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“Simon lost everything in that fire.”
“I lost my sister.” The instant the words leave my lips, I want to swallow them back down. The tightness in my chest is so vicious that I can’t breathe to clear my head. A suffocating fog engulfs me.
We don’t talk about this. It’s one of those things we pretend never happened. That she never existed. The whole tragic affair is buried in the ashes of the Rochester estate.
“Let’s get into the website and see what we get from there. Get Elizabeth under John Chapman’s nose and leave the sister to me.”
“All right,” Julian says, letting out a long breath before he adds, “Don’t strike out of emotion. Make sure it’s the right thing to do.”
“Sure,” I reply with a shrug before I end the call. I’m agitated, and my head is steaming with the past, the present, and everything that’s still to come.
Lighting another cigarette, I open the drawer with Bette’s photo stowed inside. Every time I see her face, I can’t help but wonder where it went wrong for her. She was always mercurial, hot and cold, but she was sweet too. Almost as precious as Madeline.
The squeeze of my heart becomes unbearable as I trace her smile with my fingertips and search for a warning or a sign in her dark eyes that I missed before. But the only thing that screams at me is how much I miss her. I miss her following me around and getting under my feet. Fuck, I even miss getting into fights because guys couldn’t keep their eyes off her.
Dragging in another deep pull, I clutch the photo frame tightly as I lean back in my desk chair and close my eyes. For years, I’ve tried to recall the last conversation we had. The last time we got into one of our silly fights that ended with her challenging me to a duel I’d have to let her win. I can remember so many things, but not the last time we spoke or the last embrace we shared. It’s always her smile that I remember the clearest. That bright and beautiful smile that made it impossible not to smile with her. But beneath all the smiles, there was a darkness none of us ever imagined, and in the end, it took her from us. From me.
The click of Rufus’ paws interrupts my reverie as it gets closer until I hear him at the top of the stairs. He’ll grumble if he wants me to help him come down here; he won’t attempt coming down on his own. While I wait for him to decide, I hear the light shuffle of feet behind me.
“Who’s that?” Eve asks, coming down the last of the steps behind me.
“No one.” I stow Bette’s photo away again, closing the drawer as I sit up and put out the butt of my cigarette.
Wrapping her hands around my shoulders, she touches her lips to my ear. “Then why do you have her photo on your screen?”
Fuck.
“Should I be jealous?” Eve chuckles, twisting herself around me until she falls into my lap. She’s wearing one of my vests and a pair of boxer shorts that are loose on her, allowing my hands to trail over her curves and my eyes to feast on her ample tits. “You have a thing for convicts?”
I follow her gaze to the file still open on my desk with a mug shot of Mary Ann Nichols.
Fuck.
This is exactly what shouldn’t be happening. Eve can’t see this.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” I ask her, bringing her face to mine and kissing her.
I can feel her lips pull into a gorgeous smile. The same kind of smile that Bette used to have. Except hers eases the tightness in my chest.
“You should be in bed.” Pressing the button to send the Mac to sleep, I wait for the screen to go blank as I flip the folder shut and stash it away in the keyboard drawer. “Big day tomorrow.”
“Might shit myself.” A big, teasing grin cuts across her face when I roll my eyes at her common nervous quip. “I keep having a stupid dream where my strings snap halfway through my performance and—”
“You’re going to be perfect, my beautiful darling.”
“Henry.” She whispers my name like it’s the most precious prayer on her lips. “I like it when you call me that.”
“You are beautiful.”
“Not beautiful. Darling.” Trembling fingers comb through my hair. “I like it when you call me your darling.”
“Well, my darling Eve, I’m going to get you to bed.” I push to my feet, lifting her in my arms as she buries her face in my chest.
“Are you going to fuck me?”
“Yes, darling, I’m going to watch you ride my cock until you come with my name on your lips. Just the way I like it.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” A deep sigh hums from her as I take the steps up from the office and walk through the open-plan living area to the bedroom, with Rufus grunting behind us.
