“No,” he agreed easily, cocking his head as he studied me with shadowed eyes. “But the fact that your brother was once in a relationship with a married couple, or that your youngest sister offered her body as payment for your deceased father’s gambling debts? I hardly think that information if common knowledge.”

Both those secrets weren’t as closely guarded as they could have been, but it was still unacceptable he’d delved into my family’s closet looking for skeletons.

“Are you trying to blackmail me?” I asked archly.

A sharp exhalation that was something like a bitter laugh. “No, Mrs. Lombardi. As I said before, I am here to hire your services.”

I crossed my arms and cocked a hip. “You have a curious way of going about it. We aren’t currently accepting clients at this time.”

“I think you’ll make an exception for me.” He said it casually, easily, with the privilege of a white man born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

I opened my mouth to counter when he took a single, heavy step forward directly in to a triangular prism of light that illuminated his entire face and wide shoulders.

And I realized, he was intimating, but not at all horrifying.

In fact, he was almost exquisite.

His eyes a pale green like Granny Smith apples under heavy black brows and the square jaw carved at an acute angle covered in rough stubble. The scar was the only imperfection on his symmetrical features so it proved to highlight their beauty instead of detracting from it. What had been gruesome in the shadows was shockingly lovely in the light.

“My name is Tiernan Morelli,” he told me, reaching out to offer me a wide palm. “You haven’t heard of me, but I would bet my last dollar you know of my family.”

I blinked, because only an idiot living under a rock would be oblivious of the Morellis. They were New York royalty and there were a lot of them. What was it about old moneyed families that convinced them to breed like rabbits?

“I’ve heard of them,” I admitted, eyeing his hand as if it had teeth. “But name dropping has never swayed me and it won’t now.”

A flash of a small smile so quick I almost missed it. “Yet another reason I want to work with you.”

I arched a brow as he dropped his hand and tucked it into his pocket. “Because I don’t give a damn about your family name?”

“Because you’re not easily swayed from your morals.”

I laughed, the sound sudden and loud because it was startled out of me. “Not many people would accuse me of having morals.”