Page 40 of Cocky August Rake

That had been Rose’s intention from the beginning.

She would show him how The Domus operated.

She would make him understand.

She had never meant to seduce him. Not after what happened in the garden.

“You want me to… use his attraction to our advantage?” Rose asked.

“It is more than attraction.”

Rose shook her head, but Nell continued. “I know men. And the only thing that will change his mind is if a woman he loves asks him to change it.”

Rose stared at her. “I can’t make him fall in love with me.”

Nell tilted her head. “You have done more difficult things.”

That was true.

At the very least, Rose understood desire. She knew how to awaken it, deepen it, and keep a man reaching for more.

But love?

Love was not something she knew how to create.

And Lord Reginald was not merely another man.

What had happened in the garden had begun with desire, certainly. But she’d felt something… deeper.

He had trusted her.

The thought of turning those feelings into—well, business—felt wrong. Outside of her realm. And that… scared her a little.

Even if it might work.

“He holds every card, Rose. The house, our livelihoods, our home. We have one thing that might sway him, and we cannot afford to waste it.”

The room fell silent.

It just felt wrong.

But if Nell was right—if Reginald truly was drawn to her—could Rose refuse to use that when every woman in The Domus was depending upon her?

Did she have that luxury?

It was impossible.

Wasn’t it?

She knew how to bring a man to his knees, literally. But Lord Reginald Preston was not like other men.

Yes, he had trembled in her arms, but afterward he had been ashamed. And today, every word she’d said had seemed to offend some deeply held belief in him.

He was not likely to fall in love with any of them, not when he despised what they did for a living.

And yet—what else could they do?

What if Nell’s plan worked?