Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Some part of me processed the fact that Fitzgibbons walked out and closed the door.
But mostly, I was all about the man sitting at the desk.
Thick, dark, chestnut brown hair. Handsome tortoise-shell glasses covering rich brown eyes.
But his face.
Damn.
His face.
In any romantic fantasy, that strong jaw, straight nose, prominent brow, those sumptuous lips and hooded eyes would be the face that would emerge when the knight on his mighty charger flipped up the visor of his helmet.
It was the face you’d see after the Scotsman in the kilt swung his broadsword, ending the life of his opponent, and whirled to face his next.
It was the face splashed in blood you’d see looking up from his kill after the Viking berserker brought down his battle-ax.
It was the face of the vicious mobster in the movie you felt wildly freaky about because he made you root for the bad guy mostly because you were dying to fuck him.
It was the face of a warrior, or a villain.
It was the face of Satan, Lucifer, who used to be God’s most beautiful angel.
And then he stood.
Tall, broad-shouldered, lean-hipped, thick thighed, the desk hid the rest, but I didn’t have it in me to process more.
Not with the strength of the electrical pulse shooting through me after taking in only what I could see.
And it wasn’t just an, “Oo, this guy is hawt,” pulse.
Oh no.
It was something bigger.
Stronger.
Scarier.
Utterly terrifying.
How did I know?
Because for the first time in my life, after that man took his feet, and the shock tore through me, I fainted.
Dead to the carpet.
CHAPTER 3
THE DUKE
I came to with a view of that damned face.
“She’s awake,” Battle Talyn murmured in that purr of his, just before he straightened away, and Prudence was in my face.
“Oh my goodness, Vivi!” she cried. “Are you all right?”
I pushed up.
I did this because I was lying on a leather chesterfield. I had no idea how I got there, but my concern was, the lord of the manor carried me.
Beyond Prudence, I could see a glorious, carved stone fireplace.
The only other things I could see were three Talyn women and one Talyn man. Two of the women (Prudence and Chastity) were hovering over me. Temperance and Battle were standing off to the side, both with arms crossed on their chests, studying me.
I pushed back until I hit the arm of the chesterfield and once there, I lifted a hand to rub my neck.
“God, I’m so sorry,” I said.
Okay…how embarrassing was this?
The answer was very.
It was very embarrassing.
Nope.
Excruciating.
It was excruciatingly embarrassing.
“I don’t know what happened,” I finished lamely.
“Jetlag is weird,” Prudence decreed.
Could I hang fainting at the sight of the most beautiful man on the planet on jetlag?
Oh yes.
Yes, I could.
And I was absolutely going to do just that.
“I think I’ve been pushing myself too hard,” I told them. “I probably shouldn’t have hit the Tate. Or the British Museum. Or the British Library.”
“You did all of that in just three days?” Prudence’s voice was pitched unnaturally high.
“Well, yes,” I admitted, then, due to her tone, cautiously added, “And more.”
“Then of course that’s too much!” she declared and straightened from me to turn on her siblings and announce dramatically, “On top of driving all the way from London!”
I looked among them.
Okay.
Seriously.
How were these four siblings?
Not one of them looked like the other. Not even a nuance.
Prudence couldn’t be more than five three, though I couldn’t tell her body type because her clothing masked it. However, Chasitity was willowy, probably only average height, however, even willowy, she had tits and ass. Temperance was my height, five eight, and she was slender as a pole. And Battle couldn’t be shorter than six four, and he was built like a brick shithouse.
With the eye color, the hair color, even the bone structure, there was nothing remotely alike about any of them.
Maybe Rebecca had started playing around way before she jetted off to Greece.
Prudence claimed my attention again by grabbing my hand. “I think you should go upstairs, lay down, take a nap. We’ll have a tray brought up for you for dinner. We can do the big welcome party tomorrow night.”
I shook my head and gently extricated my hand while swinging my legs off the side of the couch, though I didn’t go so far as to stand. When I did that again, I wanted to be sure I didn’t hit the deck after.
“No, no, no. I’m okay. I mean, sure. I think having a bit of a lie down will be good before dinner. But Battle and I have some things to iron out, and it would be better to get on that straight away.” I took my chances with another bout of unconsciousness and met his eyes. “I really am very sorry. But honestly, I’m okay.”
He didn’t reply to me.
He turned his head and shook it.