as if he hadn’t expected her dare. His grip lessened a fraction. Poppy sucked in a draught of damp air. Isley frowned. “Why do you assume she was always in the right, girl?” Her teeth rattled as he gave her a shake. “What have her schemes brought you? Loneliness, a marriage of lies, your sisters’ disappointment and distrust?”
“Enough!” She would not listen to him spin his web.
His weight crushed down on her. “No, my dear. Not nearly enough. You go through life with blinders on, prancing about on tenuous moral high ground, and damn my eyes if you didn’t find a husband just the same.”
“So you seek to teach us a lesson, do you?” She laughed, her throat aching from his grip. “I shall be ill.”
Isley snarled, and he bent close enough to smell. “You could be like me. If you let go of these rules and truly lived, you could be like me.” He moved to release her, easing back off her arms. It was enough.
She caught him by the hand that still held onto her neck, and then she set her power free. Ice lashed over his body, freezing him in place. He’d soon break free, but not until she was done. Power rippled along her skin as she fed it into his body, keeping him frozen. Only his eyes gave any indication that he heard every word she said. “Right now, you are very much like me in one fatal way.”
Her free hand settled over the crowbar lying next to her. With a grunt, she swung the crowbar hard. His head shattered like fine crystal, shards of ice flying from the force. “Your body is comprised almost entirely of water.” She let go, and the body toppled and broke into a thousand scattered pieces about her.
Dark smoke drifted up from the wreckage of Isley’s body and an ear-ringing screech filled the space. The smoke gathered, growing darker, more substantial, until it took on the shape of a man. The black, writhing man-shape hovered over her as red glowing eyes formed where the face ought to be.
Poppy climbed to her feet and faced the thing head on. The black mass broke apart only to reform around her, a storm of unnatural wind that plucked at her clothes and scraped her skin. Isley’s growl came at her from all directions. “Does Winston Lane know you cry for him? That you want him back so very desperately?”
He was grasping at straws, looking for her weakness. She held herself still within the storm. “Go back to hell where you belong, Isley.”
The wind picked up, blinding her. “Only if you come with me, Poppy Ann.” And then he was gone.
Chapter Fourteen
London, 1869—In Bed, Finally
It’s so hot.”
Winston choked out a laugh. “It most certainly is.” Pleasure and the fact that Poppy Ellis had her slim, cool hand wrapped around his overheated cock made him shiver. He drew a finger along the length of her neck before kissing the sweet little spot where her pulse pounded. “Which is your fault entirely.”
Lying on her bed, his shirt undone and his trousers unbuttoned, he marveled at how he’d arrived at this moment. Well, he knew how. He’d crept into her room like a thief. How it was that she’d managed to practically undress him while retaining her clothes was the mystery. One he was going to rectify. He undid another one of the hundred little pearl buttons marching up her nightgown as he kissed her softly.
She gave him an experimental stroke, and he groaned, his lips clinging to hers. “Poppy. You are going to unman me.” Another button popped free.
“I thought it would feel cool. Wriggly even.”
“Wriggly?” His voice was strangled. “How on earth… oh, God…” He canted his hips, pushing into her grip. “Do that again… harder.” His thighs trembled, and his cods ached. And he loved it. He licked his lips. “H-how did you come to such a conclusion?”
“Well,” she kissed his neck, her strokes continuing at a maddening pace. “From the renderings I’ve seen, it appears to simply hang, dangling away from the body.”
He laughed, the sound muffled against her damp skin. His fingers were somewhat frantic now, needing to get to their prize. The nightgown gapped, and the sweet curve of her small breast came into his view. Win’s mind went blank, then dark with lust. His hand actually shook as he slipped it beneath the fine linen and cupped her smooth flesh. Gods, but it was too good. He’d never felt