DangerbyDalliance (18 page)

Warren tweaked and rubbed her sensitive nipples. His strong,
hard body against hers was a welcome support.

Archer pulled back and stroked his hand along her side, over
her shoulder until he captured her chin. “Always, Sarah. Always.”

His words had a deeper meaning, but it was one that eluded
her right now. Her orgasm built deep inside her.

He sped up, but his thrusts remained so deep. Her knees
slipped out of her sweaty hands. Without stopping, he curled them around his
hips.

He was breathtaking.

Big and strong and hard, but with an innate gentleness for
her he pushed her further and further up. “Archer!”

He changed the angle, thrust even deeper and rubbed across a
place so sensitive the world around her disappeared. Only their presence kept
her from floating away, the hold they had on her.

Archer bellowed. Each spurt deep inside her made her whimper
with pleasure.

For a second she wished for conception. But that was a
selfish thought. She would not want her child to go through the trauma of being
illegitimate.

Archer dropped beside her, opposite Warren, leaving her
sandwiched in their warm and protective embrace.

She touched each of them and had to close her eyes to keep
her tears from escaping. This was it. Once she left their bed she left their
arms forever.

Her heart shattered.

There was nothing she could do. If Kemmer shared those
photographs, her, and therefore her father’s, reputation would be in ruins.
Even if Archer and Warren still wanted her they would suffer just by being
connected to her.

She could not do that to the men she loved.

But she could cling to this moment and hope that for one
night time would stand still.

Archer squinted through half-closed lids when Sarah moved.
From the moment she’d come into his house this night part of him had known
something else was going on. There had been something in her eyes.

He’d followed her lead and let things play out the way
she—hell, all of them—wanted them to, but adding the tracker had been the right
decision.

Watching her with Warren had been magical. He had expected
jealousy, but instead he’d only experienced peace and incredible arousal.

He hadn’t planned on loving her, not so soon after her first
time with Warren, but when she invited him he couldn’t resist. The feel of her
in his arms, the knowledge with each thrust he pushed her against Warren, had
filled a crack deep inside him.

Then he’d realized that she wasn’t going to fall asleep.

Suspicion had raised its ugly head again. The need to
discover her secret had become mandatory.

He kept his breaths even and deep. He couldn’t make out if
Warren was awake or what she was doing without giving himself away. Going by
the slight rustling, she got dressed, but he could see her blue dress from
where he lay and she didn’t touch it.

Moments later she leaned over him and pressed a kiss so soft
he barely felt it against his cheek. “Thank you.” Her words whispered across
him like a breeze.

She is saying goodbye.
Archer wanted to roar with
anger and denial, but he didn’t move. Instead he locked down the vulnerable
part of himself, the one that had believed they had a future as a bonded triad,
and prepared himself for her betrayal.

She repeated the same with Warren and slipped out of the
room.

He climbed to his feet with care, ensuring he made no sound.
One glance told him Warren was awake. His lover frowned and raised his brows in
question.

He shook his head and got dressed. Warren muttered to
himself and followed his example.

Archer opened the door, stepped into the hallway and sneaked
to the top of the stairs. From there he could see the entrance way and the door
to his study.

Which stood open. He always closed it.

Anger rolled through his stomach. Had she lied to them to
gain access? What could she be after? Sarah answered his question that moment
when she walked out of his study with her father’s Banknote Verification Device
in her arms.
What the hell?

Warren touched his shoulder, his eyes narrowed in question.

Archer shrugged. He had no fucking clue why she would go to
all this trouble to steal something that was completely within her rights to
take anyway.

She slid the box into her purse. It was one of those bags
that adjusted its size to whatever needed to be carried. She wore a simple gray
day dress she had to have brought with her. The pneumatic bag must have shrunk
her clothes to the smallest they could go to facilitate travel.

He was only glad that his tracker didn’t interfere with the
bag’s mechanisms, otherwise she would have found it.

Warren looked as confused as he felt.

Sarah had reached the front door, her hand on the knob. She paused
for a moment and looked around, her shoulders slumped. Then she took a deep
breath, lifted her chin and opened the door. She disappeared into the night.

“What the fuck?” Warren asked. “What the hell is she doing?”

Archer hurried down the stairs and into his study, straight
to the shelf that had held Mr. Rigdon’s machine. As expected it was gone, but
nothing else appeared to have been touched.

“Archer.”

