Kiss of Crimson by Samantha Coville (best love story novels in english txt) 📕

so damn gracious to the man. Extending an olive branch, indeed!”

Her nostrils flared. “One of these days, he is going to rear back and bite her in the hand, just like that snake that he is. How dare he smile at me like that. The man knows no shame.”

I knew who she was referring to before I even turned to look.

Nonetheless, I turned because if he had allowed himself to be shown for so long to an ally of Madame Leona, it was for a very specific reason.

Jardin stood slightly apart from the crowd, a half-empty snifter in one hand. An almost infuriatingly smarmy smile still on his lips, he rubbed his left ear lobe before disappearing back into the crowd.

Just as well.

This woman had turned out to be a dud as well.

Still, now I was faced with the task of extricating myself from Lady Yeat’s presence without calling attention to myself or Jardin.

Face set into a petulant scowl, she glanced at me and then levered herself to her feet in a rush of silk and perfume that almost made my nose want to crawl off my face and go shrieking out the window.

“I really must speak to Leona,” she said in a hurry, the words tumbling head over heels past each other. “I truly am sorry to leave in such a rush.”

Relieved beyond all measure and praying desperately that it didn’t show on my face, I stood with her. “Not at all, Lady Yeats. Truly, I am sorry for causing you such distress. I didn’t mean to imply that I was only interested in your association with Madame Leona.”

The look on her face seemed to soften for a moment and she laid a hand upon my wrist, less seduction, more comforting now. “Will I see you again?”

“I would most certainly hope so,” I said with a bow, bringing her hand up to my lips, before letting go and straightening back up.

With a look on her face that was almost nostalgic, she swept past me and made a beeline for the entryway where Madame Leona was no doubt welcoming in late stragglers to the fete.

Would she mention me? It was likely. But she didn’t know I was connected to that so-called Snake of Eden.

For now.

I espied Jardin by an overgrown fern that almost hid him from view, and indeed, he had stood so still, I almost would’ve missed him if it hadn’t been for the slightest glint of the snifter catching the light from the massive crystal chandelier overhead, as he drained the tiny glass.

He didn’t say a thing, only raised a brow.

“If Lady Yeats is indeed a close confidant of Madame Leona, she is prepared to meet her second death before revealing as such,” I said.

“Just as well.” Jardin nodded over to the dance floor as couples whirled about in their finery and jewels, beautiful and yet so very cold.

Like watching mannequins waltz.

I couldn’t stop a shudder from running up my spine. “It’s quite a sight.”

“We have always been rather light on our feet,” said Jardin mildly. “Do you see the girl in red? The one with dark hair? She’s with that red-haired imbecile, Ferdinand. What a fop.”

A flash of crimson and creamy pale skin caught my eye, and I witnessed the girl in question, whirling about in the arms of a red-haired vampire dressed in a frock coat of a rather eye-watering shade of robin egg blue.

She laughed at something he said, the smooth, elegant curve of her neck exposed for all to see.

I was... transfixed.

If beauty exuberance had a face, a form, surely it would have been identical to the vision twirling on the polished marble dance floor.

“--you can do?”

I blinked and mentally shook my head, silently cursing myself for my inattentiveness. Jardin would not miss it. “I beg your pardon. You were saying?”

He was still for a moment, observing me carefully. “I said, that girl there is Madame Leona’s second daughter. I hadn’t even known she existed, but the whole soiree is abuzz about her. Leona’s first daughter wed last week, if I recall correctly, and if I’m not mistaken, the younger daughter seems to be of, ah, marriageable age.”

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. “You want me to marry her?”

He scoffed, waving a hand in the air. “Don’t be absurd, Arden. But the girl is clearly enamored of our world, for all of her mother’s worldly knowledge regarding us. It seems as though she has not shared that information with the girl. I think we can use that to our advantage.”

He crossed his arms, staring at the girl whose smile reflected in her large, dark tip-tilted eyes. “Forget seducing those in Leona’s circle of friends. Go straight for the jugular.”

“The jugular.”

The corner of his eyes crinkled. “The daughter, of course.”

Truly, my master was a cold-hearted being.

But he was my master, nonetheless, and I could not refuse him. “As you wish.”

“Ask the girl to dance. Use your charm. She’ll not be able to refuse you.” There was a note of bitter sarcasm I couldn’t miss.

I would’ve said he was jealous, but what could a man like Jardin possibly be envious of a gutter rat like me?

“Of course.”

The music slowed to a halt as the musicians paused to partake of lemon water and tiny cucumber sandwiches.

Most of the couples migrated to the edge of the dance floor, but a few remained stubbornly, already waiting for the six-piece orchestra to take up their instruments again.

One of them was Madame Leona’s daughter and her escort, the man with the red hair and the unfortunate coat.

He had his gloved hand placed rather proprietarily on the small of her back and a vapid (I thought) smile on his thin lips while she chattered about something that made her eyes dance.

Before I was even aware of it, I was already on the dance floor and beside the couple.

Up close, her appearance was even more stunning. Dewy pale skin, with sparkling eyes that smiled even more than her red lips… and a