Secrets and Seduction Las Vegas (Sexy Italian Imports Book 1) Read Free Page B

perfect skin then graze her shiny pink mouth. He looked closer. Did she put on lip gloss for him?
    She cleared her throat.
    Back to reality. He glanced at the honor society pin on the lapel of her suit. Beauty and brains.
    He shrugged out of his jacket and looked around the office. Tan leather furniture, new by the smell of it. Shelves filled with books lined one wall, and nondescript art hung between windows that faced the mountains. There was a Kleenex box on every table.
    He tossed his jacket onto her shrink couch and, when he turned back, caught her looking at his ass. Nice.
    He smiled. “On the couch?”
    “Um, ah, no, just right here in the chair.”
    She was stammering. Good. She felt the tension between them, too. The looks they shared at the restaurant, long minutes where they connected. He shook his head. Whatever was heating up between them needed to cool off. She was a blackmailer; she knew about his double life, had the nerve to allude to it in front of the mayor. But it would be a bitch to keep his hands off her.
    As he took a seat, she set a bottle of water on a coaster on his side of the desk.
    “Why didn’t you steal my car that night?” All business, no small talk for Dr. Kane.
    He twisted the top off the bottle and took a drink. The cold water washed the desert out of his throat.
    “Your car? Or the rental car?”
    She shrugged her eyebrows. “Okay, so you did your research.” She watched him closely. “The rest of the money was in there. The keys were in the ignition. Why didn’t you take it? Save me the trouble of making the drop-off.”
    “You’re assuming I’m the blackmailer?” He’d play her game, judge her reactions.
    “Yes.” She tapped her fingers on the desk. “Why else would you be there? At the exact time and location I was there to pick up the money.”
    He pulled a folded paper out of his back pocket and tossed it on the desk. “I put the money there.”
    She picked up the paper and read then looked at him through narrowed eyes. “You dropped the money off at noon and sat in the tree for nine hours?”
    He shook his head. “No, I was watching from a vacant house. I climbed the tree at dusk, about an hour before you got there.”
    She spread the paper on her desk. “Interesting story.” She looked unconvinced.
    “All right, your turn, princess. Why were you there?”
    She stared at him for a minute then she sighed, and a look of resignation crossed her face. She opened her desk drawer, took out a paper, and handed it to him. The writing looked the same as that on his note. A man’s writing, his private investigator told him. Dr. Kane had an accomplice.
    He read, “An hour after sunset tonight. The dog park in Henderson.” He read the rest and tossed the paper on the desk.
    He’d call a friend at the Nugget and ask him to check into downtown surveillance cameras capturing the pawn shop area. He’d see if she really made the drop-off, and, if so, who picked it up.
    He asked, “Have you gotten any more letters?”
    “I don’t think so.” She looked flustered. “No. I haven’t.” Her eyes shifted around the room then focused on him. “Have you?” She clasped her hands together and tried to affect a poker face.
    Damn, she was hiding something. Her guilt paraded in her eyes.
    He took the latest note from his pocket and read, “Great trick...” The letter used his other name, Carlos. He wouldn’t give Valerie any ammunition, on the slight chance that she wasn’t the blackmailer. “Great trick…climbing the tree and getting your money back. But you only succeeded in doubling the amount we want from you.” He skimmed the note; nothing else she needed to hear. “It details the next drop-off.” He folded the paper and shoved it in his pocket. “You going to be there?”
    She shook her head. “I’m done. The blackmailers have the money I delivered.”
    “You’re not the designated pick-up girl?”
    She stood and walked to the window, looked out, then