Page 102 of Tsumiko and the Enslaved Fox
Upon their return to the main house, Argent sequestered his mistress in her rooms and slipped back out, intending to collect a tray from the kitchen to tide them over until the dinner hour. But a detour past the library for a bit of surreptitious eavesdropping put him in Jacques’ path.
The young man did a double-take. “Gloves, Argent? That’s a good look for you. Or were you planning to test our mantelpieces for dust?”
“These are a concession, for the sake of your cousin’s wife.”
Jacques slowly straightened. “You know then?”
“That the sight of me wracks her body with tremors and sours her scent with the reek of fear? Yes.”
Jacques looked over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “But you knowwhy?”
Argent had never seen Jacques so serious. An ill-suited alteration. “Yes. Her abhorrence is both understandable and unreasonable.”
Jacques frowned. “Kyoko’s been through a lot.”
“Be that as it may, I am neither her attacker nor inclined to attack.” After a calculated pause, he added, “Unless provoked.”
Eyes wide, Jacques asked, “Could you hurt us?”
“In any number of ways.” Argent slowly peeled off his gloves to flourish his claws. “Or did you think these ornamental?”
“Are you trying to scare me?”
Such pitiful bravado. Argent didn’t need totry. “You are already afraid.”
Jacques shuffled his feet. “You could slaughter every one of us.”
Argent really should have been enjoying this pest’s haunted expression more. “And why would I perpetrate such an atrocity?”
“Because you don’t like us.”
Leaning into the young man’s personal space, he purred, “I do not like you.”
Regret. Resignation. “Will you hurt me?”
Argent lifted his brows. “I will not resort to bloodshed.”
Jacques laughed weakly. “Right. That’s sorted, then.”
So Kyoko wasn’t the only one suffering from Cedric’s foolish ambitions. Fear had taken root in an unexpected quarter. Argent weighed dislike against a growing distaste for the young man’s dampened attitude. “Jacques.”
He wouldn’t look up.
“Tsk. Jacques.” Laying a hand against his face, Argent said, “You offend me, and I consider you both an idiot and an annoyance. But such things are insufficient provocation for violence. Consider your life spared.”
Jacques leaned into the touch, eyes closed. “Can you keep us safe from the dragons?”
“While I am here, no outsider will trespass on Smythe land, but I cannot stay.”
“I bet I could talk Tsumiko into it. She’s warming to me, you know.”
Argent growled.
Jacques shivered. “God, that’s sexy.”
He snatched his hand back. “My warning against provocation stands.”
With a lopsided smile, Jacques asked, “Does that mean you find me provocative?”
