Perhaps then thoughts of her wouldn’t consume his mind every waking moment.
“Sorry.” The guard he’d spoken with before remained stone-faced in front of the prison’s door. “No visitors today.”
Brogan sighed. He moved to take his billfold from his pocket. “How much to change your mind?” It was good the owners of the agency had deep pockets. With the way his expense account was adding up, he wasn’t sure the fee Juliana agreed to pay would cover it.
The guard looked longingly at the banknotes. “The prison is closed. No exceptions. But I do have something you might want.”
Brogan’s brow furrowed. “The entire prison? No one is getting in to visit at all?”
“The place is in lock-down.” He shrugged. “It happens sometimes. Probably an inspection was scheduled by the magistrate. But the man you saw last time. The thief.”
Pickens was more than that, but Brogan merely nodded. “What about him?”
“He wanted a message sent to you. I told him I might be able to help. You know, depending?”
“How much?”
The guard licked his lip. “What you paid me last time to get in should do.”
Brogan provided the funds, the guard provided a crumpled letter from his coat pocket, and the exchange was made.
Brogan scanned the note. Pickens wanted to talk. Useless information as Brogan was intending to speak to the man whether he wanted to or not. He shoved the letter in his pocket and turned to go, frustrated. Even waiting one day to speak with Pickens seemed too long.
That left another night with Juliana.
Unless he got another agent to watch over her.
His gut churned. No. No one else would be watching over her at night but him. He didn’t trust any of the other investigators to have the restraint he did. He stalked back to his carriage. All right, so he hadn’t been all that restrained when he’d kissed her like a man dying of thirst and she was a tall drink of water. Nor when he’d put his lips on her quim and taken her to climax.
But, he reminded himself, he had stopped there. Hadn’t satisfied himself. He climbed into the carriage and slammed the door shut. And that had taken a Herculean amount of restraint.
A knock rattled the carriage door.
Frowning, he pushed it open.
And just like that, all his vaunted restraint went up in smoke.
Juliana smiled up at him. “Why aren’t we going into the prison? I have ever so much more I’d like to say to Mr. Pickens.”
***
The scowl Brogan shot her would have made a timid woman flee.
Luckily, Juliana wasn’t a timid woman.
“What are you doing here?” Brogan leapt from the carriage, forcing her back a step. “How did you leave the office?”
She dipped her chin and shook her head sadly. “You didn’t truly think I was resigned to remaining in the office all day, did you?”
Brogan’s scowl deepened.
Her smile remained firmly affixed, but inside, her chest ached. He didn’t want to spend time in her company. He rejected her again and again and yet still she hoped.
She was an idiot.
“Wil wouldn’t have let you traipse out on your own.” He peered down the street as if expecting the agency’s manager to come sprinting up at any moment.
“I asked to use the necessary as soon as you had left.” She adjusted the hem of her gloves. “As a gentleman, he wasn’t going to stand outside waiting for me. It was a trifle to slip outside from there and hail a cab.”
