“I am certain they are doing things inside that house that are against our laws,” she finally said.
“Which is why we will watch them and then have Dobson and his men storm the place,” said Brant. “I just need to find a way to know what is inside there. And who is.”
Her anger was weighted with a sadness he could almost taste. Brant could not ignore it any longer. Nor could he resist the urge, the deep need, to try and ease it. He put his arm around her shoulders and tugged her up against his side. The way she settled against him, welcoming the light embrace, was far too tempting. He knew it was a mistake to stay so close to her but he did not have the strength to pull away from her when she was so in need of comfort.
“This is not wise,” Olympia said even as she savored the warm strength of him, for her mind quickly filled with the memory of the kisses they had shared.
“No, probably not,” he agreed. “Not when we are . . .” He stuttered to a halt as he searched for the right words, ones that would be neither suggestive nor presumptive.
“Attracted to each other. Such proximity only adds to that temptation.”
Olympia Wherlocke was not a shy, reticent miss, he thought with an inner grin. He could attribute that to the fact that she had been directly involved in the solving of several dark crimes in the past few years but he suspected it was far more than that. Olympia was also in her late twenties, considered thoroughly on the shelf by most of society who had forgotten her brief marriage, and had a vast array of male relatives.
“Quite so,” he agreed, noting that she made no move to push him away. “We are also both adult enough and strong-willed enough for that not to matter.” He grinned when she made a soft noise that revealed her utter scorn for his remark. “You do not think us adults or strong-willed?”
“I know you are jesting. Of course we are both. And, of course we both know that that makes little difference. Children running freely through the house does make a difference, however.”
“Very true.” He gave in to the urge to nuzzle her thick hair, breathing in the scent of her and grimacing when his groin tightened with need.
The warmth of his breath against the side of her neck made Olympia shiver with pleasure, but she struggled to hide her reaction. Brant was the first man she had ever felt any desire for but she was still not sure it would be wise to test her own strength with him. The only other time she had been with a man it had been a horrific experience, a tearing away of her childhood and ability to trust. It had left scars upon her very soul. If she reached out for what her body wanted only to find that fear and the pain of the past held her back, she would be humiliated. Yet, a large part of her wanted to reach out, wanted to grab on tightly and experience that pleasure so many of her family indulged in with reckless abandon. She just wished she was not taking so long to make up her mind.
Another thing that held her back was not something she could change to her advantage even if she wished to. Lovemaking required that one remove one’s clothes. Since Brant was obviously a very observant man, she feared he would see the signs on her body that would tell him she had held fast to yet another secret about herself, a very big secret. Olympia did not think she was ready to share that secret with him.
“We must set about making plans for spying on Dobbin House,” she said, praying that talking might take her mind off how good it felt to be held in his arms as he nuzzled her hair.
“We?” Brant moved away enough so that he could meet her gaze. “There is no we in this particular venture.”
“Of course there is. We cannot send the boys to watch that house. They could all too easily be taken up by that scum and I cannot abide even the thought of that happening. You do not have anyone to send in there to look around for you, do you? And you cannot go in as you do not wish to be recognized, which could happen if your mother is known to the ones running the house.”
He cursed softly for she was right in all she said. There was no one he knew to send into Dobbin House, his friends all away from the city and the boys too young, and he could not risk word of his being there getting back to his mother. They had to keep her as ignorant as possible of how closely they were watching her and looking into her affairs or she could easily elude punishment for her crimes.
“I will do the spying myself,” he said after a moment.
“With no one to watch your back?”