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“Claire?” called Fletch.
She turned around giving him her most dazzling smile. “Fletch, I was hoping I might see you and apologize for the way I took off.”
He took her arm, giving her cheek a kiss that sizzled along her skin. “I can’t really talk, but I want to. Did you come to see me?” he asked, his voice taking on an edge of anxiety she hadn’t expected.
She laughed. “No, you arrogant bastard, I came to see Pennington and told him I felt it was imperative that we inform the Commission. He agreed with me and I’m going to draft a joint memorandum to them, but I was hoping at least to give you my apology.”
“I was hoping for more than that,” he teased.
When she said nothing, he pressed her. “Agree to have dinner with me,” he said impulsively.
“I don’t know, Fletch.”
“I do. I’ll be sure enough for both of us. I’ve got to get inside…”
The alarm from within the museum rang out, momentarily startling her. Instinctively she raised her hand to touch the scarf that concealed the stolen necklace.
“Please, sweetheart, say yes,” cajoled Fletch.
She hesitated, but then relented. “But preliminarily only to dinner.”
“Preliminarily,” he said with a smile.
“What time?” she asked.
“Can we play it a little loose? I have a feeling I may be a while.”
“Why?”
“The alarm bell?” he said, giving a nod to the museum. “I have a sneaky suspicion the bell tolls for me.”
“Fletch! Fletch!” said the man she’d spotted as part of the security detail early on. “Thank God you’re here. It’s gone.”
“Fuck.”
Claire grabbed a pen out of her purse, turned Fletch’s hand palm up and wrote her cell number on it. “I’ll stay in the city. I can find a place to work and start drafting the memo. You go do whatever it is you need to do. If it’s going to be too late, just let me know.”
He nodded. “First chance I get, I’ll text you so you have my number as well. Will Pennington vouch for you?”
She nodded as she considered the use of the word ‘will’ versus the use of the word ‘can,’ where an alibi was concerned. She was fairly sure she had covered her tracks and might only have been exposed for a fraction of a second.
“Good.” He kissed her cheek again. “We’ll get his statement and if we need more, I’ll call you.”
“If you’re sure,” she said, gazing into his eyes.
“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my entire life.”
He kissed her again, this time on the lips. The first kiss was just a quick taste, before he hauled her in his arms and kissed her properly, holding her by her upper arms as he fused his lips to hers and she was able to feel the hard length that throbbed between them.
This put a bit of a wrinkle into her plans, but she thought in the end the whole thing had gone rather well. She watched him run up the stairs before pausing at the top. Claire raised her hand in a little wave and then blew him a kiss, which he caught and pressed to his lips with a smile. She watched him run into the museum before turning away and heading into the city. As she walked, the sirens of several police cars and mobile units split the afternoon sky as they raced towards the place of the jewel thief’s latest heist.
CHAPTER9
FLETCH
Was that really her? It was. But who had been the woman with her last night? After she’d left him at Haverty’s, he’d gone looking for her, directing the driver to start driving a search pattern.
“I doubt she’s going to walk all the way back into London, but there’s an underground station that takes you right back into the city.”
