Chapter 9 #2
Heat spilled through her cheeks as his vision came into focus. He had been staring at her. Like a desperate fool. Remembering that kiss. Remembering the taste of her mouth.
Looking down, he stabbed a piece of beef with his fork. “How’s your friend?” he asked. “The blond girl.”
Lena broke off a tiny piece of cake with her fork. “Adele? I called on her this morning. Her parents have put about word that’s she’s taken ill—at least until the mark fades.”
A blue blood’s saliva hastened the healing process, but he’d seen enough scars in his time to know they didn’t always vanish completely. Indeed, if he weren’t verwulfen, his own throat would look like a train track.
“D’you think it will?”
“I took her some salve. Something Leo uses for his thralls.” Fidgeting with her fork, she asked, “Do you think Cavendish will keep his mouth shut?”
“He will if he wants to keep breathin’.”
“You can’t simply go around threatening blue bloods, Will. It might work here in the rookery, but you’ll be in their world and you must learn to play by their rules.”
“Tell me you didn’t enjoy it.” He put his empty plate aside and leaned back in his chair, sinking into the soft upholstery.
“That’s beside the point. Of course I enjoyed seeing him get his just deserts. The man’s a bully and a toady. He ambushes young women in secluded corners and forces himself on them. There’s no ruin to him or his reputation.” Her face darkened. “Only to us.”
“Us?”
Lena’s cheeks paled. “A poor choice of words. I meant the young women of the Echelon. He’s never made any overt threat against me before.”
“But if he does, you’ll tell me?”
Lena looked him directly in the eye. And lied. “Of course.”
“Lena,” he warned, finding his feet.
She fetched her teacup and nervously put it between them. “I’m not the one he’ll retaliate against. You made a fool of him last night, Will. He won’t forget that. Promise me you’ll be careful.”
Leaning down, he rested his hands on the armrest on either side of her. Lena’s lips firmed and she rested her teacup in her lap.
“You ain’t goin’ to distract me,” he said, reaching out and capturing her chin between thumb and forefinger.
A mistake. Lena’s skin was silky soft, and the slight parting of her lips as she looked up nearly undid him. Her eyes softened, the breath catching in her lungs. For all her devil-may-care attitude, in that moment her expression was oddly guileless. Hesitant. Uncertain of herself.
The hint of vulnerability nearly undid him.
Will jerked his hand back as if scalded and turned away, the breath in him coming hard. “If he threatens you, you’ll tell me?”
Lena’s gaze dropped to her lap. “Of course.”
What the devil was wrong with her now? “You ain’t afraid of him?”
“I can handle men like Cavendish.” Putting the teacup aside, she muttered, “It’s certain other ones that give me a headache.”
“Colchester?”
“No.” A frown drew her eyebrows together. “Why would you mention him?”
“He scares you,” Will admitted, his voice lowering. “Do you want me to kill him for you?”
She surged to her feet. “Are you insane? He’s a duke! Even if you could get to him, the Echelon would destroy you.” Those wide brown eyes met his and then she grabbed his wrist. “Will, promise you won’t do anything of the sort! Promise you won’t go after Colchester.”
The scent of fear was back. But this time she wasn’t afraid for herself.
Will rubbed at the back of his neck, eyeing her hand warily. Nobody had ever given a damn about him before. Apart from Blade. “I don’t let nobody touch what’s mine.”
“I can handle Colchester,” she stressed.
The tiny hint of doubt in her voice made his hackles rise. “How? By smilin’? By flirtin’?”
“By playing the game! By hiding in plain sight and not letting him get me alone.”
“Aye, and what’ll you do if he does get you alone?”
She had nothing to say to that.
Will drew her up against him. “Well?”
“There are…ways.” Her hands rested against his abdomen, trying to restrain him. “Let me go, Will. This is unseemly.”
“What kind o’ ‘ways’?”
Lena glared at him. “I submit. All he wants is blood. It costs me nothing. He can’t afford to take too much and have me die. I’m not…not just some poor, unprotected coal lass.”
The words pierced him like a knife. White-hot fury seared his brain, the world narrowing in around him until all he saw was Lena’s frightened face. “Like hell you will.”
Lena flinched as his hands tightened unconsciously. “Stop it, Will. Let me go!”
A gasp from the doorway caught his attention. Mrs. Wade stood there, her black skirts enveloping her like the sail from a ship. “I leave you alone for five minutes and this is what happens! Sir, you will remove your hands at once.”
He hadn’t even heard her coming.
Whatever expression was on his face, Lena whispered, “Don’t you dare.”
Her expression turned mulish, completely unafraid of him. It was that that earned Mrs. Wade a reprieve. Few people ever saw a man when they looked at him. Only a monster. He couldn’t sully his image in Lena’s eyes. Couldn’t act like the beast the world thought him.
Eyes shuttering, he opened his hands and she stepped back with a sharp little intake of breath, rubbing at her arms.
Will caught her skirt, leaned close. He wasn’t finished by half. “If he makes so much as a single move in your direction I’ll kill him, Lena. I’ll bury ’im so deep, won’t nobody ever find ’im. So either you find a way to stop him. Or I will.”