Read No Regrets for Free Online Page A

there."
       Lizzie bristled, but Caro sent her a quelling glance, and for once, Lizzie held her tongue.
       Glancing past Caro through the grimy window, the innkeeper said, "Rest of servants has to sleep with them nags of yourn in the barn."
       It was the best she could do without Lucas. "We'll eat supper in our room."
       "All I got is the rest of the stew me cooking wench made for me dinner. She's gone home now. I can heat it up."
       Dinner in the country came at noon. Well, they would eat either the leftover stew or the bread and cheese they'd brought for the journey. After the chill of the carriage ride, the thought of cold food made her shiver. "That will be fine."
       "This way then, your bloody highness." Mumbling under his breath, he led the way upstairs.

    * * *

       The creak of the rickety door jolted Caro fully awake. A tattoo beat in her chest. "Who is it?"
       "Caro?" The timbre of Lucas's deep voice cut through the sound of Lizzie's snores. "Why are you in here?"
       He raised a candlestick. Outlined in the doorway, with his hair loose around his shoulders and his shirt open at the neck, he looked thoroughly disheveled and rakishly handsome.
       A strange little pulse stirred in her stomach. She clutched the blanket they'd brought in from the carriage up to her chin. Now didn't seem the right moment for the choice words she'd rehearsed in the hours before sleep finally claimed her. "Go away."
       "Why are you here?" He stumbled further into the room. "Ouch." He rubbed his shin and stared down at Lizzie on the cot beside the bed. "What is Lizzie doing in my room?"
       "It is not your room, Lucas. It is mine."
       He swayed and slapped one hand against the sloping ceiling for support. "The landlord said . . ."
       Pent-up resentment sprang to life. "I don't care what the landlord said. Go away."
       "Where am I to sleep?"
       "Right at this moment, I really don't care. Try the barn."
       He rocked on his heels, pointing to the bundle of sheets and blankets on the floor in the corner. "I could use that."
       Caro repressed a shudder. "If you want to wake up lousy, feel free to take them with you." The bedding in the room wasn't fit for animals, let alone humans. If they'd been able to open the window, she would have thrown it all out, including the mattress she'd stuffed under the bed.
       Swaying, he gazed down at her, his glittering onyx eyes holding an expression different from anything she'd ever seen there before. Hot flames danced between them, and heat tingled from her head to her heels as he stared at her bosom. To her horror, her breasts felt fuller and larger than ever.
       He raised his gaze to her face. "Your hair is very long," he mumbled as if his tongue didn't work properly. "It has streaks of gold." He cast her his familiar, lopsided smile. "I'd love to see it unbound."
       The pulse in her abdomen jolted. A frisson of awareness ran down her spine. She recognized it for what it was. Attraction. If only they had more than an artificial marriage.
       He leaned forward, his lips teasing, yet inviting. He was going to kiss her. Her heart beat twice as fast as normal, choked her throat, emptied her mind. An urgent desire to touch the skin at his throat, to run her fingers through his hair, overwhelmed her. She raised her face, closed her eyes on a sigh.
       Brandy fumes wafted over her. She opened her eyes and stared into his blurred, reddened eyes. He was foxed. If he wasn't, he wouldn't think of coming to her room. He'd mistaken her for one of his other women.
       And no matter how much she wanted to know the taste of his lips on hers, or what she felt deep inside, she would not take advantage of his error. It would be disastrous. For both of them.
       She forced calm words past her thundering heart. "Do go away, Lucas, before you wake Lizzie. I'll speak to you in the morning."
       "That sounds omni . . . onimus." He shook