Where Sleeping Dragons Lie (Skeleton Key) Read Free Page B

thought of being
alone with Taron Hildebrand without Carol acting as a buffer didn’t really sit
well with her, but she nodded anyway. What was a little discomfort when there
were some answers to be had?
    “If it’s all right with
you, Carol,” Briana said, “we can skip the office discussion and go straight
back to the examining room.” She patted the side of her shoulder bag, drawing
the two men’s eyes to it. “I already have the book in question here.”
    Taron looked as though
he had just won the lottery. The fact that his ecstatic expression made him
even more attractive—and her cheeks heat up—made Briana seriously wonder if she
had ever had control of the conversation at all.
    At Carol’s nod, she
beckoned the two men after her, all the while feeling what were probably
Taron’s eyes boring into the back of her head, making the hair at the back of
her neck stand on end. Once again, Briana clutched her shoulder bag strap more
tightly. She would have to be more careful in the next hour than she had ever
had to be in her life.
    She would be damned
before she would allow a sexy smile and an intimidating demeanor bully her into
giving up such a treasure without a legit reason.

CHAPTER THREE
     
     
    Taron’s eyes tracked
Briana’s every movement as keenly as a cat stalking a bird within grasp on the
front lawn as she carefully pulled the book from its protective slipcase and
placed it gently onto the examining table. It disturbed her to realize just how
much his stare made her feel like that metaphorical bird.
    Instead of studying the
book last night, she should have spent the time looking up Taron Hildebrand on
the internet. She was kicking herself that she hadn’t thought until now to have
Carol, at the very least, investigate whether or not Taron’s appraiser really
did own an auction company in New York before she had brought them to the back
room. They could be a pair of con artists, for all she knew. It wouldn’t be the
first time someone used their good looks as a weapon…
    Yeah, and maybe you
just read too many thrillers , she thought sardonically.
    However, there was no
denying the man’s rising excitement from the moment the book had first been
revealed. If his story about the book being a family heirloom was true, she
wondered just how long and hard he had searched, how much money he had spent, to
find it.
    “You hinted earlier that
this book was written in an obscure alphabet,” Briana said abruptly, breaking
the loaded silence that had fallen between them. “Before I open this, can you
tell me about the writing?”
    He laughed. “ Very obscure, yes, given that it’s an alphabet created by my ancestors.”
    “Then—it was written in
code?” she pressed.
    “You could say that.”
    When it became apparent
that no further explanation would be forthcoming, Briana decided to back off to
something more innocuous in the hopes that he would relax and open up a bit more.
She had seen this type of reluctance in the past with a few of Carol’s older
clients, the determination to reveal nothing but what was absolutely necessary.
Some families with ties back to various European nobility could be incredibly
skittish about revealing too much history about the books—whether about the
books themselves or a client’s particular ties to it—because they feared Carol
would jack up the initial price.
    “Sorry for the twenty
questions,” Briana apologized with faux sheepishness. “I’m a history major, so
you must understand that finding a book as apparently old and intriguing as
this one isn’t one I’m eager to let go without a very good reason. Even then, at
the very least, I would like to have my own curiosity sated.”
    Taron nodded, his eyes
softening a bit. “I have a Ph.D. in history, myself, so I can well understand
your reluctance to part with it, as well as your caution.”
    Briana leaned forward
with both interest and suspicion. “Oh?”
    “The Hildebrand family
has been