He stole her breath, and not just because his presence filled her with an ominous pang of fear. Rather, because of his appearance.
His dark gaze appeared almost black by the glow of the lamp. His hair was raven, his height immense, his chest broad, shoulders filling his coat. Even bathed in sinister shadow, she could see the plain truth of how wrong she had been. Mr. Dominic Winter was not a hideous beast of a man.
No, indeed. He was cruelly beautiful.
“That will be all, Devil,” Mr. Winter said curtly, his voice a lash in the heavy silence which had fallen.
The brute who had unceremoniously lugged her into the chamber released her and disappeared with a surprising amount of stealth for a man his size. Fitting his name was Devil.
But the servant’s departure seemed to suck all the air from the space. Adele wasalonewith Dominic Winter. Although she had done her utmost to prepare herself for this inevitable moment, her efforts seemed paltry as he skirted his desk and prowled toward her.
“Madam,” he drawled, the lone word dripping with a combination of malice and carnality that had her pulse racing. “Your reason for intruding upon my day had better be worthwhile.”
His accent was somehow lacking the unrefined edge she had expected. Either he had taught himself to ape his betters, or someone had seen to his education. Adele had imagined a ruffian who spoke with the lewd tongue of an East End pickpocket.
“Well?” he demanded when she hesitated in her response. “Have you a tongue?”
You can do this, Adele. You must do this.
For Max.
She swallowed. “Of course I do, Mr. Winter. The nature of my visit to you is personal.”
“Personal,” he repeated, sounding amused rather than irritated as he continued his approach.
Mayhap that was a boon. Not his proximity, but his tone.
“Someone beloved to me owes you a vast sum,” she said, seizing hold of her flagging mettle. “It is my understanding that you are willing to accept an alternative form of recompense.”
He stopped, leaving enough distance between them that a chaperone could not have found fault. And yet, she could not shake the sense his nearness was like a serpent, coiled and intent upon striking.
Awaiting the proper moment.
His lips quirked, but the chuckle he emitted held little mirth. “Who is this spineless cove, so intent upon saving his own hide that he sends a woman to barter herself rather than paying me what is due?”
Disdain dripped from his voice.
She stiffened. “He is hardly spineless. Nor am I his emissary. He has no knowledge of my visit to you today.”
“Ah.” The smile he gave her was feral. “The loving mistress, come to whore herself on her protector’s behalf. How utterly heartwarming.”
Adele did not correct his assumption. If he knew her true identity, she had no doubt this bargain she intended to strike with him would be even more disastrous. A man as callous and greedy as Dominic Winter would think nothing of using the knowledge to ruin her and bring shame upon her entire family.
If she had a prayer of continuing her deception, she needed him to assume she was her brother’s lightskirt. There was no other choice.
She struggled to maintain her composure. To keep herself from thinking upon the result of her actions, should this man accept her terms. Her chest felt as if a weight had been laid upon it.
Adele sucked in one deep breath for daring. “It was my idea to aid him when he mentioned your amenity to debt cancellation with…matters of the flesh.”
She had said it, though the words nearly choked her, and though the thought of submitting herself to this man’s touch made her shudder and caused her stomach to twist into knots. Everything she knew of Dominic Winter made her find him despicable.
He laughed again. The sound held no levity; instead, it was ominous, sliding over her like rough silk. “If you have come here in the belief I will accept cunny for coin, you have wasted your time, madam. Devil will see you out.”
With that pronouncement, he turned on his heel, giving her his back once more, and returned to his desk. The cut was an unimaginable slight. The notion of a duke’s daughter being so ill-treated by a common criminal who had somehow swindled his way into the role he now occupied would have been laughable on any other day.
But not this one.
Adele was not amused.
