“And I am still here,” Drake said.
Maxen’s jaw tightened.
These brothers were truly . . .
“Such treasures,frère.” His eyes lit on her. “Is she the most recent one, seeing as you trust to bring her here when we didn’t even know about your spot?”
Violet sighed. “I’m not a treasure. We were in a pickle.”
“A pickle? We were all in a pickle, little flower. Fortunately, or we would never have known this den existed.”
Maxen turned on his heel and strode from the room without a backward glance. Knight followed on his heels.
“Reaper,” Knight snapped.
Violet grimaced as Reaper grinned at her, shot his brother a filthy look, and headed out as well.
“I cannot believe that just happened.” Had this been back in London, she’d have been compromised. Ruined beyond repair. A bubble of laughter erupted. “How... different.”
Drake scowled, dragging a hand over his face. “This is a nightmare.”
“Is it that bad that they know about your dungeon?”
He sighed. “They’ll expect me totalkabout it now.”
She handed him back the liquor. “You talked about it to me.”
Those dark eyes met hers. He accepted the bottle and muttered, “Speaking to those arses is like speaking to gargoyles. Bloody cringing.”
“You mean speaking from the heart.”
His lips pulled up in a sneer. “I wouldn’t call it heart.”
Hard man. So in denial. “Well, I must be mistaken then.”
He snorted into the bottle, taking another big sip. “Don’t confuse being annoyed with being afflicted.”
Confuse?
That was more than correct. Confusion had a way of hiding among distractions until every last one was stripped away. Or a big, furious, focus point entered the scene. Then it did not trickle back in, it flooded every pore, every crevice, every nerve. Pleasure still whispered through her body in a way she had no words for. What had that even been?
She still had no words.
But just when she thought him a true brute, the man spoke of his mother with a smidgeon of bitterness edged by loyalty. A man who guarded stolen riches like wounds rather than trophies. And most unsettling to her heart of all was this place—a place he’d hidden from his brothers—into which he had brought her without hesitation.
You can dissect it all later.
Too much on the surface did not align. Too much suggested there was more to Drake than danger and teeth. And she could not yet decide whether that made him safer or far more perilous to her than she had ever imagined.
He knows you have a brother.
Right . . . She’d forgotten she’d revealed she had a brother . . .
“Your brothers must be waiting.” She slipped from the bed, the material scraping against her thighs. Lord, she was going to dream of this, wasn’t she? Would she even be able to sleep? She certainly required a bath. “And I truly do not see the need to intrude on your space.”
“You won’t be intruding.”
Her eyes narrowed on his pale face. “Very well, I shall rephrase. I’d rather not spend the night in a tavern with a group of men.”
