Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)(33)

Left with no alternative, I returned to surveillance of his house. He did not return, nor has he returned since.

This was… It was… Pru had absolutely no doubt that the man referred to in this report was connected not only to her sister’s and Worthington’s deaths, but also Parker’s.

The date at the top of the written report was from two days previously. Which meant not only that this report had been in Titus’s possession for the past two days, but he had not bothered to inform her of the progress they had made in tightening the net about the murderer.

Something hard lodged in Pru’s chest at that knowledge. A solid lump so icy, it burned her with the intensity of its coldness.

He had not given his word, as such, but he had agreed he would send news of any progress made in his investigations. Almost apprehending a man connected with three deaths, one of them her own twin, was news Titus should have shared with her.

Instead, he had chosen to keep that knowledge to himself. To treat her like some ninny-headed debutante who must not be troubled with the realities of life, lest she become hysterical.

“Get off me,” she instructed harshly. “Get off me now!” Her voice rose in her need to escape the feeling of suffocation, not from having Titus’s body on hers but his betrayal.

Titus was so lost in the pleasurable aftermath of their lovemaking that it took him several seconds to realize what Pru had said. “I am so sorry, my dear Pru.” He straightened his back to take his weight onto his legs. “I did not mean to squash you.” He took a handkerchief from his pocked before very gently withdrawing his cock and replacing it with the silk square before the two of them set about straightening their clothing.

Making love to Pru had been everything he might have hoped for. So much so—

“What do you call this?” She whirled to face him, holding up a piece of crumpled paper in her fisted hand. “How dare you keep this from me?” Her eyes glittered with fury. “How dare you!”

Titus stared blankly at the piece of paper before the full import of what she held hit him. “You read that report? While I was making love to you, believing you to be as lost to pleasure as I, you were reading a private document on my desk?”

“Of course I was not— Do not turn this back on me, you—you arrogant bastard!” Two bright spots of color glowed in her cheeks, her eyes a glittering blue. “I nursed you back to health—”

“And I am grateful for it.”

“I do not want your gratitude! Before you left Germaine House, I asked that you keep me informed. You said that you would. Instead, you chose to keep this from me.” She threw the crumpled piece of paper down onto his desk.

“I hardly had chance to tell you anything when you burst into my study unannounced, before baring breasts in offering to me and instructing me to suck them.” He gave a shake of his head. “No man in his right mind is going to talk about reports and such when a woman does that.”

Her mouth firmed even as the blush deepened in her cheeks. “You could have sent word to let me know you had received information, rather than my having to traipse all the way across London to learn of your betrayal.”

“Germaine House is a mile distant,” he drawled. “Which means you did not ‘traipse all the way across London.’” Titus was determined to hold on to his temper, knowing it would only make matters worse if they both hurled angry accusations.

“That only makes your tardiness worse,” Pru accused, stepping out from behind the desk to begin pacing the room. “You could have walked to Germaine House and told me what you have learned.”

Titus drew in a calming breath as he leaned against his desk. “And what have I learned, Pru? What information did you glean from reading that report that has made you so angry?”

“That it was written two days ago, for one!”

He nodded briefly. “And I received it an hour ago.”

“You— What?” She stilled her pacing in front of the desk.

Titus picked up the piece of paper, smoothing it out before placing it down in front of her. “If you had bothered to look at the bottom of the page, you will see that it is unfinished and unsigned.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What difference does that make when the date at the top is from two days ago?”

“Will you stop repeating that in that accusing tone?” he rasped.

She gave a defiant snort. “Why should I not be accusing when you have deceived me, by omission, if nothing else.”

“I have not—” Titus broke off his angry retort. “Dear God, just minutes ago, I was fucking you into oblivion on my desktop, and now you dare to accuse me of deception.” He gripped his hands tightly together behind his back to stop himself from reaching out and shaking her. Having her breasts tumble out of her gown for the second time today might be pleasurable, but it would certainly not lead to the same result. “The man who wrote that report was fished out of the Thames early this morning.”

The color drained from Pru’s cheeks. “He’s dead?”

“Indisputably,” Titus confirmed grimly. Gerald Harper had been one of his own, a comrade in arms for several years, and a valued informant for several more. “That unfinished report was found and delivered to me after Harper’s rooms were searched earlier today.”