Scoundrel of My Heart (Once Upon a Dukedom #1) - Lorraine Heath Page 0,41

answered the summons of the traitor’s son. He’d debated operating in secret but had decided to hell with it. He was no longer going to let his father’s legacy define him.

Even though he couldn’t deny that, in many ways, it had made him the man he was now, barely clinging to the few frayed remnants of who he’d once been.

Besides, he liked being visible, moving about. His presence ensured people behaved. The hands that had bled and scarred provided an ominous signal that he was no longer a proper gentleman, and he kept them on display by never wearing gloves. When he walked through the rooms, people gave him a wide berth. He didn’t mind that, either. Their membership was putting coins into his coffers. He didn’t need them as friends, acquaintances, or mates, preferred they were a bit wary of him.

He no longer belonged in their world, wasn’t going to pretend that he did.

Weary of his idleness, the boredom settling in because of his inaction, he decided it was time to strut through the various rooms, had just started to turn when he caught sight of her.

She marched in with confidence and the bearing of a queen, an empress, the ruler of a dominion spread out before her, resting at her feet. His gut shouldn’t have tightened. His heart shouldn’t have started galloping wildly. He shouldn’t have been grateful for her arrival.

And yet he’d known she would come if she ever heard of the place. After all this time, the sight of her was a balm to his tattered soul. Not that by word, deed, or expression he was going to give any indication that was the case.

She wore a gown of emerald green, one he’d never before seen, but he knew her eyes would reflect the shade. Gloriously dark, gloriously rich.

As though she were special—Lord help him if he didn’t consider her so—she waltzed past the line of people having their membership confirmed, strolled farther into the hallway until her path was blocked by a big brute of a fellow, whom he’d hired to maintain order. He’d seen several men noticeably pale when Billy stepped in front of them, but she merely arched a brow at him as though his presence was a nuisance. God, he loved that she wasn’t intimidated by a man who could snap her in half, but then there were so many things he’d come to admire about her, far too late for any of his realizations to do any good.

If he was smart, he’d go to his office and lock the door. Instead, he started down.

Kathryn would not have been surprised to learn the man standing before her had descended from giants. However, having just come from the Elysium Club, she was impatient to learn if what she suspected was accurate and didn’t intend for anyone—giant or no—to stop her. “Let me pass.”

“Ye gots to get yer membership vereefied first.”

“I’m not a member, and I don’t require membership to enter.”

He blinked several times, and she thought perhaps he was striving to translate her words into something that made sense to him—or perhaps he simply wasn’t accustomed to anyone challenging him. She noted a couple of gents nearly hugging the wall to avoid getting too close to the fellow as they made their way into what she was fairly certain were the more interesting sections of the building.

“Everyone requires membership,” he finally said, although his tone lacked any real conviction. “’Ems the rules.”

“I don’t. Move out of my way.”

“Can’t do it. Lose me job.”

“I assure you that you won’t. Now step aside.”

“Look ’ere, miss—”

“It’s all right, Billy. Let her through.”

She hated the way that voice could leave her breathless. Still, the brawny giant did as ordered, and then her vision was filled with Griff, standing there in formal evening attire that fit him to perfection. It had to have recently been tailored for him because his shoulders were broader, his arms thicker than they’d been the last time she’d seen him. Shoulders and arms that she knew the firmness of because she’d trailed her fingers over them when he’d kissed her in Kingsland’s garden. That she wanted to do so again was inconvenient. She hadn’t come here to do any trailing, kissing, or touching. She’d come to give him a piece of her mind.

As though he were king of the realm, he tipped his head slightly to the side as though granting her permission to come forward—when she didn’t need his permission to do