Page 15 of The Secrets He Keeps

Chapter Five

Erik stood by the windowof the private sitting room on the third floor of his club. A morning snowfall had caused the roads of London to become a slushy mess. But tonight was Christmas Eve and not even poor weather or wretched road conditions would keep people from attending their many soirées and dinner parties. The steady stream of carriages passing back and forth on the street below certainly attested to that fact. It was an evening devoted to intimate gatherings of family and friends to acknowledge and celebrate the holiday.

Tomorrow would bring long church services and family luncheons. Tonight was for revelry.

Turning his back on the scene, he crossed the room to the fireplace, where he added a couple more logs to keep the winter chill at bay. Standing there, he watched as the flames danced higher and sent a wave of heat and light into the room. He was not used to such cold weather. Though he’d traveled a great deal in his life, he had rarely been so far to the north during the colder months.

Despite how he often felt it, it appeared he wasn’t too old for new experiences after all.

As his association with Madam Pendragon had also proven.

The woman was getting to him with her jaded green eyes, armored manner, and quick, sardonic wit. Though she was obviously determined to keep him at a distance, he reveled in those moments when her guard came down. When her full lips smiled in genuine pleasure and her eyes lit from within. She was proving to be as difficult to seduce as she’d declared herself to be. Difficult but not impossible.

Because Erik had seen desire sparking in the depths of her gaze. He’d felt the barely perceptible trembling of her fingers when he took her hand in his. The attraction he experienced for the enigmatic woman was not one-sided, but she was no novice to lust and she had her reasons for resisting her desire for him.

She didn’t trust him and Erik couldn’t blame her. The life she’d lived was a hard one. To achieve the degree of success she had would have taken complete and total devotion. Not for the faint of heart.

A woman like her would not fall for a false seduction. But there had been nothing deceitful or contrived in Erik’s pursuit. He wanted her in every way. More than he’d ever wanted a woman before. There had been no lie present when he’d declared his interest in all of her. He never would have offered to seduce her if he hadn’t already known in his soul that something more was supposed to exist between them.

But he’d never convince her to give their undeniable attraction a chance to expand into something deeper and more fulfilling if she didn’t believe such even existed.

The staccato knock of his butler sounded on the door.

Erik gave a call to enter but did not turn away from the fire.

“You have a visitor, sir.”

Turning his head, Erik watched as the woman who had been occupying his every thought lately sauntered into the room. Days ago, he’d advised his butler that unless he was with a client, he would be available to her at any time of the day or night and that she should be shown to his private quarters immediately if she called.

Even so, her appearance tonight was unexpected.

As the butler bowed from the room, closing the door securely as he did so, Erik turned his back to the fire so he could watch her approach.

Damn, but the woman made an exceptional entrance. Dressed tonight in a black satin gown that bared her shoulders and lush cleavage while accenting every lovely curve of her body, she was the archetypal seductress. Sinuous and strong, deeply sensual and utterly self-controlled. Erik was so bewitched by the liquid movement of her hips it took him a moment to see that she carried a bottle of brandy in her hand.

Anticipation rushed through him as he lifted his attention to the woman’s face.

Green eyes reflected the dance of the flames behind him and lush red lips curved enticingly. After the way their night at the theater had ended, he wasn’t sure if she’d continue meeting with him.

He should have expected to be surprised by this woman. She had come to him.

“Madam,” he said as she reached him before the fireplace. “This is unanticipated.”

Fine brows arched. “It shouldn’t be.” She lifted the bottle of brandy. “You couldn’t have thought I’d enjoy this rare and very expensive bottle of brandy all by myself.”

“I had thought you might enjoy savoring it in your quieter hours.”

She gave a graceful shrug of her bare shoulders. “Some things are for savoring. Others are for enjoying with full, unadulterated gusto.”

“And this brandy falls into the second category?”

“It does tonight.”

“I’ll get the glasses.”

Erik crossed to a sideboard to collect two snifters, and when he turned back to face his guest, it was to see that despite the comfortable sofa and chairs positioned nearby, she had chosen instead to recline on the thick ivory-colored rug spread before the stone-carved hearth. Leaning to the side, she propped herself on one hand as the skirts of her black gown fanned about her legs, reflecting the light from the fire.

When she turned to look over her shoulder at his approach, there was a challenge in her bright, clever gaze, but also a hint of something he hadn’t previously detected in the woman. A quiet, subtle sadness that spoke directly to the loneliness within himself.

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