Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Who was this ridiculous monster of a man who insisted that sitting on top of her was the best way to... what? Keep her from moving? It was cute that he thought he’d trapped her.

Luna tried to buck him off again, only to feel him shift on top of her and move, so it was even harder for her to wiggle underneath him. He knew how to pin a woman, and that shouldn’t make her flush with excitement. She shouldn’t feel heat pool in her belly and zing between her legs, but what was a woman supposed to do?

He had an incredible form. His muscles were well built from years of labor and yard work. The flat planes of bare muscles made her mouth water. And she’d never seen a man with a bare chest, not around here. They always had some form of hair and yet this man appeared entirely hairless. Strange, really. She’d expected him to be more like a local and yet, this earl never stopped surprising her.

Another trail of blood slithered down his shoulder and over the flat musculature of his chest. He must be in a lot of pain. She had a shard of glass shoved underneath her shoulder as well, but he’d stopped her from breaking something when she hit the ground. His body slamming into hers had stopped her momentum.

And Luna had expected to break something that would make it hard for her to escape. It was a long fall, but she was a strong woman. Even with a broken ankle, she thought she could crawl her way out of his place before he caught her.

Except... he’d saved her.

Again, she hadn’t expected that to happen when this man lumbered into her life. Who was he?

She wriggled her arms, biceps flexing until the muscles burned, but she couldn’t get him off her. No matter how hard she tried, and she was strong. Luna prided herself on the knowledge that most men couldn’t overpower her.

“What?” she snarled, wriggling again until she exhausted herself. Breathing hard and obviously angry, she felt her cheeks heat. “How are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” The grin on the Earl’s face grew even wider. “Were you thinking it would be easy to break into my house and steal from me?”

“I wasn’t going to take anything.” Luna always remembered the first and only rule of thieves. If you get caught, never admit what you were doing.

“You were obviously going to take something. You’re dressed in black and sneaking around my rooftops.” He shook his head, squinting his eyes as though he were disappointed in her. “If you’re going to lie, you must do better than that.”

“I wasn’t planning on taking anything,” she repeated with a quick gulp.

“Then why were you on my roof?”

She didn’t have a suitable answer for that, and Luna was running out of tricks. She tried a bright smile and said, “Well, it looked like the glass was thin. I wanted to make sure no one else would fall through it, so really, I was up there saving lives.”

Her words apparently baffled him. He blinked down at her a few times, the gears in his head racing as he tried to figure out what she meant. He thought it was a trick, but really, she was trying to make him laugh. Building up a little camaraderie might throw him off his balance enough so that she could throw him off her and then race from the room.

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” he asked with a scoff.

“Well, you are an earl, so I’m afraid I’m not expecting a lot of intelligence. You have people to be smart for you, so why would you waste your time being smart yourself?” She wiggled her fingers underneath his knees, but they were losing feeling already. “If you keep kneeling on top of my hands, I’m going to lose them.”

“Isn’t that a fitting end for a thief? I thought you all eventually lost your hands.”

Cruel. She wasn’t a normal thief, anyway. She took jewels and brought them to new owners because, contrary to popular belief, gemstones didn’t like to be on the same wearer for a very long time. They enjoyed being looked at. They wanted eyes on them at all times. Greedy little things.

He wasn’t moving, and she was running out of time.

“Look, we can come to some sort of agreement, can’t we?” She tried another tactic while desperately searching around herself for something she could grab or kick at him. “You get off me. I’ll leave this place and never look back. It’ll be a fun story to tell your friends later when you see them. Right? The thief who ruined your ceiling. I won’t tell anyone, so you can make up whatever heroic tale you want. No one has to know.”

Then he did something she hadn’t expected.

The Earl slid her hands up over her head, leaning over her until their chests nearly touched. He stared down at her, all muscle and blasting waves of heat, as he watched her eyes for something. Some truth or knowledge that she wasn’t telling him.

And his eyes were beautiful.

Blue and sharp, like the jagged edges of a gemstone. The gold centers were the setting, and the rest was the beautiful color of sapphire.

She swallowed again.

“I don’t take kindly to thieves,” he growled. His breath fanned over her face.

“No one does,” she whispered. “No one likes a thief because no one likes to lose something they think is theirs. We remind people that things can be taken from us, even when we feel like we’re safe. And I’m sorry for making you feel unsafe, but I have to live, and I won’t sit in a gutter and die simply because my existence makes people feel uncomfortable.”

His mouth dropped open, and that was the exact moment she needed to overpower him. Luna twisted her legs up and around his waist, shoving with her entire six feet of height to rotate them until she was sitting on top of his hips. Making quick work of it, she grabbed onto his wrists, pinned them above his head, and used her feet to slam down on his thighs.

He wouldn’t be able to move if he tried. Not unless he was a vampire like Martin, which she seriously doubted.

Of course, the Earl struggled. He shifted underneath her weight, trying to throw her off, although he quickly realized that wouldn’t happen. Not unless she wanted to let him up, which she didn’t. He could fight all he wanted, but he was now the one pinned against the floor.

Still, she was breathing hard by the time he gave up fighting. He watched her with an expression just short of awe, but that wasn’t right. She couldn’t convince herself it was that or the heat would return to her cheeks and she’d be done for.

No man ever felt awe when she defeated them. They were angry, frustrated, and then they thought she was some kind of freak and a woman who needed to get out of their house. That was how it worked. She was too big and took up far too much space for men who wanted to devour the world.

And they all wanted to do that.

His mouth dropped open again, and the long exhale he let out danced along her skin. He was so damned hot.

