Page 16 of Always the Lyon Tamer

It was, though John would not admit it.

“Brothers, sisters?”

Titania, or whatever her name was, hesitated once more before she said, “None.”

John nodded, now at his limits of ideas of questions.How was he supposed to understand this woman if he could not ask some of the most basic questions about a person?

Well, answered a small voice in his head,ask the questions that are not basic.

“Do you like opera?”

Titania had been walking around the room again, but she stumbled on something—a corner of the rug, perhaps?—at his words.

“What did you say?”

John heard the panic in her voice but could not understand it.Opera was hardly a taboo subject, was it?

“Opera or theatre,” he said quietly. “I just…by God, I am attracted to you, Titania. I am happy to admit it, but I want a partnership, too, Titania, a collaboration to make us both happy.”

She had moved now to sit at the chair by the desk. John attempted not to look at the way her thighs became more visible by the way she crossed her legs.

“Here you are, with a beautiful woman about to offer herself to you through a game,” she said quietly. “And you wish to understand my preferences in music?”

John nodded with a wry smile. “I suppose I am not like most of the other visitors to the Lyon’s Den.”

“John Lennox, you are the most singular, the most unique…” Titania’s voice trailed off as she stared, and John felt his heart quicken.

She knew him well, then.But did that mean he knew her—had they met, under different names, under different circumstances?Had his gaze flickered past her without him realizing it?

There was something familiar in that smile. If he were not in a room in the Lyon’s Den about to play a seductive teasing game with a masked woman, he would have said…but no, it was impossible.

Rebecca Darby would never be found in a place like this.

“I love opera and mussels, and the way starlings flock in the autumn,” Titania said softly. “You like opera, but you do not love it. You prefer concerts—Mozart, mainly. You adore cards, but you are not very good. Yet you never cheat.”

John found his mouth falling open. “You—you know me well, Titania.”

Her smile became a little more assured at his words. “I am not called the Lyon Tamer for nothing, John. Now, you have a little more knowledge of me. Are you ready to play?”

John nodded. He could not delay any longer—not when his body was desperate for them to get closer.

Titania did not seem to need him to move. Instead, she rose herself, moving elegantly to the chest of drawers in the corner. She pulled open a drawer, positioning that rather delicious behind between them so he could not see what she was doing.

John’s mind raced back to the tables he had wandered past in the gambling room, and only then did he wonder whether this whole excursion had been a mistake.

He was hardly a daredevil! His time in the army as a soldier had seen no battle, and he had never been in a duel in his life.

What was she about to bring out for this game—this guessing game? Snakes? Knives?Something worse?

What could the Lion Tamer do with him?

Titania pulled something from the drawer, and for a heart-wrenching moment, he thought it was a snake.

And then he blinked and saw it for what it was—a blindfold.

“There it is,” she said softly.

Straightening up, Titania twisted to smile. Yet, she did not speak. She hesitated as though questioning herself. As though ensuring she was happy with how the game was about to begin.