A House of Fangs & Fate: The Juniper St. James Saga - Book 2 (The Vampire's Courtesan) by Sami Valentine

Author:Sami Valentine [Valentine, Sami]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocketmaus Press
Published: 2023-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

KRISTOFF

September 3rd, Evening

Prague

Byrnes Manor

At the dinner service, Kristoff cultivated the demeanor of domestic servitude, but his mind was in turmoil.

He couldn’t stop imagining what was going on upstairs. The woman in silk was what Miss St. James looked like behind closed doors. His heart clenched at the memory. She had looked over her shoulder at him with wide green eyes, lips pink from kisses. Loose red hair tumbled down her shoulders to her waist. Her nipples strained against her thin dressing gown. He wasn’t supposed to see her like that, but he couldn’t look away even when her lover slammed the door in his face.

He had never seen anyone more beautiful.

The English chatter of the family rolled over him in the more intimate yet still spacious second dining room. Despite his growing unease, he felt proud of the vocabulary that he understood. None of those few words offered him any insight into who these people really were.

Miss St. James kept her secrets well.

He took a deep breath when he remembered her soft, sensual moan overheard through the door. Envy scratched at him like a tomcat. He once hoarded her secrets like gold, but now his mind felt like it was in overload from everything he’d learned tonight. He had served her for months, but who was this woman? He’d thought he knew her.

Or did he merely know her routine?

Miss St. James took a late breakfast, then she would disappear into her work and lunch, and dinner could slip her mind until he reminded her. He would find her reading or writing around the late summer sunset. Sometimes by the shelf, or on the bench under the window, or sitting behind the large desk. One time, she sat more like a girl than a lady, folded up in the overstuffed leather chair with a book in her lap, her legs crossed somewhere in the fluff of her skirts.

Kristoff had tried very hard not to think of her legs.

Most of the time, she would be at her little desk in the corner. He would ask if she wanted tea. She would never want to trouble him, but he was always happy to be troubled. It was a far quieter evening routine than his life in the slums.

The happier past couldn’t quell his uncertainty about the present. He knew something was wrong when they picked up her family from the train station. That night it had been raining too. A storm had settled on the city as if determined to drown it.

At the train platform days ago, he had brushed the rain off the cuffs of his best livery jacket before he clasped his hands behind his back. It was a pose to seem confident. He could’ve used a drink for his nerves.

Miss St. James waited for her family ahead of him. Her red hair glimmered in the flickering lights of the railway station. She kept it tightly coiled at the base of her neck. In her habitual modest black dress, she seemed determined not to be seen.

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