Page 30 of Devil in Her Details

“You must be living rather frugally then.”

Dagger shrugged. “I don’t need much.”

She considered him. “But you do need something.”

He didn’t. But again a trace of devilry rose in him. “What I need a respectable milliner such as yourself can’t provide.”

“What do you by . . .?” Her eyes flew wide as saucers. “I shall pretend I did not hear that!”

Dagger chuckled. “Is nothing as illicit as you might be imagining.”

She harrumphed. “And just what is it you have in mind for a trade?”

Dagger held back a wolfish grin and pointed at his lips. “How about a kiss of your choosing then?”

She stared at him as if he’d grown horns. “A kiss as payment for your protection? I have not heard of anything more ridiculous.”

Dagger shrugged. “That is the cost for my protection.”

She pursed her lips, considering him for a moment before asking, “How long does one kiss buy me?”

Dagger froze, and she grinned.

A bewitching smile that lit up her entire face.

“What?” she challenged. “You thought I’d be too respectable to accept such terms? No matter what you might have gathered from your observations, you still don’t know a thing about me, Mr. Dagger Fury.”

Well, hell. “Please drop the mister, and you are correct. I don’t know many things about you, Lilly.” She surely didn’t behave like a usual aristocratic lady might. “What’s the duration you need my protection for?”

“Until I return to London.”

So her residence in Brighton wasn’t permanent. He’d suspected as much, but hearing the words from her lips left him strangely off-balance. “And how long is that?”

“A month? Perhaps two. Maybe even three.”

Not long at all.

She grinned at him, seemingly pleased with herself. “Why? Suddenly regretting your terms?”

“No.”

“Then how many kisses for, say, three months?”

The doe-eyed lynx really enjoyed treading on dangerous ground. “You’re really not afraid of me at all, are you?”

“Should I be afraid of you?”

Yes.

She had him at a true loss. But he had suggested the kiss, and he refused to retreat from terms he had set. In fact, the notion took firm root. No other payment would do. “Whether you should be afraid or not seems like a moot point now, does it not?”

“Well, since I’m not afraid of you, I suppose so.”

Indeed. He’d entered uncharted territory with her. She turned everything he thought he knew about women on its head. “So long as you keep in mind what you have to lose and whether you are willing to lose it.”

“Blunt as always.”

Dagger shrugged, his gaze dropped briefly to those luscious lips before returning to her eyes. “One kiss from you. That will suffice.”