“Take them off,” I begged. “Please. I want to feel your skin against mine.”
He didn’t argue, and while he peeled off his jeans and shirt, I extricated myself from the rest of my clothes, too.
He slid over me, his body hard against my soft curves, making me feel decadent and feminine. “I want to go slow,” I said. “But no foreplay. Not tonight. I want you inside me. I want to feel you moving inside me until neither one of us can stand it. Please, Evan. I want to push the limit, and I don’t want it to end.”
“Oh, baby,” he said, as I spread my legs and lifted my knees so that he could thrust into me slow and deep. “That’s it,” he said as I hooked my ankles together at the small of his back, my legs tensing in time with his thrusts, slow and languid, then faster, then slow again as he got closer.
He was holding back for me, and the knowledge that he was keeping his own pleasure in check in order to satisfy me was that much more erotic.
“Faster,” I whispered. “Harder.”
He didn’t hesitate, thrusting hard inside me as my body clenched tight around him, as if determined to keep him with me forever. His hands were on my hips, and we were moving together in a joint rhythm that seemed both calm and frenzied even as it grew and grew until finally I couldn’t take it any longer and I cried out his name even as the world seemed to shatter around me.
I was dissolving—I wasn’t anything but sensation—and yet he was still able to hold me, and he thrust inside, deeper and harder until I felt him explode, his orgasm shadowing mine, twining with it to draw us both together as our bodies, sensitive and primed, shook and convulsed and drew every last drop of pleasure out of this moment that we shared.
I gasped, finally falling back down to earth, safe now in the arms of this man. This dangerous man who had made love to me so wildly and yet so tenderly. “Evan,” I murmured.
“What?” he asked, and I opened my eyes to see him smiling down at me.
“I was just thinking how safe you make me feel. It’s a little ironic under the circumstances.”
“I don’t think so,” he said, his expression more serious than I’d ever seen it. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe, Lina. You need to know that.”
“I do,” I said, then rose up to brush my lips over his. I settled back. “I’m so happy it feels almost criminal.”
He rolled his eyes, and I laughed out loud.
“You never told me the second thing,” I said, suddenly remembering.
“The what?”
“You said there were two things you had to extricate yourself from. Before your criminal present could become your criminal past. You told me about the stuff still going on at Destiny, but you didn’t tell me the other.”
“No, I guess I didn’t.”
“So what is it?”
“There’s just this one job that we thought was over and done with, but something’s come up lately. Something that could come back and bite us on the ass.”
“Can you fix it?” I asked, suddenly worried.
“I’ve been trying. I keep getting stymied.”
“Why?” I asked, and the simple answer hit me with the force of a slap.
“You.”
twenty
“You want to explain to me what the hell you’re talking about?” I was off the bed and reaching for my shirt.
Evan was sitting up, still naked, and at the moment I wasn’t happy about the distraction. “Baby, calm down.”
“Calm down? You just said that I’m the reason you can’t go completely clean. This is as calm as it gets.”
He stared at me, and I felt my adrenaline drop down a notch.
“Okay,” I said. “Maybe I’m a little calmer.” I crammed my arms though my sleeves and dropped back onto the bed. “I’m listening.”
“The Creature Notebook.”
I cocked a brow. “If you tell me that you only fucked me to try to get your hands on that thing, we are going to have a serious problem, Evan Black.”
“I’m tempted to say that just because I think you’d be damn fun to fuck when you’re all riled up. But no. The fact is that even though I should have figured a way to screw you out of the notebook or to romance it away from you or to just flat-out steal it, I couldn’t do it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s you. And because Jahn gave it to you. And because it means so much to you.”
I frowned, trying to stay one step ahead of him. “But the fact that you didn’t take it from me is causing you a problem.”
“Pretty much.”
“Explain,” I demanded.
“It’s complicated,” he said.
“Then simplify it.”
“Fine,” he said. “Your uncle wanted the Creature Notebook. Neely got it instead. So Jahn had Cole create a forgery.”
“Cole?” I repeated.
“Do you want to let me finish?”
I held my hands up in surrender.
“We switched the original with the forgery. Which means that the original is in your living room, and Neely’s about to donate a forgery to a museum in Belgium.”
