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It was more than three weeks after Narcise seduced him that Giordan received word from Cezar Moldavi

At first, he had no concerns about the silence Playing the gareed upon, he waited for two days before contacting Moldavi again, under the guise this ti the details of the spice ship When there was no response to that dangling carrot of business investment and money, Giordan was concerned, but not terribly so

Perhaps Moldavi had been called out of town again

He atteain for Narcise&039;s painting lesson, at least in order to see her, and ensure himself that she ell When he was turned away froer interested in lessons, Giordan had that awful sinking feeling again

What did that mean?

Another attempt to deliver fabric as an elderly merchant as he&039;d done once before was also foiled when he was advised that no one was in residence to see him

Thus Giordan spent the next teeks in varying stages of fear, fury and loathing The helplessness was the worst Was she alive? Was she dead? Was she here in Paris? Had she been fencing? Winning or losing?

He made personal calls three tiue explanations that the an to plot with Eddersley how he h the catacoo handsomely to debase himself and atteardless of how ho his own steith enough funds to pay for an entire ship in order to incent tongues to wagging The only inforlean was that the mademoiselle was cloistered in her private apartments and had hardly been seen for more than a week However, she had had no visitors at all

"But she is well?" he de his valet and steward&039;s chest against the wall

Mingo&039;s eyes widened and he nodded "So far as I can ascertain, she is well, sir"

Giordan re aith trenaith emptiness I should have forced her to stay with me I shouldn&039;t have let her leave

At last, he received a response to the five es he&039;d sent, and the three he&039;d left in person It was absurdlyMoldavi

He had four stakes secreted on hihold, and was determined to use at least one of them before he left As he&039;d anticipated, three of them were discovered by the butler when he was offered entrance at the street level But the fourth one remained tucked in the underside of his loose shirtsleeve

Whatever he&039;d expected, Giordan had not anticipated the beareeted him as he entered the spacious, well-appointed parlor they&039;d used previously

"I&039;esturing to a pair of chairs pulled up cozily next to a piecrust table

As always, he was dressed for: a snohite shirt, brocade waistcoat, knee breeches and stockings Instead of the wigs currently in fashion, Moldavi wore his hair combed neatly over his face and ears, and his wide-jawed face was clean-shaven Several rings winked on his fingers as he gestured with his speech "I understand you&039;ve been atte to reach me It was terribly rude of me not to provide an explanation for eency, and quite frankly, I was too distracted to even think to send you an explanation or apology"

Giordan accepted the speech in silence, eyeing the htfully, but he did not take one of the offered seats He&039;s lying as easily as the Seine in its bed And there was a different air about hiy

"And Narcise-I&039;m afraid the servants didn&039;t quite understand I would certainly have allowed you to call on her in my absencebut apparently, that was not , opened a small cupboard, peered at the cluster of bottles within and selected one He exa around until he chose a second one "Ah Perfect," he said in satisfaction "I do hope you like it," he added, glancing at Giordan

"I wasn&039;t offended that you leftas much as I was concerned," Giordan offered as his host poured two glasses at the sideboard The titillating scent of fresh blood led with liquor filled the room He wondered uncoht I had been the recipient of an unexpected gift," he said "I hadn&039;t had the opportunity to thank you"

"Indeed I do hope you enjoyed it," Moldavi said, handing his guest one of the glasses, brushing his fingers as he did so "In all honesty, I wasn&039;t certain if it would be to your liking In fact, I&039;d rather hoped it wouldn&039;t" The other fully on his and for the first tience

Admiration

Fascination

Desire

He recognized it and nearly stepped back, his sto him silent All at once, the darkhands in the alleys, the smell of men, the hues away and speared Moldavi with his own flat gaze "As a ," he replied so that his position couldn&039;t be misunderstood "Where is she?"

All pretense had dropped; they were

"She&039;s gone," Moldavi said

"I want to see her"

Moldavi shrugged "She has no desire to see you"

"You&039;re lying," Giordan replied with confidence "She&039;s in love with h she hadn&039;t said the words, she had proven it when she kissed him

She&039;d kissed him more than once, more than in the heat of passion, more than when he&039;d asked it of her She&039;d kissed him with love and tenderness, and freely He had no doubt of her feelings for him, and every bit of confidence in her brother&039;s attempt to manipulate

"And, to my dismay, you&039;re in love with her," Moldavi said He pulled so from his pocket "You hid it very well I wasn&039;t certain at all, for you see his lips together in dismay as he cut off his oords "This is what confirold chain with a single feather dangling from it The one Giordan had removed froht she&039;d seduced him

Moldavi&039;s smile was a bit crooked "If you didn&039;t love her, you wouldn&039;t have noticed or cared Nor," he added, "would you have visited her disguised as Monsieur David"

Giordan couldn&039;t keep his eyes fro in surprise "You knew of that?"

His host&039;s lips twisted in reluctant admiration "Not at first You fooled everyone Not until after I found this-" he gestured with the feather "-and began to suspect But when I went into her chamber and scented you in there" His voice trailed off, his eyes settling heavily on him "I&039;ve become quite familiar with your scent"

Giordan kept his face blank despite the increasingly unco not even the animosity or affront he should He tried to picture how Dimitri would respond in this situation: cold and lethal But Dih what Giordan had

"I suppose I could consider myself flattered, but I do not," he replied coldly "You understand, I have interest in only one member of the Moldavi faive ht of you that way These last feeeks have been rather difficult forfor certain Particularly the tiht" His dark gaze settled fully on hiht, he&039;d been sitting in this very cha of arousal and maleness after the session with Narcise His mouth dried and he realized nohat he&039;d scented beneath Moldavi&039;s cologne of cedar and patchouli It was the essence of desperate desire that he&039;d found unpleasant