CHAPTER EIGHT

ALISTAIR:

Seated in my study, the table hosting a bottle of rum, I exhaled a cloud of cigarette smoke before snuffing out the ember in a saucer. A pounding headache throbbed through my temples as I rubbed them, my gaze fixed upon the file report before me.

Two days had elapsed since I tasked my assistant with uncovering every possible detail about her, the beauty whose disregard for my warnings disrupted a meeting out of pure curiosity. I had anticipated a background of wealth and prominence given her behavior at my party, yet the findings revealed her belonging to a lower social class.

Nevertheless, it didn't alter the fact of her allure. While I knew several women who might surpass her in a beauty contest, there was something singular about her that captivated me. I couldn't comprehend the hold she had on me, but not a day passed without her crossing my thoughts.

I wondered what she looked like, beneath all those fabrics and under the moonlight, in a stemming pool, with only lin