Page 28 of The Agent and the Outlaw
“I want the truth, Comtesse,” I countered.
“My explanation is no lie. Neither is the Order and my allegiance to it. Had I been able to find a way to speak with that messenger alone, I would have. Unfortunately, we’re running short on time, and I’m forced to trust you with what you heard.”
“Who was that man? And how the hell did he find us?”
“I don’t know him by name,” she said. “But he is another agent of the Order, too. I assume he found me the way any agent would—asking the right people the right questions and drawing the right conclusions. The first innkeeper and that tavern girl, Hélène, were not far from our point of origin. We are on the main road south. We’ve only had a short head start and were forced off the road by bad weather. It was only a matter of time before a person with an ounce of sense and a fast horse found us.”
I scoffed. I wanted to believe that none of this made sense, but I knew deep down everything fit. The disguise, the training, the fighting, the manipulation… I just didn’t want to admit that this beautiful, charming woman had the ability to wreak so much havoc.Who are you kidding, Antoine? She’s been wreaking havoc on you since you laid eyes on her.
She must have interpreted my silence as a challenge, because she continued in a low, steely voice.
“I’m telling you the truth, Antoine. I was at Versailles to assassinate theMarquis de Sadeon behalf of the Order. His execution had been finalized weeks before, but we had to wait for the right moment. I was to be that moment, you see. A lovers’ tryst gone awry—a too shameful but entirely accidental death. The king never would have signed the death warrant—I mean, Sadewasa marquis, after all—but it was decided that he needed to be stopped. His depravity could no longer be ignored or covered up. He deserved to die.”
At her mention of Sade, I turned to stone, fighting the nausea and rage that blighted me every time I heard his name.
“He should have been dealt with properly, but you interfered. And so, help me, Antoine, if you breathe a word of any of this, or tell anyone about what you just saw on the road back there, I will not hesitate to use your interference to protect myself,” she said icily.
I couldn’t believe the audacity of the woman.
“First you lie to me, then you threaten me.Tsk, tsk.Is that any way for acomtesseto behave?”
“It’s not a threat. It’s my one and only attempt at setting terms. If you make trouble for me, rest assured, trouble will find you, too.”
Rain started to fall—corpulent, nearly frozen droplets that hinted at becoming snow. I spurred Tartuffe on, now almost as worried about the weather as the skirted enigma in front of me.
“Trouble has already found us, Charlotte, with or without your lies.”
“I’m sorry if you feel betrayed, Antoine, but you must understand that I was doing everything in my power to simultaneously protect you and extract myself from this situation,” she called back. With Tartuffe’s increased pace and the worsening weather, I could barely hear her words as they whipped past me on the wind.
“I told you I cannot abide deceit,” I shouted in her ear. “Why didn’t you admit as much to me when I first asked you?”
“I wouldn’t be a very good covert agent—”
“You meanspy!”
“—if I admitted the truth about every aspect of my life to every random gentleman who asked,” she said loudly. “Besides, you certainly have a lot of secrets for someone who professes to be such a paragon of honesty.”
“I’ve never lied to you,” I shot back. “Everything I’ve said has been the truth.”
“Lying by omission is still dishonesty, Antoine. You can hardly think it’s fair to expect me to divulge everything about myself when you won’t even tell me why you were hunting theMarquis de Sadedown in the first place.”
Her words struck true, but I was still too angry to agree with her outwardly.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I growled.
“Well,Idon’t want to talk about being an agent for the Order!” she shouted back at me. “But that doesn’t seem to matter toyou!”
“The Order is a myth! Just tell me who you’re really working for, and I’ll let it drop!”
We barreled on, our speed matching the rise of our tempers. I leaned forward into Charlotte’s back, trying to ensure that she could hear my words over the wind and driving rain.
Mistake.
My blood boiled with exasperation, but the further I pressed against her in our rain-soaked clothes, the better I could feel her luscious curves jostling against me. The rhythmic pace of Tartuffe’s feet striking the mud bounced Charlotte’s ass against my hard cock, making me damn near feral with need.
“Why won’t you believe me?” she barked, seemingly oblivious to my overwhelming desires. “Hell, I’ll show you the damn letter he gave me—it’s a report about Sade’s associates. Signed and stamped with the Order’s seal. I couldn’t make that up or lie about it! I only lied about being an agent. Everything else has been the truth. Unlikeyou.”
“I already told you! Just because I haven’t told you everything about my past doesn’t mean I’ve told you any falsehoods!”Dieu, help me.I could see her chest heaving before me, her nipples puckered in the cold, wet fabric of her bodice. It nearly made me weep.
