Anna blinked, taken aback, at the man standing in front of her. She'd never really met him, but she certainly knew of him. Mercer Arnott had been engaged to Lillian Westcliff for five years until recently, when he'd broken things off with her. He'd come to take her back, but she had already fallen in love with Simon's best friend James and Monsieur Arnott had poisoned him for revenge. Shaking her head, she stepped backward, nearly tripping over the curb.

Silently, she pondered sprinting around the block to the Saint James and Albany Hotel, though she was unsure whether Colin would be there or not. And she couldn't very well show up at his door with the letter he'd written to Flash.

Drat.

"Well, I'd better be getting home, it's nearly—"

"I understand." Arnott said, looking genuinely crestfallen.

"You must understand." Anna told him candidly, "You did try to kill James Westcliff, did you not?"

"I will admit to making a terrible mistake and acting irrationally in my distress." Arnott agreed.

"Why are you here?" She asked curiously. "I thought you had gone to America."

"Is that what people were saying?" Arnott replied dryly. "It's amazing what rumors will start in one's absence. My father sent me away to Italy for a few weeks while he attended to the matter."

"Cowardly, don't you think?" Anna challenged, glaring at him. Mercer Arnott stared down at her slack jawed as if he could not believe her audacity.

"Perhaps." He allowed tartly.

"So you're aware, Lillian did marry James Westcliff and the two are expecting a baby. I've just been informed this morning by my sister-in-law, her cousin." Anna carefully watched his expression go from surprise to quiet resignation, his features softening again.

"Good. I'm glad for her. Lord knows I didn't deserve the five years she gave me." He admitted.

"You aren't jealous?" Anna asked, trying very hard to remain aloof.

"Oh, don't misjudge. I am extremely jealous." He confessed, looking somewhat sheepish. "But I see now that Lillian is better off with James." Anna eyed him with suspicion, but said nothing else to provoke him.

"How noble." She muttered, looking away to find an escape. She could slip around the corner and flag down a taxi. "You'd better hope my brother doesn't find out you're back." Nodding coolly to him, she backed away. "Good afternoon, M. Arnott."

Once she had rounded the corner, she pulled out Colin's note, reading it to take her mind off of running into the man who had tried to kill James and had almost succeeded. Even though she was extremely wary of him, there was an underlying sadness which made her feel an even more uncomfortable pity for him, even though she knew he didn't deserve it. Feverishly, Anna unfolded Colin's letter.

Flash,

If you think something as silly as you telling me not to find you will stop me, then you do not know me at all. Anyone who knows me well knows that when I am determined, I do not give up easily. It may interest you to know, however, that I have met someone. Her name is Anna.

I can't explain it, but when I'm with her, I feel the same way I do when I read your letters. She reminds me of you, which is so strange, since I don't know who you are or what you look like. Yet, I feel I know you…I know your heart. And I feel like I know hers.

I can't wait forever, Flash.

You know how to find me. The next move is in your hands.

Yours,

Colin

Anna reread the note to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. Colin really was a man of honor. He had mentioned her to Flash, indicating that he did not take their new relationship lightly. And yet, slight irritation prickled her senses. He was using her as bait for Flash! Colin was using her to bait – well – herself. It was absurd! She began to fold the letter again, unsure of whether she wanted to go home and write a response or march over to Colin's hotel and give him a piece of her mind.

"Anna!" A man barked in her direction, making her look up startled. Her brother and Julienne were moving toward her hastily. Julienne's blue eyes were huge with worry.

Damn.

That meant Mother had returned home already and found her gone. She hadn't left a note. Which meant that Simon and Julienne had come to look for her.

"What the devil do you think you're doing walking the streets of Paris alone?" Simon hissed, taking her by the shoulders. Anna tore out of his grip, giving him a glare.

"You are the most intrusive, ridiculous—" She began, but his blue eyes turned murderous.

