Excerpt of The Impostor by Celeste Bradley

"You never told me your name," he said.

"Nor have you."

Dalton smiled. Ever the saucy one. "Monty," he said, his nickname from school long ago.

"It's a nice name," she said softly, "for a thief."

"Only in good cause, little rose."

She tilted her head and looked back at him soberly. "You know, I believe you mean that."

They came to a narrow door that opened onto a set of even narrower stairs that wound down into complete darkness. Dalton spared fleeting moment of pity for the poor souls who had to carry all the flotsam of the household up those tight turns. Were the stairs in his own house so inaccessible?

They traveled down, taking turn after turn. Dalton realized that she was leading him straight to the ground floor.

With one hand held by the girl and one hand trailing along the wall to keep his bearings in the darkness, Dalton had no way to tell that she had stopped short before him until he ran into her.

His arm swung to catch himself, and wrapped right about her waist. She gave a quick intake of breath, which only served to tighten his grasp.

She was taller than he'd thought, for her head fit just under his chin. If he bent down, he could kiss the top of her silly mobcap. Not that he wanted to, of course, though she smelt of flowers and warm woman, and fit so nicely against him.

The thought scampered across his mind that this was the second time in two days that he had been in this position with a woman.

He felt her let her breath free in a slow, controlled exhalation, then she calmly peeled his arm away and moved on, never losing her grip on his other hand.

"I'll thank you not to be thievin' from me, masked man. My safe-box is not for your pilferin' hands."

Dalton grinned in the dark. She was a bold thing, this thorny rose -- ladylike and poised, but saucy.

He decided that he liked saucy.