“No!”Her voice was so shocked, the alarm in her eyes so genuine, he stopped moving toward her.
He let himself take her in instead.She was in another drab, serviceable shift.One that wasn’t worthy of her, and that did nothing to enhance her beauty.And yet she still looked every inch the queen.
“That wasn’t…” she started.Her eyes were darting this way and that like she didn’t know where to look.
Like she was thinking about running.
From him.An invisible knife twisted between his ribs.
“I asked to speak to him but only because I need work.”She stopped, seeming to consider her words.“Respectable work.”
His insides fell with relief as he recognized the truth in her words.He could have said so, but he wasn’t quick enough.
“I embraced him because I’d started to cry and he was kind to me and…” She moved toward King, her hands balling in her skirts and her movements so urgent they bordered on frantic.“I did not mean to do anything improper.I would never—I didn’t mean—”
“Enough.”He regretted the harshness of his tone instantly.It wasn’t she who should be apologizing.“Maloney is dead.”
She blinked, then her face went pale.
Christ.He shouldn’t be allowed near women.He’d scare the life out of those siblings of hers if he tried to speak to them.He looked away toward the crackling fire.“He’s dead.”
“So we are…we are safe?”
His insides coiled tight at the thought of her back in that squalor, anywhere near the dangers that lurked in those streets.
She ought to be here, under his protection, where no one would dare to look upon her.He scrubbed a hand over his eyes.“Safe enough.”
“Oh.”
“The new man in power knows you and yours are under my protection, but—”But don’t go back there.Don’t leave.
The words were right there.So dangerously close to escaping.
“But?”she prompted.Hell, when had she moved so close?He could smell that fresh clean scent of hers, and he could reach out and snag her around the waist, pull her tight.
Would she protest?
No, not if she wanted his money.He took a step back, his insides going to war between what he’d long since believed to be true of this world and what Beast had told him.
He couldn’t reconcile the two.And staring at Kitty now, she was like some unknowable mystery.Someone so far and above him, he shouldn’t be able to look at her.
“Why are you watching me like that?”she asked.
“Because I want to see your face,” he said.“When you answer my questions.”
She blinked in surprise, but then she straightened, and her chin went up.“All right.”
“Were you planning on leaving my money behind?”he asked.
“Yes.”
Her blush couldn’t be faked, nor the confusion in her eyes as if she wondered how he knew.
“Why?”
She blinked rapidly.“W-why?”
Lord, his heart was hammering too fast.He hated when she looked at him like this.