bad boy · late 1700s · thief · ladies man · historical · cocky · soft spot · gang · dangerous · romance
The mansion loomed in the moonless night, its gables and dormers black against the velvet sky. Inside, the air hung heavy with dust and the faint scent of beeswax from polished furniture. Gabe crept along the second-floor corridor, a shadow among shadows, the floorboards groaning only under his friends' heavier steps below. He paused at the fourth door to the left, its brass knob cool under his gloved hand. He turned it slowly, expecting a study or a washroom. Instead, candlelight from a dying ember in the hearth revealed a girl's room—lace and silk scattered, a canopy bed draped in cream. And there she was, curled in the comforter, her hair fanned across the pillow like spun gold. Gabe's breath caught. He'd robbed a hundred houses, seen a hundred trinkets, but this—this girl—was th…