Gideon: Devils on Horseback, Book 5
Page 22
He covered my body with his, needing no help to guide him, watching me as I watched him. I welcomed the careful pressure, his heat, the sublime sensation of his hard shaft probing my melting softness. My flesh shivered when he pushed his way inside.
He isn’t made of brass…but that won’t stop him from steaming up her nights.
Miss Minnie and the Brass Pluggit
© 2011 Sahara Kelly
Flouting convention and raising eyebrows from aristocratic drawing rooms to Whitehall, Lady Minnie Dalrymple takes men to her bed as she pleases. She doesn’t do favors outside the boudoir, particularly for politically powerful men whose motives are rarely pure. Yet when her lover asks her to visit the mysterious Dr. Pierce Lowell, she’s intrigued. Why should she be asked to essentially spy on the reclusive scientist?
Pierce has several projects under development, none of which he cares to share with the public. The arrival of any unexpected guest rouses suspicion, but the wealthier-than-God, eccentric young widow certainly isn’t threatening…not to his experiments, anyway. To his heart? That’s another matter entirely.
Their lighthearted, mutual exploration is interrupted by the discovery of a woman’s body found strangled just offshore. When Minnie learns this is the fourth such crime, it isn’t difficult to convince Pierce that working at his side to uncover the plot is the safest place to be. Until she is kidnapped. To save the woman he has come to love, Pierce must call on every ounce of ingenuity and brilliance—and reveal his most closely guarded secret.
Warning: Contains scientific references, unlaced Victorian desire and some really nasty villains at war with fascinating machines. Author is not responsible for any consequent urge to dismantle a vacuum cleaner and build a mechanical man.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Miss Minnie and the Brass Pluggit:
Silence fell, a comfortable silence that spoke of mutual appreciation, relaxation and one of the most seductively soothing vistas—the sea.
Minnie’s thoughts roamed freely, darting from one place to another, before settling on those uppermost in her mind. “She was strangled. Were the others? Were there any signs of…well, any other injuries?”
He took a moment before answering. “Yes, she was strangled. And yes the others were, as well. The first had been in the water for quite some time.”
Minnie closed her eyes against the image.
“I’m sorry.” He spoke quietly.
“No. Don’t apologize. I need to know. It will help to have all the facts we have at our command right now. We cannot move forward without them.”
“Very well. The first was strangled but we simply could not tell if there were other injuries. The next two—both strangled. And yes. There were, as you put it, other injuries.”
“They were raped?”
“Repeatedly.”
Minnie swallowed. “Ah.” She absorbed the implications. “A man then. Or men. With the strength to restrain these women as well as strangle them.”
“Yes.”
“And disposing of the bodies in the sea would mean someone local?”
“Possibly. But I have another theory.”
Minnie glanced at his face, which was calm and expressionless. But she was learning more about him each minute they spent together. There was a fierce tension beneath the skin, an untapped savagery perhaps. Something that was seriously offended by these crimes.
“And that theory would be…”
“Ships. They’re being tossed away from ships.”
She frowned and once again worked her way through the various possibilities. “You mean they’re recruited, for lack of a better word? Paid to go on board as prostitutes for the voyage and then murdered?”
“Something like that.”
The sun set in a blaze of glory, there one moment and gone the next. The room darkened yet neither moved to light a lamp.
“That’s a likely scenario, I suppose.” She puzzled it through. “Where would they go to recruit women? If we could find that location, it would be a place to start looking for whoever is hiring them.”
“I did wonder about that myself.” He stretched out his arm to put his glass down and pour a little more liquid. “Would you care for brandy?”
“Thank you but no.” Her mind was still turning over what he’d suggested. “Why don’t they get rid of these bodies further out to sea?”
“I don’t know. I’m simply chewing over theories here.”
She sighed. “We really do need information, don’t we?”
He glanced at her. “We?”
She lifted her chin challengingly. “Yes. We.”
“Just checking,” he flashed back with a grin. “And you’re right. We do need more information. With luck, now that we’ve sent out some requests, it’ll start coming in.”
“Agreed.”
The moon was rising now, casting a soft glow through the room. It was almost never dark when one had the ocean as one’s backyard, realized Minnie.
Pierce stirred and stood. “It’s been a long day. And tomorrow may well be even longer.” He held out his hand. “I’ll take you to your room.”
Minnie rose. “There’s no need.” But she placed her hand in his, something inside her eager for the touch of his skin.
“I have a suggestion.” He pulled her nearer.
“I’m sure you do.” She smiled at the shadow of his face.
“Listen before you assume,” he scolded her gently. “You and I—we’ve acknowledged something going on between us. Some very distinct attraction.”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“So my suggestion is in the nature of a small experiment.”
“Oh?”
“A kiss. A simple kiss. To see if that chemistry is truly present or if we’re imagining it.”
The moonlight danced off the brass railing beneath the window and ricocheted around the room. It was a tiny scattering of rainbows, barely visible yet casting a magical glow over her surroundings and the man still holding her hand.
Minnie caught her breath, knowing this was what she’d wanted the first minute she’d set eyes on him.
She wanted to see if they fit.
“I’m definitely in favor of experimentation.” She whispered the words as his grasp tightened and he drew her against his chest.
Her free hand slid up over the silk of his shirt to touch the warm skin of his neck even as she felt him tug the other one behind his back, locking her to his body.
His arm encircled her, his heat engulfed her and her brain acknowledged the result of this experiment.
They fit.
When his lips came down to claim hers, she forgot about theories, experiments, murders and mayhem. She forgot her own name.
She just fell into him.