"Why were you speaking to Mercer Arnott?" He demanded to know. Julienne touched his arm, imploring him with her eyes.

"Simon." Her voice was very gentle, but the warning behind it did not go unnoticed by Anna.

"Well, I had gone to the post office—"

"To check your secret post box." Simon finished impatiently for her, sending her heart into frantic palpitations. "Oh yes, I know. I know all about it, Flash."

"Simon." Julienne ground out at him angrily.

"You are not responsible for me, Simon!" Anne fired back at her brother, feeling tears of frustration burn her eyes. "I didn't even know it was Mercer Arnott until he told me and I ended the conversation! As you recall, I never met the man." Simon shook his head, his handsome face pink with emotion.

"Well, with all of the secrets you've been keeping lately, it wouldn't have surprised me." He retorted.

"That is enough." Julienne growled at her husband, horrified. "You're as bad as Charles."

"I'm just trying to protect her." He told his wife, trying to keep his head.

"I don't need protection!" Anna raged at him, looking at Julienne and pleading tearfully with her eyes.

"You need to calm down." Julienne told him, looking into his eyes beseechingly. "It does her no good with you in this state."

"I'm right here." Anna cried, angry that they were discussing her as if she were not present.

"If anything were to happen to her—" Simon started, making any sense of sanity leave her.

"I am not Rose!" She screamed on the street, hearing her voice echo as the people around them stopped to look. "Damn you!" She sobbed at her brother, who looked like he'd been slapped. Julienne had gone completely white. "I didn't even know her, Simon, and yet I feel like I have to be punished because she died!" Uncaring who saw her, she poked her brother in the chest. "Do you know they kept her bedroom the same way it was when she was alive?" Anna knew she was out of line, but she no longer cared. "For twenty-four years! It's a tomb, Simon. Her tomb." She began to stalk away from him, when she heard him take a step toward her and whirled on him.

"Don't. You. Dare. Follow. Me." Her voice had lowered to a dangerous mutter before she spun on her heel and hurried down the street, embarrassed. The Saint James and Albany was further than she'd thought, and by the time she'd reached her destination, her feet hurt in her heeled shoes. She asked for directions at the front desk to Colin's room. Anna was directed up two sets of stairs and down a hallway before she found herself standing in front of two twenty-six. She made her the letter was tucked safely inside her valise, before she knocked.

The door opened a few moments later, with Colin staring down at her with his hair rumpled as if he'd been absently tugging at it. Instead of the immaculate tailored suit he usually wore, he had on his shirtsleeves, rolled to the elbows, with the top two buttons undone. His tie hung loosely around his neck. The best part, however, was a pair of elegant wire rimmed spectacles that he was wearing. They seemed to magnify the dark silver of his irises in the afternoon light.

"Anna…" He said, almost as if he couldn't believe she were standing there. He even looked back at his room before turning to face her again, as if he were double checking. At the sight of her tear soaked face, she was immediately dragged inside and settled into a chair while he knelt in front of her and used a handkerchief to attend her tears. He looked so painfully adorable all disheveled and casual. "What happened?" He asked, full of concern.

"Simon and I had an argument." She told him, biting her quivering lower lip. Colin's lips turned down momentarily while he soothed the stray pieces of hair off of her face.

"Hold on." He told her, rising and moving across the room to a cabinet. He withdrew a bottle of red wine and a glass, pouring a very small amount into it. "Here." He said, placing the glass in her hand. "It will relieve your nerves, love." Anna drank the heavy liquid quickly and willingly, feeling it glide down her throat, warming her.

"Tell me what happened." Colin said, kneeling in front of her again and putting his hand against her cheek. He still had on the spectacles, fascinating her.

"He's just…" Anna thought about what she could tell him without giving too much away. "I had a run in with Lillian's former fiancé." Colin's eyes darkened.

"What?" His voice was calm, though the promise of anger was certainly there. "Did he hurt you? Did he try to—"

"No!" Anna insisted, reaching out to make him settle down. "I was coming out of the post office and he quite literally ran into me."

