Page 97 of Outrageous

He winced, but did not release her. “You’re quite correct. It doesn’t matter what has transpired. It was vulgar to mention such a matter in your presence. Don’t worry, Eva. I will take care of you—and sort out this mess.” His hand slid from her chin, over her jaw, and stopped behind her head. He swallowed hard and leaned closer, almost as if he were about to . . . kiss her.

Eva tried to jerk her head away, but he was strong.

“The truth is that I don’t care what happened between you. You can marry me, Eva. You needn’t sacrifice yourself to—”

“I hardly think what my betrothed has or has not done is any of your affair, Byer.”

Eva gave a startled yelp and turned to find Godric leaning in the doorway, his arms across his chest, his posture lazy, his expression amused. But his eyes—

Tommy dropped his hand and the two men moved toward each other in an almost synchronized fashion. Neither stopped until they were only inches apart. She noticed they were almost the same height, although Tommy was leaner.

“You have no authority when it comes to her.” The air in the room was charged, like the sky before a storm.

Godric’s lips curled into an unpleasant sneer that Eva hadn’t seen since the morning after she’d kidnapped him. “I’m going to have a word with Eva.”

“Then I shall stay.”

Both men seemed to swell to twice their size.

Eva went to Tommy and set a hand on his shoulder. “You should go, Tommy.” When he failed to move, his gaze still pinned to Godric, Eva added, “I’ll be fine, but you need to leave us.”

For a moment she worried he’d argue, but he jerked out a nod and left without another word.

Godric’s gaze was cool, polite, and distant. “I need to know what happened today before I speak with your father, Eva.”

So, they were back to that relationship, were they? She crossed her arms. “I shall tell you under one condition.”

A laugh slipped out of him. “I beg your pardon?”

“Give me your word you will not tell anyone what I tell you.”

They locked eyes for a long moment.

“This is our business, Godric.”

Her use of his name seemed to soften him. “Very well, you have my word.”

Eva told him the story in as few words as possible. He was silent until the part about Dora Crosby taking a shot at her.

“Good God! The woman needs to be brought before a magistrate, Eva. She might have killed you.”

“But she didn’t.”

“No, but she must—”

“You gave me your word,” she reminded him. “Are you going to break it?”

He scowled. “Of course not, but—”

“Do you want the rest of the story, or not?”

He stared in slack-jawed wonder. “You really are a little termagant, aren’t you? All right, go on, the rest of it.”

Once she’d finished he asked, “And you don’t believe she is coming back here?”

Eva thought back to the wreck of a woman she’d seen being hauled away. “I shouldn’t think so. I think Flynn will take care of her—along with her brother-in-law.” She gave him a hard look. “Who is considerably worse off than I’d expected.”

Godric flushed under her accusing look. “Yes, yes, I was a brute. I am a brute. But we already knew that, didn’t we?” He clearly didn’t want an answer. “So Flynn really is as good as his word.”