Read Touched by a Thief Online
Authors: Jana Mercy
Ian straightened his pants. He was playing a dangerous game. Gerard trusted him, but like all men with power, trust was a fluid thing. Screwing Monty was a surefire way to lose his boss’s trust.
Gerard hadn’t asked any questions on how Ian had set her up, on how he’d gained her trust, how he’d accomplished the assignment Gerard had given him. Ian hadn’t volunteered any details.
But to sleep with the boss man’s woman in the boss man’s bed? Career suicide. Suicide period if Kincaid ever found out. He’d worked too damned hard to let the need to wet his cock in Monty’s pussy ruin this for him.
And hell if the spiteful look in her eyes didn’t get to him.
Had she just set him up?
When he’d entered the room, she’d been surprised. No matter how much she tried to hide it, the chemistry still sparked. No woman had ever messed with his head so much. Either one of his heads.
No wonder Kincaid was willing to go to such insane lengths to have Monty in his life.
Ian wasn’t complaining. Gerard’s obsession with Monty was the man’s weakness, was the weak link that would allow Ian to make him pay.
But at the moment, Gerard wanted Monty hidden away. Something big was going to take place, something that had sent Gerard to London, curtailing his sexual interlude with Monty.
Gut instinct told Ian whatever was going on involved the Degassi. Which was why he resented being assigned Monty’s watch guard.
Then again, being Monty’s watch guard came with perks.
He watched her saunter naked as a jaybird to the walk-in closet and grab some clothing. Skintight black leather pants and a tank. Monty wasn’t dressing for Gerard. She was dressing for action.
And not the kind she’d already gotten at least twice today.
“Grab whatever you need for a couple of days. We’re out of here,” he told her when she finished zipping up her black boots.
“Where’s Gerard? We’re meeting him?”
“Yes.” He left it at that. Knowledge was on a need to know basis and the less Monty knew the better.
He laced his fingers with hers and tugged her toward the doorway.
“Wait,” she demanded, digging into the plush carpet with her boots. “I need to get something.”
“There’s no time.”
“There was time to fuck me.”
“Which completely obliterated all our extra time.”
She rolled her eyes, pulled lose and marched past him. He followed her to Gerard’s office.
After less than thirty seconds of watching her examine the room, he leaned against the doorjamb. “It’s not in here, you know.”
Her gaze shot to his. “What?”
“The Degassi.”
She gave him a blank look. “What are you talking about?”
He laughed at her feigned ignorance. “If there’s a valuable jewel anywhere near, you’re looking for it.”
She paused, looked thoughtful. “So it’s real then. After seeing you, I’d wondered.”
“How did you learn of the Degassi?” He’d keep his cool, see how much she’d tell him.
She sized him up, bore her teeth in a fake smile. “Like you said, if there’s a valuable jewel…”
He laughed. “Well, it’s not in here so save yourself the trouble.”
“No trouble,” she assured, resuming her search.
“Don’t trust me?”
“Not in the slightest. All you’ve done is lie to me. Not to mention that you work for Gerard.”
She was right. He’d told her one lie after another. All in the name of work. Still, it irked to hear her point out his flaws so nonchalantly.
“What’s loverboy going to say if he discovers you plan to steal the Degassi?” he asked, watching her give the room a once over without leaving anything looking disturbed. Damn, she was good.
“You let me worry about Gerard. Besides,” her lips twitched and her eyes held a beguiling light, “perhaps he’ll give it to me as a wedding gift.”
Ian sucked in a breath. Knowing she was teasing, he still couldn’t contain his gut-wrenching reaction. “You wouldn’t marry him.”
“I might.” The determined tilt to her chin said she would just to spite him. “What’s it to you?”
“Probably my job since you can’t keep your legs closed around me and I doubt Kincaid will approve of you screwing the hired help.”
Her gaze narrowed, shooting sparks of hatred toward him. Good. Because what happened earlier really couldn’t happen again. Gerard would fire him. Or worse.
“Gerard doesn’t dictate what, or who, I do. Not now, not ever. Got it?”
The fire in her eyes was worth baiting her more, but they really were running out of time. Gerard’s private jet was waiting. So was the Degassi.
Monty leaned back against the plush seat of Gerard’s private jet and wondered for the hundredth time why Gerard hadn’t taken her with him, why he’d left Ian in charge of her safety. Wasn’t that like hiring the wolf to watch the sheep?
Not that she was any sheep. Far from it, but still. Gerard was too smart a man for it to have slipped his notice that while Ian was doing his bidding and setting her up, he’d also been rocking her world one deep thrust at a time.
No way did Gerard not know about her and Ian. Gerard was intelligent, a business man, always calculating. His leaving her in Ian’s charge made no sense.
Unless he was testing her.
And already she’d failed that test. Failed by taking Ian deep inside her body within minutes of him showing back up on the scene.
Granted she’d already been naked, but still.
She fingered the cross at her neck. She’d packed only a change of clothes, an evening gown—who knew what Gerard had in store for her, and his gifts. She’d refused to allow Gerard’s crew to take her bag upon boarding the plane, preferring to keep the jewelry close, just in case she needed to make a quick getaway.
“You look thoughtful.”
“It surprises me Gerard put you in charge of bringing me to him. Why didn’t he just bring me with him when he left?”
“He had business to attend to.”
“What kind of business?”
“That is none of your business.”
She couldn’t help but wonder if Ian even knew where Gerard had gone. “Don’t you find it odd that he’d assign you as my personal body guard?”
