Read The Perfect Temptation Online
Authors: Leslie LaFoy
Yes, it was selfish. Yes, it was
self-centered.
And it was
most definitely shallow. But it was the
unvarnished truth.
Alex was so very different from any other
woman he'd ever
known. Being with her was so very different.
And if he had
to, he'd sell his soul to make love to her.
Somewhere along
the way, he'd become a desperate, starving
man. One of
those pathetic males for whom other
men-rational, self-possessed
men-felt acutely sorry. One of those men
that
other men considered an embarrassment.
And the truly pathetic thing was that he
didn't really want
to stop hungering for her the way he did.
As
odd and inexplicable
as it might be, there was a kind of
rightness to it.
And if the pleasure in the foreplay was so
magnificently intense,
then Lord knew the culmination probably
would be,
too.
Probably? Hell, there wasn't any doubt. Alex
was going
to reduce him to a heap of sated, grinning
cinders. He wasn't
about to walk away from the chance for such
soul-searing
ecstasy. Not just to avoid the risk of male
social censure. He
was
selfish-and
maybe a little vain, too-but he wasn't stupid.
All he had to do was carefully, deliberately
manage the
impressions of everyone and he could have
all his fantasies
come true
and
avoid the pity of his
peers.
Barrett's would be the most important and
most difficult
impression to control, he knew. The trick
was to keep their
conversations focused strictly on business
and well away
from the personal. Barrett had an uncanny
ability
to
see
through denials and attempts to camouflage
the truth. That
and absolutely
no
restraint when it came to asking pointed,
probing questions.
Which is what made him a good investigator,
Aiden had
to admit And a worthy friend You didn't lie
to Barrett. Not
about the big things, anyway.
If
you did and got away with it,
it
was
only because, for one reason or another, he'd let you
for the time being. Eventually there'd
be
a reckoning.
Aiden stood up a bit straighter and rolled
his shoulders.
Thankfully, there was a great
deal
they needed to talk about
and all of it revolved around his
professional concerns for
Alex's safety. He'd delayed long enough to
be able to focus
on it, too.
Stepping out of the shadows, he strode
toward the open
carriage house door. Barrett and Mohan were
just on the
other side of it, heading his way.
"I thought it might be you the peacocks
heralded," Aiden
began, stopping them at the threshold. At
his friend's half smile
and cocked brow, he continued, "Good
news, Barrett.
On
the seat of your
coach, you'll find the Westerham silver
service for twelve. Less one butter knife.
And you'd better
still have it because if you think I'm going
back out in search
of a replacement, you're out of your
mind."
"You actually found it? How much did it
cost you?"
''Alex found it," he corrected.
''All
two hundred. And that
took work. The old woman was vicious."
Barrett's gaze fell to his hand and his
smile quirked
higher. "You didn't have to hit her,
did you?"
"I was suckered into a rugby game this
afternoon," he
replied, lifting his hand, flexing his
fingers, and wondering
what was in the salve Alex had used. The
pain was gone. Absolutely
gone. "Against Blackthorn. Walker-Hines
plays for
them."
"Oh, let me guess," Barrett
replied drolly. "With his usual
sorry lack of good judgment, he cuddled up
next to Alex and
made an indecent proposal."
"If
he'd actually
touched her, your solicitor would be
posting bond for me because I would have
killed him."
Mohan grinned. Barrett shook his head slightly,
saying,
"Damn shame he
exercised
a smidgen of good sense
today."
He brightened and his brow went back up.
"So was Blackthorn
finally defeated?"
"Five to two."
"Resoundingly. Good show, John
Aiden," he congratulated,
clapping him on his shoulder. "But I
must say that
you don't seem appropriately pleased by the
day's successes.
If
I had to guess, I'd
say that something's niggling at
you."
Aiden looked down at Mohan and smiled.
"Preeya's off to
market with 'Sawyer and I
think
Alex is in the kitchen seeing
to the start of dinner. Would you please go
see
if
she needs
any help?"
The boy sighed, pouted for a moment, and
then nodded.
He'd barely walked off toward the kitchen
when Barrett
said, "You
think
Alex is in the
kitchen? You don't
know?"
Aiden ignored the bait and kept to his
purpose. He
rammed his hands into his pockets and
squarely met his
friend's gaze. "What do you know of
India?"
"Not much. Why?"
"Let's walk toward your carriage while
we talk," he suggested,
turning even as he did, forestalling any
objections
Barrett might have. When he fell in beside
him,
Aiden began.
"I keep collecting puzzle pieces and I don't
know enough
about India to know
if
the picture they're forming makes any
real
sense or
not."
"Apparently what you think you're
seeing troubles you.
Toss the pieces out on the table and we'll
look at them together."
"I don't even know where to begin:' he
admitted.
Barrett chuckled. "I seem to recall
Alex Radford saying
something in the same vein the morning she
walked into my
office. And as I further recall, you weren't
the least interested
in accommodating her confusion."
Well, he'd been working at being an ass that
morning.
It
was a testament to Alex's inherent sense of
fairness that
she'd allowed him to redeem himself. "I
didn't understand
then how complex her world is.
Or
how complicated she is.
Even if I had forever and a day, I'd never
fully know her,
Barrett. Never. She'd always surprise
me."
"But you don't have forever and a
day."
A reminder, unusually subtle for Barrett,
that Alex was a
temporary relationship both professionally
and privately.
"Correct," he agreed, admonishing
himself to keep to the
public side of his intentions. "And if
I'm right about the puzzle,
Alex doesn't, either."
"You're still gnawing at the notion
that she's the one in
danger, not the boy?"
"She's the one who was almost
kidnapped. She's the one
being followed. I caught a glimpse of
him
this morning at
the auction and again this afternoon. He's
the same man who
was at the window that morning. Alex didn't
recognize
him
but she says that he's probably of the same
caste as Mohan
and his father."
"And is that important?"
"Hell, I don't know," Aiden
confessed with a frustrated
sigh. '''The subject of caste comes up
frequently enough,
though. Mostly in connection with what one
can and can't
do.
I
swear, they have more rules than we do."
"For instance?"
"You'd better fall in love with someone
in your own caste
because you're not going to be allowed to
cross the line for
them."
Barrett nodded and stuffed his hands in his
pockets, too.
"I'd suggest that British expectations
aren't all that much
different except that my mother is now
willing to consider a
daughter-in-law from the untitled class if
I'd just get on with
seriously looking for one. Apparently
they're more patient
about the production of grandchildren in
India."
Aiden looked at
him
askance. "How is that
relevant?"
"It's really not," Barrett
admitted with a weak smile. "Just
my personal cross of the moment. Who fell in
love with whom
and couldn't be together?"
Barrett and his questions. He was a lot like
Mohan. Except
considerably more dangerous.
"It
was merely an illustration,"
he lied, honoring his promise to Alex.
"I wasn't speaking
about anyone in particular."
Before Barrett could call him on it and
press, he tossed
out the next piece he'd collected since
they'd last
talked ..
"Alex tells me that Kedar-that's
Mohan's father-has two
main rivals for the throne. His cousin and
his younger
brother. Both of them are presumably still
in India and under
his watchful eye. Now, according to Alex,
neither one of them
would have the slightest interest in seeing
her come
to
any
harm. They're more interested in removing
Kedar from the
throne and Mohan from the line of
inheritance."
"So why is someone following her?"