Page 79 of His Talisman

I hadn’t had time to check the name list in his diary. I was busy turning over that thought when the doctor disembarked, walking low to avoid the blades, then Cassius hopped out and crouch-ran past him, spotting me in the line-up. I smiled and waved, though the doctor ignored me. Once past the danger zone of the blades, Cassius jogged over.

He grabbed me in a bearhug, swung me around and shoved me against a post. After one long fervent kiss he whispered something that sent a chill tumbling down my spine.

“This place is more dangerous than I thought. Meet you to at the top of the house after dinner. Rooftop.”

I stared into his darkened eyes—their blueness undetectable at night. I searched for more meaning in them, but he pulled away, gave my ass one squeeze, then towed me by the hand toward a car.

The doctor seemed oblivious, as if other things concerned him, and yet any danger here must concern him?

The list.The LIST, my brain reminded me.

That was probably wise.

“Can I stop and visit the library first? I need to do a search.”

“If you must,” he said. “Don’t say anything to him.”

To the doctor? Oh fuck. Now I was worried.

“Hey. What are these?” He’d pushed up the skirt of my short dress and was running his hands beneath the waistband of my lacy panties. “Didn’t we say not to wear these?”

“Well…” Truly I wasn’t sure if that was a hard rule. “They were in my drawer.”

“Off with them,” he murmured, already sliding them off my ass and downward until they fell partway down my legs.

I let them fall the rest of the way, glancing over his shoulder to see if anyone else had noticed. The doctor would’ve made it plain and said it out loud. As it was, I could feel a blush warm my face. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to this sort of public embarrassment.

“Bad girl.” Cassius waggled his eyebrows. “Just wait…” His hands tightened on my ass. “Until the rooftop.”

I had an inkling he meant punishment, and fuck me if I wasn’t aching for whatever that might be.

On the drive back, I asked what they’d been doing, where they went. Cassius sat next to me, and he shrugged ruefully. “Saw my boss. I can’t say more.”

The doctor had decided to drive, but he had heard me. “Patient doctor confidentiality. Maybe on another day I can reveal more.”

Had he implied that before—that one day he would tell me more? I sat back and thought about what those words could mean. They were promising.

Despite this unknown danger Cassius had hinted at, I smiled.

The trees flickered by in the night as we followed the first car to the mansion. The doctor gave me a quick kiss, a warmHello Charity, then a tired smile, before he left for what he called a staff meeting. Cassius saluted me casually, tapping fingers to his temple, then went upstairs. Once the doctor was out of sight in a downstairs room, and with the door to it closed, I headed for the library tower.

23

CHARITY

I used the key the doctor had given me and let myself into the Inner Sanctum. It seemed sacrilegious almost, to be here to look for some dirt on him. The laptop was where I’d left it, and I sat and turned it on, brought the phone out, turned it on also.

The page with the list was what I needed. Heart thudding with unease, I brought it up on-screen and began to search.

The women, first, because that would be less likely to deliver me a nasty surprise. I knew myself that well, by now. I didn’t fucking want to find dirt. This danger Cassius spoke of might be nothing.

None of the thirty-two women popped up except for Patricia. There were three names after hers that gave me nothing. The first couple of names were possibly from ancient times—thousands of years ancient. I wasn’t exactly going to see them in the news.

“Men then.” I straightened in the chair, rolled my shoulders. I started at the top, figuring from the looks of the names and how the right-hand one was organized, that those might be back in the Dark Ages or thereabouts. To my surprise, two of the first few were probably female names.

“Balbina and Decima.” TheAs at the ends gave that away, really. Lesson learned.

Nothing, nothing…

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