Ace Is Wild by Penny McCall Read Free Book Online Page B

physical jolt to get past first, that instant buzz of attraction she couldn’t prevent no matter how she braced herself. Before she knew it, she’d be thinking about how amazing he looked in a tuxedo—or rather half out of it.
    His jacket hung open, and he had a really, really good body. Muscular. Everywhere. She liked that he’d lost the tie and undone the top couple of shirt buttons. She liked that he had chest hair, not so much that she had an urge to ask him if he hibernated in the winter, but enough to make her wonder how it would feel under her palms. She liked his five-o’clock shadow; she liked the way his limp gave him just enough vulnerability; she even liked the way he looked at her like she was crazy.
    She loved the way his hands felt on her.
    She could still feel the slide of his fingers, the heat of his palms burning her alive even through the thin, maddening cloth of her T-shirt, almost as hot as his eyes when they went all intense, as if she were the only other person in the world. If he so much as kissed her with that kind of focus, she’d never be the same again, and if they made love . . .
    But they wouldn’t be making love, or kissing, or even touching again, for that matter. They weren’t going to see each other after tonight if Daniel had his way. That much was clear from the way he was watching her. It wasn’t particularly pleasant, or reassuring, even though she tried to remind herself that at least he had a sense of humor.
    The other guy was another story. The other guy was a humor black hole. He was watching her, too, except he looked like he was posing for Mount Rushmore. She turned back around, and though she knew there was no way he was still staring at the back of her head, physically it felt like he’d reached out, curled a hand around the nape of her neck, and was squeezing. It didn’t take a psychic to know why.
    For starters they’d gotten her name out of her. Not that she’d fought very hard to keep it a secret, and even though she’d given them the legal one, Vivienne Foster, she knew they’d find the business alias she used. That being the case, they’d have read her police record. Even that didn’t bother her; the worst of her past wasn’t in there anyway.
    What bothered her was the certainty that Daniel and his FBI straight man were using her history as an excuse to treat her like the enemy. Not that it surprised her.
    She looked over her shoulder, met Daniel’s eyes, and felt like she’d caught fire. She didn’t know how he’d gotten from suspicion to sex but there was no question what was on his mind, and now that she’d tuned into it, she had no choice but to let it run its course. It didn’t take long. Daniel went from lust back to mistrust with a speed that made Vivi envy his self-control, especially as she couldn’t match it. She spent a little more time battling back her libido. The most she could manage was a slow simmer, and she got there none too soon.
    The door beside her opened, and she shot out of the chair, whipping around to find Daniel, looking grim, just closing the door behind himself. The other guy was still sitting behind his desk, doing his imitation of granite.
    Daniel wrapped his hand around her elbow and escorted her away from Mike’s office.
    “Where are we going?”
    “Just follow me and keep quiet—and you might want to be grateful the FBI isn’t arresting you.”
    “Why aren’t they?” she asked because she figured he’d expect it.
    “Let’s just say warning me about the hit men balanced out the rest of it.”
    And they planned to have her followed, hoping to find out how she’d known about the attempt. “Doubters,” she muttered.
    “Still sticking to your mind-reading con?” he asked, stopping at the first bank of elevators they came across.
    “Are you so sure it’s a con?”
    “The people who sued you thought it was.”
    She followed him onto the elevator, watched him punch the button for the ground floor. “The