Angel In My Bed by Melody Thomas Read Free Book Online Page A

his finger before, and clearly he had not been thinking enough to remove it, for he lowered his hand. “I need a place to live and work,” he said when she again raised her gaze. “Lady Munro can use a long-lost relative at her back. It would behoove her to cooperate.”
    â€œYou won’t be able to fight Nellis Munro. He wants Rose Briar.”
    â€œLet me worry about your local politics, Meg. I’m not without my own resources.”
    â€œSir Henry knows I haven’t any relatives.”
    â€œAnd you never keep secrets?”
    He said nothing else, the charge coursing between them now electric, knowing she was trapped by the consequences of her own sins and mindful that he was also the only person standing between Kinley’s brand of interrogation and maybe the end of a rope. Any observer would have thought them longtime lovers, trusted friends, not mortal enemies.
    Yet she sensed the strangest tension had seized his limbs.
    â€œAre you so anxious to be hanged then?” he quietly asked.
    Victoria clutched the robe’s fabric against her chest, her desolation growing. Of course she did not wish to be hanged. But David was as dangerous to her as her father.
    â€œShe’s in my custody,” he told Kinley. “I’ll bring her in when it’s time.”
    Kinley moved in front of her. “Everyone eventually talks, Miss Faraday. Everyone.”
    â€œKinley.” The quiet warning came from David. “I suggest you move away from her before she gives you a black eye.”
    â€œAnd I’ll trust you not to turn your back on her. Next time she may not miss when she tries to kill you.”
    â€œI’ll keep that in mind.”
    â€œDo. Find Faraday.” Kinley snagged up his coat on his way out of the room.
    In the silence that followed his departure, the beautiful blond woman brushed her palms. “Well,” she said with flair. “That went well for us all.” Looking at Rockwell, she plopped her fists on her hips. “What were you thinking, Ian?”
    The man rose to his feet. A head taller than the woman, he glared down at her. “I was thinking we have a job to do, Pamela.”
    He strode from the room, the same path Kinley had taken. Victoria had not moved. As if her silence could enfold her in a mantle of invisibility, she was not even aware that she had fallen back into an old habit until she saw David watching her, and straightened.
    â€œThis is the Countess Cherbinko’s town house,” he said, introducing Pamela. “Our own faux Russian royalty, trained at the consulate in St. Petersburg. She took you in last night to help you recuperate from your injuries. She is our eyes and ears in this town. Nothing will get by her.” He fixed his gaze on Pamela. “Will it, countess?”
    In a rustle of emerald silk, Pamela slid her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth to his ear. “Tell me not to worry about you up on that hill by your wee lonesome, David.”
    But Victoria had had enough of their cozy little love scene. Tears burning in her eyes, she returned to the bedroom andslammed the door. She did not understand her reaction, only that she would never again look at the stars and wonder what David had done with his life since leaving India, or whom he’d been with for business—or for pleasure. She would never wonder whom he might have loved.
    She didn’t care.
    For all his upright principles, everything about him still screamed of duplicity. He was a clever, manipulative, and experienced spy who played life like a game of chess. And she was just another move on the chessboard, as he maneuvered his way toward the conclusion of a game that should have ended nine years ago.
    None of them knew what they were asking her to do.
    She thought of her father roaming free, and attempted to harness the pace of her heart. Outside, gray clouds darkened the sky over the bluff as an early winter storm