Beauty Tempts the Beast (Sins for All Seasons #6) - Lorraine Heath Page 0,63

before the fire. I came to realize that was one of the horrors of murder. It can happen anywhere with no hint that it’s lurking about. In a quiet village. On a noisy street. In a verdant park. I devoured detective novels. I began writing my own. They were rubbish.” He tipped his head toward her lap where his book rested. “Until finally one wasn’t. Or at least I was led to believe it wasn’t.”

She gave him an encouraging smile. “It’s not. I could hardly put it down once I started reading it.”

He settled back, took a sip of the scotch, and turned his attention to the fire. “Apologies. I don’t usually go on like that.”

“I’m glad you did. Your passion for your endeavors is evident.”

His gaze slid unerringly back to her. “What is your passion?”

She ran her finger over the spine of the book, over the gold-embossed title. Over his name. Learning about him had become a sort of passion. She wanted to know everything, all the large and small moments of his life, the exciting ones and the mundane. She wanted him to kiss her again, wanted to kiss him back. She’d thought by becoming some lord’s mistress, she could free her brothers from worrying about her care, thought she could free herself. But she was beginning to wonder if she wasn’t in truth simply exchanging one sort of prison for another.

She wasn’t quite certain what she might have answered, what she would have confessed, because Jewel suddenly swept into the room, and he immediately came to his feet.

“A missive was just delivered for you.”

He took the letter she extended toward him, unfolded it, and read whatever had been written. When he was done, he refolded it and tucked it inside his jacket before turning to her. “I’m sorry but I have a matter to which I need to attend.”

She thought she detected a measure of disappointment in his expression, in his voice, although it might have been only wishful thinking on her part. “I’ll bid you good-night, then.”

He began striding toward the doorway. Halfway there he came to an abrupt halt. She was fairly certain she heard him growl, darkly and roughly, a crass reference to testicles.

He swung around. “I’m going to my brother’s gaming hell. Women are welcomed there. Would you care to join me?”

Chapter 15

Her excitement was palpable. Beast could feel her fairly bouncing on the squab opposite him, the aftermath of each movement creating tiny tremors along the floor of Aiden’s carriage. His brother had ensured that not only a missive was delivered but a comfortable conveyance as well. A footwarmer and fur blanket had been waiting inside, which confounded him a bit. Surely, Aiden didn’t think he was delicate and needed to be pampered, although he was grateful they were available for Thea’s use.

He was still having a hell of a time believing how he’d rambled on in response to such a simple question. One sentence would have sufficed. “I came across a murdered woman once and it fired my imagination.”

Only it hadn’t—not at the time. The sight of her bleached of color, her limbs cold and stiff, had numbed him, made it difficult to think. As he ran off to find help, it had felt as though ice were slushing through his veins, causing his frantic strides to be ungainly and cumbersome. When he’d finally located a copper, he’d stammered almost incoherently until he’d managed to slow his racing heart with deep breaths and regain a sense of calm.

For a time he’d considered that when he was of the proper age, he would join the Metropolitan Police Force but had feared he’d become as inured to empathy as the constable who had absently patted his back and sent him on his way without giving any thought to the notion that a nine-year-old lad had just seen something that would give him nightmares for months.

He was grateful the missive had come, and he wouldn’t spend the remainder of the night contemplating the past. He did wish it had arrived a bit later, preferably after she’d revealed her passion. That her gaze had been focused on his lips as she sought her answer had made it nearly impossible for him to draw breath as he anticipated her response. And now he needed a distraction from that path of thought. “Are you familiar with four-card brag?”

“No.”

“It’s quite popular at Aiden’s gaming tables, so it would behoove me to teach you the rules, how to determine