Page 10 of This Haunted Heart

“There is one excellent kiss,” I reassured her.

She hugged it tight. “Thank you! I really do love it . . . I don’t think I’ve ever been presented with such a thoughtful gift before. Not from anyone.”

Rynn fell contemplative, torturing her bottom lip between her pearly teeth. I reached over and tugged on her chin, freeing it.

“You’ll hurt yourself doing that,” I said gently.

She’d left it glossy and slightly swollen like she’d been roughly kissed. Heaven above, she looked lovely gently ravaged.

“I apologize,” she said teasingly to her own mouth. Then her eyes flickered up to me. “I confess, I’ve never done any of this before. Never spouted off about botany, never nearly chewed my own lip off, and never been gifted presents without an immediate request for reciprocation . . . I’m not exactly sure what to do with you. You make me a bit nervous.”

I nodded my head sympathetically. “I understand. It’s my pirate-like appearance.”

Her next laugh was breathy and short-lived. “It’s all this calling on me business. I’d feel better if this was a proper transaction. It’s all I know, I suppose.”

“You never spend time with someone just for the pleasure of it?”

“Not really. No,” she said, clenching her teeth in a scowl of regret. “You see, I’m a woman in the rare position of knowingexactlywhat her time is worth to others. Down to the last dollar.”

The prices of the ladies were listed out by name in the book I’d signed during my first visit, but hers hadn’t been amongst them. “Out of curiosity—”

“Thirty-five dollars,” she interjected, her grin coy.

I whistled sharply. “That’s more than some men make in a month, and you get it all in one night.”

Her smile widened into something villainous and beguiling. “It’s $35 for onehour.”

“Good lord, woman,” I said, awe in my voice. Then I fell silent for a moment, contemplating that.

She nudged my arm. “Do you doubt me? You can ask downstairs if you do.”

“I wouldn’t dare doubt you. I’m just rethinking all of my career choices now. Apparently, I went into the wrong business.”

She chuckled at me as I’d meant for her to. Her voice had grown huskier since our youth, but it still wrang with all the radiant mischief I’d fallen hard for. She was an irresistible siren when taken over by mirth.

My chest hurt.

Regaining her composure, she dragged her gaze over me. “What businessisit exactly that you’re in?”

“This and that,” I said.

“Come on now.” She nudged my knee. “You know my business. It can’t be more scandalous than what I used to do here.”

“What is it you used to do here?” I asked, feigning innocence. “You’re a librarian, aren’t you?”

She knocked my knee, a gentle admonishment, only thistime she left her hand there to linger on my leg, the weight of her palm warm and light. “I used to tell men exactly what they wanted to hear. My hand to God, I did that more often than any other sort of debauchery you’re probably imagining.”

“I don’t know. I can imagine a great deal. What’s the most—”

“Ah!” She said, lifting a finger to my lips to silence me. “That’s a question I’ve learned never to answer when asked by a man. You’re a dangerously competitive lot, and as the most scandalous thing I’ve ever done involved two veteran acrobats and a much, much nimbler version of myself, any attempts to replicate it would injure us both. It is for your own good that I never answer that question, I assure you.”

She pulled yet another belly laugh out of me, the vixen. I chortled until my cheeks were hot.

“Now, help me with the mystery of you the way I helped you with my books,” she insisted. “It’s only fair. I won’t even make you show me your stockings or drawers unless you want to.”

“I’m a mystery, am I?” The corner of my mouth lifted.

Her fingers spread across my thigh coaxingly. “Why do you wear a costume like you belong out in a field somewhere? But your boots are too clean, and the leather is fine. You can buy expensive flowers and throw them away without a care. A rancher would never do such a thing. Why, he’d have eaten those flowers before he dared toss them. You’re very well-groomed—too well-groomed. And then there’s your collar. That was the biggest clue.”

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