Hold Your Breath 01 - Stone Devil Duke (11 page)

Devin
’s gaze swung sharply, eyes cutting into Killian. He contemplated for a moment punching him, disregarding the fact they were in the middle of a party.

“That is the advice that you, of all people, are going to
give me?”

“My situation is different.”

“Demons are demons, Killian. Put down yours and I’ll put down mine.”

Killian
shrugged and stepped away to work the room. Devin shook his head. He knew his friend was no more willing to let go of the past than he was.

With a sigh,
Devin moved to the entrance of the silver drawing room, swirling the glass of Madeira in his hand, leaning against a pillar and chatting disinterestedly with several men for a stretch. He seethed the entire time.

He tried
to keep his eyes off her, but Ferrington continued to leer at the swell of her breasts rising out of her elegant yellow dress—too much skin for an unmarried woman. Killian was right. He did want to bust that leer off of Ferrington’s face. Enough.

His
eyes seared into Aggie’s Ferrington-directed gaze, willing her to look at him.

As if on cue, she glanced in his direction, not in the least startled by his demanding stare.
Devin gave a nod toward the French doors nearest Aggie, and was not disappointed when Aggie slightly inclined her head in response.

~~~

She had felt his eyes follow her most of the night, and she was grateful when the duke finally nodded her to the line of French doors open to the evening air. She had been monopolized by Lord Ferrington much too long tonight. Why had her aunt not cut this short? She would have extracted herself much earlier, but Ferrington required little from her in way of conversation. As long as she nodded her head, he would talk, and she was free to search the faces in the crush.

At
the duke’s motion, she excused herself to get some fresh air on the terrace, politely declining his offer to join her, and quickly slipped through the crowd toward the beckoning breeze.

Stepping onto the terrace
, she walked past one of the open sets of white-paned French doors, trying to locate the duke. Inside, at the far end of the ballroom, she caught a glimpse of Devin’s head moving past dancers. A couple passed in front of her, leaving her stretch of the terrace empty. When she located the duke again, he had stopped to talk to another man.

It wasn’t until
Devin moved toward the French doors that Aggie caught the side profile of the man he had been talking to.

She froze, her head slowly shaking in disbelief.

The man turned and disappeared into the crowd.

It couldn’t have been. Not a
fter all her time here in London. Not after all the searching she had done. No. Their leader would not just happen to show up.

Going to her toes, she
searched the room again. Nothing. She ran along the travertine terrace to the next set of doors, searching.

She didn’t see the d
uke step onto the terrace behind her. By the time she turned from the ballroom, he was leaning on the sculpted stone railing that ran along the drop of the terrace, his dark hair curled about his neck and crisp cravat, looking out into the night as though in a deep thought.

Taking a deep breath
to shake what she was sure her imagination just manifested, Aggie started toward Devin, passing by a door that led into the drawing room. She caught the slightest glimpse of the man again.

She stopped and took a
half-step into the drawing room, frantic eyes searching, but the man wasn’t there. It had to have been her imagination. The leader that instigated her father’s murder and tried to kill her was not here. He couldn’t be. It had to be a cruel illusion her exhausted mind played on her. It had to be.

Her eyes gave one more fruitless search into the throng of people
. No. It was impossible. Her father’s murderer could not have just walked right by her. Could not have just talked to the Devin.

She saw nothing.

She turned back toward the duke, only to find him assessing her with a questioning look on his face. It took her a moment to realize both of her hands were clenched into tight fists. The slim fan in her right hand had cracked in half.

Unclenc
hing her fists and taking a calming breath, Aggie casually stepped toward him, her light skirt swishing in the gentle night breeze. She looked behind her to make sure they were still alone.

She stopped several
steps away from him, making sure to keep a bit of distance. As proved last night, she seemed to become nothing but an idiot when they were in close proximity. Aggie turned, resting her palms on the railing, leaning forward to gaze at the dark sky.

“Who was that?”
Devin asked, his eyes not leaving her face.

Aggie gave a slight cough
. “Who was what?”

“The person you
were just searching for in the drawing room. The one who obviously just scared you to death.” His stare continued to bore into her features.

“Scared me?”

“You’re shaking.”

Aggie w
hipped her arms across her ribcage, standing straight and tightening her body. She hadn’t realized.

“Really
, your grace, it was no one. I thought I saw someone I knew, but I didn’t. I was mistaken. It happens sometimes, what with the many people milling about and all,” Aggie said lightly, her gaze continuing to avert from his look. She shifted her eyes to stare at the perfectly symmetrical shrubbery below.

“A
ll right then, who was it you thought you saw?”

Aggie
turned toward him, catching his gaze, and realized her mistake. She doubted she could lie directly into his steely eyes. So she looked over his shoulder. “Really, Devin, it was, or would have been, no one of consequence.”

She saw out of the corner of her eye the suspicion on his face grow. But he
went silent. They stood for a few moments before he spoke again.

“Walk with me?”

“Yes.” She answered too quickly, with too much enthusiasm, but didn’t care. She was just grateful he dropped the matter.

She glanced around once more to make sure no errant eyes saw them, and then walked
with him down the set of stairs at the end of the terrace. They strolled in silence. Turning along the walk adjacent to the gardens, Aggie was thankful for the quiet moments to compose herself. Her insides were still a torrential maelstrom after who she just thought she saw.

