“Wait,” Riley said. “Did you tell anything else to the police that you think might be important?”
She twisted her lips. “Nothing comes to mind.”
“Did Graham mention anyone else he had plans to see that night?” I asked.
“He said we needed to keep the study session short since he had to get back to eat dinner with his roommate.”
I stiffened. “His current roommate?”
“Yeah. I guess they’d been fighting a lot lately, so they were trying to hash things out over dinner.” She glanced over her shoulder again. “Look, I gotta go. Sorry to interrupt you two.”
But Jaxon hadn’t mentioned seeing Graham that night or anything about fighting.
I turned to Riley, and my gaze automatically fell to his lips. The memory of the kiss was fresh, impossible to forget—the warmth of his skin, the taste of coffee, and how time had seemed to stop when his lips met mine. Histouch lingered, like a spell woven into my skin, addictive and leaving me humming with energy.
I swallowed hard, my heart racing. Now wasn’t the time for that. Even when it happened it hadn’t been the time for that.
“So I guess Jaxon lied to us, huh?” Riley put his hands in the pockets of his black pinstriped suit. “Guess that explains who the other drink was for.”
“I guess so.” I turned toward the door, trying to marshal my thoughts into some semblance of order. If Jaxon had lied about not seeing Graham on the day of his death, could he have lied about other things too? “We should go talk to him.”
Riley caught my arm as I headed for the door and gently tugged my hood back down, his dark eyes smoldering in a way that sent a shiver down my back. “Or we could pick up where we left off,” he said in a voice as deep and rich as a chocolate velvet cake.
“I can’t.” Shaking him off, I walked toward the door, resisting the urge to run my hand across his sharp jaw and feel the roughness of his stubble. I couldn’t dwell on what might’ve been the best kiss of my life, or I’d just makemyself sad it was fake. And Idefinitelycouldn’t repeat it. Because his kiss had made me realize I wanted someone to care for me the way he did—only I wanted it to be real. “We shouldn’t kiss like that.”
“Would you have preferred a French kiss? I wasn’t sure if you’d think it was too much for the first time.” He grinned at me.
I looked away so he couldn’t see the way his words sent a flutter through my stomach, or how the promise in them wrapped around me like a spell.
“I saw Jaxon downstairs. If we hurry, we can probably catch him.” I scurried down the hall and had already re-entered the secret passage again before Riley caught up to me.
The door behind the painting clicked shut, and he turned back and tried the handle. “That’s odd. It’s locked.”
“That’s okay. We’re going forward, anyway.”
Riley caught up to me near the bottom, snagging my hand to stop me. “Seriously, Kitty. Just give me a moment.” He brushed his thumb against my cheek, the touch extra soft but no less electric.
I sucked in a breath and turned to face him, but I took a step back and he dropped his hand to his side. His touch was addictive, and I couldn’t let things get out of hand again. “I don’t want you to say anything you’re going to regret,” I whispered. Because no matter what he said right now, it was going to hurt.
One of his eyebrows shot up. “Regret? Why would I regret something?”
“Because—”
“Almost as soon as I started looking for a wife, I decided you were the woman for me.” Mr. Collins’s voice drifted to us through the mirror.
I froze. Oh no. We’d stumbled upon something we shouldn’t have.
“Is that…?” Riley stepped closer and pressed his ear against the back of the mirror, standing so close that his heat along my back was all I could think about.
“Before I let my feelings get away from me,” Mr. Collins continued, “I should tell you why I decided to marry. First, I believe it’s my responsibility as the leader of my congregation to set a good example, especially in marriage. Second, I am sure that having a wife will make mehappy. And third, although I probably should have stated it first as it’s the most important, Lady Catherine De Bourgh told me to ‘choose an active, gentle woman who isn’t full of herself.’”
“I wonder what poor sap had to sit through that disaster of a confession.” Riley’s whisper in my ear made my stomach flip.
“And that’s why you chose me, a half-witch, half-fae to propose to?” an all-too-familiar voice said.
My mouth fell open. Was this what Mom had meant before when she mentioned a second wedding? She’d known that Mr. Collins was going to propose to Lizzy. The two weren’t even dating, yet somehow Lizzy had charmed him. Meanwhile, I couldn’t even be sure that Graham had never cheated on me.
“When we get married, it would definitely work out in your favor,” he said. “Not only would being with a full-blooded fae like me raise your status, which I know your family thinks is important, but you’d also get to be closer to Lady Catherine. Plus, I’ve got enough financial security that money would never be a concern for you again.”
