Frowning angrily, he attempted to stand and go get another one, only to collapse in the chair, legs trembling as the room spun violently around him. He felt like hell. How long had it been since he’d eaten?
Before he could come up with an answer to that, the attic door exploded inward, bits of wood flying toward him as his brothers shouldered through, staring at him wildly.
He laughed hoarsely and raised the empty bottle in their direction. “Luke, Morg, can I get you a drink?”
Morgan smiled a bit at that, but Lucien’s expression said he wouldn’t be so easily charmed. “What the hell happened in here? This place looks like a war zone. All your inventions... ruined. What the hell happened, Adrian? Why did you do this?”
Adrian glanced around, feeling a pang of regret and embarrassment as he realized how destructive his anger that first night had been. The floor was covered in broken glass and wires. Quite a miracle, actually, that he hadn’t cut the shit out of himself while he was passed out.
“You’re bleeding,” Morgan said grimly, reaching out and plucking a deadly-looking shard of glass from his shoulder.
Perhaps not so miraculous, after all.
“I was celebrating,” Adrian said bitterly, knowing there was no use trying to hide what had happened from them. Lucien had an uncanny way of getting the truth out of him, and Morgan could practically read his mind. “Haven’t you heard? I’m getting married.”
“Married?” Morgan blinked, then shared a disbelieving glance with Lucien. “What the hell is he talking about?”
Lucien groaned and held up a hand. He obviously had an inkling. “Clinton,” he called, to the coward who was waiting just out of sight.
I’ll kill the bastard for telling them. If they don’t kill me first.
“Go and get Adrian something to eat. A pitcher of water. Some bandages. And something to clean this mess up with.” After Clinton’s steps receded, Lucien met Adrian’s defensive gaze. “Please tell me this doesn’t have anything to do with Vanessa Bourke.”
“Vanessa Bourke? The actress?” Morgan grabbed another chair and pulled it through the wreckage. He straddled it backward and gave Adrian an irritated look. “What is he talking about?”
Adrian sighed and sagged back in his chair, his heartbeat pounding behind his eyes. His rage had left him, and all that remained was embarrassment. He should have known. He should have listened to Lucien.
“He’s been seeing her as Prometheus,” Lucien muttered, leaning against the shattered doorframe. “I’m assuming something’s gone wrong.” He waved an expansive hand over the destruction Adrian had caused. “If you’re this angry, why would you even consider marrying the girl?”
“She knows who I am,” Adrian confessed, his stomach roiling with alcohol and shame. “She threatened to go to Scotland Yard if I didn’t make her my wife.”
“That little whore,” Morgan exclaimed, shoving out of the chair and pacing angrily away. “You know, I saw her just a few days ago, and she gave me the strangest look... Then she asked if you had come to the theater with us. I told her you never go to the theater, but apparently, I was wrong.”
“That must have been how she figured it out,” Adrian said, putting it together, surprisingly bothered by the ugly word his brother had called her. “She probably recognized something about you, then realized Prometheus had to be me.”
“Well, this is ridiculous,” Lucien snapped. “Of course, you aren’t going to marry her. We’ll figure out a way to fix this. Women like her can always be bought. We’ll simply pay her to go away.”
Adrian shook his head slowly, wincing at the pain the slight movement caused. Despite his anger, he wasn’t about to let Lucien pay her off. She thought she wanted him? She thought his money and position were enough to make her happy? Well, then, let her lie in the bed she’d made.
He planned to get every penny of his money’s worth out of her.
He couldn’t stop thinking of the night she’d made him chocolate and he’d rubbed her feet. Perversely, he wanted to remind her of that for the rest of their lives. He wanted her to remember what they could have had, if she hadn’t tried to take what he would have so willingly given her.
“Oh, I’m marrying her,” Adrian told his brothers fiercely. “She’s mine, and I’m never going to let her go.”
