Sevin: Lords of Satyr (3 page)

But Sevin didn’t wait to hear more. Dane had once been engaged to Alexa Patrizzi, but only through the machinations of her devious mother. It had not been a love match—far from it—but his wife’s ongoing friendship with his former fiancée made for an awkward situation.

If Dane couldn’t make his wife see reason, Sevin would take care of this matter himself. “Watch things here,” he told Bastian over one shoulder as his boots struck the steps downward. “I want to have a word with Signorina Patrizzi.”

Inside the rocking carriage, Alexa Patrizzi sat with one gloved hand braced upon the tufted seat and her other on the wall, calmly waiting for the crowd around her to weary of its tirade. She hoped they didn’t damage the carriage—she’d planned on selling it to pay off her attorney.

Her mother had chosen the saffron-colored velvet upholstery she clung to, and for that reason alone Alexa would be glad to be rid of the conveyance. However, she had to admit that its thick golden tassels, which sprouted at intervals along its walls, did make for convenient handholds to anchor herself in her current situation.

When a particularly abrupt jostle brought her face nearer to the rain-fogged window, her eyes widened. One of Eva’s brothers-in-law was loping down the steps, apparently coming to her aid. And if she wasn’t mistaken, it was Sevin, the charismatic owner of the sensual paradise that was the salon just beyond him.

Her calm abruptly deserted her. Half standing, she managed to rap on the interior ceiling of the carriage, a signal for the driver to proceed. But he either didn’t hear or had all he could do to control the horses at the moment, because they didn’t budge.

She rubbed away the condensation on the window with the heel of one hand. Peeking out through the glass again, she surreptitiously watched the sheer force that was Lord Sevin Satyr make its way down the magnificent staircase. As his dark-coated figure knifed through the crowd and the incessant gray drizzle, he looked neither left nor right, seemingly unaware of the mad scramble to get out of his path.

Her feminine sigh filled the carriage. Watching a Satyr male in the simple act of walking was a pleasure so gratifying that she would actually purchase tickets for it. There was something about the way these beautiful silver-eyed men carried themselves that spoke of brawny masculine strength and an unshakable conviction that the world was theirs to command.

Although she did not regret the breaking of her former engagement to Eva’s husband, she did envy Eva her connection to his family. What must it be like to be under the protection of a man such as this? To lie with him and be claimed by him—to be the object of his affections and lustful nature? It was a prospect that both thrilled and repelled at the same time.

As those in the crowd scurried this way and that before him, a small child toddled from among the sea of legs into Lord Satyr’s path. Without missing a beat, he scooped the girl into his arms and out of harm’s way.

A voice cried out, “He’s got my daughter! Oh! Unhand her, you—you
devil!
”

Alexa let out a huff of breath, feeling ashamed of her entire species in that moment. She supposed that to these fearful humans he and his brothers did resemble devils. All of them towered at six and a half feet or more and had those strange, mirrored eyes. And this particular one was more suspect than the others in view of his connection to the mysterious, hedonistic
Salone di Passione. What sort of man created such a place?
she’d wondered, each time her eyes lit upon him. As far as she knew, no human had ever ventured inside it.

Seeming unaffected by the mother’s slurs, Sevin deposited the child into her arms, with a charming smile and a flourish.
Lord, the man even had dimples!
Incongruous in such a ruggedly handsome face, they somehow softened him and made him more, well, human.

As he moved on, the woman stared after him, fanning herself in a vaguely stunned manner, a smitten expression on her plump face. Her child could have been trampled, yet she didn’t even bother to thank him for rescuing her!

And then suddenly Lord Satyr’s hand was on Alexa’s carriage door and he was calling up to her driver. “Sit tight. I’ll take care of this,” he ordered in the tone of one used to unquestioning obedience.

Then the door opened and he swung himself inside, bringing with him the fresh scent of rain and the aura of sexy male. Alexa fought the immediate attraction that swamped her as he crowded inside and made himself at home on the bench seat across from her.

