself from her lithe body, gripping her arm as he hauled her toward the bed. He needed to search the rest of her and the bed was the nearest place to conduct the examination. He pushed her down on the colorful counterpane, exactly where he wanted her, then stopped.
    He looked down at his stunning enemy