“Not so much a statesman. I’m a lawman. U.S. Marshal.”
“Really, now?” Rose said.
He tilted his head to get a better look at her. “You don’t believe me?”
“I just think if a fellow were trying to impress a girl, being an airship captain, a glim pirate, and a U.S. Marshal just might do the trick, unless maybe you’d like to add doctor, lawyer, or war hero for good measure.”
She was trying not to smile but couldn’t help it. He looked so confused.
“I suppose war hero might be true too,” he said, “or not, depending on whose side you believe. But I swear on my sweet mama’s grave. I was a U.S. Marshal long before I took to flying or harvesting glim.”
“Yes,” Rose said, keeping her expression serious. “Of course you were.”
He frowned and blew out air. “It’s”—he gestured with his hands, as if trying to catch a fleeting thought—“true,” he finally managed.
“Then why don’t you wear a badge?”
“I have a badge.”
“Can I see it?” she asked solemnly.
He dug in the inner pocket of his coat, hesitated a moment, then drew his fingers out. In his hand was a tin badge shaped like a star.
“Oh,” Rose said. She really had thought he was teasing her, trying to impress her. “So should I call you Marshal Captain Hink now?”
“I’d rather you not. And it would be Marshal Cage if you did.”
“What about ‘Lee’?”
“That’s one of the names I answer to.”
“How many names do you have, Captain?” Rose asked.
Hink hesitated. “I’d hate to tarnish your opinion of me, Miss Small.”
“Over a name or two?”
“Not that, as such.” He took a breath as if bracing for something, then let it out. “I have one name for each man who might have been my daddy.”
Rose pressed her fingers over her mouth. “Oh, I didn’t mean to pry.”
“Not at all. I had it coming.” He grinned wickedly at her.
“My mother was a woman of some adventure, if you understand what I’m saying. Wonderful woman, and I loved her very much. But she once told me she wasn’t quite sure which of her suitors had fathered me. So she gave me a name from each of them, in case they ever came back to claim me.”
“Your mother was a…”
He raised one eyebrow and nodded encouragingly, as if daring her to use a word to describe his mother.
“She was alone to raise you?” she asked.
From his look, that was not at all what he had expected out of her. She liked being able to surprise him.
“Some other adults lent a hand now and then, but yes. She raised me alone.”
“And did your father return?”
“No.”
“So how many…names do you have?”
“Four.”
“Four?”
“Lee Cadwaller Hink Cage.”
“That’s an impressive list.”
“It’s done me no harm.”
He stared a little too long, then finally turned his gaze back to the star in his hand.
“Don’t normally have to reveal all my secrets just to get a woman to kiss me. A well-timed smile usually does the trick.”
Rose’s face warmed from that comment, but she tried not to let it show. “I can’t imagine those were all your secrets, Captain—”
“Lee,” he said.
“Lee,” she repeated. “Surely there’s one or two surprises left to you.”
“Might be at that,” he said softly.
Then he repocketed the star, and before she could come up with the next thing to tease out of him, he was shifting sideways to her, one hand firmly at her back so she could lean against it if she needed to, the other gently brushing a strand of her hair from her cheek.
And then, without asking, without a word, without permission, he lowered his mouth to hers.
Rose stopped breathing. Stopped thinking. She’d been cornered by boys and kissed before. It was always rough, not always innocent. But she’d never had a man do this.
Lee held her lips with his own in a sort of embrace, moving slowly, as if showing her the steps to a dance she should follow. She moved with him, and shivered when his tongue dragged delicious warmth along her lower lip.
And then she paid no mind as to what came first and what came next. She opened her mouth to him, wanting that warmth inside her. He tasted like bourbon and something pleasantly richer.
The heat of his mouth sent flames over her skin and she wanted to stretch into that feeling. His lips were soft, but insistent. His stubble scratched along her cheek and only made her want more of his skin, more of his body against hers.