“Ferrington was certainly holding your attention.”

Aggie blinked twice in surprise, not immediately understanding the changed subject, or his tone, for she had long since dismissed Lord Ferrington from her mind.

“Yes, well,
my usual polite exit lines were not working, and I was having a devil of a time coming up with anything new.” She looked up at him. “I am sure you can imagine my mind has been on other matters tonight.”

Devin
nodded, a satisfied look on his face. He pointed at a turn into the gardens. Even though she would never enter sequestered gardens like these with the opposite sex—their tall evergreen hedges, thick arbors of trailing roses, and dark corners could so easily ruin a young lady—Aggie thought she saw the tiniest wince as Devin raised his injured arm. Sudden guilt outweighed her natural avoidance of this type of garden, and she let him steer her inward.

“How is the cut
? Healing?” Aggie asked, scolding herself at her rudeness to have not inquired about it right away.

“A dull ache, nothing more.”

Aggie nodded, relieved.

“Your
boy, Tommy, is he all right?”

The guilt on Aggie’s
face multiplied. “Yes, I saw him today. He was badly beaten, but he will be fine. I have a very good doctor
looking after him. I never realized how young he was to have the responsibility I put on him. I was so very wrong about that. I just never thought…” Her eyes shifted downward as guilt tears brimmed on her lashes. Tommy’s face had been bloodied and mangled. Another person hurt by her actions. Her exhaustion did nothing to help her control her emotions.

Devin
stopped and Aggie took a few steps past him before stopping herself. The cool of the evening pooled between the thick hedges where they stood. They were deep in the gardens now. Aggie’s gloved hands went to her upper arms, rubbing them against the chill.

“
Aggie, do you not realize how young you are to have such responsibility on your shoulders?”

Not turning back to him, s
he tilted her head upward, looking at the stars, and a memory rush of young naïveté hit her. She was now so very far from those days of innocence. “I am not so young. Fate did not give me the luxury of choice in the matter.”

Right behind
her, his sudden heat blanketed her bare shoulders before he spoke again.

“But you have a choice now.” His voice was low in her ear.

She spun to him, and immediately regretted it when she saw the look on his face. A predator sensing weakness, he moved even closer. She stepped backward, looking for space, only to move herself into a small arbor, offset from the path, with three sides of thick climbing roses. She hadn’t even noticed it was there.

Not allowing a successful retreat,
Devin slid in front of her, his wide shoulders cornering her in the alcove.

Aggie’s eyes darted around him, but before a muscle could spring, h
e leaned in, breath hot on her bare neck as his fingers slid across the line at the tip of her shoulder.

“Tell me who you saw back there in the party
, Aggie.”

Her breath
ing stopped, along with her body. So he hadn’t dropped it. Damn. Why could she not move away from this man? She was usually quite good at thwarting unwanted suitors. This was when she needed to run, and she couldn’t even make her toes twitch.

“It was no one. A mistake.”

“Your eyes were panicked.” His lips were close, brushing her neck just below her ear as he spoke. Words had never been softer from him. “You need to let it go, Aggie. Let it go. Whatever fear just stabbed you, give it to me. Tell me. I will take of care it. Who was it?”

His
lips landed fully on her neck, expanding the gentle graze. Her body betrayed the last little part of her mind that screamed at her to run, and she leaned into him. The caress of his lips drew her in, willing her body to mold into him as his arm slipped low around her back.

“I a
m just so tired, Devin.” He felt so good. So hard against her. So big, like he could wrap her in a cocoon and she would never have to come out. Exhaustion wore on her, and she couldn’t muster any defense against him.

“So tell me. Tell me and I will take care of it.”

Her head tilted against her will, giving him better access to the line of skin he gently devoured. All thoughts left her mind, but still he prodded.

“Tell me.”

She didn’t know if she still stood, or if he held her up. All sensation, except for where his mouth met her neck, disappeared.

“Give it to me, Aggie. Tell me.”

“The fifth.” The words left her mouth only because she didn’t want him to stop. Didn’t want the complete void of everything except the pleasure on her skin to disappear. It was one little moment in time. But a moment where she didn’t think. Didn’t remember. Didn’t hate. Wasn’t scared. He had her.

“
The fifth what?” The whisper barely reached her ears.

“A fifth man. Their leader.”

The lips stopped. “There’s another? A leader? And you just thought you saw him? Here?”

His mouth hadn’t moved from her neck, so she couldn’t see the thunderclouds in his eyes, but she could hear them. It cleared her senses, and she abruptly stepped back from him.

He straightened.

She wasn’t wrong about the thunderclouds. Two jabs from the climbing roses poked into her shoulder. Thorns behind her. A seething Devin in front of her. She wasn’t sure which was worse.

“His clothes. How he talked—carried h
imself. He is of money—peerage, maybe—I do not know. I have been searching every ballroom and every party for him, and nothing.”

“Hell and damnation, Aggie.
Why did you not tell me? This is pretty damn important information. I thought there were only the four.” He ran his hand across the back of his neck. “Blast it. I have been going about this all wrong if there’s a moneyed leader. Hell—and now you think you saw him here?”

“
It was only a glimpse, Devin. I was wrong. My mind is playing tricks, I am so tired. I am sure it was not he. I do not know what I saw.”

His jaw
worked back and forth, the hard line throbbing—a stark contradiction from the gentleness on her neck just a moment ago.

Aggie looked up at him, not sure what to do. And she probably needed to get back to the party before her aunt started to worry about her whereabouts.