He was certainly the most beguiling of the brothers, in her opinion. From his straight brows, strong jaw, and broad shoulders, to his powerful thighs encased in lightweight black wool—everything about him aroused her baser instincts.

Really, it wasn’t fair to let such a man run loose. Just gazing upon him caused a woman to contemplate certain nocturnal matters of a physical nature that occurred between the sexes. Matters that society deemed unfit for a lady to dwell upon.

Before she’d fled to Venice in the wake of her family’s shame, she’d often observed Sevin’s brothers and him from afar with a girlish longing. But she was past such things now. Older and far wiser about the uncertainties and perils of life and men than a well-brought-up lady of twenty-two should ever have to be.

Still, no man could make a woman more aware of the fact that she was a woman than these Satyr lords. It was an undeniable fact.

Sevin combed his fingers through his rain-soaked raven hair, slicking it back. The woman across from him watched the gesture with thick-lashed dark eyes. Signorina Alexa Patrizzi. At least she didn’t shrink away or gawk at him in scandalized fascination as most humans did these days.

Instead, she only glanced outside at the crowd and then leaned toward him with an earnest expression in her soft gray eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

His face hardened, lip curling as he sat back, stretching out his boots so she had to move her hem aside to make way. “You
should
be. I wonder that you dare show your face in Rome again.”

“Oh.” Now she drew back, her posture going ramrod straight as an understanding of his meaning drained the color from her pretty features. “I meant to apologize for this throng’s treatment of you. But yes, you are right, of course. I-I should formally apologize as well for the pain my family has caused yours. And I
am
sincerely sorry.” She pressed a gloved hand to her breast and leaned forward again as if willing him to believe in her sincerity.

What the hells is she wearing?
Sevin wondered.
Sackcloth?
It was an unusually warm early-autumn day, yet she was buttoned up to her throat, every inch of skin covered save her pale face.

“More so than I can say,” she went on. “Sorry to the depths of my soul for what happened to your brother. I cannot even begin to imagine what he must have suffered.” She drew a shuddering breath and sent him a gaze that pleaded for his charity.

Except for the color of her blond hair she seemed nothing like her family, at least on the surface. But evil in the blood ran deep.

Abruptly, the carriage gave a hard lurch and she threw out an elbow, whacking it against the window to keep from falling.

“Damn annoying humans,” Sevin bit out. With a careless flick of his hand he erected an invisible cloak of protection around the conveyance. Then came the startled sounds of those who felt themselves unexpectedly thrust away by his bespelling. The carriage suddenly ceased its rocking.

“We’re not all bad,” she informed him tartly as she straightened again and righted the little hat perched atop her head.

Ignoring her, he rapped twice on the ceiling of the carriage, a signal for the driver to move on now that he’d made passage possible. Since the crowd was still close, they began carving a slow path.

“Then tell me, signorina. Are you one of the bad ones?”

She froze, her hands clenching in her lap. “What?”

“I think you are. I think you are a Patrizzi with the same blackened heart as your mother and brother had. And I want you to stay away from my family, including Dane’s wife,” he announced, getting right to the point. “In fact, I want you gone. Tomorrow. Out of Rome.”

“What? Why should—?”

“Why?” he interrupted in outrage. “Because your family has done mine unimaginable, irreparable harm. Because the same night my parents died, your family abducted Luc and Dane. Kept them enslaved in the bowels of the catacombs under your family home. Dane may have escaped the worst of what they had in mind, but Luc was tortured in ways he’s never revealed. In ways that still eat at his soul.”

She drew in a harsh breath, tears welling in her eyes. “But I had no part in that. Eva said your family investigated and found me innocent of any wrongdoing.”

“We found no evidence that you were
guilty
. There’s a distinct difference. Eva may believe in your innocence, but my brothers and I are of the theory that you could not have been completely unaware of what went on under the earth beneath your own feet for so many years.”

“I
am
innocent, I tell you. Bona Dea was my mother’s business enterprise. And my brother’s. I didn’t know what was happening down there. That her cosmetics were created only through the abuse of your kind. And if I could undo everything and put it all right again, I swear to you that I would.”

