if hes wicked (21 page)

elsewhere when we were cruel y attacked just outside their home. I am not sure the fact that we have one of their men wil even make them falter in their

plans. Simone trusts no one and we have discovered that not one of her men appears to know everything. A piece here and there, but not enough to

charge and try her. It does not help that she is the mistress of several very important men.”

“Several? Ambitious woman. Beautiful, is she?”

“Very.”

“Has she tried to seduce you?” he asked, something in Leo’s tone making him curious.

“Once. I laughed at her and for that, more than anything else, she would like to see me dead. I do not think she ordered that attack on us, however.”

“It was her men and her house. Although I suppose the men could have been Arthur’s.”

“I do not think your uncle would be fool enough to order an attack on you right outside of the house of a woman he is wel known to be involved with.

This was foolish and il thought out. Does that seem like your uncle?”

“No. It sounds like Beatrice.”

“That is what I was thinking. It would explain the swift leave-taking. Simone and Arthur seek to distance themselves from this. It wil be investigated,

but I am certain they wil provide dozens of witnesses to say they were nowhere near the house when we were attacked. Beatrice may have just made a

very serious mistake.”

“Do you think Arthur wil be rid of her now?”

“If not him, then Simone.”

It was nearly dawn by the time they were able to return to Leo’s home. Leo quickly retired to his bedchamber. His wound had not been serious but

had required stitching, and Julian suspected the man was also suffering from a loss of blood. He knew al too wel how that could rob a man of al his

strength. Julian stepped into his bedchamber and felt his weariness immediately vanish when he saw Chloe curled up in his bed.

He quickly shed his clothes and washed up before crawling into bed beside her. When he pul ed her into his arms, she stirred and then looked at

him with sleep-heavy eyes. Julian thought that she had never looked lovelier. He kissed her, and even though it was only a gentle kiss, he felt his desire for her stir to life.

“It is acceptable that I waited here for you then, is it?” she asked as she cuddled up next to his warm body.

“Very acceptable.” He suddenly realized that her soft touches were not caresses, that she was actual y searching for a wound. “I am not hurt. We

were attacked and Leo suffered a smal wound to his shoulder, but we are both hale.” He told her what happened.

“Leo is right, that does sound very impetuous, il thought out and risky. Not at al like your uncle. Or Simone.”

“Leo has told you about Simone?”

“He felt the need to warn me about her because he feared she might try to get to him through me. I have seen her once or twice on the arm of a

man who should know to be more careful in choosing his lovers. She is stunningly beautiful.”

“So he said. He believes Beatrice sent the men out to kil us. He also believes that either Arthur or, most certainly, Simone wil make her pay

dearly for that error in judgment.”

“You mean they wil kil her.”

“Yes. Leo real y believes that she signed her own death warrant with this act.”

Chloe raised herself up to look at him although it was hard to clearly see his expression in the light of one candle set by the bed. Yet there was

something in the tone of his voice that troubled her. She was certain he did not love Beatrice, but he sounded as if the thought of her death bothered him

in some way.

“You are reluctant to see her kil ed?” she asked.

“No. Her death does not bother me and, strangely enough, that lack of feeling is what troubles me. S’blood, I was married to the woman.” He gave

her a brief kiss to silence her when she began to speak. “I know that I stil am, but only on paper. As I have said before, in my heart, and mind, my

marriage ended a long time ago. As for someone kil ing her, wel , she chose the path she is walking and the people she is walking it with. In a way, I think she was walking toward her death from the moment she joined forces with my uncle. There is just a smal part of me that feels I should warn her in some

way, not just sit here knowing someone wants her dead and waiting for the culprit to do the deed.”

“Could it be that your unease comes from the fact that you wish to be freed of your marriage and her death would do that?”

Julian stared at her for a moment and then kissed her again, this time with a lot more heat. “I believe that is exactly it.”

