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Felix was winning again, as he had every night since he’d met Jane. The elegant casino was buzzing, and the chandeliers rivaled in brilliance the diamonds that were roped about necks and dripping from ears. The men in their formal evening wear, the women in their gowns and jewels, casually wagering fortunes on the roll of the dice or the turn of a card, all created an atmosphere that was unequaled anywhere in the world. Jane fit into it easily, slim and graceful in her black silk gown, her shoulders and back bare. Jet earrings dangled to her shoulders, and her hair was piled on top of her head in a careless, becoming twist. She wore no necklace, no bracelets, only the earrings that touched the glowing gold of her skin.
Across the table Bruno was watching them closely. He was becoming impatient with Felix’s dithering, and his impatience was likely to force her hand.
Well, why not? She’d really waited as long as she could. If Grant had been interested, he’d have shown up before now.
She stood and bent down to kiss Felix on the forehead. “I’m going back to the hotel,” she said, smiling at him. “I have a headache.”
He looked up, dismayed. “Are you really ill?”
“It’s just a headache. I was on the beach too long today. You don’t have to leave; stay and enjoy your game.”
He began to look panicky, and she winked at him. “Why don’t you see if you can win now without me? Who knows, it may not be me at all.”
He brightened, the poor little man, and turned back to his game with renewed fervor. Jane left the casino and hurried back to the hotel, going straight to her room. She always allowed for being followed, because she sensed that she always was. Bruno was a very suspicious man. Swiftly she stripped off her gown, and she was reaching into the closet for a dark pair of pants and a shirt when a hand closed over her mouth and a muscular arm clamped around her waist.
“Don’t scream,” a low, faintly raspy voice said in her ear, and her heart jumped. The hand left her mouth, and Jane turned in his arms, burying her face against his neck, breathing in the delicious, familiar male scent of him.
“What are you doing here?” she breathed.
“What do you think I’m doing here?” he asked irritably, but his hands were sliding over her nearly-naked body, reacquainting himself with her flesh. “When I get you home, I just may give you that spanking I’ve threatened you with a couple of times. I get you away from Turego, and as soon as my back is turned you plunge right back into trouble.”
“I’m not in trouble,” she snapped.
“You couldn’t prove it by me. Get dressed. We’re getting out of here.”
“I can’t! There are some counterfeit plates that I’ve got to get. My room is being watched, so I was going to climb out the window and work my way around to Felix’s room. I have a pretty good idea where he’s hidden them.”
“And you say you’re not in trouble.”
“I’m not! But really, Grant, we’ve got to get those plates.”
“I’ve already got them.”
She blinked, her brown eyes owlish. “You do? But…how? I mean, how did you know—never mind. Kell told you, didn’t he? Well, where did Felix have them hidden?”
She was enjoying this. He sighed. “Where do you think he had them?”
“In the ceiling. I think he pushed up a square of the ceiling and hid the plates in there. It’s really the only good hiding place in the room, and he isn’t the type to put them in a safety deposit box in a bank, which is where I’d have put them.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” he said, annoyed. “You’d have put them in the ceiling, just like he did.”
She grinned. “I was right!”
“Yes, you were right.” And he probably never should have told her. Turning her around, he gave her a pat on the bottom. “Start packing. Your little friend is probably the nervous sort who checks his hidey-hole every night before he goes to bed, and we want to be long gone before he does.”
She dragged down her suitcases and started throwing clothes into them. He watched her, sweat popping out on his brow. She looked even better than he remembered, her breasts ripe and round, her legs long and shapely. He hadn’t even kissed her. He caught her arm, swinging her around and catching her close to him. “I’ve missed you,” he said, and lowered his mouth to hers.
Her response was instantaneous. She rose on tiptoe, moving against him, her arms coiled around his neck and her fingers deep in his hair. He’d had a haircut, and the dark blond strands slipped through her fingers to fall back in place, shaped perfectly to his head. “I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered when he released her mouth.
His breathing was ragged as he reluctantly let her go. “We’ll finish this when we have more time. Jane, would you please put on some clothes?”
She obeyed without question, pulling on green silk trousers and a matching green tunic. “Where are we going?”
“Right now? We’re driving to the beach and turning the plates over to an agent. Then we’re going to catch a flight to Paris, London and New York.”
“Unless, of course, Bruno is waiting just outside the door, and instead we end up sailing across the Mediterranean.”
“Bruno isn’t waiting outside the door. Would you hurry?”
