Page 25 of Once an Angel
She sat down abruptly on the floor, clutching her ankle. Something scuttled out of the shadows, darting straight for Justin.
"Watch out!" she shrieked, snatching up the broom.
Before she could swing, Justin reached down and scooped up the creature. He dangled it above his head like a fat, scaly baby.
"There now, my pet," he crooned, giving Emily a reproachful look. "Did the wicked little girl frighten you?"
Her jaw dropped. "That thing is a pet?"
He cradled the beast to his chest. "Thisthingis a tuatara lizard, a veritable living fossil. They can survive for more than a century, although I dare say you've taken a few decades off this poor fellow's life."
"Then we're even. He's taken a few decades off mine."
The lizard's spiked tail waved near the waistband of Justin's dungarees. Emily felt an absurd flare of jealousy as he tickled it under its beaked chin. "Poor, sweet Fluffy."
"Fluffy?" she echoed.
"What would you have me call him? Scaly? Ugly?"
"It would seem more appropriate."
"Ah, but your parents didn't name you Brat, did they?"
She snapped her mouth shut, tempted to whackhimwith the broom. The lizard flicked its tongue out at her. She poked out her own in return. "You might have told me you had a two-foot dinosaur for a pet."
He smiled with maddening sweetness. "You never asked." He held the lizard up, examining it in the sunlight. "She didn't hurt you, did she?" As Justin kisseditsscaly head, Emily would have sworn its
beady little eyes flickered in demure triumph.
"Poor Fluffy, indeed," she muttered. "Poor Flurry gets all the sympathy." She knuckled the corner of
her lip tasting blood. "What about poor Emily? I could have been killed, but nobody cares enough to
fuss over me or lick my wounds."
Justin slanted an unfathomable look at her. Her heart thumped into an off-key rhythm.
He gently deposited Fluffy outside the door, then shut it with deliberate care. "We wouldn't want you
to feel neglected, now, would we?"
Emily's eyes widened as he closed the space between them and hauled her to her feet. His hands were rough, but his mouth as it found hers was achingly tender. His tongue glided with silky ease over the contours of her lips, lingering and soothing until a yearning ache replaced the sting. He didn't stop then, but tangled his hand in her hair and tilted her head back. He swept his tongue across hers, branding her with his taste and heat. Her hand curled helplessly around his nape, winding in the textured silk of his
hair. A moan rose from deep in her throat.
He released her.
Emily was so shocked she forgot to fall down. She just stood there in the middle of the floor, stunned
by the knowledge that with one kiss he had shattered all her defenses, all the independence she had
fought so hard to win. She was the sort of woman who could be had by her worst enemy for only the subtle eroticism of a kiss. Dazed, she touched two fingers to the tingling pillow of her bottom lip. Miss Winters must be right. She must be a very bad girl indeed.
Justin took a step backward, unprepared for Emily's trembling vulnerability. He had expected an enraged shriek, perhaps a slap, but not the lost expression that darkened her pretty eyes. She looked as if he had struck her, not kissed her, and it made him feel both cruel and ashamed. If she started to cry, he feared Penfeld might return to find them both on the floor, bawling like babies. He ached to touch her, but satisfied himself by plucking a dust ball from her curls.
She sank down on an overturned bucket, wrapping her dignity around her like the shreds of Penfeld's coat. "I fear the joke's on me this time. I lied about my leg." She met his gaze with aching candor.
"I didn't have anywhere else to go."
