Lord and Lady Spy by Shana Galen Read Free Book Online Page A

you.”
    He glanced at the pistol she still held and snorted. “With that toy? I was hardly concerned.”
    Sophia’s eyes narrowed, and she raised the weapon. “This toy, as you call it, will put a nice hole in your belly.”
    “If you can even fire it straight.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
    She inhaled sharply, partly because of the insult and partly because it was truer than he could have guessed. Handling pistols was not her forte. But even she could not miss at this close range. She cocked the hammer. “Shall we test that theory?”
    They locked eyes.
    The man at the top of the stairs cleared his throat. Neither Sophia nor Adrian looked away.
    “If you two want to kill each other, fine with me. But if you are interested in this assignment, I suggest you make your way upstairs. I will not be kept waiting.”
    He withdrew, taking the lantern with him, and the lower level was once again pitched into darkness. Neither Sophia nor Adrian moved. There was silence, except for the drip of the water.
    Plop, plop, plo—
    “I’m going up,” Adrian announced. “If you want to shoot me, now is your chance.”
    And Sophia was just tempted enough by the conceited tone in his voice to do it too. Instead, she eased her hand off the pistol’s hammer and lowered the weapon. “This isn’t over.”
    “Not by a long shot,” he agreed.
    They rammed shoulders as both attempted to take the stairs.
    “Excuse me,” he said, trying to shoulder past her.
    She shoved him back then stepped nimbly out of his way. “Go right ahead, my lord. I’ve always said, ‘ladies first.’”

Five
    “Ladies first.” Adrian gave his wife a potent scowl before starting up the stairs. “You’re terribly amusing, madam. I don’t know why I never noticed before.”
    “Perhaps because you have no sense of humor.”
    “Perhaps because—”
    “My lord and lady,” the gentleman at the top of the stairs interrupted, “I am waiting.”
    From behind him, Adrian heard Sophia hiss in a breath. He reached back, assuming she’d fallen through one of the steps or slipped on a wet patch, but she pushed his hand aside. “I do not need your assistance. I only…” She paused and motioned him closer. They had almost reached the ground-floor landing, and Adrian assumed she wanted to keep their exchange private. “I—my nose itches.”
    She was whispering, and Adrian had to put his ear next to her mouth to catch her words. It had been a long time since he’d been this near to his wife, and he couldn’t help but notice the sweet scent of oranges. It was a scent he’d always associated with her, and yet he’d forgotten until this minute that the smell of citrus clung to her. It was in her skin, her hair, her lips…
    He had a mental picture of how she’d looked a moment before, when the lantern had illuminated them both. She’d looked wild and sensual—her glossy brown hair falling in unruly curls down her back and her creamy white skin tinged with a rosy blush. Her chocolate brown eyes had—well, actually they had shot daggers at him—and she’d looked full of life.
    Life and sensuality.
    He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her look like that, and it aroused him.
    And then he saw she still held the dagger in her hand. It looked sharp and deadly and… comfortable there.
    And just like that, the arousal faded and the hard truth that she was an operative, like he, crashed into him. This was not some beauty who needed rescuing, or the mousy, docile wife he knew. This was a trained agent. Earlier, she might have killed him—well, caused him some minor injury, anyway—and who knew what assignments she had completed for the Crown. Abduction? Murder?
    Seduction?
    He clenched his fists and glowered at her. “Your nose itches. Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
    “It means something to me. I should trust my instincts.”
    “And what are your instincts telling you?”
    “The man upstairs is Lord