Drake scowled. “I can’t even say with confidence I wouldn’t have believed exactly that.”
“And naturally you’d have locked me in your dungeon.”
“If I did, it would be the one with my treasures, and I’d lock myself in there with you.” He planted a kiss in her hair. “All that matters is that you weren’t in league with him, and that you didn’t flee to Bristol and make me huntyoudown.”
“Now that sounds promising.”
“Don’t even think about it, love.”
“If you were to hunt me down,” Violet said thoughtfully, “I should like to know how you’d go about it.”
Drake pressed himself up against her, his body hardening at the mere thought. “I wouldn’t announce myself, for one.”
“Naturally. You’d prowl. Like a tiger.”
Drake rolled them over, wedging himself between her legs and bracing his weight on one arm beside her head while the other slid firmly along her waist. His mouth curved, his gaze darkening as he watched her. “You think I’m a tiger?” He liked that.
“Predatory,” Violet murmured. “Patient. Lethal.”
“Careful,” Drake warned, dipping his head. “You’re encouraging me.”
“Perhaps,” she whispered.
His mouth found the delicate curve beneath her ear. He kissed her neck softly, once, then again, his lips lingering as his tongue traced lightly along her skin before inhaling deeply. A rough sound dragged from his chest as her scent filled him. Rain and skin andher. All of it racing straight to his cock.
Her fingers slid into his hair, and he felt the slight need in them, and pleasure moved through him at the knowledge that she was coming apart just as thoroughly as he was.
“You’re doing that on purpose,” she breathed.
“Mm.” He dragged his mouth back up, teeth grazing her jaw. “You are my purpose.”
“You’re being silly again!” she said, arching into him with a soft sound and tugging at his hair in retaliation before her hands fell to his shoulders to latch there as his hands roamed, one sliding along her side, over the swell of her hip. He dragged his palm down her again, possessive, unapologetic, as though reminding himself she was real.
Here. With him.
“I promise you, Violet Sharpe, for as long as you live, you shall never get rid of me.”
“You won’t get rid of me either,” she breathed, her breath hitching as he molded the curve of her arse.
A sharp knock struck the door.
Drake froze for a fraction of a second as irritation snapped through him. Damn it. He cocked his head, growling, “What?”
“We need you downstairs.”
“Can’t it bloody wait?” His hand remained where it was, unwilling to release her just yet.
“No,” came the grim reply. “Serpent just came back. Deveraux knocked him out. The ledgers are gone. So is Deveraux.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Violet watched thebrothers gathered grimly around a table in the far corner of the tap room, unease pricking beneath her skin as she sat on a stool at the bar beside Calliope. Only moments ago, she had been wrapped in Drake’s arms, had scarcely been granted the luxury of catching her breath, much less savoring an hour of peace or, heaven help her, pleasure, before duty and danger had dragged him away once more.
So this, she supposed, was the price of loving a man like Drake Fury.
Hades’s goddess.
Drake’s villainess.
