Deceived

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Authors: Jess Michaels
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all the discord between them certainly translated into a passion unlike any he’d ever felt for a woman.
    But he doubted Gabriel meant that when he spoke of discovery.
    “What exactly did you think I would discover?”
    Gabriel rolled his eyes. “You spent a great deal of time alone with Josie today. Didn’t you think to ask about Claire?”
    Evan pursed his lips. That was how all this had begun, wasn’t it? He had thought Josie knew something about Claire and he’d been willing to roam into the lion’s den to discover what. But once he had made it past Josie’s barriers, Claire had somehow become secondary. He’d seen Josie’s pain, he’d felt her desire, he’d been lost in her.
    His sister be damned.
    “I-I did ask about her,” he admitted.
    Gabriel leaned closer, his dark eyes growing bright and focused. “What did Josie say exactly?”
    Evan hesitated. Gabriel was such a stickler for details. His brother would analyze them relentlessly to souse out any tiny thread. It was one of his greatest skills, but at the moment Evan didn’t want Gabriel to turn his expertise on him. What had happened between him and Josie was far too…private. And very confusing.
    “The topic of Claire came up, but only peripherally,” he said. “Josie is cagey when it comes to our sister.”
    “That isn’t exact,” Gabriel said with an arch of his brow.
    “I wasn’t recording our conversation with an eye for repeating it back to you,” Evan snapped, throwing up his hands. “God, you will drive a man to madness.”
    Gabriel shook his head. “You too. Fine, so you don’t know exactly what was said. But we can still work with the fact that she wants to avoid the subject of Claire entirely. How did she do that?”
    Evan held back a laugh. Oh, they had certainly found a way to avoid the topic. He wasn’t going to tell his brother that.
    “She, er, ran,” he admitted.
    Gabriel drew back. “Interesting. And what did you do?”
    “Followed her here to the billiard room.” He shifted. “But the topic didn’t come up again.”
    “And then she returned to the parlor and almost immediately told her mother she had a headache to further escape.” Gabriel set his drink down. “She definitely knows something. And she’s obviously close to telling you. You know what you must do, don’t you?”
    Evan shook his head. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly what his brother would say. “Get closer to her?”
    “Get closer to her,” Gabriel repeated. “Push harder.”
    Evan jolted. Oh he wanted to push harder, all right. He wanted to push past all of Josie’s barriers until she was his. And that twisted want was like a fire in him that he couldn’t quench.
    “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” he whispered.
    “Why?”
    “It seems unkind to play upon whatever lingers between us,” he said, thinking of the pain in Josie’s eyes when she’d confessed to how much he’d hurt her. How much so many people had hurt her.
    “Don’t you want to save Claire?” Gabriel asked.
    Evan looked at his brother. Gabriel and Claire were twins and their connection had always run deep. Now he saw his brother’s deep pain, his panic, his need to save her. And that touched him as powerfully as anything Josie had whispered in the conservatory.
    And then there was Claire, out there with a villain having God knew what done to her. Evan tried not to picture what her life was like, but sometimes it haunted him.
    “Yes,” he said softly. “I want to save her. But I don’t want to hurt someone she loves in the process. Claire would never forgive me.”
    “Then don’t!” Gabriel cried out with a frustrated shake of his head. “I’ve watched you in action for years, Evan. There is no one more well versed in the female form than you. You know the line between flirtation and something more serious.”
    “Do I?” Evan asked, thinking of all those passionate kisses and just how close he’d come to making them something more.

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