The Rogue Not Taken (Scandal & Scoundrel, #1)

by Sarah MacLean

There was, after all, never a stare so blatant as the one that carefully evaded its object.

Loathing was so often described as cold; today, it felt hot as the sun.

They’ll all marry well and make beautiful, wealthy children who will climb aristocratic trellises like wisteria.” She looked out the window. A team of oxen hauled a massive cart past, revealing a pair of dusty men hitching their horses on the opposite side of the street. “I am not a climber.”

though it was he who knelt, it was she who confessed.

“Happiness. That’s what books smell like. Happiness. That’s why I always wanted to have a bookshop. What better life than to trade in happiness?”

What if the darkest pain he’d ever felt was the product of betrayal instead of love? Who was he if not the man made by that night?

“Yes,” he replied, the word somehow a vow and a prayer and a curse all at once.