Brimstone Seduction. Barbara J. Hancock

glasses his? Why had they been in Victoria’s room?

      All those questions assailed her along with his nearness and the unusual appearance of his rumpled clothes. He wore a white oxford shirt and black pants, but his jacket was missing, his sleeves were rolled up and his tie was loosened.

      “They were on my sister’s bed. Left on her pillow,” Kat said. “I thought I should return them. She must have accidentally carried them away. I assume they belong to this box.”

      Below, dancers practiced for the ballet often omitted from performances of Faust by other opera companies. At l’Opéra Severne, the ballet was a favorite of fans. It represented the temptation of Faust by the greatest and most beautiful women in history that had been offered to him by Mephistopheles.

      So far, from what Katherine had seen of rehearsals, this version was suggestively choreographed while still seeming subtly playful in its eroticism.

      “This box is like the other boxes in the house. Elite patrons own them all. Some families have kept them for generations. Politicians, celebrities and foreign aristocracy all float in and out in relative anonymity. To be honest, I thought this one was abandoned. Many seats are kept by the elderly and passed down to heirs who prefer sports arenas or video games,” Severne said. “I’m here only temporarily. Captivated by the view.”

      So she’d found the stoic yet sensual master of the opera house looking down on his lithe dancers? Her cheeks warmed. “They are captivating,” she agreed.

      The dancers practiced with an old stage piano more suited for vaudeville than opera, but they were talented. Once their moves were paired with costumes, lighting and the full orchestra accompaniment, the ballet would be sublime.

      “I’m proud of every aspect of the show, but I do enjoy this dance—the temptation, the resistance, the surrender,” Severne said. It was almost a confession. He was a daemon professing his fascination with the dance of damnation.

      He leaned toward her and her breath caught, but he was only reaching for the opera glasses. She released them from her fingers at the same time as she released a—she hoped—unnoticeable sigh. He didn’t turn back to the dancers. He held the glasses and continued to look down at her.

      “These levels are closed until performances. Performers don’t enter the boxes or wander around. I’m not sure why your sister had these,” he said.

      “You don’t know who owns this box?” she asked.

      “There are records you could search, but they haven’t been computerized. I’m afraid our offices are Victorian by today’s standards,” Severne said. “Decades of papers and dusty files are an immortal’s prerogative.”

      Behind him, several stories below, the dancers writhed and undulated for Faust’s pleasure as Mephistopheles pretended to hold their strings like they were marionettes. Kat felt a little bit like her strings were being tugged by a fate that would have her dance for John Severne.

      How would she ever find her sister in the purposefully ambiguous atmosphere of l’Opéra Severne? The owner of the box might have nothing to do with her sister’s disappearance. In spite of what Severne had said, the boxes were curtained, not locked. Anyone might have slipped in and out of them unseen.

      Severne had stepped lightly to the side. He was offering her a seat. Because she didn’t want to seem intimidated or afraid, she took it, and he sank down beside her. Thankfully, the dancers were now separately working on individual elements of the ballet so the overall suggestive effect of the piece was lost. Unfortunately, the only suggestion left was the full force of her affinity for Severne, closed in the curtained-off box where her seat and Severne’s were so close that his arm brushed hers.

      He moved to place the opera glasses back in their slot. He had to lean across her body to do so. She couldn’t will the affinity away. This close, it was impossible to ignore. Even if she could, his natural magnetism would have called to her with or without Brimstone in his blood.

      It was the end of the day. Whatever he did in his Victorian offices, he’d literally rolled up his sleeves. The hair on his arm brushed hers. The tattoos she’d seen before peeked from beneath his white sleeve. This was his leisure—overseeing rehearsals, pondering damnation and torturing her.

      He sat back from returning the opera glasses to her chair, but the scent of smoky sandalwood still teased her nose. She wouldn’t meet his penetrating gaze. He hadn’t looked back at the dancers since she’d arrived. While she avoided his eyes, she noticed the longish black waves of his hair were slightly damp and curled against the open collar of his shirt.

      She was familiar with temptation and resistance. Surrender was a new possibility. She was afraid if she spent too long in John Severne’s company, her limits might be tested. He was a daemon, but he had taken the guise of a very attractive man. She was drawn to the burn beneath his control. She was drawn to what he might hide beneath the hardness he cultivated for the world. His penchant for sugary kisses and his reaction to her cello music gave her a glimpse at what vulnerabilities he might hide.

      He wasn’t a forthright man, but a daemon. His every move screamed those truths to her even though his words and demeanor were enigmatic.

      “Your music will make this dance impossible to resist. The audience will be captivated,” he said.

      And yet he also made raw confessions at every turn.

      She lifted her gaze from the dancers below to Severne’s eyes. The shadows were too deep to see any green, but he tilted toward her as if to accommodate her search, and a shaft of stage light fell over his eyes. The rest of his face was still shadowed, but his eyes were fully illuminated and as green as she’d seen them before.

      His eyes and his shadowed mouth drew her.

      But she quickly rose before she fell further under his daemon spell. Or his masculine spell. Or both.

      She wasn’t here to be seduced. Surrender wasn’t an option.

      “I enjoy the music. I appreciate the dance. I don’t want to captivate. I just want to find my sister,” she said.

      She mumbled to excuse herself as she tried to navigate gracefully past his long, lean legs. He stood, but he didn’t try to stop her. She pushed through the heavy curtains behind their seats, but as she did she heard him reply.

      “As do I, Katherine. As do I.”

      He said he wanted to help her find her sister, but she wasn’t certain what he wanted most. He was a bottomless pit of wants and needs she couldn’t quite ascertain.