Mysterious Seduction

XXXVI. Free

It was good to finally be free.

For it would give him time to hunt for her.

Perhaps she was somewhere aboveground enjoying the fruits of her labor.

Where, though, was the question.

Her estate was abandoned with no traces of where she went.

"Who are you looking for, exactly?" his closest friend and fellow Leaguer asked.

"The woman who nearly got me killed, of course. We find her and we get enough evidence to find the man behind all this," he replied. "I have to go back aboveground myself."

"Which woman? You mean Ellie?"

"I see you have gotten acquainted."

"Well, yes, of course. She has been belowground."

"Of course, she was. I brought her here. And she left me here thinking I'll die."

"No, she returned while you were in prison."

-Above and Below

*****

"Whatever you are planning, Emma, it is leading nowhere," Wynne said, voice filled with warning. The way her determined face looked back at him made him feel scared. Bloody hell, yes, of course he was scared for he knew what he would do if she kept this on—and kept her clothes off. "From the very start, what we started never promised a very good destination. And that is one destination I never planned."

Wynne watched as Emma placed her hands on her hips and pretended to think. He swallowed. She was handling this pretty well. "I am not convinced."

His eyes narrowed. He had to think fast. He assessed the situation. She was in a state of undress, the door was locked—she made certain of that. His butler could be somewhere. He could shout for anyone and the door would be kicked open. But she had him trapped. That single dress on the floor was trapping him in this bloody room.

Frustration raged within. It was being laced by a growing fire of desire. She was in her undergarments and it did not require a lot of imagination to make his body react.

"I have promised never to marry, but I shall make you an exemption," Emma said, stepping out of the pool of dress around her feet. She kicked off her riding shoes.

Wynne took a lungful of air and without looking anywhere but her face, he gritted out, "We have both fooled each other. I knew early on you knew who I was. Everything you did, I suspected. I played you as you played me. Whyever would you be so utterly stupid as to propose marriage?"

She shrugged. "Everything you did, I suspected as well. Yet there were also things you did that you kept secret and they were the things that matters most. We fooled each other long enough to know we can never win. From the beginning, we both knew that somehow, there was something else."

She took one bold step toward him. "You tried to seduce me," she whispered as she drew closer. When she was finally within reach, Wynne realized he was holding his breath. And as Emma's emerald eyes looked up at him, her dark hair framing her face, his hands tightened even more into fists. "You tried to be my friend. Could you say now you regretted it?"