Diana handled the capture stoically. Anyone watching closely could surmise from the way Ian watched her she was his weakness, but he couldn’t hide it. Not after she’d confessed her scheme to entwine him in her play to steal the emeralds wasn’t only for his protection.
She wanted him.
After all these years. All the lies he told to make her think he could never want her, and the ferocious reputation he’d cultivated to keep everyone at a distance. Over time, Ian had convinced himself he’d sacrificed everything to protect her fromIl Giocoand his father’s enemies, and she’d kept her promise to marry Jared because she didn’t want him.
But that was the lie he’d told himself.
Diana. Wanted.Him.
Their current dangerous predicament notwithstanding, Ian perseverated over what her revelation truly meant for them. He could accept she considered him a valuable partner in her crimes, whom she also enjoyed kissing. Would she surrender her thoughts and her desires to him, as well as her body?
And what did she want in return? Commitment to her cause, or commitment to her? And for how long?
He wanted to forget all the reasons he couldn’t abandon his own plans for something so long forbidden to him.
The forced march through the old town ended at a townhouse guarded by a strapping sentinel, who waved them inside. Their captors coerced them through a narrow staircase that held the lingering scents of tobacco, heady perfume, and something sour.. Voices echoed from the floors above them. Their cries and shouts made Ian cringe.
They’d landed in another brothel. But this one made the Soho bordello appear as plush as Buckingham Palace.
“Si,mi amor, it’s what you think it is,” wheezed the bastard holding Diana. “First time in a bawdy house, fine lady? Won’t be your last!”
Diana glared at Ian in a silent warning against doing anything stupid, which he would have done had he not been bound so tightly.
“Ah, our visitors have arrived.” A rail-thin woman with a painted face, wearing an atrociously ugly red wig, welcomed them. She nodded her head toward a door at the far end of the hallway. “Put them there.”
The men shoved Ian and Diana into a shabby room barely large enough to house a brass bed frame and thin mattress, covered by a threadbare counterpane.
“The bed,” the madam ordered.
One tough poked the barrel of a gun between Ian’s ribs to force him onto the bed. He fixed Ian’s bound hands to the bed frame with precise knots. The filth must have worked aboard ships and knew what they were doing.
They tore Diana’s arms out of her cloak and bound her next to Ian. They tied her hands over the bedpost, for reasons he was too overwhelmed to understand.
One of them pulled Diana’s shawl away with a fierce yank.
A collective hum hit the room. Every eye fixed on the emeralds at her throat.
Not one of their captors made a move to snatch them, and this made Ian more nervous than being without his pistol.
“Whatever ransom you’re expecting, I can pay more,” Diana smoothly addressed the madam.
“The protection Costa offers me is priceless.” The tart grinned a ferocious smile. “From what I hear, you’re trying to destroy the good living he brings us.”
“He is sellingwomen,” Diana volleyed back.
“No different from my trade.”
“They didn’t have a choice.”
“Women don’t have choices.” The madam sneered. “They have options. Some, better than others. Any of those girls and mine would tell you they’d prefer a full belly and roof over their heads to starving on the streets. Some,” she drawled. “Love their profession. There’s no shame in that.”
“When men like Costa control them, they’ll never be safe. Or free to work however they wish.”
“You.” The madam’s attention flicked to Ian. “One more try at those ropes and we’ll start shooting.”
The goons who remained in the room flashed them their holstered weapons.
“Costa is on his way to collect you. Alas, I can’t stay to keep you company. Duty calls.” The madam batted her lashes. “But I have a feeling you won’t be alone. This is a dockside cathouse. Patrons pay to enter, and most take more than their due, especially when the doormen are distracted.” She nodded at the men with the guns. “And yours aresoeasily distracted.”
