Chapter Twenty-Three

Athroat cleared. "I don't mean to interrupt."

Graves kissed Kierse for another moment before retreating. He brushed his thumb over Kierse's swollen bottom lip. The gesture was almost tender. Then he faced Imani in the doorway. "Do you mind?"

Imani looked as if this was exactly what she'd expected to find. "Might I offer a bedroom on the second floor?"

"You know how I like my books."

Something dark passed across her features. "That I do. But this is my personal study. No guests allowed."

"Well, come along then, Wren," Graves said, offering her his hand.

She let him guide her out of the room. Imani watched them the entire time, even as they played up their parts. It didn't seem to matter. Imani closed and locked the door again behind her. They weren't going to be able to get back in there while anyone was still coherent.

She could see on Imani's face that she didn't trust Graves. If they had more time, Kierse would suggest staying in the city for a few weeks, gaining their trust. But she only had tonight.

Instead, they spent the remainder of the night dancing and enjoying the party. But that kiss had brought her too close to reality. She was too cognizant of everything going on around her. She almost wished that she was drunk just so she wouldn't have to be so aware of everywhere Graves touched her.

There was a point in the middle of the night when everything seemed to hit a fever pitch. As if the magic in the punch had reached its apex. Kierse didn't understand it. Imani and Montrell didn't seem affected. They watched on high and occasionally touched each other provocatively, to the delight of the party.

It was now or never.

"I'm going to find a bathroom," she said, pressing her lips to Graves's ear.

"Do you need an escort?"

She shook her head. "Entertain the hosts."

He arched an eyebrow and then nodded. "Be quick."

Kierse blew him a kiss as she walked away. But before she could go, he said her name: "Wren?"

She turned to face him in confusion, and then his lips found hers. The only thought in her mind was of him against her.

"Very quick," he said firmly against her lips.

Her head went fuzzy all over again. She was going to need to masturbate after all of this. She bit her lip to keep it from showing on her face and then took a step back. She needed to find her business sense. She and Graves couldn't work in any capacity. But all she felt were coals that he was fanning with his tongue. Maybe she'd find that reality again after she wasn't so damn turned on.

Kierse swept across the room without a backward glance. She didn't dally in the hallways. She went straight for that study door. Imani had made it clear that this was where the information must be. Why else would she have forced them out of it in such haste? Maybe there was even some ward on it that Graves had triggered. Well, if that was the case, she could slip by unnoticed.

She used her handy-dandy bobby pin to pop the lock. Graves had said that magic was everywhere in the house. Though she couldn't sense it like he could, Imani's eyes had drifted to the bookshelf behind them not once but twice. Kierse was good at reading people, and that meant that what they wanted was here. Right here.

After closing and locking the door again, Kierse headed straight for the bookshelf and ran her hand along all the edges of every volume. Nothing seemed out of place. No hollow books. No reason to think that the information they needed was here. Except that Imani had made it clear that it was.

Then Kierse felt it.

A smaller book that she'd skipped over. It was pressed farther back than the rest. Purposely so.

She reached for it, but when she tugged on it, there was a click. A hidden door opened behind the bookshelf.

Her jaw dropped. Imani hadn't been looking at the bookshelf because what they wanted was hidden there. It was because what they wanted was hidden behind it. Kierse had stolen from a lot of places before. She'd broken into museums and carved her way through warehouse concrete and climbed across ceiling tiles, but she'd never seen a secret passage.

And she was about to venture into one.