Free Lord Regret's Price: A Jane Austen Space Opera, Book 3 by Joely Sue Burkhart Page A

been worried about becoming his violent, abusive mother.
    Self-disgust made his stomach heave. Carefully, he slipped out from beneath her and untangled his leg from Gil’s. She flattened out on her stomach, still asleep, but he wasn’t so lucky with Masters.
    The man opened his eyes and began removing himself from the bed just as carefully.
    Pretending extreme interest in retrieving his scattered clothing, Sig avoided meeting the other man’s gaze. Masters was a stand-up sort of man. Sure, he’d hidden his identity for a year, but he’d had solid, honorable reasons and he’d proven his love. He knew exactly what kind of man Lord Sigmund Regret was.
    An unapologetic killer.
    Now he was a burgeoning masochist and sadist, with the woman they both loved caught in the middle of that pain and violence.
    Masters followed him to the outer parlor, foiling his hope for a quick and silent escape.
    Pulling on his trousers, Sig tried for misdirection. “So are we actually going to let her go into the Forbidden City after she was already attacked?”
    “Do you think the lady would actually give us any other choice?” Masters didn’t bother dressing. Instead, he sprawled on a chair before the fireplace, not minding his nudity in the slightest. “She wanted to meet the Emperor before we ever got here. Now that she’s obtained the invitation, not even Queen Majel could keep her away. Did that call mean what she thinks it meant?”
    “A contract, yes, but so vague I don’t know even know whom I’m to kill yet, let alone who wants the person dead.” Sig pulled his shirt over his head. “Maybe we can buy a few days while she orders some appropriate gowns. You know her—she won’t step foot inside without a new spectacular wardrobe.”
    Masters laughed. “She’ll have every seamstress in Hoeng Gong working feverishly before breakfast.”
    Sig forced out a laugh and headed for the door. He’d gotten his hand on it, when the man’s low words struck him like a knife in the back.
    “Thanks for last night.”
    Frozen, Sig couldn’t open the door. He surely couldn’t turn around. Gratitude? After…
    “It was incredible. I’ve never seen her so wild and out of control.”
    He gripped the door handle so hard his fingers cramped, every muscle screaming at him to flee. It was all he could do not to scrunch his shoulders with shame and the man was thanking him?
    Masters chuckled again, a low, wicked sound like a punch in the gut. “I can’t wait to try on that ring and see if she can make me lose control like that.”
    Sig took a deep breath and held it until his chest ached. Then he let it out in a rush and whirled to face the other man. “We used her.”
    Masters arched a brow at him and drawled, “And she loved it.”
    Sig flinched. “That doesn’t make it forgivable.”
    “Sure it does. We didn’t do anything she didn’t enjoy. That’s the beauty of it. She loves us, Sig. She trusted us. That’s why it was so incredible.”
    Every word was like a hammer pounding a spike into his skull. “Which only makes it worse. She trusted us and we… I …abused that trust. I don’t know what came over me. I just barely touched her and she came apart in my hands. It was intoxicating. It made me a little crazy, I guess.”
    “Me too. I wanted things…” Masters shifted in the chair and Sig couldn’t help but notice the man’s erection.
    Which only made his own more prominent. After the night they’d had…
    I could go in there right now and make love to her for hours…as rough and long as last night.
    Sig tried to swallow the lump in his throat, but it was choking him. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”
    “Especially with her.”
    “That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Sig retorted, running a hand through his hair. “It’s not supposed to be like that.”
    “What, hot as hell?”
    “Dirty.”
    “Hot,” Masters repeated, his voice hard and heavy. “Don’t you understand? It was her choice. Her