Tiger's Mistress

Excerpt

Chapter One

Snick.

The thin shaft of metal caught on the tumbler but the lock did not open. Shifting slightly, the cloaked figure crouched beside the desk flexed a gloved hand and tried again.

Snick. Snick. Still no luck.

"Oh, bloody hell." The oath was no louder than the faint whisper of the damask draperies framing the open window.

"Well, what did you expect?"

The fingers froze and the figure whipped around, revealing a masked face.

"You are going about it all wrong."

Black silk stretched from the intruder's hood to below the nose, with two holes cut out for the eyes. The pale wash of moonlight did not allow the Earl of Branford to remark on their color - or perhaps, he thought with a wry grimace, the reason had something to do with the fact that he had just polished off his second bottle of brandy in less than an hour. The surfeit of spirits, however, could not drown the sight of the softly curved lips beneath the slash of midnight. No matter how foxed, he was absolutely sure they were not those of an ordinary thief.

"I would suggest you hold the wire between your thumb and your forefinger." He rose from the ... read full excerpt from: The Tiger's Mistress ebook