Everything was on the line. And this man—his acceptance of her offered arrangement—was all that stood between her and her future. But if she told him that, he would hold all the power. And she couldn’t allow that.
So, she stayed silent.
He closed the distance between them with predatory grace that would have set any number of men on edge. And it did set her on edge as he lifted a hand, reaching for her. Her breath caught in her throat. What would he do? Would he touch her?
He didn’t touch her. Instead, he set a single finger to the thick leather strap at her shoulder, the one leading down to his knives, tracing it with barely-there pressure. “Tell me why he gave you my knives and sent you into my world.”
The touch traveled lower and lower, over the ribs of the blades seated deep in their leather scabbards. Her breath came harsh as he followed the second strap, the one that crossed beneath her breasts, over the buckle connecting one half of the holster to the other.
“Tell me why he sent you to me, like a sacrifice.” His touch lingered on the brass, his thumb coming to stroke over it once, twice. On the third pass, his fingers splayed over her torso, and she simultaneously craved and feared the caress—at once hinting at immense pleasure and hot embarrassment. After all, Hattie was not exactly lean, and there, where leather crossed her body, there was a swell of flesh that she would prefer he not notice.
She took a step back, hating the loss of his touch even as she found the breath that had been impossible for her to catch. She lifted her chin, drawing strength from the cool oak door behind her. She willed her voice firm. “He didn’t send me anywhere. I am the heroine of my own play, sir.”
“Mmm. A warrior in your own right.” He advanced, his nearness pressing her more firmly into the door. “So it is you who offers me these poor terms. Money that was mine to begin with and none of the retribution I intended to exact.”
“Retribution is a silly goal,” she said. “It’s intangible. It’s air.”
“Mmm.” The low rumble of assent was at her ear, so close she imagined she could feel the breath of it on her skin. “Just like air. Essential. Vital. Life-giving.”
She leaned away at that, twisting to see his eyes, cursing the darkness in the dimly lit room. “Do you believe that?”
He was silent long enough for her to believe he might not reply. And then he replied, soft and dark, “I believe that we spend all our lives fighting for our due. Air or otherwise.”
The words struck true. Lord knew Hattie had spent her fair time doing just that. Fighting for autonomy, for future, for her father’s approval and her family’s business. She’d been born a woman in a man’s world, and spent her entire life battling for a place in it. Desperate to prove herself worthy of it.
But this man—when he spoke of fighting for air—Hattie did not think he was speaking in metaphors.
Unable to stop herself, she lifted a hand and, moving slowly enough that he could stop her if he wished, she set her palm to his cheek, the warmth of it searing through her glove as the rough day’s growth of his beard caught on the soft kidskin. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
It was the wrong thing to say. The muscles of his jaw tightened and his entire body turned to steel. She dropped her hand the moment he caught her gaze in his. “You suggest I wait for my funds to be returned, just as I wait now, for my knives to be so. Just as I was to wait last night—for the culmination of the arrangement we made.”
The agreement that he would take her virginity. That he would ruin her for all others. She didn’t need it now. Not if Augie was going to support her bid to run her father’s business. She didn’t need him or ruination.
But she wanted it. At this man’s skilled hands.
Her gaze dropped to the hands in question, fingers loosely curled as though, at any moment, he might have to do battle. She remembered the feel of those fingers on her skin. The rough calluses on his palms. The way they set her aflame.
She wanted them again.
“I don’t care for waiting, Lady Henrietta.” The low words, spoken a breath from her ear, sent heat coiling through her.