“I told you everything I know.”
“Who is this Viper person?”
“I told you.”
“No, you said he was after you, trying to kill you. Now he was watching me. But who is he?”
From the militant look in her eyes, he knew she would not let it go. “Have a seat.”
“You are not going to get me to change my mind.”
“I would never dream of it. Please have a seat.”
“I have a right to know. Especially since this man is—”
“Oh for the love of God, will you just sit down and shut up so I can tell you.”
She snapped her mouth shut and did as he ordered. “I want you to know that I do not like your tone.”
He stared at her. “You are giving me lessons on comportment?”
“I find your manner rude.”
“I find it odd that a woman who refused my suit after I took her virginity thinks she has the right to tell me how to behave.”
Her chin came out as she crossed her arms beneath her breasts. He knew he was in for a fight.
“Now I will tell you what I know, which is next to nothing.”
“But you said he killed your father?”
He nodded. “We never knew who it was. Father had begun receiving notes here and there, all signed by a man by the name of Viper.”
“You are assuming it is a man.”
“Well, of course it is a man.”
“Women can kill. They have done so in the past.”
He acknowledged that with a nod. “We know that this is a man. He was seen leaving the area.”
“What did he look like?”
“The description was, in lack of a better word, nondescript. We realized later he probably disguised himself.”
She nodded as she worried her bottom lip.
“We have tried for years to ferret out who it was. We were sure that he had died or left England until I got the letter.”
“And he tried to kill you.”
“No, he hired someone to kill me. We found him today.”
“What did he say? Did he have a description?”
Daniel shook his head. “He was unable to give us any information.”
Which was the truth. They had found a man who fit the description that Anna had given her driver floating in the Thames this morning. But Daniel did not think he would tell her that.
“So you have no leads, have no idea who this man is. It must be driving you mad.”
He smiled. “A bit. Not as much as someone else.”
“Who? Is there another spy?”
He rolled his eyes. “No. I am talking about you.”
“Oh.” Her face flushed. It was the blush that did it, that drew him to her. He had been itching to touch her since she had walked into his study dressed in a blue walking dress, her cheeks pink from the cold weather outside. It was hard not to look at her and remember what lay beneath the fine fabric. He had been dreaming it for three days now, losing sleep and waking up aroused and grumpy. Seeing her in his house left him raw and needy.
He rose and walked around the front of the desk. He settled his hip on the edge.
“Was there anything else?”
She looked up at him. “Well, yes. You said you think the orphanage is safe? There was that break-in attempt a few weeks ago.”
He shook his head. “I thought you said it was a working girl who wanted refuge.”
“That was the first time. But she said there was a man hanging about. Sebastian told the guards, but since they didn’t notice the first time…”
That bit of information he had not heard, but from the sincere look in her eyes, she had not been hiding it from him.
“Do not worry. I have a man on it all the time, and your brother still has the two guards. The orphanage is safe.”
She smiled and settled against the back of the chair. “That is a relief.”
He stood, pulled her up and out of the chair and into his arms. “Now that we have that taken care of—”
“Daniel.”
“I think we need to have a little time to build this affair you want so badly.”
Anna gasped as Daniel settled back into the chair behind his desk. The sound was more erotic than anything he had heard in a good long while.
“Really, Daniel, you cannot mean to…” She gestured with her hand.
“No, because knowing my luck, someone will knock and interrupt us. But I do want to have a few kisses.”
Before she could say no, he swooped in to silence her with his mouth. He had meant to dally, tease. Instead, the moment he slipped his tongue into her mouth, he found his body responding, taking control. The scent of rosewater filled his senses. She was warm and round and his need for her had not dimmed even a little in the last three days since their return. If anything, it had grown, tripled. His every thought seemed to be about her, about having her here with him, taking her to his bed and keeping her there.
She slipped her hands over his shoulders and slanted her head to give him more access. Heat blasted through him, fast, furious, his cock throbbing in an immediate, painful erection. He had been half-aroused from the moment she walked into the study, but now, with her in his arms, his body was ready to conquer.
He needed to make sure she needed him as much as he needed her. The kiss went from sensual to downright carnal when she moved closer to him. He could feel her hardened nipples through their layers of fabric. He was helpless to resist touching.
As he slipped his hand to her breast, he knew he was lost. In all his time he had never been so consumed, so entranced by a woman. The need to conquer, the primitive soul surfaced, the warrior who wanted nothing more than to slide between her thighs and take what he wanted. Before he progressed any further, Anna pulled back from the kiss. He growled and moved to take her mouth again, but she was not having it.
“No, Daniel, you will not distract me.”
“I think I am doing a damned good job of it.”
She struggled to get off his lap, wiggling her backside against his already straining erection. He took control of the situation by lifting her off his lap.
“I want to talk about this. I need to know everything concerning me in this mess.”
