He surged forward, fumbled until he found her shoulders, and ran his hands up her neck to cup her jaw on either side. He could not see, but his thumb felt her full bottom lip. Then his lips did. She would choose him, and he kissed all the words he could not say.Thank you, being a few of them.I choose you toobeing a few others.
“You told me no kisses,” he said between sips at her lips.
“I was wrong.” She curled against his chest and pressed her fingers into his shoulders, her teeth nipping at his bottom lip. “If I must choose between a kiss and a dare, I choose a kiss.”
She chosehiskiss. He broke away but only because he had tomove. He must. Devon paced across the room, putting distance between them. “You do not have to choose at all. I’ve promised you an unseen dare, and I’ll provide one. I swear it. Now, where are the cloaks?”
“Cloaks?”
“Yes, you know, the large swaths of cloth that women wear over their gowns? Usually for warmth, but tonight for concealment.”
“Concealment. Interesting.” Lillian wiped at her lips with the back of her hand and disappeared through a door at the back of the room. She reappeared with a red silk concoction. “Here it is.”
“Hell, that will never do. It’s too red. Red doesn’t conceal. All right. New dare. Steal a black cloak.”
“I’ll not do such a thing!”
“You can return it. But it must be black, and I know Tabitha brought one. A black cloak. Arthur says he likes the way her hair looks against the color.”
“That’s sweet.”
“It’s revolting. And sweet. Too sweet. My teeth hurt talking to him these days. He’s utterly besotted. Keeps trying to capture her likeness in a painting.”
“I didn’t know he was artistic.”
“He’s not. We’ve a room full of canvases filled with red human-shaped blobs.”
Lillian guffawed and covered her mouth to trap the sound.
Devon pulled her hand gently away from her lips. “I like it when you laugh like that. Don’t think you should hide it.”
She pulled away and clutched the cloak tighter about her. “Yes. Well. Hm. Is stealing Tabitha’s cloak—”
“Borrowing.”
“Is borrowing Tabitha’s cloak all this dare requires?”
“Not at all. I dare you to brave the London streets at night with me.”
“Any particular destination in mind?”
Only one. She’d shared much with him this night, showed him much of herself she did not have to. Now it was his turn.
She disappeared once more into the closet. “I saw Tabitha arrive. I think this black silk is hers.” She returned, cloaked in black. She tilted her head. “You’re grinning.”
He was. Like a madman. “Why wouldn’t I be. I just kissed a fairy queen.” And that fairy queen had chosen him. He was no second choice for her. It no longer seemed to matter that she’d once written harsh words to him. For some reason, the woman who’d written that she’d never choose him had chosen him all the same.
CHAPTER11
Devon pushed his way into the coffeehouse, Lillian tucked protectively under one arm. He stopped just inside to let her drink her fill from this vantage point.
She pushed back her hood and blinked in the candlelit interior. It was brighter than the foggy London midnight behind them but in a different way. He loved it, and he peered at her face to see if she did, too.
“A coffeehouse?” she asked, her head swiveling on her slender neck as she tried to investigate every corner. She hitched a smile and tilted her face up to him. “I should have guessed. You are fixated, aren’t you?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
