By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      The smart thing to do was to play it Piper’s way and do just that. He could go to her right now and join her on that couch. In minutes, seconds even, he could wake her and arouse her. He could taste her and experience the thrill, the incredible generosity of her response, and he could sink into her and lose himself in her again. Just the thought of it was enough to have everything in him hardening. Yearning. They could be moving together in that lightning-fast rhythm that he could only create with her. The thought of it had him aching.

      He wanted to touch her. He couldn’t seem to get enough of simply running his hands over her skin. Softly and slowly. He imagined tracing that delicate cheekbone with his fingers, then the strong line of her jaw. In his mind, he already smelled the faint scent of summer flowers in her hair. Next he’d explore the slender line of her neck, then her collarbone and that surprisingly muscled arm. Those amber eyes would be open by then. He pictured them golden and clouded with sleep, watched them focus and darken as he turned her, straddled her on the couch, and continued to touch her.

      As the images grew more and more clear in his mind, his blood began to pound and the ache inside of him intensified. She would reach for him, eager to make her own demands. That much he knew. So he’d capture those slender wrists, hold them over her head, and continue to savor the slow heating of her skin and the husky sound of her voice as she said his name.

      He clamped his fingers on the arms of the chair as his mind flashed to another scenario. He imagined freeing her hands and lowering his mouth to hers. He was half out of his chair when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He slipped quietly through the sliding glass doors to the terrace. A quick glance at the caller ID told him it was his brother Cam.

      “Problem or favor?” Duncan asked.

      “Question. When were you going to get around to telling me that you found the second sapphire earring?”

      Shit, Duncan thought. Connecting the dots in his head, he remembered that he’d told Daryl, and Piper had relayed the news to Vi. Obviously, one of them had passed the news along.

      “Vi told Adair you and Piper found the earring in one of the caves where I killed you and Reid when we were playing pirates.”

      “The way I remember it, I killed you several times.”

      Cam laughed. “Funny, but I don’t remember it that way. And Adair will back me up.”

      “Piper has a pretty accurate memory of what actually went on in those caves,” he warned. “In fact, she found a third cave that you and I and Reid missed. That’s where we found the second sapphire earring.”

      “A third cave. No shit. But you still haven’t answered my question. Why am I hearing about all of this secondhand? Wasn’t I the one who had the brilliant idea you should go up there?”

      Duncan glanced back through the glass at Piper. “I’ve been a little busy.” So busy that he’d forgotten to phone his brother about the discovery of a priceless earring.

      “With Piper. I understand. Daryl filled me in on her situation and the fact that someone followed you into the caves. Adair’s worried.”

      Duncan believed that. He also knew his brother’s concern was the real reason for the phone call. “Daryl doesn’t know yet about the latest development. Neither does Vi.” He filled Cam in on Patrick Lightman’s appearance in the village of Glen Loch.

      “So you’ve got a mysterious guy in a hoodie sending threatening notes and vases of roses to Piper in D.C., someone else following you into our cave at the castle, a person who may or may not have been paying nocturnal visits to the library until we upped the security, and now a serial killer has joined the party.”

      Plus, he had this no-strings sex-on-demand relationship going on with Piper. Which was obviously distracting him. But what Duncan said was, “Those are the highlights.”

      “And here I thought that it might be Piper who was keeping you so preoccupied.”

      Duncan frowned. One of the plagues of growing up with brothers was that they could read you very well.

      “Those secret sexual fantasies the sisters buried in that metal box can keep you busy,” Cam said.

      Duncan waited a beat before he took the bait. “Secret sexual fantasies?”

      “Piper didn’t mention them yet?”

      “No.” Duncan sat down on the stone wall that bordered the terrace and kept his gaze on Piper.

      “Adair didn’t tell me about what was in the box, either,” Cam said. “But my curiosity got the best of me.”

      Duncan had to laugh. “There’s a surprise.”

      “Hey, I’m trying to do you a favor here. I figure I owe you one after I asked you to bring that reluctant bridegroom back from Montana. And I like to pay my debts.”

      “I’m all ears.”

      “From the time they were little, Adair, Piper and Nell wrote down their private thoughts on paper, locked them in a metal box and buried that box beneath some of the stones in the arch so they could tap into the power of the legend.”

      “Vi mentioned that to me,” Duncan said. “Not a bad plan.”

      “It gets better. On the night that our mother married A.D., they drank a little champagne and decided to write down their most secret fantasies. Sexual ones. And they put them into the box and tucked them back into the stones.”

      “Adair told you all of this?” Duncan asked.

      “Not at first.” Cam cleared his throat. “She was showing me where she and Vi found the first earring and we accidentally dug out the box. I was naturally curious, and when she ran off with the thing, I looked into the matter.”

      “What good CIA agent wouldn’t?”

      “Exactly. First chance I got, I read all of them. I knew which one was Adair’s right away. And brother to brother, I’ll give you a hint that might help you to identify Piper’s. To ensure privacy, they each wrote their fantasies down on different colored paper. Adair’s are the yellow ones. So you have a fifty-fifty chance that Piper’s fantasy is written on either the blue or the pink paper. I’m thinking that a top-notch FBI profiler like you should be able to figure it out.”

      “Just where is this metal box?”

      “Still buried in the stone arch. Adair wanted her sisters to still have the power working for them. Look for loose stones at the base about two feet in on the right. At the very least, they make very interesting reading,” Cam prodded. “If you have the time.”

      Duncan continued to study Piper’s prone form on the couch. She was still out for the count, and a quick glance at his watch told him that Vi and Daryl wouldn’t arrive for another couple of hours. The timing was perfect.

      What he said to Cam was, “Before I let you go, what have you found out on your end about Eleanor Campbell and Angus One and their elopement from Scotland? Russell Arbogast, the senior editor from Architectural Digest, says that he’s seen the original stone arch on the Campbell family’s estate.”

      “I’m looking СКАЧАТЬ