“I told you all you need to know.”
There was a beat of silence, then she lifted her chin and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Are you refusing my request?”
If he couldn’t tell what she was feeling by the way she was looking at him, her chilly tone definitely would have enlightened him.
“I told you what you need to know.”
“Indeed?”
Agitated with her, with the situation, with the fact that he had been without her for three days, he rose from the chair and started to pace. He was not accustomed to sharing things like this outside of the family. They rarely spoke of it unless there was high activity.
“There is nothing that a lady needs to know, just know that you will be well protected.” He fairly bit out each word.
“Do you not think I would be better protected if I knew more? Or do you not trust me?”
“I trust no one really. And besides, ladies of the ton are not known for keeping secrets.”
“I think—”
Frustration and panic tightened in his gut.
“I didn’t ask what you thought. I told you that I do not share information like this with anyone. Just leave it alone and go along to your little orphanage.”
When she said nothing more, he glanced over his shoulder at her. The moment he saw her stricken expression, he felt like a bastard.
“Anna, I’m—”
“Never mind, my lord.” She moved around the desk and strode for the door.
“Anna.”
She stopped at the door but did not turn to face him.
“I think we said enough to each other for now, do you not?”
He could hear the tears in her voice and felt even lower than before.
“I di
dn’t mean to insult you.”
She sniffed. “I know you didn’t. And that is somehow worse.”
Without another word, she left his study, shutting the door behind her with a quiet click. He took several steps toward the door, ready to follow her, to apologize, but he stopped. He knew that she would not believe him at the moment, and he knew without a doubt, she was not ready for an apology.
He thrust his hands through his hair and let out a frustrated growl. What the hell had happened? He had given her some information, not everything, not all of it. But he had told her what he thought she needed to know. He dropped his hands. He heard noise at the front of the house and went to watch her departure. As Jiggs handed her up into the carriage, he saw her offer a smile, but it wasn’t the way she had looked just moments before his comments. This smile did not reach her eyes.
He cursed himself as he watched her carriage go by. Bloody hell, he had made a mess of things. What she didn’t understand was that he rarely shared everything with everyone. Even his family. When he took over the job his father had controlled, the lying had begun.
He collapsed in his chair as the memories of his childhood came rushing back to him.
You mustn’t tell anyone, Danny. Secrets are for family, and sometimes not even then.
How many times had he heard his father say that? Daniel had lost count. How did he share things with Anna when he didn’t even know how? From the cradle to the grave, Bridgertons kept their secrets. They did not share, and even their closest friends were left in the dark.
There was a knock at the door.
“Go away.”
But his visitor did not listen. The door crept open and Horace’s round face popped through the opening. “Surely you have a moment for an old friend.”
With a sigh, Daniel waved him in. He could not be rude to Horace, even if all he wanted to do was beat the living hell out of something, anything.
“Is there something you needed?”
“No, no. Just was stopping by on my way out. I had tea with your mother.”
Daniel sat behind his desk and opened up his estate ledger. He said nothing as he pretended interest in the figures before him. His head was still pounding, his mind still trying to figure out how to solve his problem with Anna.
“I saw Lady Anna leaving. She did not look happy.”
“We had a disagreement.”
“Hmm, well, just be sure if you are planning on marrying the chit, that you get that fixed right away. And you shouldn’t wait too long, dear boy. If you don’t, they tend to find someone else.”
He looked at Horace, a confirmed bachelor. “Is that what happened to you?”
He shook his head. “Sadly, no. The love of my life barely knew I was alive once she met the man she married.”
“Ah.”
“Now, I am an old fool, but I will give you some good advice. You need to make sure you understand the woman you love, know what makes her tick. If you had a fight, find something that will prove to her that you are sorry.”
“That works?”
“Women are simple creatures.” He sighed and lifted himself out of the chair. “Well, I must be moving along. I have some things to do before getting ready for the ball tonight.”
He turned to leave, but Daniel could not help but ask, “Horace, is that why you never married? Surely there are other women out there.”
The smile he offered Daniel was tinged with sadness and regret. “No. There are many women out there, but there is only one like your mother.”
Stunned, Daniel watched him leave. When he was alone, he turned over the events. Horace was wrong. Women were not simple creatures. They were the most complex puzzle ever invented. He had done some major damage today, but he would figure out something to fix it.
Jack opened the door to Daniel’s bedroom without knocking. Daniel was getting bloody sick of people just coming and going without any warning in his room.
He opened his mouth to say just that, but he snapped it shut when Simon followed him in.
“What the bloody hell are you two doing here this morning?” He looked at Simon. “I thought you were at your estate.”
Simon grimaced. “I am worried a bit about Joanna, so I came into town.”
“Her obsession?”
His younger cousin nodded. He was only a few years younger, his dark hair cut ruthlessly short. He looked his age until you looked at his eyes. The sapphire blue showed a world-weary understanding, one that Simon didn’t have at the ripe old age of thirty-two.
