Temptation's Kiss Read Free Page B

Not if he knew.”
    Scarlet shook her head. “Knew what?”
    Lily was surprised to feel her throat close against the threat of tears. She swallowed around them. “Kane is a member of the Guard. His family name goes back as far as ours. He’ll want to pass that down someday. And I don’t blame him.” She stood, hurrying to the pot of soup on the stove and stirring it, grateful to have something to keep her hands busy.
    “Wait a minute … This is about,” Scarlet looked around to make sure no one was listening and then lowered her voice anyway, “the thing? The thing you don’t want anyone to know?”
    “I’m just saying,” Lily said, “the only reason Kane’s interested in me now—if he even is—is because he doesn’t know. Trust me, that would put a damper on things real fast.”
    Scarlet leaned against the sink next to her. “I really don’t think you’re giving Kane enough credit. This isn’t the freaking 1800s. Not every guy wants kids. And even if Kane does, you guys could adopt. Or get a surrogate. There are all kinds of ways to have children now.”
    “It’s not the same,” Lily choked the words out.
    “Well, no,” Scarlet said. “It’s not the same. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s just different.”
    Lily couldn’t find the words to tell her sister that she couldn’t risk it. That she couldn’t risk revealing herself to Kane—revealing her feelings for him—only to have him reject her.
    As it was, she hadn't lost anything. And that’s how she wanted it to stay.
    “I just don’t want to go there, Scarlet. Okay? Can we just drop it?”
    “Sure,” Scarlet said softly. “But love is more complicated, more mysterious, then a set of requirements to be checked off like a grocery list. The last thing I wanted was to be with a guy in the Guard. You know that. But look at me; Rowen’s the one. He just is. And nothing else seems to matter in the face of that.”

Seven
    Kane steered the Rover toward the offices of the Clifton Record, Ivan next to him in the passenger seat. Kane had been surprised when the other man hadn’t pulled rank to drive. Not that Ivan was any higher up on the ladder of the Guard than Kane.
    Not technically, anyway.
    But he was Ambrose Montgomery’s son, and there was a certain amount of pull you had when you were the boss’s son.
    “So tell me why we’re seeing this reporter again?” Ivan asked.
    Kane pulled onto Broad Street, slowing as they came to the sterile glass building that held the newspaper’s offices. “Margaret O’Reilly has been one of the more persistent members of the press since Mikhail’s body was found. We need to see if she can I.D. someone Rowen and I saw coming out of the armory.”
    “I take it we’ve already checked the criminal databases?”
    “Yep. Turned up nothing, which just means the guy doesn’t have a record,” Kane said, taking a ticket from the parking attendant in the Record’s garage.
    “What makes us think this reporter will be able to I.D. him?” Ivan asked.
    “Absolutely nothing,” Kane said. “It’s a last ditch effort. If it doesn’t work, we’re going to have to hope the guy shows up again so we can case him. He’s the only unexplained connection we have to the armory.”
    “And the armory’s the only connection to the glaive found in the revenant’s body,” Ivan added.
    “You got it.”
    Ivan nodded.
    Kane stole a glance at the other man, wondering what Ivan would think if he knew Kane had been fantasizing about his little sister non-stop since that moment in her bedroom the day before. Fantasizing? Hell, that was putting it lightly. He was alternately aroused and lovesick, unable to concentrate on even the most mundane tasks, hoping he’d run into Lily in the halls of the house like some lap dog.
    They parked the car and headed inside, taking the elevator to the fifth floor. The interior offices of the Record were as non-descript as the exterior of the building. They were met by the