Chapter 10
Athena waited to see how Morgan would respond, profoundly grateful that she had managed to keep her composure intact—just barely—during this harrowing visit.
The facts that had been brought to light during their conversation still rattled about in her mind, making it difficult to concentrate on any one disquieting revelation. She was unable to decide which was worse: Morgan’s untimely intrusion, his witnessing her helplessness, or what he had told her about Niall.
She believed Morgan, as painful as it was. Since that argument months ago when Niall had accused her of doing too much, a part of her had been preparing for just such a battle. She simply had not believed it would come so soon, or in such unexpected form.
She had lied to Morgan when she told him that Niall accepted her inhuman nature; in her heart she knew that he did not, not completely. It was a matter they had never discussed. But if Niall thought she might be reminded of her mother’s heritage, and how it had brought her to this life of confinement…
How could she admit how much it hurt that Niall had schemed behind her back, all in the name of protecting her from herself?
Her reputation had become the least of her worries. Yet she could not ignore the effect Morgan had upon her, here in her own most private sanctuary. He was the wolf who spoke to the sleeping beast within her. The man who stared at her as if she were a desirable woman. Heaven help her, she had felt that stare like a touch whispering up and down her flesh, stirring sensations she had just begun to experience before the accident.
Why, oh why had Morgan come to waken them again? Why did he make her feel more than any man alive, more than any person had a right to?
And why was he so determined to protect her?
She held her head high and watched him weigh her answer as ruthlessly as he had judged her life. At last he cocked his head, and a smile tilted one corner of his mouth.
“Caitlin was right,” he said. “You are brave enough.”
“Thank you. And now you must leave. If my brother finds you here, nothing in the world will convince him to let the circus remain in Denver.”
He inclined his head. “I will go.”
Athena allowed herself to relax just a little, knowing there would be no further chance at sleep tonight. She would spend the wee hours concocting a way to broach the subject with Niall… while not revealing her source of information.
“Please convey my gratitude to Harry and the others,” she said. “Ask them to wait until they hear from me. I will see that you get a message when I have spoken to Niall.” Having a definite plan was comforting, however tenuous it was. “Regardless of Niall’s response, I will make certain that the troupe receives the full payment they were promised.”
“Even if you lose the fight?”
She shuddered inwardly at his insistence on using such violent terms. Perhaps he knew no other way.
If she pursued that line of thought, she would let herself be drawn to him, into his life, with the hope that somehow she might unravel the mystery of Morgan Holt. She wanted very badly to understand him, even though she knew such a course was dangerous beyond her wildest speculation.
The questions she might ask Morgan Holt would satisfy her curiosity, nothing more. The answers could not change what was.
“If I lose the battle,” she said, “you will have lost nothing.”
“And your brother will rule you for the rest of your life.”
“You seem just as determined to ‘rule’ me as he is. Are all men as thoroughly vexing as the two of you?”
“Are all females as foolish as you and Caitlin?”
“You do not know—you, a man of the world? Have you not left a trail of broken hearts behind you?”
He twitched as if he would snap at her, and then his eyes kindled like golden lanterns. “Not yet. Should I begin now?”
Never in her life had Athena been so grateful for a distraction as she was when she heard the unmistakable sound of a slamming door downstairs.