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amazing—and mesmerizing.
    It was a wonder she’d been able to talk to him at all, he so flustered her. And she knew exactly what it was that turned her senses to mush and stole her breath when she looked at him. He appealed to her sexually, something she’d never really had to deal with before. Other men had caught her interest over the years, but none had made her wish she could actually do something about it. Playing the role of a man meant she had to ignore such things and that had been easy enough to do. Not this time. And that’s what frightened her the most about Lord Malory.
    She’d spent fifteen years, her entire life, actually—at least all that she could remember of it—avoiding Lucy’s fate. And she had done it only for one reason: to not end up a whore. Nor had she ever changed her opinion about it. Lucy might have settled into the job, might not have complained as much after the fact as she had beforehand, but Danny still saw it as the worst sort of degradation.
    For her, it would be the end of her life, and not just metaphorically, because she would rather starve to death in some alley than suffer strangers paying for the use of her body. But here was a man who could make her jump willingly into that role. Worse, he’d looked at her as if he knew her secret, as if he could see right through to her core—as if he wanted to touch her. Surely her imagination was playing tricks on her, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew, especially when his look turned so sensual, it nearly melted her on the spot.
    He’d be a lover. Lucy’s term. Lucy had put all men into one category or another, depending on how they wanted to use her and for how long. The names she gave them were mostly derogatory, and some were explicit, like the grapplers and the beasts. Good-bye Henrys she liked the best since they didn’t take up much of her time, in and out in under five minutes, not there long enough to say hello to, just good-bye. Lovers, she claimed, were rare, a man who actually wanted to give pleasure as well as receive it.
    A definite danger, Lord Malory was. A danger to Danny’s senses, her peace of mind, her secret. The sooner she saw the last of him—well, it couldn’t happen soon enough.

Chapter 4
     
    T HE JOB THOSE YOUNG LORDS SENT HER ON was so simple in comparison to her troubled thoughts that Danny did it almost without thinking about it. Just about every window in the large mansion was open. She climbed through one on the side of the house, made her way to the hall, then up the carpeted stairs.
    No lamps had been left burning, but with all those opened windows, a good deal of moonlight filtered in. Not that Danny needed light, as she was used to working in pitch-dark. But even the upstairs hall had a window opened at the end of it.
    A lot of closed doors were up there. It was a really big house, larger than anything she’d ever been in before. One side of the hall had more doors than the other, however, so she started on the side with less, thinking those led to larger rooms, the master bedroom in particular.
    She was correct. It was the second door she opened. The sheer size of that room gave it away, as well as the lump in the bed. Heddings was sleeping soundly, his loud snoring making an uncommon racket. That was annoying. Danny prided herself on her catlike movements, never making a sound, but she didn’t need to be extracautious with all the noise that Heddings was making.
    She moved straight to the tall bureau first. The second drawer held the jewelry chest. A large chest, it nearly filled the drawer. It wasn’t locked, didn’t even have any means of locking it. Too trusting by half, Lord Heddings was.
    She lifted the lid and was dazzled for a moment at how much glitter spread across the bottom of that chest, not just rings, but bracelets, brooches, even necklaces. In fact, most of the jewelry it contained was feminine. More gambling winnings? Danny couldn’t care less.
    She decided