“Cole seriously created a forgery? The quality of that work must be exceptional.” I was legitimately impressed. I mean, I’d spent some time studying forgeries, and that was no small feat.
“Focus for me, babe,” Evan said. “This was no big deal while Neely kept the notebook in his private gallery. But it’s about to go to a museum. It’s going to be poked and prodded and analyzed. And while I think Cole is pretty damn talented, the odds are good that the forgery will be discovered. And if it is—”
“—then it will come back to Cole,” I finished. “Yeah, I get it.”
“No, you don’t,” Evan said. “Because it won’t just come back to Cole. It’ll come back to Jahn. It will ruin his business, his reputation, and the foundation. Not to mention biting me and Tyler on the ass, too.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“We want your notebook,” he said simply. “And then we’ll just switch them back.”
“All right,” I said. “How can I help?”
He shook his head. “I told you. By giving us the notebook.”
“And then?”
“No,” he said. “No way. That is exactly the kind of thing that your uncle didn’t want you to do. That is exactly the kind of shit he wanted you away from.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. I crawled on the bed toward him and pressed my hand to his chest. “I think he wanted me in on it.”
Evan cocked his head, and I could tell from his expression that he was trying to decide if I was bullshitting him. “Why do you think that?”
“Because of the timing of his will,” I said. “Because of the note he left you,” I added. “And because he left me the facsimile copy. Not the original.”
Evan’s eyes narrowed, and I knew I had his attention. “You think he was giving you his blessing with that note,” I said, “but I think it was more than that. I think the note and the bequest together were his way of saying we’d make a good team.”
“Keep going,” Evan said. I started to lean back and take my hand off his chest, but he pulled me back, then gently shook his head. “Stay,” he said. “And talk.”
I moved to his side and took his hand. “Don’t you get it? Jahn knew me better than anyone—and now that you’ve told me what he was into, I’m even more certain that I’m right about this. He expected us to work together. He wanted us to.”
“Maybe,” Evan conceded.
“And there’s an even a bigger reason to agree to let me help,” I pressed.
“What’s that?”
“Because if this really is the last thing keeping you from being fully legitimate—from getting out of that damned FBI spotlight—then I want to help. It matters to me, Evan. It matters a lot. Please. Please don’t say no.”
“Baby,” he said, lifting my fingertips to his lips. “Could I ever say no to you?”
“No fucking way,” Cole said. “I mean, no offense, baby girl, but no fucking way.”
I was sitting beside Evan on the leather couch. Now, I took his hand, searching for solidarity, and was rewarded when he squeezed back. We were back in my condo, Evan and I having spent the morning having breakfast with Ivy and then playing four rounds of Candy Land. Evan had called the others from the road and told them to meet us. That we had a lot to talk about.
“Yes, fucking way,” I said, making Cole roll his eyes. “And guess what? I moved the manuscript to a safe deposit box at HJH&A this morning. So unless I’m part of this, there isn’t going to be any
this.
Get it?”
Tyler looked at Evan. “What the fuck?”
“What are you looking at me for? Jahn left her the manuscript, not me. Unless you expect me to tie her down, I can’t really keep her from moving it.” He turned to me with a devious grin. “Then again, that wouldn’t have been such a bad plan.”
I smacked him even as Tyler groaned.
“Jesus, Evan. She’s like my little sister. Can we not go there?”
Evan and I both laughed, but Evan nodded with gentlemanly agreement. “
We
can not go there,” he agreed, looking firmly at Tyler and Cole. Then he cocked his head deliberately toward me. “Whether we go there is another question altogether.”
Tyler rolled his eyes, but Cole just laughed.
“Come on, guys,” I said, feeling a bit like they’d reverted back to their formative high school years. “This isn’t negotiable. Evan’s already tried to talk me out of it and he failed. He and I are doing this thing. The only reason you two are here with us is to decide if you’re going to be in on it, as well.” I flashed a sweet smile. “Get it?”
Tyler shot a glance toward Evan. “You sure you want her? She’s a downright pain in the ass.”
I bit back a grin. Tyler, at least, had come over to my way of thinking.
“I want her,” Evan said. “On this job, and after.”
