A Most Dangerous Profession by Karen Hawkins

placed her slender foot on the edge of the tub and began to wash her leg.
    She had wonderfully long legs. They were outstanding, too—curved just so, exquisitely feminine and made for wrapping about a man’s waist.
    Robert shifted and forced his gaze back to her face. What were they talking about? Oh, yes. “Moira, enough of this. Tell me about Aniston.”
    “Why should I? I don’t owe you anything, and you don’t owe me.”
    “I would agree, except for one little fact: you tricked me into marriage.”
    She sighed. “That was years ago. And I’ve never asked for a penny in support.”
    “That’s the curious part. It made me wonder why you even went to all of that trouble.”
    She hesitated. “I had my reasons.”
    “Which are?”
    She slanted him a look before rinsing the soap from her legs.
    It was all Robert could do not to react to the way she was slowly pouring water over her smooth, silken skin. He’d forgotten that it was almost impossible to keep a sane thought in his head when she was naked. Thank God the deep tub covered more than it revealed. All he could see were her head, shoulders, one arm, and onelong leg. But even that was distracting in the extreme.
    He collected his thoughts. “I’ve been looking for you all these years. The least you can do is answer a few simple questions.”
    “So ask them. But I’m going to get out of the tub first. It’s getting cold.”
    “No, you can get out when I leave. If it’s getting cold, then answer quickly. You went through an elaborate ruse to get me to marry you.”
    She’d charmed him into dressing as the King of Hearts to her Queen for a fancy dress ball at Vauxhall Gardens. It had been a foolish costume, but she’d been adamant about wearing them and he’d allowed it because he was already under her spell.
    That had been his almost-ruin. The Home Office had grown suspicious of Moira, who had somehow convinced all of London that she was a Russian princess. Because of his connections to the
ton
through his sisters, who’d all married quite well, Robert had been asked to discover what he could about this mysterious woman.
    It had been his first major assignment and he’d thrown his heart into it. Perhaps too much so. The instant his eyes had met hers, something had flared between them—and was flaring between themright now. Try as he might, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her glistening shoulders as they rose above the edge of the huge tub.
    He shifted in his chair. “As far as weddings go, ours was a paltry affair.”
    She chuckled low. “Don’t be bitter. The gardens were lovely and . . .” Her smile faded. “You looked very handsome.”
    And she’d looked like a fairy that night, her eyes sparkling more brightly than the diamonds about her neck. “I was a bloody fool.”
    Something flickered in her gaze but she merely shrugged. “Nonsense. It was an elaborate deception and you didn’t expect such a thing. How could you?”
    He must have asked himself that question a thousand times. While wandering Vauxhall’s famed dark gardens, they’d run into an obviously drunk man dressed as a vicar, who swore they were the most beautiful couple he’d seen that night. He then demanded to be allowed to “marry” them.
    Robert had thought the man mad, but Moira had laughed and teased him that he was afraid. Drunk from both her beauty and the fact he was embarking upon his first assignment, he’d agreed to the unthinkable—to allow the “vicar” to marry the two of them on the spot. The vicar was quick tocomply and even produced a false marriage license, demanding that it be signed.
    Moira’s green gaze met his as she swiped at a curl across her cheek. “How did you discover that silly wedding wasn’t a mockery? I didn’t think you’d give it a second thought.”
    “When you disappeared the next morning, I began to investigate everything you’d said and done. That night kept coming back to me. Something about it . . . it seemed wrong