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Him specifically.
Daniel raised a hand to her face. With the tip of his finger, he traced her bottom lip.
He waited for her to bite his finger off. She didn’t.
“You should tell me to stop,” he said.
“I should? I mean...I should, yes.”
He stroked her jawline with the back of his fingers. She shivered. He felt it, saw it. “Are you going to?”
“Soon.”
Ah, he knew it. She might hate him, but she also liked him whether she wanted to or not.
He bent his head and put his mouth to her ear. “Have dinner with me tonight.”
Anya’s skin flushed. She breathed in quick and sharp and then seemingly forgot to breathe out again. A good sign. He looked down at her, blushing and trembling and beautiful beyond belief.
“I have to work. Kingsley wants a new suit for the auction, and now I have to start on your wardrobe. You can afford the time and money to eat dinner. I can’t.” She sounded unsure, as if she were trying to talk herself out of it.
“I’m buying. I’ll take you anywhere you want, buy you anything you want.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Her eyes flashed, and she stepped to the side, escaping him. She turned her back to him and jotted down more numbers in her notebook.
The spell was broken.
“You go buy your own dinner. I’m not on the menu.”
* * *
Daniel leftSignore Vitale’s and headed to Kingsley’s. They needed to talk. Specifically, they needed to talk about Anya. Somewhere past the facade of the wicked King of the Underworld, Kingsley had a heart. It was hidden and hidden deep, but Daniel was sure it was there. He’d seen a glimpse of it the night Kingsley had come to see Maggie before she died. If Daniel could find that heart again, maybe he could talk Kingsley into taking Anya out of this stupid auction. This wasn’t fun and it wasn’t funny. She was selling herself to the city’s most hardened deviants—Daniel knew many of them personally—to take care of her five younger siblings. There had to be a better way to help her. A way that didn’t make him picture a lamb wandering blindly into the path of a wolf.
And once that discussion ended, they might discuss Daniel’s participation in this idiotic auction and how it wasn’t going to happen until he got to see Eleanor.
Daniel didn’t bother going to the front door this time. Instead, he had the cab drop him off at the side entrance, which led to the back stairs of the old servants’ quarters. Most of the Underground didn’t even know the townhouse had a side entrance. As a handful of Kingsley’s clients weren’t just rich but also famous, they needed a way to sneak in and out of the house anonymously.
Daniel climbed the back stairs and found Kingsley in the hallway outside a door engaged in a profoundly passionate kiss with a dark-skinned goddess almost as tall as Kingsley himself. Kingsley apparently noticed Daniel waiting. Somehow, he managed to give Daniel a questioning look and slip the goddess a little more tongue at the same time.
The goddess finally pulled away and disappeared into Kingsley’s bedroom.
“Your timing is impeccable,mon ami.” Kingsley straightened his crushed cravat.
“Sorry for the interruption,” Daniel said without a trace of actual contrition.
“I’m not. The girl’s insatiable. I’m French. Not a machine.”
“She’s gorgeous.”
Kingsley nodded. “Tahitian. The newest member of—”
“Yes, the Imperial Collection. Right. That’s why I’m here.”
“You know my Collection is like your library.” Kingsley led them toward the back staircase. “You are welcome to check anything out as long as you return it in time.”
Daniel’s stomach dropped a few inches at his joke. Of course Kingsley didn’t know how close those words hit to home. Suddenly that day in the library after his first night with Eleanor came back to him with crystal clarity.
So you are a librarian. What does that make me then? A seven-day loan?Eleanor had asked, flashing her eyes at him. And then she laughed. That laugh like a champagne cork popping. He still heard that laugh in his dreams.
