Curiosity kept her in place. Or stubbornness. Or maybe she was imagining Magnus’s hand, his mouth, his body heat, and this would all backfire on me. Whatever the reason, she didn’t fight me. Didn’t utter a word.

She wasn’t just allowing me to toy with her. She was responding to my touch. I grazed a knuckle across her breast, and her nipples hardened. I brushed my lips along her cheek, and her breathing accelerated. I lowered my hand, following the curve of her hip, and her mouth parted.

I did everything Magnus would’ve done to disarm a female opponent.

“You think I’m an inexperienced child.” I spoke against her plump lips, my voice husky, confident. “You think I can’t please a man like my husband.” Reaching between us, I skimmed my hand across her pubic bone and circled her clit through the tight fabric of her gown. “You don’t know shit.”

She leaned into me, seemingly unaware she was doing it as her cheek slid against mine.

When she reached for my waist to catch herself, I stepped back.

“Thank you for coming.” I raised my glass and smiled softly. “If you don’t have a ride home, one of my guards will escort you.”

A sharp breath left her, and her gaze flicked around us. No one was paying attention. Except Galen.

At my nod, he appeared at her side and motioned toward the exit. “This way, ma’am.”

“You don’t even know who I am.” She gaped at me, appalled. “Your mother—”

“Feel free to submit a complaint to management. Just don’t expect to be invited back.”

She snapped her mouth shut. Then, without another word, she followed Galen out of the ballroom.

Well, that went better than expected. Magnus would be proud.

Where was that handsome devil?

Lifting the wineglass to my lips, I turned in a circle and looked for him as the taste of dry, fermented grapes rolled across my tongue.

Before I could swallow, a hand caught me from behind and squeezed my throat. Hard.

“Spit it out.” His voice seized me, stronger and more commanding than the fingers digging into my neck.

His bossiness compelled me to lash out. At the same time, my traitorous body melted against his solid chest at my back.

Damn you, Magnus.

My lips clamped together, holding the wine in my mouth.

“Don’t you dare fucking swallow.” He tightened his grip, but it was his dark velvet timbre that cut my air. “Someone’s trying to poison you.”

Chapter Two

Tinsley

Ice trickled across my scalp, and the wine turned to acid in my mouth.

Poison? Who could possibly want me dead?

The woman I’d just bounced from the party?

The governor’s son?

The Morelli family?

Magnus’s long line of scorned lovers?

Basically, a lot of people.

Fuck my life.

I lifted the glass and spat every drop back into it.