Page 35 of Greed: The Savage
“I don’t want to talk about me, and my assignment, and Thornwick anymore,” Addien muttered.
Good because she was done conversing with Roy. It mattered not that the sole reason she was doing so now was because Thorn had been late this time.
He took a step forward to announce himself.
“You have always been one of the girls here I can talk to so easily.”
Anger flashed behind his eyes. Going on and on with Addien instead of doing his work most certainly was a sack—
“I’ve got to ask you something, Snap,” Roy said.
“You can ask me anything, Roy.”
The eagerness and anticipation in Addien had turned her practiced English tones into the cockneys she often carried, but even more often concealed.
“I understand you’ve been teaching the girls how to read,” Roy said. “I admire that about you, Snap.”
Thornwick had been of the same opinion upon his discovery early this morning. As such, the tall scarred guard with his adulation shouldn’t have set his jaw into a full clench again.
“I’ve got a question for you about that,” Roy ventured this time with a gruff hesitancy.
This is where the bloody bastard asserted his interest in courting the bizarrely enthralling minx.
Thornwick stepped into the entrance of the kitchen and opened his mouth to announce himself. But Thornwick’s guard beat him to it.
“I know you’ve been giving lessons to the new girl, Magdalene, and I was wondering… That is, given you know me well, if you could speak to her for me and see if she might be interested in my suit.”
Thornwick regretted the fact that he’d stepped out of the shadows and into the scene the moment he did.
Because Thornwick had been very certain, absolutely so certain, that he wasn’t incapable of feeling any emotion. That was, emotions experienced by humans.
Then he caught sight of Addien’s stricken face. Her pixie features were a taut reflection of heartbreak. The sight of which alternately made him want to snarl and curse her for that response to Roy’s ridiculous rejection, and bloody pulverize his inferior himself for that slight. Which, hell, he should be glad for. After all, he hadn’t wanted the gruff guard to be expressing an interest in—
The thought hadn’t even fully formed in his head and Thornwick’s mouth twisted with distaste.
Addien chose that unfortunate moment to spot him standing there.
Not taking his eyes off of Addien, Thornwick dropped his voice to a harsh, cold warning.
“If you want to keep your work here at the club, might I suggest you do actual work on the hours you’re scheduled, Roy.”
The reliable guard went flushed in the face. “Understood, my lord.”
Dismissing the bloody guard who’d had Addien in all smiles, Thornwick said nothing as the other man made a quick exit.
At last, he got what he wanted—Addien alone.
Chapter 9
In his tenure with the Devil’s Den, the Marquess of Thornwick had been, as was befitting his name, a thorn in Addien’s very side.
He tried her patience and excelled better than anyone and everyone in getting her to lose her temper. Dynevor had nicknamed her Snap upon her arrival at the club. She’d since worked at collecting herself and controlling her emotions and had been plenty successful with it at the Devil’s Den—until Thornwick arrived. It was because of him that Dynevor’s special nickname for her had become the one used when addressing her by the rest of the staff here.
Time and time again, he continued to find her at her most vulnerable. There’d been a heartfelt exchange she’d been having with her former close friend here at the Devil’s Den, Lady Alice. Back before the woman had gone and left the club for some gent who’d fallen in love with her. Then, more recently, his discovering that she’d gone out only partially dressed to a noblewoman’s house because she’d been too proud to ask for help putting on the garment. Then, even more recently, he’d come upon her teaching a handful of women employed here at the Devil’s Den to read.
And now, he’d stumbled upon her with Roy. And by the horror in his expression, he’d been here long enough, and privy to enough, to gather a sufficient amount of the guard’s exchange to determine it had been personal. That was, she had been hurt by it.
And that’s what she was—hurt. What else was there to say? She was a woman who had foresworn love, who hated and distrusted all men, with but the smallest exception. And yet she had secretly imagined more with the guard she’d come totrust, to like, to respect. Only for him to turn and declare his feelings for another. A woman more beautiful. Qualities Addien not only lacked, but despised in herself. And worse, this woman possessed a lush carnality to rival Lady Godiva, whose portrait Dynevor had once commissioned for his guests’ pleasure. Addien—her contrast in every possible respect.
