Solace in Scandal by Kimberly Dean

network’.
    Yet he had been imprisoned for the last eighteen months …
    Elena drank from the glass he passed to her. He might be a man of the world, cultured and suave, but she wasn’t as easygoing. She didn’t sleep around. She’d had steady boyfriends, but she’d never –
    ‘Mmm,’ she murmured with pleasure. The flavour of the expensive wine spread over her tongue like smooth honey. She swallowed, tasting the unexpected spiced notes, and was distracted.
    He caught her hand. ‘That’s better.’
    He drew her to the sofa. She kept a respectable distance between them as they sat, but the white leather was unexpectedly comfortable. The cushions were so deep, they sucked her in and defied her to remain rigid. She sat up straighter, near the edge, and crossed her ankles. She couldn’t allow her guard to drop, not around him.
    Hand tightening around her drink, she took another deep sip. The wind was rising outside. The trees were swaying and those last leaves were fluttering wildly. Inside the mansion, though, she didn’t hear the wind’s howl.
    ‘Did I ever thank you for what you did?’ he finally asked, his low voice breaking the silence that had taken over the room.
    She looked at him through her lashes.
    ‘For rescuing me.’ There was no curve at all to his lips. He wasn’t teasing or being coy.
    ‘I … I don’t remember,’ she replied.
    ‘Thank you.’
    The words were honest and heartfelt. They weren’t characteristics she’d normally associate with a Wolfe, and they made her chest tighten. ‘You’re welcome.’
    Their gazes connected and, in that moment, something passed between them. Not trust, no, but something maybe closer to empathy. Worried about what that connection might be, Elena focused harder on the windows. The sun was setting, but there weren’t any golden flecks on the water. The sky had been overcast all day long, and the lake was just growing darker and more opaque.
    ‘Haunting, isn’t it?’ she remarked.
    His ice clanked. ‘More than you know.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    He shrugged, his gaze snagging on the rough water. ‘This place is full of memories for me. They keep popping up when I least expect it.’
    And not all of them were good. He was hard to read, practically detached, but she could feel how his mood changed. It was subtle, but she was beginning to notice the difference.
    ‘Did you grow up here?’
    ‘No, but my parents would send me here to spend the summers.’
    ‘With your grandfather?’
    ‘This is his house.’
    The temperature in the place had just dropped ten degrees. Elena considered her host. She felt an icy rage every time she thought about Bartholomew Wolfe, but why would he? The answer dawned like a light bulb.
    His grandfather had gotten away with it.
    ‘Why come here then?’ she asked. He’d spent the last eighteen months in prison. Why make this the first place he’d come when he’d regained his freedom?
    ‘The seclusion and the privacy. I’d have preferred to go to my apartment in Manhattan, but I knew this place would be more secure.’
    More secure? Or would he have better access to what he and his co-conspirators had left behind?
    He drew up his left leg and rested his ankle on his opposite knee. His foot bounced restlessly. ‘I’m sorry you got caught up in all the drama. The press tends to follow me wherever I go.’
    So he’d known this would happen, while she’d been blindsided once again. The delicious wine turned a little bitter in her mouth. ‘You didn’t know I was here,’ she murmured.
    ‘No,’ he said softly. ‘I didn’t.’
    They watched the water as it slapped against the side of the dock. It was like observing a silent movie, with action going on all around but no soundtrack.
    ‘Leonard said that the paparazzi harassed you, that it was the reason you came here.’
    She ran her finger around the lip of her glass. Reporters and others had run her out of town on a rail, but he didn’t need to know that. The