Let the Night Begin by Kathryn Smith Page B

sit. I found this in a prayer book.”
    Reign took the crumpled, bloodstained paper she offered him and read it. If he had any doubts about the severity of her situation, they were gone now. He gave the note back to her, his jaw tight. “We’ll find him, Liv.”
    A mixture of confusion, relief and consternation crossed her face. “Why are you helping me?”
    After all the effort she’d put into convincing him, he was surprised she asked. “Would you rather I didn’t?” She seemed angry that he was offering his help, even though she had come asking for it.
    â€œI just want to know why you would help a woman who tried to kill you.”
    â€œYou’re my wife. I will always be there for you.” To him that revealed more than he wanted, but there was only confusion in her gaze.
    She looked away then. Guilty conscience, perhaps? Playing to her emotions was definitely the way to find out. Seducing her, body and mind, would lower her defenses, weaken her resolve. All he had to do was make her care for him again—make her think he still loved her, that he regretted all that had happened. Regret wouldn’t be hard—he had an abundance of that, but love? No, he wouldn’t be fool enough to allow that to happen again. Loving Olivia made him do irrational things, inane things, and that would be playing right into her hands.
    â€œThank you,” she murmured.
    â€œHmm, that’s twice now that you’ve thanked me this evening. Satan must be putting on his ice skates. Oh, was that a smile?”
    The curve of her lips was gone as soon as it had come, but the sparkle in her eyes remained. At that moment Reign realized that he didn’t want to manipulate her so much as he wanted to genuinely protect her. “Do not let it go to your head.”
    Somehow, he managed a wry grin. “I have to say, this is not how I thought we’d spend our thirtieth anniversary.”
    â€œWe’ve been apart longer than we were ever together.” She said it as though the thought had just occurred to her.
    His smile faded, as did any good humor he might have felt. “Sad, don’t you think?”
    She nodded. “Yes.” He watched in horror as tears filled her eyes, but they weren’t for him, or even for them. “He’s not even twenty, Reign. James is just a boy and these people have him…” The helplessness in her expression wounded him more than the blade she had shoved into his chest all those years ago.
    Reign went to her, hesitating but a moment before he put his arms around her. She might think him a fool. She might hate him and be using him for her own means, but her tears were real.
    He had only seen her cry once before and that was when he…betrayed her. He had thought the world was going to end with her tears. Olivia wasn’t a woman who cried easily, especially not for herself. Her tears were reserved for moments when she honestly felt helpless and alone.
    He could use this to his advantage. The thought came to him from the cold, untrusting part of his mind determined to have the upper hand. If he pressed now, could he wheedle the truth from her? Could he take her to bed, press her into the mattress and feel her body wrapped around his once more? She had haunted his dreams for years and he fantasized about her coming back to him. Sometimes she crawled, begging for forgiveness. Other times he found her and seduced her into coming home. And sometimes, he simply imagined what itwould have been like had she never left. The one thing that always stayed the same in the fantasy was that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
    She let him hold her for a few minutes as she wiped the dampness from her eyes. The tears didn’t even make it down to her cheeks before she ruthlessly pushed and blinked them away. Then she pushed Reign away as well—not forcefully, but it was obvious that she did not want his comfort.
    Or perhaps she