“Why? I already know you and know what to watch for where you’re concerned. You’re much less likely to make a run for it with me at your side.”
“Why would I make a run for it? Gerard has been wonderful to me.”
“So wonderful you screwed the first man who walked through the door?
She wanted to argue, but what was the point? The truth was indisputable.
“Gerard knows it’s only a matter of time before you get bored, before your need for adrenaline takes over and you pick out the next steal.”
“And if he’s anywhere near as intelligent as we’re giving him credit for, he’s going to know what happened this afternoon. Hell, he probably has the room under video surveillance.”
“Not his bedroom. It’s the only room in the house not under surveillance. His surveillance, at any rate.”
“And you know this how?”
“Because I work for Gerard. And I tapped into his security system. Had to set up my own cameras in a few areas of the house.”
“A few?”
“His office, bedroom, etc.”
“You’ve been watching while Gerard and I have sex?”
“It was either that or a rerun on Animal Planet,” he said flippantly. “Either way a whole lot of nasty rutting going on.”
“How long?”
“From the moment you arrived.”
A smile lit her face. “Good, then you know I wasn’t wasting any time mooning over you.”
“No, I never thought you would be, Monty. You’d have to have a heart for that.”
“You dare accuse me of being heartless when it was you who betrayed me? When I went back for you and you handed me over to the police to save your own skin? And for what? Because Gerard ordered you to? Who’s the heartless bastard in this picture?”
“You’ve really got to get over that, Monty.”
“Get over it? Not until I cut your heart out and tear it apart bit by bit.”
“But you’ve just so eloquently established that I’m a heartless bastard. Make up your mind.”
“Ohhh.” She wanted to hit him. But hitting him wasn’t enough. She wanted to watch him suffer. Suffer as much as she had. More.
What she wouldn’t allow herself to consider was why she wanted him to suffer. Why she wanted revenge so desperately. Sure he’d betrayed her, but she’d allowed him to.
Truth was, Gerard had obviously also betrayed her. He’d hired Ian to set her up. Didn’t that make Gerard the one she should be targeting her hatred towards?
Logically, it made sense, but all her energy still focused around Ian, around wanting to make him pay for the pain he’d caused. Because even if Gerard had set her up just so he could come to her rescue, he’d never made her feel loved, never made her trust him, never stolen her heart only to trample over it. Only Ian had done that.
“You look pensive,” Ian interrupted her thoughts from where he sat across from her on the plane.
“Pensive? More like pissed at how I’ve been used.”
“Used? You should be flattered.”
She scoffed.
“How many women have a man go to so much trouble and expense just to nail her a few times?”
She seethed inside, but smiled pretty as you please. “I thought you said you’d been watching?”
Ian’s brow rose.
“If you’d been watching, you’d know that it was more than just a few times. Gerard and I have been going at it like rabbits.”
Ian’s jaw clenched, but then a smile slide onto his handsome face. “Making up for lost orgasms, Monty? Couldn’t you find yourself a bitch while in prison?”
Monty bit back her retort. Calling Ian a bastard again wouldn’t accomplish anything. They both already knew he was a bastard of the worst kind.
A smug smile tugged at Ian’s lips. “Surely someone wanted to be your girlfriend? No?” His eyes danced with devilry. “Perhaps you should have been nicer to the warden. I hear he has a way with the ladies.”
She bared her teeth and hissed at him.
“Speaking of a way with the ladies,” if possible his eyes gleamed with even more sin, “what is Gerard going to say when he discovers you fucked me within five minutes of seeing me again?”
“Gerard doesn’t own me.” But she did feel a twinge of guilt. She shouldn’t have had sex with Ian for so many reasons, not the least of which was whatever was between Gerard and her. Sexual attraction and gratitude on her part. Who knew with Gerard? At least, she’d been grateful right up until she’d learned he’d been behind the entire ordeal. The bastard. Maybe all men were bastards. Maybe she’d neuter the whole damned gender.
“I’m thinking Kincaid left you on purpose just so you could quit faking it.”
“Hate to break it to you, but I’ve never faked a thing.” She gave him a meaningful look. “Not with Gerard, that is. If you were watching, you should know that? Didn’t your camera have a zoom so you could see how he made me cum so much it dripped from my pussy?”
His pupils dilated to tiny pinpricks, but only for a moment. Then the amused light returned. “Perhaps leaving you with me is Kincaid’s way of letting you know the not-faked orgasm are over. Men have a habit of leaving you?”
He was baiting her, returning tit for tat. She wouldn’t take his bait, not when in doing so she might reveal how betrayed she’d been by his leaving her in the worst way. But she admitted leaving her with Ian didn’t mesh with Gerard’s keen mind and possessive nature. But she refused to let Ian think her ego was any less penetrable to taunts than his impenetrable one.
“Then why is he having me flown across an ocean?” She arched a brow, giving a saucy smile. “He wants me, Ian. We both know it’s true. Like you pointed out, he went to a lot of trouble to have me and wants me with him. Otherwise he’d have left me in New York, knowing I’d leave on my own.”
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps my ass.”
“Good point. Perhaps your ass is why he’s having you flown to London.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Then again, perhaps it’s not.”
She’d deal with whatever Gerard threw her way when the time came. At the moment the man across from her loomed far more dangerous to her peace of mind. Why had she given in so easily? One little crook of his talented finger and she’d come. Literally.
“Worried?”
“About you?” she challenged. “Never.”
“Actually I meant about your lover boy moving on before you got what you came for.”
“That’s another thing. What do you know about the Degassi and why have you tapped into Gerard’s security?”