Ravishing in Red Read Free Page B

stupid as to bargain against myself. Name your price.”
    “And if you don’t have it?” He nodded to the pistol. “Do you think to force me to reveal everything, no matter what?”
    Suddenly he was even closer. His body stood an inch from the pistol’s barrel, and only a few more from her. She looked up at him in surprise.
    Her breath caught. He appeared very dangerous now, in ways that had nothing to do with pistols. His gaze and smile were intended to charm and seduce and he had released something invisible to that end as well.
    She doubted any woman would be immune to this man. It was as if his masculinity spoke to her primitive self and her mind had no say in the conversation.
    She physically reacted even while she clung to a mental shield. Wicked little arrows of stimulation shot around her body. She valiantly fought to thwart his effect, but those arrows just flashed along their exciting paths, ignoring her ladylike dismay.
    “It would be better if you put that gun down,” he said quietly. “We met to be allies, not adversaries. Friends, not enemies.”
    He spoke the word friends in a velvet voice. She grasped the pistol more firmly.
    “Give the gun to me.” He spoke gently, but in a firm command. His eyes reflected confidence that he would have his way on this matter, or on any other that he chose.
    In desperate rebellion, she cocked the hammer.
    “Two clicks. You do know how to use it.” He scowled. No longer a “friend,” he appeared hard and angry. “You are being foolish. At least point it away from me. It might go off accidentally now.”
    “I will use it if I must. Do not test my resolve on that.”
    “It is not resolve that I sense in you right now.”
    “Then your senses fail you.”
    “Where women are concerned, my senses never fail me. Not this sense at least.”
    He alluded to those stupid arrows and her breathless fear and the shocking stimulation. He knew . Worse, he had actually broached the matter out loud.
    He studied her, weighing something. His gaze both lured and frightened her.
    That smile again, intended to put her at ease and to flatter without words. “I dare not confide what I have unless I know your role in this. You are an unexpected player.”
    “If you are paid, what do you care who hears your story?”
    “I doubt you have enough money to buy, even if I were selling.”
    She worried that he was correct. Everything about him spoke of the very highest quality. A golden chain arced on his tastefully embroidered waistcoat, no doubt attached to a golden watch. The ten pounds and gold locket hiding in her reticule would not impress such a man.
    She may have come all this way, risked molestation and ruin, only to fail because the Domino’s demands were too expensive.
    He watched her as if he heard the calculations in her head. “How badly do you want this information? You are so pretty that I may give it to you in exchange for a kiss.”
    “A kiss! I am beginning to think that you are a charlatan if you would accept such little payment.”
    “You value your kisses so poorly?”
    “The value of any kiss is fleeting, no matter what its worth.”
    “What a sad moral. Also an untrue one, I hope. The poets say there are some kisses that can sustain a person’s soul forever.”
    “The poets are idiots.” This conversation had taken a most peculiar turn.
    “I fear you are correct, but I hope not. Hence my offer. My soul tells me that you may be the one woman whose kiss will be of eternal value.”
    What ridiculous nonsense. They both knew he was flattering to his own ends, and a kiss was not even the goal. His expression admitted the game even while he shamelessly played it.
    She should put him in his place and let him know that she was not some silly woman who swooned and gasped just because a handsome man with stunning eyes and a seductive smile flirted.
    Except, despite her mental scolds, she did feel a little light-headed and giddy, if truth be told. She was close to