Let the Night Begin by Kathryn Smith Page B

weakness while another adored her strength and will. Another part of him wanted to strangle her and yet another wanted to tickle her behind the knees until she laughed so hard she cried.
    Her reply was honest, but her demeanor was not.
    â€œNo,” he replied. “Of course not.” But he thought of those young men she’d fed from and how they had supposedly looked like him, and he wondered if they had been a way for her to havehim, without having to admit that she wanted him.
    â€œGood.” She actually sounded relieved, like she thought she had persuaded him to believe her. “Now, be a good boy and button me up, will you?”
    She turned her back to him, and just as he had unfastened these buttons earlier, he refastened them now. As he slipped the last one into place, he leaned down, putting his mouth near her ear.
    â€œAre you trying to fuck me, Liv?”
    Olivia shivered and stiffened. “I thought I already had.”
    The mockingly sensual lilt of her voice annoyed him. He caught her by the arms as she tried to move away. Her hair tickled his nose. Her scent made his head swim and his blood boil. He didn’t need the extra heat in his blood. “You know what I mean.”
    Her head turned ever so slightly. The soft, fine skin of her cheek brushed against his mouth. “I just want to find my nephew, Reign. Help me do that and I promise I’ll never darken your door again.”
    She pulled away and he let her go, watching as she walked into the tiny bathroom. He could see parts of her as she attended to her hair at the mirror.
    He would help her find her nephew, because he wanted to help her. Let her think he was only doing it for the sex. If she was so foolish as to believe that was all he wanted from her, so be it. He could even let her believe that she had the upper hand over him.
    But if Olivia thought that he was going to let her simply walk away from him when all this was done, when there was so much left unresolved between them, she didn’t know him as well as she believed.
    She didn’t know him at all.
    Â 
    He had gotten her a maid.
    The girl had been waiting in the bedroom. The housekeeper, Mrs. MacCoddle, introduced them. Olivia had been too busy gaping at the room itself to commit the girl to memory.
    â€œI’m sorry, what was your name?” she asked as the girl began unpacking her luggage. Olivia sat on the huge sleigh bed, still in a bit of a daze, and gazed around at her surroundings.
    â€œJanet, ma’am.” She couldn’t have been more than eighteen. Just a little red-haired slip of a thing. “This is my first position as a lady’s maid, so I hope I don’t disappoint you.”
    â€œI’m sure you won’t,” Olivia replied with a smile. The girl’s accent was delightful. She’d always loved listening to how people spoke. Of course, Reign probably remembered that. He seemed to remember so much.
    Like her favorite color. Surely it couldn’t be a coincidence that this room had gilt trim on itspale green walls, or that the drapes were a rich shade of gold that matched colors in the carpet and the bedclothes? He had to have remembered that she loved the richness of gold, the brightness and the shimmer.
    Her wedding gown had been a soft champagne-gold silk. He had told her how beautiful she looked in it.
    Janet was watching her with a wide grin. “It’s a lovely room, ma’am, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so. The loveliest in the whole house.” Her smile faded just a bit. “Apparently the former Mr. Gavin—this one’s da—had it made up special for his new bride thirty years ago, but she died before she could enjoy it.”
    â€œHow…tragic.” Olivia’s mouth was suddenly very dry. Died? He had told the servants that she died ?
    â€œAye, but good now that there’s someone here to finally appreciate it.” The girl flashed a broad grin that