Page 44 of The Twilight Theft

“He’s good.”

“Have you met his wife?”

I took another sip of the wine and moved from the window to a hutch tucked in the corner of the dining room, decorated with small framed photos. How was I supposed to play this game with him when I didn’t know the rules? “Yeah, we had lunch together.”

The chopping stopped, and something solid rattled into a bowl.

I skimmed the photos, all of them landscapes or monuments. No family, no faces, not even Drew. Except for one. I shifted two photographs out of the way to pull a silver frame from the back. Drew and a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, in a tiny black bikini on a beach. He was in swim trunks and they stood next to each other in the water, with their arms around each other.

“Lunch? That’s why you missed the meeting?” he asked.

She was almost as tall as him, with full breasts and legs that went on forever. The kind of woman who reminded me I was five-foot-six and built like a hobbit. I should have been ogling Drew in the photo, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. That’s what sex-on-a-stick Drew Donovan dated.

“What are you doing?”

I startled, nearly spilling my wine. When I spun, he was right there. Too close again. “Is this your girlfriend? She’s really pretty.”

He didn’t even glance at the photo I was holding. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“She’s obviously not your sister.”

His jaw clenched.

“Fiancée, then? You two look awfully close.”

His nostrils flared again and a dangerous glint shimmered in his eyes. “I said I don’t have a girlfriend. You assume that was a sidestep? A way to avoid your actual question?”

Whatwasmy actual question? “She’s gorgeous.”

“And she uses it to her full advantage.”

I looked down at the photograph in the tiny space between us. “So you’re the tall, blonde woman type? You like the living dolls?”

“She’s not here, is she?”

“She dumped your grouchy butt?”

“I don’t want to talk about her with you.”

“Oh, but you wanted me to talk about Tanner?”

“You skipped out on a meeting for him.” He reached for the picture frame, but I tucked it behind myself. “I need to trust you’ve got my back on this job.”

“Like you had mine on the Harrington job?”Weak attempt at changing the subject, Jayce.

He inched closer. “Your plan sucked.”

“Your slow thinking would have gotten us caught without my plan.” I took a half-step away and ran into the hutch.Throw the wine at him. That’ll show him.

As though reading my thoughts, he took the wineglass from me and placed it on the table behind himself. “She was sleeping with two other men.”

Well, shit. I had to stop teasing him about her, didn’t I? Maybe I should have gone back to harassing him about Chase Harrington.

Drew stepped up to me again, reaching behind my back for the photograph. When I didn’t let go, he wrapped the other arm around me, grabbing the frame with both hands.

I was caged between his strong arms and his hard body. This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go. I released the frame. “We should discuss the gala.”

With his chest nearly pressed against mine, his deep tenor reverberated inside of me. “Yes, we should.”

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