"The bloody bastard, he's no more than a—" Colin stopped dead, looking at her. "—what were you doing in the post office alone, Anna?"

"I was," Anna thought quickly, praying she could sound convincing in a pinch, "mailing a package for my mother." His eyes narrowed.

"It's not safe for you to be out alone."

"Oh, not you too!" She groaned, turning away from him and trying to get up. He held her in place by the shoulders.

"There's no way your father or mother would have wanted you to be out in public alone." Colin persisted. "You weren't mailing a package for her."

Anna clamped her mouth shut, deciding to be angry with him. Unwilling to meet his eyes, she crossed her arms and stared out the window defiantly.

"So then what happened?" Colin urged gently, caressing her cheek. She hated that he could sway her with a single touch. The anger instantly ebbed, though she still did not look at him.

"So then we fought about our sister." She told him reluctantly.

"Grace?" Colin said, but Anna did not respond, feeling another onset of tears. With a sigh, Colin removed his glasses and set them on the desk, lifting her to her feet and resettling into the chair with her in his lap. "I figure we're already breaking rules by being in a hotel room alone, this couldn't hurt." He told her with a smile in his voice while she buried her face into his shoulder, feeling the warmth from his body through the thin material of his shirt.

"I'm just so tired of being treated like a child!" Anna told him brokenly, a sob wrenching from her. His hand rubbed over her back in consoling circles.

"You aren't a child, love, but I do understand why your brother was worried about you. It's not you he doesn't trust. It's men…especially men like Mercer Arnott. I'd like to throttle the arse myself." Colin told her. "Poor darling." He touched her nose. "I'm glad you came to me."

"You are?" Anna asked him, hating how her voice sounded from crying.

"Of course."

"Your spectacles are very becoming on you." Anna told him, sniffing. He smiled at her.

"You would like my spectacles, wouldn't you?"

"I like you in your shirtsleeves too…with your hair all untidy." She said honestly. "It makes me want to do wicked things to you." She could feel his muscles tense beneath her while she touched the soft fleece bared at the opening of his shirt. "Like kiss you here." Anna could not believe her own gall as she leaned forward and brushed her lips against the tanned skin.

"Don't." He told her, though his hand twined up into her pinned golden hair. Anna pressed her hand over his heart. His other hand covered hers and held it there, while they both breathed evenly and deeply. His eyes closed when she pressed shallow, light kisses along his bristle roughened jaw, rubbing her cheek against it like a cat. He let out a groan, tightening his arms around her.

"You have to stop—" He panted, turning her face to look up into his eyes. Half a second passed before he kissed her fully on the lips, bringing with him the feeling of ecstasy she'd felt the day before. She had the distinct sensation of floating, though that may have had something to do with the wine. Anna could not pull him tightly enough to her body, clinging to him. There was a strange pulsing between her legs, which she wasn't sure of, though she knew it meant something. Colin drew back quickly, and held her head against his chest, fighting for air. Anna closed her eyes, trying to will her breathing to a normal pace.

"So I take it you got your letter today, Flash?" Colin murmured with his lips pressed to her temple. Anna nodded absently, taking in his scent.

"Yes, of course. That's why I left so early, so I could be home before—" Anna stopped talking, her eyes flying open.

Oh no.

Anna scrambled out of Colin's arms and stared at him wide-eyed. He was grinning like a fool.

"I knew it." He said softly. Anna swallowed and darted toward the door, throwing it open.

"Anna, wait." Colin said, standing. She shook her head, afraid to look at him. "Flash." Her breath caught in her throat as he crossed to her without delay, shutting the door. "No more running."

"I'm sorry." Her face fell. Colin tilted her face up to his.

"Not as sorry as you're going to be for taking so long to admit it." He growled, claiming her lips possessively. Anna sighed into his mouth, holding on for dear life and praying that this wasn't a dream.