The black-clad stranger held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, a dangerous smile curling over half of his mouth. “I meant only to offer assistance—before I realized you had matters well in hand. I saw him shadowing you from the rotunda.”

That smile seemed hauntingly familiar, and his clothes were considerably richer than those on the man at her feet. “Ruffians often work in pairs.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why should I trust you?”

The smile widened. He looked almost piratical now as he lifted a hand to the stark velvet mask and slowly removed it, revealing a pair of eyes that were almost black in the night. Eyes she knew only too well and a dangling ruby at his ear.

“Because if I wanted you dead, Mina, I would have done it a long time ago.”

* * *

Only he dared call her Mina.

The brief hint of shock in her brown eyes was almost worth it as Leo lowered the mask.

Eight years of simmering tension lingered between them, since he’d made that reckless decision to pursue her. She’d hardly been welcoming, throwing the feud in his face at every chance as though to protect herself, but their encounters fascinated him in a way he’d never experienced with another female.

You just can’t help yourself, can you?

“Barrons,” she said flatly, her fingers unconsciously clenching the butt of the pistol. “I hardly expected you to play hero.”

“Ah, but then you don’t know me well enough to predict such a thing.”

The filigreed gold mask hid most of her features, but he was certain that he saw a hint of wariness in her eyes. The duchess didn’t understand his motives; she never had. And he fully intended to keep it that way.

“I thought you were in Saint Petersburg, cementing the Russian alliance.”

“I was. The treaty was signed three days ago. I arrived home by dirigible this morning. Are you going to lower the pistol?”

“Should I?”

The frigidity of her voice made him smile. She didn’t like being caught off guard, even for a second. Only when she thought she was in control did she allow herself to soften, just a little. He was curious to find out if there was more softness beneath the steel, having seen just a hint of fire beneath the ice. It was the only thing that had sustained his hope during the long years of coming up against that frost.

That, and the almost-kiss…

That moment when they’d been trapped in a darkened room together and he’d leaned closer, blood thumping through his veins as he realized that what he saw in her dark eyes wasn’t denial.

She’d turned away from the kiss, allowing him to make a fool of himself before she took back control, but for a moment there had been something more between them. A lazy, liquid trembling in the air. Need.

She’d wanted to give in. He knew it. He just had to push her to that point again.

Leo stepped forward, and she swiftly thumbed the hammer back. He took another slow step, pressing the muzzle of the pistol directly against his chest. Their eyes met. “If you were going to pull the trigger, you’d have done it years ago.”

She’d been his nemesis since the moment they met, but it wasn’t hate that existed between them. Not anymore. He couldn’t quite define the emotion, but it certainly wasn’t hate, no matter how much she tried to pretend it was.

Fascination, on his behalf. A certain dangerous temptation to dip his fingers into the fire to see how hotly it burned, which was foolishness of the worst kind. If he clicked his fingers, a dozen young debutantes would come flocking to his side, offering him everything he desired. Or almost everything… For the one thing he wanted, above all else, was glaring rather fiercely at him over the top of the pistol.

“You shouldn’t be so certain,” she said.

“But if you shot me, who else would try to seduce you?”

“You think I enjoy your attentions?”

A smile. “I think…that no one else dares. And, yes, I think that you enjoy every second of them. Who else would argue with you over Council sessions so vociferously? And don’t tell me you don’t enjoy that, because nothing else fires your blood so.” He leaned closer, his breath whispering along her jaw. “It’s the only time you get that look in your eye… You enjoy arguing with me, and you like the fact that I chase you. A part of me thinks you want to be caught.”

A small growl of exasperation sounded in her throat. The pistol wavered. “You drive me insane. You’re a hindrance, nothing else.”

Leo reached out and brushed a blond curl off her heart-shaped face—it was a wig, he guessed. Mina jerked away from his touch, but the pulse in her throat leaped. It was beating hard; she was not quite as immune to him as she claimed.

Closing a hand over the pistol, he forced it to lower, meeting her eyes again. “You won’t shoot me. You’d miss me too much.”

“Your arrogance was once amusing, Barrons, but it’s becoming decidedly less so.”

Ignoring the arctic chill in her tone, he smiled. “Did you miss me, Mina? Did you think of me whilst I was gone this past month?”

“I didn’t even spare you a thought.” Her eyes smoldered.

“Liar.”

They stared at each other, at an impasse.

“Why did you follow me?” she asked, tucking the pistol back within her sleeve. It was one of those mechanical-draw ones he’d heard about. “I know it wasn’t to protect me.”

“Perhaps I was curious. Midnight chimes, and you slip away into the darkness—to Lovers’ Lane, of all places.” He’d been watching her all night, slipping through the crowd as she sipped her champagne, both of them strolling clockwise around the circle of dancers; only, she had been unaware of the eyes upon her. Content, perhaps, to think her disguise complete enough to fool all watchers.

The only person she would never fool was Leo. Too many years spent dreaming of her, of that slim, upright figure, with her dangerously elegant grace. Nobody should ever mistake her for a human, not with the way she moved, but apparently they did.

“Is that where we are?”

“You know where we are.” His voice lowered. “What was in the note?”

Stillness pervaded her body. Another riot of fireworks tore apart the velvet sky. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Mina.” He stroked her chin. “Don’t pretend I’m in any way stupid.”