Cara Summers – Risking It All: The Proposition / The Dare / The Favour / The P.I. / The Cop / The Defender (страница 33)

He reached for her then, but she slipped away and laughed. “Let me choose this time. The shirt.” She made it last—one button at a time, then the sleeves. She’d never before realized that stripping was as erotic and arousing for the stripper as it was for the audience. But just the brush of the fabric as she pulled it down her arms was sensitizing her skin. Raising the shirt high above her head, she twirled it just as she had the jacket. But this time, she aimed for the camera.

Bull’s-eye.

“Take off that damn padding.”

She did and she immediately bent over to take out her tools.

“Come here,” Chance said. “I want to touch you now.”

His voice was ragged, but when she glanced up, she saw that he wasn’t in the chair anymore. Instead, he was opening the window. For their escape, she thought. Then she turned to the column and prayed that the safe was where she thought it was.

Though she hadn’t heard him approach, he was there, lifting the bronze sundial off the wall. At the sight of the small safe, she let her heart take one little leap of triumph before she put on the earphones and began work.

“Here. This is where you like to be touched, isn’t it?”

He wasn’t touching her at all, but Natalie found she had to use all of her powers of concentration to keep from feeling that he was.

“And here. Right here where you’re so wet and slick and hot.”

Immediately, she was. She could feel the wetness pooling between her legs. Damn him. Promising herself that she was going to get even, she listened for the last tumbler to fall into place. The moment it did, she decided that two could play at the game that Chance had started.

In the huskiest voice she could muster, she said, “Bite me there. Yes. Oh yes. Yes.” Then on a breathy moan, she opened the safe. The sight of the red velvet bag had her heart leaping.

Chance reached for it before she could, and a second later, the largest and most beautiful diamond she’d ever seen caught the light. To the naked eye, at least, it appeared to be real. But Chance was already examining it with a jeweler’s loop. Without taking his eyes off of the diamond, he mouthed, “Keep the scenario going” and stepped up close to her.

She let out a long breathy moan. It wasn’t hard, not with Chance’s thigh pressing hard between her legs. “Yes. Oh, yes.”

Only seconds ticked by, but to Natalie it seemed longer. Then Chance shook his head.

Swallowing her disappointment, she watched as he slipped the fake diamond back into the red velvet pouch and replaced it in the safe. As he rehung the bronze sun, she replaced her tools in the small pouch she wore. Then before she could even breathe, Chance had her pressed back against the column.

She didn’t even have time to absorb the sensation before he rained a string of kisses along her cheek to her ear and whispered, “Before we leave, we have to play out this little scenario to the end. Otherwise, they’ll wonder why suddenly everything got so quiet.”

Then in a louder voice, he said, “I love to touch you here. And here.” He ran his hands from her throat to her breasts and then slowly, lower and lower, until he slipped his finger beneath her panties and found her.

“And especially here.” His mouth was so close that she could feel his breath on her lips. And he was barely touching her. His finger hardly entered her before withdrawing.

“I love to touch you here.” His eyes were so focused, so hot. His fingers pushed into her—not far enough, not nearly—then withdrew.

She should push him away. In some far corner of her mind, she remembered that someone was listening to every word he said. And they still had to get the real diamond from the safe in Carlo’s office. But with the pleasure streaming through her, she couldn’t find the strength to raise her hands.

“Come for me, Calli. I want to see you come. Now.”

Afterward, she would wonder if he could have made her come simply by commanding her to. There was something in his voice, something in the way he was looking at her…

But he didn’t leave it to chance. As the heat of his words coursed through her, he slipped his fingers into her again—deeper this time. “Steven.” That one gasp was all she managed before the orgasm that had been building since she’d started the strip tease slammed into her.

He held her there, propped against the column until the last wave of it receded, then he whispered against her ear. “Get dressed. We have to go now.” She took some satisfaction in hearing that his voice wasn’t quite steady.

She pulled on the clothes he handed her, a flood of emotions pouring through her. Shock, wonder—those were the only ones she could identify easily. And just below the surface, racing through her veins, was fear. No one had ever had this kind of effect on her, this kind of power over her. What was she going to do when their adventure was over?

“Ready?”

The whispered question had her dragging her thoughts back to the present. Chance was stooping at the open window, planting a listening device. If and when Carlo sent security to check the room, they’d have some advance warning.

At least that was the plan as he’d described it to her in the bathroom.

Chance crossed to the chair he’d been seated in and tucked a small tape recorder under it. For as long as the tape lasted, all anyone would hear would be a couple making love. The plan had been to play the tape from the moment she’d finished her striptease and blocked the camera. But Chance had decided to improvise.

There’d be time enough to worry about that after they’d finished what they came here to do. She moved to the window.

As he joined her, she became aware for the first time that he was wearing a cape and a mask.

On some level, she’d been aware that the clothes he’d handed her fit like a second skin, but it was only when he handed her a mask that she realized they were wearing new costumes. A quick glance down at her own confirmed her suspicion. Batman and Cat Woman.

Clever, she decided. The outfits would help them blend into the darkness of night and if they were caught, the new costumes should buy them a little time.

Chance said nothing as he threw one leg over the window ledge. His movements were smooth as he twisted and drew his other leg out. Then he was gone.

The only sound in the room came from the tape as she murmured Steven’s name. Even above the scent of flowers from the garden, she caught the smell of sex. Anyone entering would have to be convinced that someone had made love in this room. Was that why Chance had made her come? Was it simply his way of being thorough? Or had it simply been to buy them extra time?

Later, she promised herself. Later, she’d not only have answers, she’d have revenge. Natalie threw one leg over the edge of the sill, twisted, wiggled and let gravity pull her until only her fingers were gripping the window ledge. Then she dropped.

The impact was still singing up her legs when Chance grabbed her hand and they began to edge their way along the wall of the house.

CARLO SCANNED the ballroom as he listened to the report from his chief of security through the small receiver in his ear. The shooter they’d been interrogating all day had finally named the man who’d hired him. Hassam Aldiri.

The news confirmed what Carlo had already suspected. Aldiri had a reputation for ruthlessness and Carlo had heard that the man would do anything to get what he wanted.

Lifting a hand, Carlo rubbed at the knot of tension that had settled at the back of his neck. Soon it would turn into the same raging headache he always got when he had to suppress his anger.

He was angry—furious—because Aldiri had hired someone to shoot a guest on his estate. And he was also angry at himself for not anticipating that a man with Aldiri’s reputation might try something like this.

“Before you dispose of the shooter,” Carlo said into his microphone, “I want to know how he got past my security system.”

“Yes, sir.”

Carlo let his gaze sweep the room again.

“And about the other matter, sir?”

A couple dressed as Oliver and Hardy had slipped into his gallery fifteen minutes ago and were currently making love. Carlo knew from an earlier report that the couple was Steven Bradford and Calli. Thanks to his security staff, he knew the identity of every person in the main salon.

He also knew about Calli’s striptease. Evidently, Bradford and Calli weren’t as upset by the shooting as he was. His gaze rested on Risa Manwaring and Armand Genovese. They’d arrived together as Napoleon and Josephine, and currently they were dancing.

As far as he knew, they’d met each other for the first time at dinner last night. Had they teamed up to buy the diamond? That would surely make tonight’s auction more interesting…and profitable.

Carlo rubbed at the back of his neck again. Part of his tension was due to the fact that he still wasn’t sure if one of his new guests was Chance Mitchell.

“Should I send someone into the gallery, sir?”

Carlo dragged his attention back to the voice in his ear. “You haven’t lost the audio in the room?” he asked.

“No. They’re getting that loud and clear.”