Desire (Notorious 3)

Brynn felt her heart clench. “What do you mean?” she demanded hoarsely. “You wouldn’t kill him…”

“Of course I wouldn’t. Not I. Jack. Caliban’s followers. They consider Wycliff their chief nemesis. If he shows his face, I have no doubt what will happen.”

She must have looked stricken, for Grayson gazed at her with sudden sadness.

“You love him, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.

Brynn sat in frozen silence, wanting desperately to refute the accusation. Yet she could no longer deny the truth. She didn’t want Lucian to die, not only because he was her husband and the father of her unborn child, but because she loved him.

Dear heaven…

“Did you forget about the curse?” Gray asked quietly.

“No,” Brynn whispered. “I didn’t forget.” She had tried desperately to isolate her heart from Lucian, had refused to acknowledge her feelings in hopes of protecting him. To no avail.

Cold fear knifed through her. Her love had the power to destroy. By admitting her feelings for Lucian, had she given him a death sentence?

Just then a maid came to the study door and bobbed a curtsy. “Milady, his lordship has arrived.”

“His lordship?”

“Your husband. Lord Wycliff.”

Gray rose abruptly to his feet, looking stunned, while Brynn’s heart froze in her chest. Lucian was here? What in God’s name was he doing in Cornwall when he’d set out for Dover only a few days ago? How had he known where she’d gone? How had he followed her so quickly?

For a long moment, brother and sister stared at each other in shock.

“Show him to the drawing room,” Grayson finally commanded the maid. “We will join him there.” When the girl was gone, his voice dropped to an urgent whisper. “Do you think he suspects me?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Brynn, you cannot divulge a word about the gold to him. I beg you, keep silent.”

“Gray-”

“You will have to find a way to keep Wycliff occupied tonight. A few hours at least-long enough for Jack to fetch the gold. They intend to wait for full darkness, but they can’t delay too long or the tide will be too low for them to make a retreat.”

“Grayson, I can’t-”

“You can. You must. Unless you want your husband to die. I tell you, Jack won’t hesitate to kill him, Brynn. Or me, either.”

Setting down his glass, Gray turned on his heel and strode from the room.

After a long pause, Brynn followed more slowly, feeling as if she were being swept helplessly, inexorably along by a rushing current, toward a destiny of murderous peril.

Brynn paused at the door to the drawing room, drinking in the sight of her husband’s beloved face. He was busy accepting her brother’s greeting, but as soon as Lucian spied her, his blue gaze locked with hers across the room.

Brynn’s heart suddenly began to pound as they stared at each other. Lucian’s expression remained enigmatic, yet she wondered if he could see completely through her. If he could possibly know what she was contemplating.

Desperation filled her, but she forced herself to hide her dismay and trepidation and ignore her painfully thudding heartbeat. Schooling her own features to surprise, she moved forward, offering her hands and then her cheek for him to kiss. “Lucian, whatever are you doing here? I thought you intended to travel to Dover.”

“I did intend to, love,” he replied coolly. “But as I changed horses at a posting house, a messenger caught up with me, bearing the news that your brother was ill and that you had gone to his bedside. The timing of the emergency struck me as rather ominous. I have a number of enemies, Brynn, and I worried that they might be plotting to harm you. So I turned around immediately and made for Harrow. My suspicion rose even more when I found Theo quite well and no sign of my beautiful wife. I could only hope you had come here.”

“I’m terribly sorry to have worried you unnecessarily, but”-she faltered, nearly choking on the lie-“my plans must have been misunderstood. When I said my brother was ill, I meant Grayson.”

Lucian glanced at his brother-in-law, who, except for a wine-flushed complexion, appeared the picture of good health.

“I summoned Brynn here,” Grayson interjected quickly, supporting her tale. “I feared I was on my deathbed, but it seems I was only suffering a bilious stomach. The new cook I hired after Brynn wed you served a fish that violently disagreed with me. But I am quite recovered now.”