Not attractive, but literally warm. His skin burned like he had a fever, but he didn’t have the tell tale rosy cheeks of someone who battled an infection so... How was he so warm? Even Luna could feel the bitter bite of fall in the air.

“Bravo,” he muttered. “I suppose I deserved that.”

“You told me to try, after all.”

“I did. But I’ll confess, I didn’t think you were capable of it.”

“Few do.” Luna couldn’t count the amount of times her strength had surprised a man. It was like they walked around thinking no one could be stronger than them, unless it was another, larger man. They were like fish, she supposed. Swimming around in a lake, trying to convince everyone they meet that they were bigger than they actually were.

He cleared his throat and wiggled his fingers in her grip. “What do you plan on doing with me now, thief?”

Then she realized the compromising position she’d put him in. The Earl was limp in her arms, completely pinned by her bodyweight, with his back arching up to her while his hands were trapped in her grip. The strip of cloth that usually held her hair back from her face was coming loose, and she feared it would snap. Then the heavy locks of her red curls would create a curtain around them.

This was far too intimate. And inappropriate.

“I — “ She hesitated and met his gaze for a little too long.

There it was again. That unexplainable heat flushing through her entire body. She could hardly breathe through it, knowing that she’d never experienced such a heat with any other man in her life.

Her lungs picked up their pace. Her heart raced in her chest and, as she shifted her position to keep her grip on him, she felt something warm and hard press against the inside of her thigh.

No, this wasn’t right. She couldn’t do this with an earl who she was supposed to be stealing jewelry from.

With a sharp gasp, she launched herself off of him. Luna scrambled backward like a crab, trying to create some space so she could run.

They both stumbled to their feet at the same time. The jolting movements freed her hair and the red curls tumbled around her face. But they obscured her vision for a brief moment, and that gave him the advantage. The Earl shifted until he was in front of the door. And then she was trapped again.

Unless she wanted to break another window.

Bad idea. She already had glass in her hair and considering the Earl had not minded rolling through shards of glass, he’d likely not mind bashing through another window to stop her from running.

Grappling it was, then. If he wanted to fight her, then he should prepare to see stars. She’d knocked quite a few men out with a single hit.

Luna lifted her fists and readied herself for whatever would come. She’d fight. She’d win. And then she would run out of that door because there was no way she’d be able to steal anything from this house tonight. The servants were probably running down the halls to their master already.

He put his hands on his hips and chuckled. “Did you really just lift your fists to me?”

She gestured with one as though she were beckoning him to come closer. “I did. Come on, then. If you think you can win, you can fight me. Otherwise, you let me leave without trying to stop me.”

“I’m not going to fight you.” The Earl had a peculiar expression on his face. One eyebrow raised, mouth slightly open. He watched her every move, clearly waiting for her to attack him, but then didn’t appear as though he wanted to fight at all. “I’ve never met a woman like you before.”

“I’m not surprised by that. It’s not as if you get out all that much.” Luna rolled her shoulders and took a step to the side, her boots crunching through the broken glass. “If the rumors are true, you rarely leave this manor at all.”

“That would be my father, not me. I regularly go out to town and make myself seen.”

“Are you sure about that? I know your father died. I didn’t ask about your father when I walked around London. I was asking people about you.”

That brow quirked even higher. “You were asking about me? Should I be flattered?”

She bared her teeth in a feral grin. “You should be worried.”

“About a single woman barging into my house and thinking she could steal from me? I’m insulted that you think I’m so weak.” He finally lifted his fists, preparing to fight her if that was where this would end up going. “I’m not like the other earls, in case you didn’t notice.”

“It would be hard not to. I don’t think I’ve ever met a single person at your station who could roll through broken glass and not immediately call for a doctor.” Luna tilted her head to the side. “Why is that? Most people would try to hide those differences, but you seem rather proud of them.”

“Do you think I’m going to tell you all my secrets?” He chuckled and shook his head while stepping to the side, mirroring each of her movements so she didn’t have a clear way to escape. “No, I know this game. You think you’re going to get me talking long enough to distract me. Long enough for you to escape and then I’ll never find you again.”

One last time, she tried to make a joke. There had to be some words that would break his concentration long enough for her to run. “Why would you want to find me again? You are looking at a woman from the streets, a woman who has fought and stolen her entire life. You can’t be interested in me.”

He looked her over with those burning eyes and damn it, he was interested. She could see it in the way his cheeks flushed and how his eyes lingered on her hair. Like he wanted to touch the curls. “Oh, I think it would be rather easy to find you now that I’m looking. You could try to run, thief, but I will catch you.”

Why did the thrill of that hunt make her heart beat in her chest so rapidly she feared it would thunder out of her ribcage? Luna took a deep breath, ready to continue this battle of wits, but then she saw her opening.

He stumbled.

Maybe that was blood loss or something else. She didn’t care. She lunged to the side, took three giant leaps with her stupidly long legs, and she was past him. She sprinted toward the entrance to the ballroom and only paused for a brief second when she didn’t hear him pursuing her. Would he let her go just so he could hunt her down later?

A groan echoed through the ballroom. She looked over her shoulder and realized that the Earl was on his knees again. He pressed both hands into the floor as though he were in immeasurable pain and her soft heart twisted. Was he that hurt?

“Damn it,” she muttered before waltzing back to his side. “If this is a trick, it’s a dirty one. If you’re really hurt, then I’m dragging you outside of the door and leaving you for a servant to find later.”

She bent down with her hand on his shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of his face.

It all happened so quickly, she almost didn’t see him move. One second he was on the floor with his hands pressed into broken glass, the next, he had his arm around her neck. She grabbed onto his thick forearm and realized she was stuck. All he had to do was twist in the right direction and he’d kill her.

He really had captured her this time.