“I have wrestled with the same problem. I saw her death and yet I have made no effort to warn her. It took me a while to see that although I shal

benefit from her death, I am not the one planning it and I am not the one who wil do it. I also know that, even if I could get to her and warn her, she would not heed any warning of mine. As you have said, Beatrice thinks her beauty wil keep her safe from al harm.”

He slid his hands beneath her nightgown and gently squeezed her nicely rounded, taut bottom. “Nor would she believe me. And when al is said

and done, she has a lot of blood on her hands.”

Chloe could not stop herself from asking, “Your concern is not because you stil have feelings for her, is it?”

“I feel nothing for the woman. Even my rage at her has eased except as concerns what she tried to do to Anthony.” He kissed her throat as he slid

his hands up her slender back. “However, I have a few feelings stirring for you right now.”

She rubbed her thigh against his erection and smiled. “So I have noticed. Are you not too weary?”

“To share a bit of the passion we have been blessed with? No. I think I wil have to be long dead before that happens.”

“Perhaps you could make no more jests about being dead until this trouble is at an end,” she said as fear briefly clutched at her heart.

“Worried about me?” he asked.

“As I should be. Someone wants you dead and has been trying to accomplish that for a long time.”

Julian was touched by the fear for him he could see in her eyes. He pushed her onto her back and kissed her. When her arms slipped around his

neck and she pressed her lithe body against his, al his weariness faded away. He could stil feel the thril of battling for his life rushing through his veins, and that soon turned to pure desire. In a few swift movements he removed her nightgown and tossed it aside. When their bodies were flesh to flesh, he

groaned with a mixture of desire and contentment.

As he made slow, gentle love to her, he forgot al his worries, forgot that his life was stil in danger, and just thought about how good she tasted and

how soft her skin was. She was a balm for his soul, and he knew he ought to think more on why that was. But then Chloe slid her soft little hand down his

bel y and curled her fingers around his erection. Her touch pushed the last of his ability to think away. His lovemaking quickly grew fiercer, greedier, but Chloe kept pace with him every step of the way. When he emptied his seed inside her and she cried out in release, he could almost see it taking root and

her body rounding with his child.

This time when Julian washed them both clean, Chloe barely blinked. His lovemaking had again left her boneless with satisfaction. When he

returned to the bed, she flopped over onto him with her head against his chest and knew that she would soon be asleep. Listening to his heartbeat was

one of the most comforting things she had ever enjoyed.

“Is it not sad that there are so few ways to prove someone is guilty of a crime?” she asked and barely smothered a yawn.

“It is, and not just because it can be difficult to make ones like my uncle pay for their crimes, but I fear a lot of innocent people pay as wel . If you

cannot prove someone is guilty, then how can you prove that someone is innocent?”

“Oh. That is even sadder. There has to be something, Julian. There just has to be. He wil soon know that Anthony is alive, and I want the man

gone. Now that he is out of Colinsmoor perhaps there wil be something there, proof of some crime that wil al ow us to safely accuse him and see him

hanged.”

“That is what I am hoping for.” He kissed the top of her head. “Sleep, Chloe. There is a lot we must do in the coming weeks.”

Julian grinned when her answer was little more than a grunt. After years of seeking out women of style, elegant wel -trained ladies conversant in al

the various arts of womanhood, he realized that one of the many things he appreciated about Chloe was her lack of artifice. Chloe hid very little about

herself, played no coy games, and that made him feel more comfortable in her presence than he had ever felt with any other woman.

The more time he and Chloe spent together, the more he realized that they made a good match. There was a lot more to them than a passion that

was hard to deny, although he was not sure what he would cal it. Julian smiled as he closed his eyes. There was no real need to study it al as if it was a great mystery. They would be married soon and that was al that mattered, the fact that he would have Chloe in his bed for the rest of his life.

“Good catch, Anthony,” said Julian, laughing as his son did a strange little hopping dance while stil clutching the bal in his hands.