“But I found something else out. I started doing a little research, and I think I might have pinpointed the Viper.”
“Oh?”
“Well, recently, Lord Ashburn had been having some money issues. He has sold off everything he owned that wasn’t entailed.”
“I heard.”
“A series of bad investments apparently left him running for the hills. But all of the sudden he seems to be a bit…more comfortable.”
“What?”
“He’s getting paid by someone,” Jack said bluntly.
Ashburn was someone he did not know well. He was part of the older group, one of his father’s contemporaries. He tended to host bacchanal-type parties at his estate. He’d married a merchant’s daughter who’d died years ago. He had yet to remarry.
“He is the right age.”
“Yes,” Simon said. “I am not ready to condemn him. We need to see what was going on all those years ago. See where he was. The man can never hold onto money to save his life, so he would be perfect to recruit.”
The image of the older lord came to Daniel’s mind. He was tall, his bulging belly and sagging jaws spoke of how he lived his life. The one thing that held him back was his intelligence.
“He isn’t particularly bright.”
Simon grimaced. “That is one thing that bothers me too. Unless someone in France is pulling the strings and he just follows the orders.”
Daniel nodded. “Is that all?”
“No. I wanted to talk to you about Lady Anna.”
Daniel stiffened, his irritation with their fight the day before coming back. He knew he had hurt her in some way, but he could not allow her involvement in the investigation. He had been horrible about it, but the fear he felt with her had him by the short hairs. Embarrassingly, she had no idea. She could command him to do anything but convince him that she should be involved in the investigation.
“What?”
Simon cast him a look at his sharp tone.
“Am I to understand that she is now a target because of you?”
He rolled his eyes. “She was in the area when I got stabbed. She was seen. Since then someone has been asking questions. And just when did you get to be in charge?”
“Since you became sloppy because you are in love with Lady Anna.”
Anger surged.
“What the bloody hell are you talking about?”
Simon glanced at Jack. Jack shrugged.
“Daniel, you know being in your presence will cause her to be a target. I have never seen you make a decision that put a civilian in harm’s way. Besides, Jack said you are positively dotty over her.”
The amusement he heard in his cousin’s voice was salt to his wound.
“Did he?”
Jack grinned, apparently ignoring the lethal tone in Daniel’s voice.
“Indeed. He said you ordered her to get married, but she refused you.” The nasty smile Simon offered him told Daniel he was enjoying this a little too much.
“How do we get anything done with all of you gossiping like old women?”
Simon laughed, the sound a bit rusty, but it was good to hear. “By God, you are in love with her.”
“How would you like to be forced to be in charge of our activities in Northern Scotland? The very tip of the Highlands.”
Simon sobered. “You do need to be careful, Daniel. The one thing I do know is Ashburn is at his Yorkshire estate, but do not let your guard down.”<
br />
He rolled his eyes again and looked at Jack. “When did I become the wet-behind-the-ears whelp?”
Simon smirked. “I would say it was about the time Lady Anna saved you. You were lost to us after that.”
Chapter Nineteen
Daniel stood watching Anna read. It was mid-afternoon and quite warm for a spring day in London. She apparently took advantage of the day and came out to read. It was uncommon for him to find her alone like this now. He knew she was safe here in her family’s gardens. So, watching her for a few minutes, he took in his fill.
She had always been a pretty girl. All those blond curls, brilliant blue eyes and her gregarious nature attracted everyone…children, adults, animals. She had grown into a beautiful woman who tempted him beyond his better judgment. But she was no longer so open. Knowing he had a part in that did not make his task easier.
He stepped forward and knew the moment she heard him approaching. She looked up, her gaze wide and her mouth curving into a welcoming smile. He hated watching her gaze go weary, her smile dim.
“Daniel. I had not expected to see you today.”
Her voice was formal, stiff, and it made him angry. Knowing he had no one to blame but himself did not make it any easier. He said nothing until he seated himself next to her.
“I wanted to apologize.”
That caught her attention. She studied him but said nothing.
He smoothed his hands down his trousers. “I… Well, I was a bit harsh yesterday.”
One blond eyebrow rose. “Indeed?”
“I just cannot allow you to interfere.”
If anything her back grew more rigid. “I think you made your position clear to me yesterday.”
He sighed. “I just cannot bear it.”
Her fingers ran over the cover of the book she had been reading. “I said you made yourself clear yesterday, Daniel. You do not need to drum home the idea that I have nothing to offer in the way of help.”
He frowned. “That is not what I meant.”
“Yes, you did. You said there was nothing of concern to me in your work.”
“Agreed.”
She said nothing for a long time, refusing to meet his gaze.
The Spy Who Loved Her: Once Upon an Accident, Book 3 Page 17
