Free Lois Greiman by Seducing a Princess

you do it?”
    “Do what?”
    She tightened her jaw, resisting the effort to insist that he leave, now, immediately. “Why did you risk your life for Gem?” she asked.
    There was a pause as she watched the spoon dip back into the bowl, as she felt his gaze burn her face.
    “I’ve no idea,” he said finally.
    “Do you always do things for no reason?” she asked, and braced to meet his too expressive eyes once again. They struck her like a blow.
    “Yes. I believe I do,” he murmured, and for a moment she couldn’t quite seem to breathe.
    “Why are you here?” she asked, and desperately hoped her tone was level, uncaring.
    “Same reason as you, I would guess.”
    “You’re in love with the thieves’ master?” Her voice was marvelously flippant.
    His was the same. But did a muscle tic in his jaw? “Love is it, Princess?”
    She shrugged. “Close enough,” she said, and fed him again. His eyes were steady now. And blessedly blank. She almost sighed with relief. “Don’t make me tell Poke who you are,” she murmured.
    She felt his surprise, but was there fear, too? If so, she couldn’t hear it in his voice. “I believe I’ve already told him.”
    Anger washed through her. “Oh yes,” she said. “Slate, wasn’t it? Master dancer and occasional murderer?”
    “Murderer?” His eyes narrowed. “I was led to believe—”
    “Princess!” Poke’s voice pierced the stillness like a bullet, but she almost managed not to wince, and when sheturned with careful slowness, he was already standing in the doorway.
    “You’ll not guess who’s back,” he said, making his way across the room.
    “Then you’d best tell me,” she said.
    He turned his attention to her with a sly smile. Fear skittered up her spine.
    “Isn’t this lovely?” he crooned, and, slipping his arm about her waist, drew her in for a kiss. It was difficult to breathe, impossible to speak. “I see you’ve been tending our guest.”
    She hammered down the panic and turned her eyes to his. “He shouldn’t be here,” she said, and Poke smiled as he released her.
    “He hasn’t been bothering you, has he, my love?”
    She could feel both men’s gazes on her. One cold and predatory, one dark and questioning. She dared meet neither, for she must keep her wits. Must be cautious.
    “Yes,” she said. “He has.”
    Silence dropped like a stone into the room. She clasped her hands and raised chin. “He does nothing all day but eat our food.”
    It was quiet for a moment longer, then Poke laughed. “So impatient, my love. The man is wounded.”
    Relief flooded her, but she dare not show it. Regal disdain was far safer. “And so he is of little use to us.”
    “But soon you will teach us your value, aye, Mr. Slate?”
    “As soon as I am—” the other began, but in that moment his eyes shifted toward the doorway.
    And there, illumined by the flickering firelight, stood Nim, his wheat-toned hair disheveled, his face smudged. He was safe. He was whole, after many long weeks. Sheopened her mouth to whisper his name, but Slate spoke first.
    “Jack!” he rasped, and silence fell like poison into the room.

Chapter 6
    W ill stared, dumbstruck and confused. The boy’s name was Jack. That much he remembered. But nothing else, and with that knowledge came a baffling barrage of raw emotions—frustration, bitterness, and blinding hope that made his head throb with the aching need to remember.
    “You know each other?” Poke’s question shattered Will’s scrambling thoughts, bringing them to an absolute halt.
    He sat perfectly still, not daring to breathe. For the truth was there. Almost within reach in the dark recesses of his battered mind.
    He was in the Den. In Darktowne. In Sedonia. But he did not belong there.
    Memories sifted slowly in, like dust motes in a slanted shaft of sunlight. Faces, names, colors, emotions. His father’s glower. His sister’s quiet voice. The sculpted garden where he’d first kissed his wife-to-be.
    It