“Are we going to return to Leo’s now?”

Julian looked at Chloe, who sat on a nearby bench surveying the park as if she expected an armed man was lurking behind each one. If there was,

then Leo’s men were lurking right behind them. He understood her fear, however, for he felt it, too. A week had passed since he and Leo had been

attacked, and nothing else had happened. Chloe did not completely agree, but he and Leo felt certain that attack had been an il -planned lashing out in

retaliation for being thrown out of Colinsmoor and al other Kenwood properties owned by the earl. She certainly did not agree that it was time to introduce Anthony to the world, but he and Leo were going ahead with their plans anyway.

“Not yet,” he replied, but gently, even though it was the tenth time she had asked the question in the two hours they had been at the park. “Just a

little longer.”

Seeing that Leo was now playing with Anthony and teaching him how to kick a bal , Julian sat down next to Chloe. “As soon as Lady Marston

meets him, we wil al return home. I swear it. She should be along soon. She always walks her dog here at this time of the day.”

Chloe wanted to scream. Sitting on the bench while Julian let everyone he met know that Anthony was alive, thus letting Arthur and Beatrice know,

was driving her mad. She knew it had to be done. She also knew Leo had placed a near army of his men al around the park. None of that mattered to her

fear. Al she could think of was that Arthur would soon know he had yet another heir to kil .

She looked at Anthony kicking a bal around with Leo. The boy had a lot of grace for such a smal child and was revealing a skil at the game. The

park was lovely, people wandering through it alone, with a companion or a dog, or with children. The sun was shining and it was actual y pleasantly warm.

On any other day she would be thoroughly enjoying herself in what was a touch of the countryside in the midst of a huge noisy and dirty city. But al she

could think about was that Anthony’s time of hiding safely in Leo’s house had come to an end.

“The announcement about Anthony wil be in the paper tomorrow,” she said.

Julian took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles. “Chloe, I am afraid, too, but it is best if we let as many people as possible know the truth, or as

much of it as we are able to tel . It is going to stir up a storm of gossip and interest. That wil be a strong shield for Anthony to hide behind. Arthur wil know that if anything happens to Anthony, al eyes wil start turning in his direction. That is the last thing he wants to happen.”

“I know,” she whispered and took a deep breath to calm herself. “I truly do know that. It is just that sometimes my fear for Anthony pushes it al out

of my mind.”

What Chloe real y wanted to do was throw herself into Julian’s arms and try to soothe her fears with his warmth and his strength. However, despite

how they had been acting the married couple at Leo’s house, out in public they had to behave with the utmost propriety. Even his kissing her hand was

probably enough to stir up a few whispers. She hated the distance they were forced to impose upon themselves whenever they stepped outside Leo’s

door.

The way she had to constantly fight her need to touch him did not make her very happy, either. She was becoming far too dependent upon him,

perhaps even too clinging. It actual y hurt a little to be unable to touch him whenever she wished, to lean against him if she felt like it, or even to be

completely at ease with him.

Bloody hell, I am in love with the rogue.

Chloe was so shocked by that revelation that she nearly fel off the bench. Al the time she had been cal ing it an infatuation, she had been

deceiving herself, fighting hard to ignore the truth that was staring her in the face. Why that truth should slap her in the face right now, she did not know.

Obviously her mind had simply grown tired of the game. The fact that her gift had not warned her about what she was stepping into when she first kissed

him was just another puzzle she had no answer to.

“Did you just see something again?”

That already familiar sharp voice pul ed Chloe out of her thoughts and she looked up into Lady Marston’s eyes. She had not even noticed that

Julian had stood up to greet the woman. Chloe quickly rose to her feet and curtsied to the baroness.

“Nay, m’lady,” she replied. “I was just thinking.”

“Ah, not a vision, then. Just a revelation.” Before Chloe could ask what the woman meant by that, Lady Marston turned and stared at Anthony, who