Page 27 of A Deal with the Devil

Chapter Eight

Stealing from Devil had seemed like a good idea at the time.

Very well, it was always a bad idea, but anything was better than Portsmouth marrying her sister and then murdering her when he grew tired of her. Or keeping her locked up if she gave him sons enough to secure his lineage.

But Kitty had not imagined stealing a scrap of paper would make things worse. She was the last kind of woman a man like Devil would notice. He had beauties falling at his feet, elegant women, charming men, all begging for his attention. Kitty would have much preferred to disappear, thank you very much.

Too late for that now, alas.

And none of it mattered, not as long as Evie was safe.

“Oaths haven’t been sealed with a kiss since Henry VI,” she blurted out. “Since the Black Plague.”

Why did she keep saying things out loud? With her mouth?

“Fascinating,” Devil said, and it mostly did not sound like an insult. “Let me guess, you read about it in a book?”

He had no idea the kinds of books she read.

“At least that is a travesty we can rectify. History must be preserved, after all. We owe it to king and country.”

She knew what he was doing. He did not really want to kiss her. He only wanted her flustered. Confused. Vulnerable.

Well, she would show him.

She curled her fingers into the fine material of his coat and yanked him forward. Taken off guard, he let her. It was the only explanation, seeing as she was a good foot shorter than he was and several stone lighter, even soft as she was. He was all muscle and sin and taunts you knew you should not answer, no matter how tempting they were.

He thought she would flinch away if he kissed her.

So she would kiss him.

It had been some time. She did not fool herself into thinking a single kiss from a short bookseller with old lettuce on her shoes would turn his world upside down. She had stolen kisses as a girl and a great deal more since then—she was a spinster; she wasn’t dead. But there was no time for a dalliance when your father was busy ruining the family. And lately the men she met were more interested in throwing rotten vegetables at her door. It was not exactly flattering.

No matter. This kiss was not about allure or desire. It was merely a battle in the war. A surprise attack.

Which did not mean she could not enjoy it.

She would be an absolute idiot not to. Such chances did not come along every day. For Devil, they no doubt did, but for her?

Never.

She pushed up on her tiptoes before she lost her nerve. She kissed him lightly, teasingly, with a tiny lick over his bottom lip. But also haltingly, because part of her was waiting for him to shove her away, to laugh. To do anything but kiss her back.

He froze for a brief moment that nearly demolished her resolve, not to mention any shred of self-confidence.

And then he kissed her back.

Oh, how he kissed her back.

She’d already thought she was in over her head. There was no doubt about it now. Not with his clever hands in her hair, tightening, tugging her head back to hold her where he wanted her. Finding just the right angle to take her mouth like it belonged to him. He kissed her as if he had all the time in the world, so deeply and so thoroughly, her knees actually went soft. She had thought they only did that in the books she read.

When he tangled his tongue with hers, licking deep, she made a tiny sound, a whimper that would have embarrassed her if she were not already desperate for more. More of his mouth, more of his hands tight in her hair keeping her still when the world buffeted her from every side. More of him.

She had known he would be good at this. Objectively.

But she had not realized how it would affect her. How it would start fires in her belly, soften the muscles of her inner thighs, send heat streaking throughout her whole body, even the parts he was not touching. Why wasn’t he touching them? All of her? Everywhere. Anywhere.

He controlled the moment, her responses. The kiss she had started was his to finish. She was used to being the one who started everything and ended everything. Opening the shop in the morning, emptying the hearth at night. Hiding her sister from creditors and bullies and earls.