He turned to Warren. His friend held up an envelope before
tearing it open.

“Dear Warren and Archer, I am very sorry to inform you that
circumstances have changed and I will no longer be able to sit for you. I hope
that you have what you need to finish the painting and are able to still pay my
father’s royalties at the agreed time. The same circumstances also force me to
end our dalliance.” Warren looked up from the letter. “What the fuck is going
on here?”

Archer shook his head. Deep inside him his heart turned to
ice. His dream crumbled before him.

“I wish you both all the best. My kindest regards, Sarah.”
Warren flung the sheet of paper onto Archer’s desk. “What the hell happened?
Why would she give herself to us and then run away?”

Archer only shrugged. “I don’t know.” He yanked open one of
the cupboard doors and dragged out two pneumatic guns. He threw one to Warren,
who caught it with a grimace. “We need to follow Sarah,” he explained and
strode to the door, grabbing the tracker’s remote on the way.

“How are we supposed to do that?” Warren stomped after him.

“I added a tracker to her bag.”

Warren grabbed his shoulder and forced him to stop. “You
what?”

Archer thrust his hand through his hair. “What was I
supposed to do? Something else is going on here, you have to see that.”

“All I see is a jerk who needs to be so in control that he
tracks our hopefully future wife with a stupid gadget.”

“Fuck you.” Pain ate through him like acid as he pulled on
his coat. Couldn’t Warren see that they needed to know what kind of game Sarah
was playing with them? He rubbed his chest, the ache caused by the man he’d
known and loved for years siding against him. “Then don’t come. That way you
can declare your innocence and put the blame on me.”

With his own curse Warren shrugged into his coat and rushed
after him. Outside Archer initiated the steam coach. He programmed the driver
to follow the tracker. He only hoped it would work. This was the first instance
he’d used it.

Regular beeps indicated the tracker fulfilled its purpose.

Looking out the window he quickly realized where Sarah was
headed. He pushed away his pain and all the questions piling up in his mind. He
needed to focus on the problem before them. “Don’t contradict me when we get
inside. We have no proof of what is going on, so I will have to find a way for
them to incriminate themselves.”

“Archer, what are you planning?”

He didn’t look at his lover. His suspicions had been
correct. Now he just had to decide if he wanted to protect her from prosecution
or if he would let her stand trial.

They arrived outside the familiar office. They disembarked
and stood for a moment. Archer pulled a small flockwork pigeon out of his
pocket, entered the code for the address they were at and programmed Johnson’s
details. He could only hope the detective was home. Otherwise they would have
to do this without official support.

He strode up the steps, yanked open the door and stepped
into the front room, empty at this time of night. The door to the office was
not completely closed. He pushed it open and stepped inside to find Sarah
holding out the Rigdon’s Banknote Verification Device to Kemmer. “I want an
explanation,” he said. “Why are you handing over my prototype?”

Sarah felt the blood drain out of her face. What on earth
were
they
doing here?

Then his words caught up with her. “Your prototype?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Indeed. When you gave
it to me to fix, you handed over the decisions and rights concerning the
finished product.”

She pulled the machine close, wrapping her arms around the
metal body. “This is my father’s invention. There has been no signing over of
any right—”

“Gentlemen, you entered my office without invitation. I will
have to ask you to leave.” Kemmer’s gray eyes burned with anger, but his manner
didn’t show it.

Archer pulled out a badge. “I consult for the Metropolitan
Police. The machine is part of a large-scale program to protect the citizens of
this city. It is not hers to give.”

Numbness crystallized around her heart. He worked for the
police, but never deemed her important enough to share this with her. That put
her in her place.

And he’d gotten her father’s invention working and now
planned to take credit. It had been bad enough to hand over her father’s dream
to Kemmer, to have all the hard work disappear into a hole never to be seen
again. But having the device out in the open and in use with another name
attached to it would kill Mr. Rigdon. “My father signed no contract giving you
the rights to this device.”

“As I said, it is part of a large-scale plan to help
identify false banknotes and to ensure no more are put into circulation.” He
looked Kemmer up and down, his insinuation clear. Then he threw her a glance,
too quick for her to read his face. But it dawned on her that he believed her
connected to Kemmer, that he thought her involved with the forgery ring.

“This makes the device highly valuable. It cannot be trusted
in hands other than those of a select few.”

