Page 80 of Beauty and the Thief

“There was nothing in the kitchen, but I found a study of sorts.”

He shook his head. “It’s not about the swindle. We’ll come to that. What I want to know is who are you really angry at tonight?”

“I was wrong to be angry. I apologize,” she said quickly, going to the kitchen nook to tidy it up, even though she had done so before they’d gone.

“Is it your da?”

She spun around. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Did he drink to excess? Spend all the money your mam needed for food and clothing on gin, disappear for days, then come home in the middle of the night cursing and hauling your mam about by the hair for some imagined slight?”

She stared at him. How could he have known? It was as though he had peeked into her childhood and spotted her nightmare.

“I don’t talk about my father.”

He crossed his arms. “And why is that? Was it not only your mam he hit but you too? Did he do more than hit you? Did he come to your bed at night when your mam turned him away—"

“No!” She stormed across the room. “He was vile, and he was awful, but he never did more than slap me across the face.” Her hand came up to cover her mouth.

“You don’t have to keep his drinking a secret anymore, lass.” Callahan’s voice was soft, and she did not want his pity. She could take pity from anyone but him.

“There is nothing to tell. I won’t talk about my father.” She shoved past him and disappeared behind the screen. But she didn’t undress. Instead, she stood there, shielded and clinging to that temporary safety.

“So that’s how it is,” he said on the other side of the screen. “I tell you me mam was a whore and begged and stole to survive. And you strip me naked in the flesh and take me cock in your hand, but God forbid you reveal a single secret about yourself.”

He was right. She knew he was right. She didn’t want to be vulnerable with him. She already felt too vulnerable.

He shoved the screen aside, and she jumped at the noise. He ignored the screen clattering to the floor and glowered down at her. “But you feel justified lecturing me about lying and accusing me of drinking when I’ve done nothing to break your trust.”

“I haven’t broken your trust either,” she shot back.

“You haven’t earned me trust to break. I don’t know you anymore than I did that night at the train station.”

“That’s not true.”

He shrugged. “What are you afraid of?”

“Nothing.” She tried to push past him, but he caught her by the arms.

“What are you afraid of?”

She shook him off. “You!” She’d lowered her voice for the benefit of the neighbors, but the word came out with just as much fury as it might have if she’d screamed. “I know men like you. You want to know about my father? Look in a mirror.”

He released her as though the fabric of her dress scorched his hands.

“You’re so charming and affable that you have everyone fooled. You haven’t fooled me, Callahan Kelly. Your plan to seduce me won’t work.”

He stared at her, his expression shocked. He obviously couldn’t believe she had seen through him.

Another niggling thought crept across her mind.

He’d never had the intention of seducing her at all.

And did he need to? She wanted him more than she was willing to admit.

“Is that what you think of me?” he asked.

She didn’t know the answer.

“That I agreed to this because I want your virtue?”

“No. There’s the—”

“The money, yes. To tell you truly, Brighid Mary Murray, I don’t know how you can stand to look at me.”

And then he turned, opened the door, and walked away from her, the house, and the mission.

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