was something delightful about her, and he wished he could find distraction in her charms for the rest of the dinner, but he did not fool himself. “Quite discerning of you, Lady Helena.”
“Tell me more about yourself, if you please, Mr. Decker,” Lady Helena invited. “I find myself curious about your businesses.”
What an odd bird. Ladies did not ordinarily trouble themselves to worry about something so common as business.
“I own a club, of course,” he began mildly. Everyone knew he owned the Black Souls, after all. “I also own a publisher and a shipping venture, along with various factories.”
That was not the extent of his empire, of course. He also owned orphanages, tenements, and two hospitals, including one dedicated to children which had yet to open its doors. But those were hardly paying propositions. The tenements had required vast improvements to make them livable, and he only charged the residents what they could afford, which was a pittance. The orphanages and hospital brought in no revenue at all.
But it would hardly do for anyone to find out about those. He had a reputation to uphold, after all.
“Oh yes,” Lady Helena was saying. “You are the new publisher for the Lady’s Suffrage Society.”
“You are a member of the society as well, I take it?” he asked politely.
“I am.” Lady Helena smiled broadly, revealing the tiniest space between her two front teeth. Far from being an imperfection, this flaw somehow rendered her more charming. “Lady Sinclair persuaded me to join, and I am so pleased to be a part of such a worthy cause.”
It was indeed a worthy cause, and it was one of the many things about Jo that appealed to Decker. She was not an empty-headed society miss, more concerned with the next ball and the newest gown she had commissioned than the world around her.
Blast. He hazarded a glance in Jo’s direction to find her gazing back at him. Their stares clashed with the same charge that happened whenever they touched. The intensity awed and shook him, as always. Her lips were pinched, he realized, a slight frown marring her otherwise smooth brow.
Had she taken note of him chatting with Lady Helena? Did she disapprove? Was it too much to hope she was stewing in the same jealousy which had been afflicting him for the duration of this bloody dinner?
Decker inclined his head to her in a mocking salute, and then he turned his attention back to Lady Helena. “Tell me more about the Lady’s Suffrage Society, my lady.”
The rest of the dinner passed slowly, but at least with the accompaniment of Lady Helena’s lively conversation. If Decker continued to steal glances at Jo, it could hardly be helped. And if his blood boiled each time he caught her speaking with Hungtingdon, it could hardly be helped either.
There was the very real, decidedly unwanted, possibility that his wallflower had found her wings and was about to fly far from him.
Decker did not like it. Not one whit.
Because he was a complete lunatic, Decker was lurking in a darkened chamber, awaiting his prey. The ladies had withdrawn, leaving the gentlemen to their port at the conclusion of dinner. But he had no wish to exchange words with a passel of lords, especially not lords who were as insufferably self-righteous as the Earl of Huntingdon. It was a miracle the prick had even condescended to attend a dinner party being hosted by Sin, a man who had been a societal outcast until recently.
Besides, Decker could not be certain he would be able to avoid planting a fist in the bastard’s mouth. To say nothing of Quenington, who had been eying Jo like a pie he longed to devour every time Decker had glanced in his direction.
He had taken a gamble in excusing himself from the gentlemen after he had spied Jo heading to the lady’s withdrawing room. Alone. Still, it was a gamble he was willing to make.
Especially when the reward came back into view.
He was probably watching her with the same ravenous hunger Quenington had exhibited earlier, and though he hated himself, it did not stop Decker from striking when she neared his hiding place. He stepped out of the chamber, slid his arm around her waist, clamped one hand over her mouth to stifle any cry of surprise she might make, and yanked her into the room with him.
He closed the door quietly behind them, and then spun them as one, not stopping until her back was against the