He finally looked at her, his brown eyes raging with anger
and disgust. His expression ripped off the numbness that had encased her until
now. Scorching pain filled her. She’d thought he’d trusted her, had believed he
respected her.

But his face told her a very different story.

She turned, pressing the machine against her chest so she
wouldn’t stretch out her arms to him. “Over the last five years, while my
father developed the Rigdon Banknote Verification Device, I taught myself
everything I could about the fabrication and printing of banknotes. We needed
false notes to test the machine. None of those notes were close to the real
ones and not a single one ever left our house.”

His brows drew together and his lips compressed.

“I have meticulous records of every note printed and its
use.”

“Records only you had access to?”

Her heart sank. He didn’t believe her. Archer had already
judged and convicted her.

“Sarah, why are you here at this time of night handing over
your father’s invention to Mr. Kemmer?” Warren’s voice slid over her like warm
honey. His expression showed no accusation.

But neither did it show support.

Neither of the men she loved more than life itself believed
in her. She hadn’t imagined there could be pain harsher than when she had to
leave them.

She was wrong.

Sarah withdrew. She didn’t move physically. Up until now
she’d mentally reached out to her two men, had tried to connect with them, but
now she shut down completely. She’d been a ninny to hope for their love.
Clearly she had only been a distraction and not one worthy of emotional
attachment.

Her vision blurred as she rebuilt the walls she’d used all
her life to protect herself. The walls the two men before her had convinced her
to take down.

What an idiot she’d been. She would not allow herself to be
vulnerable.

“My only connection to this…this thing,” Kemmer waved at the
machine in Sarah’s arms, “is my attempt to do Miss Rigdon and her father a huge
favor. They do not have the funds to pay Her Majesty’s taxes, so I was going to
take this useless thing in payment instead.”

She flinched. There it was. Her father’s weakness, his
reputation, open to the slashing of one of the most in-control and organized
men she had ever met.

Archer nodded as if confirming an internal thought.

Warren stepped slightly in front of Archer. “Sarah, you
should have come to us. We would have helped you no matter how difficult the
situation.”

Sarah.
Warren usually called her sweet, not by her
name.

But no longer.

Sarah took a step back from them.

“How lovely.” Kemmer’s voice grated like chalk on a board.
“The bum hugger is pretending to offer you help.” He snorted. “You better
realize quickly that they are only using you for cover.” He sat behind his desk.
“Isn’t that right, gentlemen? You want to keep buggering, so you need a woman
to pretend you’re actual men.”

Sarah stared at Warren and Archer, waiting for them to deny
Kemmer’s accusation, waiting for them to laugh it off. Even if they didn’t love
her she wanted them to at least have liked her enough for herself, for the
woman she was.

But they remained silent.

The skin around Warren’s eyes tightened and he pressed his
lips together. Archer broadened his stance and tilted his chin forward. “Do you
have any evidence or are you just talking to hear your own voice?”

She had never heard him speak in that tone.

Warren and Archer stepped closer together, an instinctive
move that had them facing the world side by side.

The silly, irrepressible part of her that had clung to the
hope that they loved her for herself died. Kemmer was speaking the truth. Archer
and Warren were in love with each other.

And she was nothing but a shield for them.

Warren held himself together with all his might. He wanted
to pound the face of the jackass before them, but one step in that direction
would release the flood of rage building deep inside him.

He also wanted to sit Sarah down and lecture her until he
ran out of steam. Why hadn’t she told them she needed the money for taxes? It
made him so angry to think she had to face the likes of Kemmer on her own.

But worst of all was the disgust he had for himself.

Archer’s temper had supplied him with a model he’d wanted to
paint more than life itself. At no point had he dug deeper or asked Sarah why
she’d agreed to sit for him. No, he’d been happy as a lark to have her as a
model and someone who could fulfill Archer’s dream of a family. The current
situation showed that the end did not justify the means. And to top it all off
they now had to worry about exposure.

So far Archer’s great plan had not given them any insights
into Kemmer and his operation.

Kemmer shook his head in response to Archer’s question. “I
don’t, but any idiot could see what you are.” He shrugged. “I only have to drop
a few hints here and there and you won’t be consulting for much longer.”

Archer took a couple of steps forward. “And if you do that I
will start mentioning to certain people at the Inland Revenue how funds appear
to go missing or how false notes appear to accumulate at this particular
office.” He leaned even closer. “Forgery of Her Majesty’s money is a crime
punished by death.”