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“Lottie!” Alec stood up so quickly that Madame Noir slipped from her chair and fell right on her bottom. He blew out a frustrated breath and began to help her up, but she batted his hand away.
“Enough. I am not interested in a man who so is preoccupied with his owncousin,” she hissed as she resumed her seat.
“Madame, let me explain—”
With a smooth flick of her wrist, she opened her fan. “I don’tcare. Good night, Professor.” Then she turned pointedly away from him. Their conversation, and any hope of securing an alliance, was over.
Alec sighed and headed for the door Lottie had passed through. He crossed the hallway and then entered another room as grand as the last, but after two steps, he stopped in his tracks. Several couples in various stages of undress huddled in every available corner. He glanced back through the doorway of the room he had just exited. Madame Noir appeared to have already recovered from his rejection with Mr. Drakos. Alec turned away before he could see any more.
So the rumors were true, then. Anger gripped him as he stalked down the marble hallway. What had he been thinking, bringing Lottie here? He had to find her.Immediately.He passed by another room as the good signore himself emerged with two giggling courtesans.
“Where are you off to, Professor?”
“I’m leaving,” Alec growled.
The man’s face screwed up in a frown. He shooed the young women away and blocked Alec’s path. “But the festivities are only beginning. And we still have much to discuss. I noticed you seem to be enjoying Madame Noir’s company. I have some information about her that might interest you…”
Alec knew he was supposed to take whatever crumbs this man offered, especially now that he had failed to win over Madame Noir herself, but all that mattered at the moment was finding Lottie.
“I don’t give a damn, Cardinelli. I’m looking for my cousin.”
Signore Cardinelli managed to give him a pitying look. “Come now, Professor. Are we not friends? We both know that only a certain kind of lady travels alone with an unmarried man.” He even gave him a wink. “It isn’t very gentlemanly of you not to share her.”
Before he could think twice, Alec had grabbed Cardinelli by the lapels and hauled him against the wall. “If you so much as touch a hair on her head, I will kill you myself.” He then unceremoniously dropped the signore, who stumbled inelegantly against the wall, and continued down the hallway.
“You will regret that, Professor!” Cardinelli called after him, his tone full of rage. “I won’t stand for such treatment in my own home!”
As Alec hurried through the stately home, various sounds of a decidedly amorous bent wafted through the air, but there was no sign of Lottie. Alec grew increasingly more irritated, until he turned a corner and saw a figure peering into a partially opened doorway.
“Lottie!” he hissed.
She straightened and turned toward him, looking very much like a mischievous child caught in the act. God only knew what she had been watching. Alec strode over and grabbed her arm. He then tugged her down the hall, not even stopping to see what had arrested her attention so.
“Oh, is there somewhere else we’re needed? Admittedly, those two seemed to have things well in hand.”
Was she really makingpunsnow?
“We are leaving,” Alec said through gritted teeth. “Obviously.”
They rounded another corner. Down another hallway and they would reach the back entrance.
“I hope you aren’t leaving early on my account. That hardly seems necessary.”
Alec gave her a black look. “I assure you, it isn’t.”
“I had no idea you were such a degenerate,” she continued lightly. “Most surprising. And to think of all the fuss you made over sharing a bed.”
“Shut up, Lottie.” Alec stopped and pulled her toward him until they were mere inches apart. “This is work. Itoldyou I—” he broke off. Lottie shot him a confused look and he brought a finger to his lips.
Just then he heard a voice demand, “Over here! Quickly!”
The sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway they had just come from. Without another word he pulled Lottie deep into a shadowed alcove and shielded her with his body. If anyone walked past, his black-clad figure would hide them far better than her iridescent gown. Her skirts swirled around his legs, but otherwise they did not touch. Alec pressed his forearms on either side of her, and the marble wall was blessedly cool against his warm palms. He closed his eyes so he could focus on the footsteps, but he couldn’t ignore Lottie’s quick breaths. She was so close they tickled his neck.
The footsteps grew louder. At least two people, possibly three. Alec could identify the strident gait of Signore Cardinelli, who was joined by someone much larger, likely one of his powerful guards. His entire body tensed. They stopped perilously close to the alcove, and Alec instinctively moved closer to Lottie. She inhaled sharply as the lapels of his dinner jacket brushed against her décolletage, but he canted his head toward the hallway.
Cardinelli was talking to another man. Their voices were pitched low, but Alec heard enough: “I want them found immediately. And bring the professor directly to me. He and I have unfinished business. Use the girl as you wish.”
Alec swallowed hard. Thank God Lottie barely spoke Italian.
