Free The Clever Fox: Part Three (The Pleasure Hound Series) by Ines Johnson Page A

Adom brought you here…to rest.” He looked at her bare arms, concern etched in his brows.
    Alyss felt the need to cover her arms from his perusal. The glint in his eyes didn’t look like admiration. It looked like an admonishment.
    “Are they here?” She walked past Jian.
    “No.”
    His one word halted her steps. This didn’t make any sense.
    “They brought me here and then…” She waited for Jian to fill in the blank because she could not fathom why Emet and Adom would bring her here after all that happened the previous day.
    “Where are they?”
    “They are at home.”
    “Then I’ll go to them.”
    “My lady.” Jian’s voice was soft, so soft. But she heard the steel in it telling her he would not let her pass. “They’ve let your sister know that you are here. She’ll be by to collect you soon.”
    “My sister? Why would she come to collect me?”
    Jian said nothing.
    “I’m staying with Adom and Emet. Adom needs me…for his paintings. I’m his muse, you see. And Emet…”  
    Alyss stopped talking. She wasn’t about to share what transpired between herself and Emet, nor herself and Adom. But somehow she thought Jian knew. Jian’s eyes were sad. His jaw clenched. She saw him grinding his teeth as though he were trying to hold his tongue.  
    What was he not telling her? It couldn’t be that Emet and Adom no longer wanted her. Could it? She’d seen the desire in Emet’s eyes when he asked, practically begged, her to stay. She’d felt it in Adom’s touch, saw it in the lines and colors he painted on the canvas. Without looking down, her fingers traced the markings on her wrist again.
    “I don’t understand,” she said.
    Jian reached for her, but then stayed his hand before touching her wrist. His eyes lingered there, his lips pursed in censure.
    “Lady Merlyn will be here soon. You should choose a different dress. Perhaps one that covers your arms.”
    Alyss crossed her arms over her chest, more to protect the artwork on them than to protect herself.
    “Where is my daughter!”
    Alyss recoiled at the sound of her Mother’s voice. Her eyes whipped to Jian in betrayal. But he wasn’t looking at her. Jian blocked her with his body. She got the impression it was a protective move. Emet must have told him what transpired the other day. But still her Mother spied her from the bottom of the staircase. A harried male servant stood behind her.
    Lady Angyla’s eyes swept the scene before her. Her eyes locked on Jian. “You stayed in this house last night? A house full of murderers and sex criminals?”
    Alyss moved past Jian. She started down the steps. When she got to the bottom, she held up her hands to her mother to stop her tirade. Her mother’s eyes went wide. She grabbed Alyss’ arm and gaped. Alyss cried out at the pain of her Mother’s grip.
    “What have you done to my daughter?” Fury etched lines into Angyla’s eyes.  
    “He did nothing to me,” Alyss wrenched her arm back.
    “Did he tie you up and hold you against your will? I’ll have you arrested, you pervert.”
    Arrested? For the ropes? Why would…?  
    Alyss looked at her Mother. Disgust weighed down her frowning lips. Had she ever seen this woman smile? Had her Mother ever known the pleasure of release? Had she ever trusted another living being enough to give up control?
    “It is unlawful for any man to harm a woman in any way. This,” Lady Angyla held up Alyss’ wrists for proof, “is a capital offense, punishable by death.”
    A person who’d never felt the pleasure of the ropes on their skin, the release the tension brought, they would see the art as harmful. Her Mother couldn’t see art or pleasure. There was nothing Alyss could say to make her understand. She wrenched her arm out of her Mother’s controlling grasp.
    “Mother, Jian never laid a hand on me. I am here of my own free will. Lady Chanyn took me in after you kicked me out.”
    “I did no such thing. You have always had a flare for