Lady Wicked Read Free

recognise him as he could
recognise her. Even worse, he wasn’t sure she knew what he was. He
wondered how she had existed so long without falling into a
desperate state of confusion.
    The second ball had seen James taken a sudden
interest in Amelia, one that made Jeremy force himself to manage
the temper building within him. To make matters worse, James had
subsequently succeeded where he hadn’t. Somehow he had garnered an
invitation to a party, then tea amongst friends, and other affairs
where he would constantly bump into Amelia. James never failed to
include him with an invite, but he was hesitant to push Amelia into
confessing who she was. Jeremy hadn’t wanted to frighten her even
though his mind urged him to take her, his body simultaneously
urging him to claim hers.
    Adoring her from afar, imagining their life
together was not enough anymore. Tonight he aimed to make Amelia
his. There would be no more abiding by society’s rules. They simply
didn’t matter on his estate this night. No, he intended to bind
Amelia to him, and take her for a wife. With their immortality, and
the love already cresting his heart, he finally saw a future. One
that had everything he yearned for.
    Looking out of the window, his second whiskey
in hand, he saw a young woman being helped from the carriage. With
her long cloak and simple gold mask tied over her ebony mane, there
was no mistaking her. Amelia had arrived.
    “James.” Jeremy turned from the window just
as the air blew through the open door opposite. He looked to James
seat, finding it vacant. Damn his competitive brother!
    Striding from the room, he grabbed his silver
half mask, fixing it in place. Banging the door shut, he turned the
key. While most rooms where available for his guests to use at
their pleasure, and their fornication if they chose, some rooms
were off limits, and he held the master key to them all. Not far
away was his bedroom where he planned to take Amelia in his arms,
undress her and finally join them as one.
    Pausing at the banister, he looked down to
the throng of people milling below in the foyer. Liveried servants
were collecting cloaks and serving Champagne, but it was the guests
who were the most intriguing. Among the rainbow of colours – jewel
brights in satins, velvets and lace – there were masks of every
variety from the impish Harlequin to elaborate feathered numbers.
Amid them all stood his heart’s desire. Amelia. And damn his
brother is she wasn’t curling her arm under his James’ who was
smiling down at her under his angel half-mask.
    He had waited a lifetime for her, and he
wasn’t about to lose her to his own brother. For the first time in
centuries, Jeremy found himself in competition with James and he
didn’t like it one bit.

Chapter Three
     
    James tucked Amelia’s arm through his own,
smiling down at her. He didn’t need to look up to know his older
brother was staring at them, his face no doubt etched with
undisguised anger. So Jeremy had been beaten to the punch? That’s
what happened when one spent more time pacing and brooding and less
time doing. The latter was James’ forte. Pursuit had always
intrigued him, though he had a shallow tendency to cast aside the
pretty fish he reeled in. Not this time, not once he’d realised
Amelia could be the one to capture his heart, not just satisfy his
needs.
    “Have we met, my lady?” James asked as suited
his guise of a stranger, wondering if she saw through his mask as
easily as he saw through hers. The glittering jewels and delicate
mask were no camouflage for her true self, though her assumed
moniker amused him no end. It sounded deliciously sinful, just as
it should for the Masquerade.
    “I couldn’t say,” Amelia smiled in response.
“Isn’t that the point?”
    “I heard you announced as Lady Wicked. What a
very… fiendish name.”
    Amelia giggled, a girlish, sweet sound that
contrasted with her impious persona. “That is what I chose to call
myself this