Dangerous Temptation (Dark Dream Duet #1)(27)

He took in two orphaned children who otherwise would have been condemned to the messy foster care system and potentially separated from each other, but he seemed to hate me. So why would he become our guardian?

My head throbbed as I fought to understand the cruel man who had saved us even though it seemed he sought to destroy us.

I tossed off the silk sheets and swung my feet over the edge of the bed, wiggling my toes on the soft carpet I’d cried into for hours the night before. Dawn had breached the horizon, spilling light as pale as milk across the frosted landscape outside. Brando would be up soon if he wasn’t already and I wanted to be able to spend our first morning in this gothic hellhole together.

When I tried the door, it was blessedly unlocked, which sparked a remnant of rage in my chest. How dare Tiernan steal from me, then lock me in my room like an errant child.

My steps were heavy with anger as I stalked down the long, dark hall filled with priceless art to the stairs. No one had given us a tour of the main floor, so I wandered from large, cluttered room to large, cluttered room, touching my fingers to the marble busts and stacked paintings just to spite Tiernan’s insane rule that we didn’t touch anything.

He had made this our home when he brought us here and I wouldn’t be kept from trying to eke out some comfort in the haunted halls.

I froze in what seemed like the music room, a massive harp and piano gleaming in the light from the beveled windows, because I heard another kind of music.

Brando’s laughter.

My heart unstuck from the web of fear caught between my ribs and began to race. I hurried after the noise, finding myself at the yawning mouth of a staircase descending into the stone-walled basement. A shiver tripped up my spine at the ominous sight, but I didn’t hesitate to run down the stairs, worried about my brother.

I blinked when I emerged into the light at the bottom of the stairs.

A massive room laid with black mats sprawled out in front of me, filled with endless fitness equipment and a small boxing ring. My eyes snagged on Brando’s bright hair where he leaned against the ropes to the ring, shouting his approval as two men boxed within.

One of them was Ezra, his great, hulking body tensed to fight as he faced off with his opponent.

Tiernan.

My mouth went dry as I gaped at the man I was supposed to think of as some kind of father figure. He was barechested, his torso gleaming with a thin sheen of sweat that made him seem like a golden statue come to life. The long hair over the crown of his head was wet and dangling across his brow, catching in his eyelashes as he ducked a powerful punch, then sprung up to deliver his own hit to Ezra’s low left side. There were black boxing gloves on his hands, and black shorts slung precariously low on his narrow hips, revealing the top of his shorn pubic hair and a glimpse of that unknown tattoo.

My God, it should be criminal for such an asshole to be so outrageously sexy.

“Brando, what are you doing down here?” I demanded as I unstuck my feet and went to my little brother, gently untangling his hands from the ropes.

He frowned up at me. “Not now, Anca. Ezra and Tiernanny are fighting and I’ve got money on the match!”

“Excuse me?” I blinked, shocked that Brando even knew what putting money on a match meant.

He grinned at me and held up a fistful of crisp twenty-dollar bills. “Tiernan said it’s my allowance, so I can do what I want with it. I put ten dollars on him ’cause Henrik said Ezra was gonna win.”

I looked up and over at the man who was lifting weights in the corner of the room. He looked like a real-life Mr. Clean, his bald head shining under the lights, muscles bulging as he curled some impossible weight.

“Get him!” Brando yelled in excitement, leaning into the rope so heavily, he almost fell through.

I carted him upright, my eyes swinging back to the action in the ring. Tiernan’s face was a stone edifice, utterly impassible but for the burning eyes that tracked every movement Ezra made and calculated the best plan of attack. I watched as he let Ezra come at him, swinging punch after brutal punch that Tiernan was forced to duck or block. It was hard not to wince, thinking that it was only a matter of time before one of those heavy blows landed.

It seemed clear he was outmatched by the bigger man.

But then, a tiny, curling little grin claimed that scarred mouth, and a second later, Tiernan sprung into action.

My mouth dropped open and my breath arrested in my lungs as I watched him finally attack his opponent. He flew around the ring, weaving and lunging gracefully, so light on his feet he seemed to float even while his arms lashed out powerfully to deliver hit after hit against Ezra, most of them landing despite the other man’s attempts to block him. Regardless of my hatred for him, it was impossible not to note how glorious he was like that, spinning and darting violently, sinuously around the ring, so formidable, so self-assured. The entire time, that little, menacing grin furled the left side of his mouth.

Joy.

That’s what it was.

The first time I’d seen it truly expressed on Tiernan’s face.

That, even more than the gorgeousness of his lean, corded muscles flexing under all that golden, tattooed skin held me utterly in thrall.

It ended quickly, Tiernan’s leg darting out to trip Ezra’s weight into an unsteady stagger and then the punishing move, taking the large man to his back on the ground. Tiernan pinned his arms to the floor with his knees and cocked his right arm back to finish him off.