“Big one-eighty for you, my man,” Cole said. “Weren’t you the one trying to stay the hell away so you wouldn’t sully her with your tainted soul?”
Evan shot him the finger.
“Maybe he likes me sullied,” I said, and they all three burst out laughing. “Look,” I added, before Tyler and Cole could add anything to the mix, “I know you’re just looking out for me, but nothing is going to go wrong. I’m going to do whatever it takes to pull this off. So don’t look at me like I’m a liability. I’m not. I’m your best goddamn asset, because I can get around your biggest problem. I can get you access to the forgery.”
I glanced over at Evan who was looking at me with pride, then back to Cole and Tyler. After a second, Tyler folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair with his legs out in front of him. “I’m not saying yes, but I’ll listen to what you have to say.”
As far as I was concerned, that really was a yes. I had no intention of giving them the notebook if I wasn’t in on the job. But I wanted them on board with having me on the team. If they were afraid I’d screw it up, then they’d be sloppy. We all would. And then it wouldn’t be a rush I’d be feeling, but full-fledged fear.
“Okay,” I said, standing up and feeling as nervous as if I was auditioning for the lead in the school play. “Evan ran me through what you guys already talked about this morning. I know that Neely keeps the manuscript in a case in the private gallery on the top floor of his Winnetka house. I know that the case is locked with a regular, old-fashioned key so that we can’t rely on hacking an electronic lock. And I know that other than the lock, the case doesn’t have any additional security. So if we can get it open and switch the manuscripts, we’re golden.”
I looked at them all to see if I’d forgotten anything. Cole nodded at me to continue.
“It’s the gallery itself that’s the problem. The Creature Notebook is only one of dozens of valuable artifacts that Neely owns, and he keeps them all locked up tight in a nearly impenetrable gallery.”
“It wouldn’t be impenetrable if we had more time,” Tyler said. “I’ve got the blueprints and technical specs. I know I could figure a way past his security system.”
“But we don’t have time,” Evan said. “The transfer is scheduled for two weeks from now. A job of that magnitude would need at least three months of planning.”
“So what we need is a way to get Neely to turn off security for us,” I said. “And I have it.”
“I’m listening,” Cole said.
“Tomorrow morning, Neely is going to get a call from Esther Martin at the Jahn Foundation, telling him that we have a new and exciting plan for the gala. Because we’ve had so much interest from so many of Jahn’s friends, we’ve decided to make it a traveling event. We’ll have six locations with six specialty foods. The foundation will provide luxury coaches to move the guests from stop to stop. We want him to be first on the list with cocktails and artisan cheeses.”
“I’m impressed,” Tyler said. “Keep going.”
I relished the little flutter of pride, along with the way Evan squeezed my hand reassuringly. “We can’t wait to do the switch at the actual event, since that’s after the donations are shipped off to Belgium. So we’re going to arrange a walk-through. Esther is going to tell him that her assistant, me, will be contacting him to arrange a time to come view the space to make sure it’s big enough for the expected crowds, to take photos for insurance purposes, and all the rest of it. All of that’s true. What Esther and Neely won’t know is that we’ll use that walk-through to do the switch. We get the facsimile notebook back, the foundation gets an awesome event, and everyone is happy.”
“And this was your idea?” Tyler asked, looking at me, his expression unreadable.
“Um, yeah.”
Tyler looked to Cole, who nodded. Then he looked back at me. “Damn good work, kid. Seriously, that’s damn good work.”
I felt the smile bloom on my face.
“I told you,” Evan said. “She’s an asset. Now let’s focus on some of the details.”
“The lock, for one,” Cole said. “We’re not going to have much time. Picking it isn’t going to work.”
“No,” Evan agreed. He looked at Tyler. “We need the key.”
Tyler smiled, wide and devilish. “I’m guessing there’s a woman involved?”
“You’re guessing right. Neely keeps the key in his bedside table. Renee is the maid who works that room. I’ve got details for you,” he added, pulling an envelope from his briefcase and passing it to Tyler. “Sweep her off her feet and do it fast. Get imprints and we’ll get a copy made.”
“I love my job,” Tyler said with such a wicked grin I had to laugh.