Mission: Improper: London Steampunk: The Blue Blood Conspiracy Read Free

her, Byrnes. She's good at what she does, and she's an even better tracker than you are." Garrett's voice echoed in his memory.
    Byrnes grit his teeth. Garrett had known he worked better alone. He always had, and it got on every one of his last nerves to know that not only could he not find the answer in this particular case, but that they expected that she would.
    They’d lasted an entire day working together.
    And then it became a competition.
    "Bet I catch the killer first," that husky voice whispered in his mind.
    "I bet you I do," he'd shot back, and stepped toward her, into her space. "And when I do, you're going to get down on your knees and—"
    "And?" she'd drawled, straightening a little, her eyes lighting with a challenging fire.
    It changed what he'd meant to say. “And kiss my boots” had been his intention. That was not what had come out. The instant he'd stated his intentions she'd taken a step toward him, closing that last inch between them, and reached up to whisper in his ear.
    "Be careful what you wish for, Byrnes." A mocking finger traced over his shirt so lightly he barely felt it, yet the not-quite touch sent a shiver through him, and their eyes had met then, as something more than words had been exchanged. "I don't think you'll want my teeth anywhere near your balls." A smile that gripped his cock like a vise. "Not that that will ever happen, but it does add a certain little incentive toward the case. When I bring this bastard in, I have my own terms, and you'll meet them."
    "Name them." The shock of his sudden interest had flared through him, and he'd caught her wrist, stopping her hand just above the waistband of his leather breeches.
    "If I solve the case, then I get to tie you to my bed, and do anything I desire to you. Anything at all."
    A mistake. He should have made her be more specific, but just at that moment she'd flexed her wrist in his grasp and raked her fingernail over the leather protecting his cock.
    "Done," he'd said. After all, he'd never lost before.
    If there was one person who could get into his room at the guild and leave that taunting note, knowing just knowing how much it would get his itch going, it was her.
    The devil in disguise.
    Pushing open the doors to the next room, he came to a halt. It too was empty.
    And then someone spoke. Someone he knew all too well.
    "Looking for something? Or is it someone?" said an amused voice from the side.
    Her .
    Byrnes met a pair of eyes that were lit from within with a bronze glow. She hadn't changed one inch from that debacle last year, where he'd been left tied to his bed, naked, with a lovely little message written across his chest in ink, which all of his fellow Nighthawks had found absolutely hilarious.
    "Ingrid," he said.
    "Did you miss me?"

Two
    " M ISS YOU ?" Byrnes stated flatly, though the gleam in his blue eyes wasn't cold. Not at all. He took a menacing step toward her before pausing, his lean form falling into absolute stillness.
    Ingrid Miller smiled. She'd worked with Byrnes for only two weeks—or worked against him, perhaps, when he'd declared that he didn't need her and could find the suspect before she could—but in that time she'd come to know him well enough to predict him.
    He hated emotional displays, especially in himself. His control was absolute. And she'd just caused him to break both of those self-governed rules.
    Call it the devil on her shoulder, but when it came to Byrnes, she absolutely could not help herself.
    "Miss you?" he repeated. "Why yes... I believe I did. I have a little debt to repay."
    "A little debt?" Ingrid glanced at him from beneath her lashes in a most un-Ingrid-like way. "What a curious choice of words."
    Instantly his gaze flattened, and she laughed.
    "I searched for you," he said stiffly.
    "Did you?"
    "I spent months looking for you."
    "You wouldn't have found me, no matter how much time you spent looking for me." You wouldn't have found me, because I wasn't here. Not that her quest to