What a Hero Dares by Kasey Michaels

Author:Kasey Michaels [Michaels, Kasey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780263246070
Amazon: 0373778600
Goodreads: 18246280
Publisher: M & B
Published: 2013-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

MAX LISTENED INTENTLY at the dinner table as Zoé told the story of seeing the Exalted Leader and her concubine, assistant, lover, sap-skulled devotee—whatever in Hades was the purpose of the man. He hoped she might say something, think of something she hadn’t told him earlier, but he should have known better. Zoé knew how to observe, how to take in only important information and commit it to memory, and then relay it in a clear, concise manner.

Trixie spoke next. “Dark-haired, on her way to forty, definitely English. You two think probably no more than sixteen or eighteen when she was brought into the Society, perhaps even younger. That’s more than possible. A second wife, or even a daughter, or else she’d be too old now to connect her with my son’s Devil’s Thirteen. Still, a long time ago, and I was not familiar with many of them. I have to take my mind back, concentrate.”

“Please, before you do that, Trixie,” Daisy said, “you did say daughter, didn’t you? That’s obscene.”

Max turned to his grandmother, his expression one of do we tell her?

Trixie laid down her fork. “Jessica, Gideon’s dear wife, was very nearly just such a victim, and believed all these years that her father was responsible. Happily, his journals proved the case otherwise. And before you ask, Adam was also destined to join the Society, as sons were always encouraged, even educated to follow their fathers. Fortunately, some would say, my son died before any of his offspring were more than children.”

Zoé reached over and squeezed Max’s hand under the table. It was, he supposed, a lovely gesture, but he didn’t want her feelings for him to be clouded by pity.

Soon after, none of the diners seeming to have much of an appetite, everyone adjourned, the men to linger over brandy and cigars, the women heading back to the drawing room.

Except that Max believed he and Zoé had learned enough about the Society for the day, and held her back when she moved to join Trixie and Kate. He grabbed up a cigar from Gideon’s well-guarded supply, allowed Dearborn to light it for him, and led Zoé to the music room, and the French doors leading to the gardens.

“That may have been rude,” she pointed out as they made their way along the path lit by well-spaced lanterns hanging from poles. “In fact, I know it was. I was going to ask Trixie more about your brother’s wife.”

“Yes, I know, but since the answers don’t have anything to do with the point, we’ll leave that to Jessica, if she so chooses to tell you. For now, I just want to enjoy the evening.”

“And what smells like quite a lovely cigar. May I have a puff?”

Max handed it over and watched as she rolled the tip of the thing between her lips, and then drew in a breath, savored it, before blowing out a loud of blue smoke. Watching Zoé with a cigar was a most powerful aphrodisiac.

“A million times superior to those weeds we shared in Pamplona.

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