Free Shadow's End by Thea Harrison Page B

head.
    For a crazy, heart-stopping moment, she thought he might actually kiss her.
    On the lips, no less.
    If he did, it would turn this whole evening completely upside down.
    As it turned out, he
did
kiss her, but not on the mouth. He pressed his lips to her forehead, almost as if he thought she might need comfort, which was stupid, of course, because nobody had offered her comfort in a donkey’s age.
    People always came to Bel with their problems and expected her to fix them, and she did. Somehow, she always did, no matter how difficult the problem or how long it took.
    The press of his mouth against her sensitive skin evoked the wildest upsurge of longing she had felt in a winter’s eternity. It mingled with the earlier yearning she had felt to fling herself against his chest, to pat his waistcoat, to nestle against the warm, friendly blaze of his aura.
    Closing her eyes, she pretended to drift into his caress, as if she had every right to enjoy his touch and they had all the time in the world.
    And every single part of that was wrong.
    He murmured, “I’m so sorry we didn’t get any information about Ferion.”
    His words jolted her back to reality.
    Reluctantly, she pulled away, and his hands fell from her face. With the same kind of wildness that had gripped her several times already that evening, she missed his touch so desperately, she almost reached for him again, except she didn’t have the right.
    She forced herself to be relevant. “We did get some information,” she said. “The Vampyre I was questioning when you showed up—he said that ‘his employer’ had invited Ferion to an exclusive game at a country estate, a day’s ride west of London toward Wembley. He claimed Ferion left right after he had arrived.”
    â€œDid he, now?” Graydon said thoughtfully.
    She chewed at her lip. “It’s not much to go on, but it will have to do. I didn’t think to ask how long ago that happened.Since Ferion didn’t attend the masque, I had assumed he arrived at Malfeasance sometime this evening, but that isn’t necessarily true. The only thing I know for sure is that I saw him at breakfast. If he went to Malfeasance directly afterward, he’s had almost a day to travel already. I don’t have a moment to lose.”
    The gods only knew how much financial damage Ferion might do before she found him, let alone how much time she might be gone.
    Her absence would be noted, and the chances that she could keep this from Calondir were growing terribly thin. Lianne and Alanna were in her confidence, but none of their other guards and retainers were.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Graydon asked.
    â€œA carriage will take too much time,” she muttered. “I’ll need to travel by horseback, and take either Lianne or Alanna with me. The other one will fuss, but someone needs to stay behind and try to run interference.”
    Big hands settled onto her shoulders, startling her out of her preoccupation. Graydon said, “I said, what do you mean, you don’t have a moment to lose?”
    Looking up into his shadowed face, she said, “Thank you so much for what you’ve done. Can you possibly do me one more favor and take me to Grosvenor Square before we part for the night?”
    His hands flexed, and for some reason, his body tightened again.
    He said, “No.”

FIVE
    H e hadn’t meant to sound so abrupt.
    He hadn’t meant anything at all. As he had gathered her meaning, denial had rolled over him, and the word had leaped out before he realized it.
    Looking into Beluviel’s beautiful, upturned face in the uncertain light of the moon, he saw that his answer had taken her aback. She blinked and straightened her spine. He could feel the rigidity of her shoulders through the palms of his hands.
    He was beginning to recognize her reaction. Whenever adversity struck, she straightened and readied herself to meet