His hand cut the air between them, in an innately Italian gesture. “You cannot put it
right
. No one can. But you can do the decent thing. Go. So that my youngest brother will not be reminded.”

Averting her gaze to the window, Signorina Patrizzi visibly struggled to collect herself. Or was it all an act? When she looked at him again, Sevin found himself drowning. He hadn’t expected her to be like ... this. So open and seemingly without subterfuge. He’d always been a shrewd judge of women. And this one seemed ... wounded, deep inside where it didn’t show.

One of her hands was restlessly rearranging the fall of her skirt. His eyes dropped, noting the way the fabric molded slender thighs. He shifted on the bench seat, fighting the insidious arousal that seeped through him.
Damn!
He worked with exceptionally attractive women around him day and night, and was never so strongly affected. What was it about this human that got to him so?

This unwanted attraction to her had plagued him since the first time he’d seen her. She’d been wearing blue that day, he remembered, her skirts and her blond hair lifting in the breeze as she strolled in the distance through the Forum ruins with Eva.

Afterward, he’d found himself listening keenly whenever her name was mentioned in his company. He had been sorely disappointed to learn that she was human. He’d sworn off human women in his late teens, and with good reason. Still, this infernal hunger for her had persisted.

“I’ve only just returned from several months of travel,” she said coolly, refusing to look at him now. “I assure you I intend to live a quiet life, a
respectable
one. No one—not even your brother—will know that I’m here.”

As the carriage broke free of the crowd and began moving at a normal clip, his low reply burst between them like a provocative explosion.

“
I’ll
know.”

“W
-What?” Alexa’s eyes flew to his face. Surely, the provocative note in his voice had only been her imagination. Hadn’t it?

“Against all odds, I find myself attracted to you.” Sevin crossed muscled arms, eyeing her as if this fact were somehow her fault.

She stared at him in dismay. “You’ve never even spoken to me before today! And you cannot possibly be enamored of a woman whom you believe capable of the horrors my family committed.”

“It’s not something I’m proud of, I assure you. But the feeling doesn’t seem to be going away. If you remain in Rome, within easy reach, the knowledge that you are near will hound me. Eventually, there will come a Calling night when I will wind up between the legs of my family’s sworn enemy,” he said, intentionally crude. “And I can’t allow that to happen.”

She drew in a sharp, offended gasp. “And you think I would let you?”

He smiled faintly. “Males of my kind can be quite convincing in such matters. Especially on a night such as this one. Our passions run high under a whole moon, and human females are particularly susceptible. If you stay in Rome, it
will
happen between us.”

“Your opinion of my morals is very flattering, signor. And your intentions toward me so handsomely stated,” she said sarcastically. “When we arrive at my home, I beg you please do come inside and make good on them. You make it all sound so ...”

Alexa fluttered a hand to encompass him. He watched as her eyes flew over his entire frame, then ripped back to the unmistakable masculine bulge at the front of his trousers. Her eyes widened and she swallowed visibly before ending her thought with a single, thready, desperate word. “... tempting.”

She blushed then, and her eyes darted away from his, the gloved fingers of one hand rising to fidget with a button on her bodice.

Damn, she wants me, too,
he realized. If she’d shrieked or swooned over his admission, he might have been able to take his leave of her more easily—as he should do. He was playing with fire here. And if it were to eventually burn his family, the fault for that would lie with him.

She straightened, a prissy look replacing the bemused one. “I believe I am quite safe from any harm from the crush back there,” she announced. “So I think you’ll agree that it would be best if you take your leave now.” She reached up to knock against the roof, preparing to signal the driver to stop and let him out.

Sevin’s hand closed on her sleeve. “Wait.”

Her eyes caught his. “Why?”

Because my blood is heating and my body urges me to choose yours as its mate for tonight. Because I want to lie with you, not some Shimmerskin conjured from the mist, as I have done of late. Because I want you to prove yourself to be worthless and despicable, so that I can finally forget you.