Page 15 of When a Lady Desires a Wicked Lord
“What is it you want from me?” Her eyes had gone as frosty as her tone.
“Your expertise may enable both of us to stay alive.”
“Expertise, is it? I’m more inclined to think you’re after the map Professor Stockwell supposedly gave me for safekeeping.”
“If you have the map—and I believe you do—I am asking you to give it to me. That will be a start. I also need you to interpret the symbols the guide left behind.”
She folded her arms before her as if erecting her own personal suit of armor. “You think I will be able to interpret them? Given Professor Stockwell was stymied, I find that rather unlikely.”
“Your skills are superior to Stockwell’s. You demonstrate an intuitive understanding of the syntax.”
She gave a little shrug. “Assuming Icanprepare a translation, how will it be used?”
“If the symbols were indeed meant to convey a warning, the message will offer an advantage in preparing a defense against the threat.”
“How can I be certain this is a not a ruse…to persuade me to lead you to yet another treasure?”
He lightly draped her shoulders with his hands. “Have I ever lied to you?”
Her throat constricted, even as the fire returned to her eyes. Slowly, she shifted her head side to side. “I cannot say that you have. Not directly, at least. But we both know you’ve quite a talent for evading inconvenient details.”
“You are bitter about what went on between us?”
“I would not use that word.” Her mouth pulled tight, and she pinned him with her gaze. “In any case, you must admit your decision to leave London came quite abruptly. Before that morning when you informed me of your intentions, you’d offered no hint that the future you envisioned did not involve me. I would have appreciated your honesty regarding your feelings…toward us.”
“It had to come to an end. There was no future. There was nous.”
He made no effort to soften the hard edges of his tone. Damnation, the words were difficult to utter.No us. Regret churned through his gut, but he forged past it. This was no time for sentiment that would only serve to cloud his thinking.
She regarded him for the span of several heartbeats, her luminous brown eyes wide and searching. “There was a time when you’d convinced me quite the opposite was true.”
Blast it, when she looked at him like that, it seemed she saw through to his very soul. “I had nothing to offer a woman like you.”
“So you said before you left. Peculiar, how that works. All I wanted wasyou.Not a blasted title. Not a manor house. Nor a country estate. Only you.”
“We were young. Foolish. Blinded by primitive emotion.”
“I would not describe what I felt as unevolved. But that was then, wasn’t it? Everything has changed.”
“Indeed,” he said, allowing himself a moment to drink in the softness of her beauty. “Now, I have to keep us both alive.”
She cocked a feathered brow. “You need not trouble yourself with me. Have you forgotten that my sister is married to the founder of the premier investigative service in all of Britain?”
“Colton cannot protect you… Not against this risk. I need answers. You have the Pharaoh’s Sun. For now, I will not press you to entrust it to me. But I must know what Stockwell told you about the amulet.”
Her expression softened, though suspicion continued to darken her eyes to amber. “He warned me of the whispers that followed the piece, the talk of a hex on the object. Or something of that sort. You cannot possibly believe that drivel.”
“I’m afraid I do not know what to believe… Stockwell was convinced he’d discovered the truth.”
Josiah Stockwell had been his mentor—and so much more. The man had been closer to Benedict than his own father. When the professor had summoned him, there was never a question ofifhe would watch over Alex. To protect her seemed as natural as breathing. He hadn’t needed to think twice. This was Alex, after all.
HisAlex.
Odd, how even now, he thought of her in that possessive way. A lie through and through. She was nothis. He’d tossed aside her love for a mad, impulsive quest.
He’d made the choice to leave.
He hadn’t intended to hurt her.
