Love is Murder Read Free Page B

outside of Paris, she finally got down to business.
    “I really owe you a debt of gratitude for your assistance this morning, Donovan.”
    “Not at all. You seemed like you were in trouble.”
    “I don’t suppose you’d let me take you to lunch when we arrive in Paris.”
    “I’m sorry. I have an appointment.”
    She gave a hopeful smile. “Dinner?”
    “I’m leaving for Rome this afternoon.”
    “Oh, how can I thank you for what you did? I mean, you really saved me. How did you even notice what was happening?”
    “I’m observant,” he said, letting his gaze drop from her glossy lips to her silky scarf to her leather-clad legs. “For instance, I noticed your sexy shoes.”
    She smiled, raising one foot toward his left hand. “You like them?” She set the heel in his palm playfully, allowing him to cup the buttery leather.
    “You wear them well.”
    She straightened her leg a little, which made his hand slide up to touch skin. “I can unwear them, too.”
    Ah, so she was going to use sex to get the diamonds. As appealing as that strategy was, it almost made him laugh with its unoriginality.
    “That won’t be necessary,” he said, circling his fingers around the fine bones of her ankle. “Nice thought, but not necessary.”
    She leaned forward, a gap in her creamy silk blouse revealing the curve of her breast. Lifting red-tipped fingers, she toyed with the loose knot of the scarf, giving him an even better view of her cleavage.
    An announcement in French almost drowned out the slither of silk over silk as she drew the scarf along the collar, sliding it off.
    “We have less than thirty minutes,” she said softly, the light and message in her eyes unmistakable. “I can use them to…thank you.”
    She let the scarf hit the floor. Her knees would be next, he surmised. One minute and she’d be kneeling in front of him, unzipping his pants…reaching into his jacket pocket when his eyes closed in pleasure.
    Really, the oldest trick in the book.
    She reached up to her hair clip in a move that pressed the thin material of her blouse against luscious breasts.
    “Do you mind?” she asked in a sultry voice.
    “Not at all.”
    Auburn hair cascaded over her shoulders, assisted by a slow shake of her head. The halo of soft curls made her delicate features even more attractive, and ratcheted up his already high trouble alert, sending an unwanted bolt of heat into his lower half.
    No doubt about it, Claudia Greenwood was a pro.
    But she surprised him; instead of dropping to her knees, she leaned back, lifted her other leg and set her shoe on his lap.
    “So you really like my shoes?”
    He was still holding the left one, his hand running up and down a velvety calf under the leather pants. “Very much. That’s what I noticed about you.”
    She gave him a dubious look. “Not my leather pants?”
    “I heard your heels behind me.”
    “And that sound turns you on?”
    “A little,” he admitted. He thumbed the little buckle in response, swallowing against a dry throat and willing his cock not to react to the proximity of her other shoe.
    He had a thief by the ankles and he wasn’t about to let his dick get in the way of taking her down.
    “So, you’re a shoe guy.” She glided one platform sole over his thigh. His cock stiffened some more but his brain wasn’t bloodless. He calculated exactly how far that greedy foot was from the diamond pouch in his jacket pocket.
    Far enough that he could snap her leg in two before she got anywhere near it.
    But it wasn’t the diamonds she tucked her toes into. She wiggled her toes and shot a little fire into his balls.
    “Spread your legs, Donovan,” she whispered, her fingers closing over the edge of her seat as she added pressure by pushing her feet into his groin a little more. When he obliged—he had to see how far she’d take this—she pulled her other foot out of his grasp and set it on his leg. “Watch what my shoes can do.”
    “I’m not worried about