Hot and Steamy Read Free

gate, then cranked the lever. The lift started upward with a squeal. Chance pulled her back with him against the warm walnut panels. Philippe stared straight ahead, but she remained quiet. Still, she watched him, searching his face with renewed interest.
    They exited on the penthouse floor. When the lift began its descent, she tugged him around to face her. “You’ll keep me a prisoner, will you?”
    â€œNope. Figured on Trent having half-an-idea that he could get his money back from you and steal my chip.” Chance raised his hands. “If you want to go, I’ll get the lift. But I don’t think you will.”
    â€œHow can you be so certain?”
    â€œYou may have run from Bremen but . . .” Chance unlocked her suite and threw the door open. “Run now and you miss the opportunity to take Reginald Trent for every cent he can beg, borrow or steal.”

II
    A hint of fear slithered through Chance’s guts as he entered Virginia’s suite. While he counted on avarice and curiosity to keep her in the hotel, it was entirely possible that she might have seen the virtue of escaping while he slept. In bringing her things over from her hotel, he had supplied her with the tools she needed to descend to the ground and vanish into thin air.
    His original plan hadn’t involved her. He’d not expected to find her in Monaco, but when he spotted her, he followed her and quickly learned of her association with his target. Having seen her at work before, and finding her a delicious distraction for Trent, he opted to bring her into things. To set it up, Chance had sent Trent the anonymous note exposing the swindle, precipitating the events of the previous night.
    And yet, it was not just her utility that had made him seek her out. He knew better than to fool himself. The Lithverian adventure had indeed left him with painful memories, and yet they vanished when first he saw her again. His breath had caught, his scrotum tightened, when she’d come into view.
    Unfinished business.
    Chance, wearing a dark suit, white shirt with a blue ascot, held his head high. A folded paper was on the front room table beside a discarded napkin and her breakfast dishes. Beyond it, the door to her boudoir remained half open. A softly hummed tune drifted through it.
    Without asking permission, or any expectation of receiving it, he crossed the front room and pushed the door open. “I hope the accommodations were to your satisfaction.”
    She sat there before a vanity. The triptych mirror reflected her surprise—feigned at his arrival, genuine at his appearance and proper diction. She studied him for a moment, then quickly glanced down.
    She had lowered her diaphanous white gown to the padded bench and had been brushing her long red tresses when he entered. Her hair, having been pulled forward of her shoulder, provided him a clear view of rounded hips, narrow waist, and strong shoulders. Supple muscles moved beneath creamy skin as she resumed brushing her long locks.
    â€œA gentleman should have knocked.”
    â€œBlame the stevedore.”
    She laughed lightly, lifting her chin, exposing her throat. “I’ve missed that stevedore.”
    â€œYou’ve found other people to amuse you.” Chance smiled. “I understand swindling Trent. I just don’t see how you can stand to do it.”
    â€œBetter that than surrendering to ennui.” She guided the brush through a copper cascade. “How is it that you’ll take him for so much? I’ve left him with nothing.”
    â€œIt’s simple. You’ll go to him, apologize, and tell him that you knew me when I was a luckless stevedore. You’ll say I got lucky and, on my travels, discovered a diamond mine that makes the Kimberley mines look like mud-puddles.”
    â€œI’ll convince him that I’ll let him swindle you, and we split it all later, using the build-a-banco trick.”
    Chance nodded.