She broke off as a shadow separated from a tree and blocked their path. Pippa’s training kicked in, her hands coming up in a fighting stance. Her fellow Angels adopted similar postures. Pippa’s heart knocked against her ribs when she recognized Cull.
“Dash it, what are you doing here?” she said in a fierce whisper.
“I could ask you the same.” His voice was calm, but his eyes glowed like molten ore in his mask. “That is a conversation better had in private. Come, my carriage is waiting.”
“She is not going anywhere with you,” Glory said, her fists still up.
“You will have to take on all of us,” Fiona warned.
“Heaven forbid.” Although Cull’s mouth curved faintly, there was a challenge in his eyes as he looked at Pippa. “I suppose the lady will have to come with me of her own volition, won’t she?”
It was so like him to make it her choice. To know that she couldn’t resist.
Pippa blew out a breath and tried to sound annoyed. “Very well.”
“Are you certain it’s safe?” Livy said in an undertone.
“She will always be safe with me,” Cull stated.
Aiming her gaze heavenward at his proprietary tone, Pippa said to her friends, “I know what I’m doing. Report back to Charlie, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
16
As the carriage rolled off, Pippa was torn between excitement and a healthy dose of wariness. Seated across from her in a shadowed corner, Cull was brooding and watchful. Neither of them spoke, as if daring the other to go first. Their unsettled business electrified the air.
Each breath Pippa took seemed to crackle with energy. She felt more alive than she had in months. Years, maybe. While some of that had to do with the night’s adventures, most of it had to do with the man across from her. She couldn’t help but think how different he was from Hastings…and Longmere.
Cull eschewed superficial elegance. His masculinity was as raw and untamed as the streets that had birthed him. Despite his overprotective nature, he was no predator. He used his strength to shield rather than take advantage. Thus, even though she could tell he was angry, she wasn’t afraid.
Of him…or her own desire.
When Livy had asked what Pippa would do when Cull showed up again, Pippa hadn’t known the answer. But the truth hit her now. Thrummed in her pulse and rushed hotly beneath her skin as she inhaled his scent of salt, male, and sea. She wanted to touch him, be touched by him. Wanted to explore the pleasures of being alive with this vital and enigmatic man.
First, however, she guessed he had other matters on his mind.
“What were you up to with Hastings this eve?” he ground out.
She had guessed right.
Stifling a sigh, she replied, “It is none of your business what I was doing.”
“Did you seduce him while your fellow agents searched the place? Did you let him touch you, Pippa?” Cull’s hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. “Did you enjoy it, his lordly attentions?”
Here we go again.She didn’t know how he managed to stir such volatile emotions in her. With him, she wasn’t Patient Pippa. She was Peeved and Provoked Pippa.
She scowled. “I don’t have to answer to you.”
“I’ve decided that you do.”
“I beg your pardon?” she said in affronted tones.
“Given your lack of judgment, someone needs to look after you.” He leaned forward, grooves deepening around his mouth. “Why inblazesdid you go to Hastings’s house?”
“Since you refused to provide any details,” she said pointedly, “I was looking for clues to pinpoint him as a murderer, you dolt. I arranged the privatetête-à-têteso that I could drug him and search his house.”
Cull dragged a breath through his nose. “You drugged him. Searched his house.”
She waved nonchalantly. “When he wakes, he will think he fell asleep after we engaged in a night of pleasure. The best of my life, according to the note I left him.”
