Partners in Crime by Anne Stuart Read Free Book Online

certainly wasn’t about to jump into bed with a professional arsonist and con man. Particularly when she’d known him for less than twelve hours.
    Again that slow smile, as if he read her mind. “What do we do tomorrow? Unless you’re ready to call it quits.”
    “I’m not. Even if tonight was a total washout that doesn’t mean there aren’t other possibilities.”
    “I wouldn’t say tonight was a complete failure. The fact that your brother’s personnel file was missing suggests there’s something going on...”
    “I
told you
something’s going on.”
    “So you did. But one has to consider all the possibilities. And you might have been racked with paranoid delusions due to unresolved grief over your brother’s untimely death.”
    “Do you hang out with a lot of pop psychologists along with lawyers?” she questioned sweetly.
    To her surprise he flushed. “Just worth considering,” he said. “You’re still determined to go through with this?”
    “Still determined. With you or without you. Are we going to torch the place?”
    “No, we’re not going to torch the place,” he said wearily. “Violent little creature, aren’t you? I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”
    “Such as?”
    “Leave it to me,” he said mysteriously. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow morning and we’ll make our plans.”
    She was being dismissed. She breathed a sigh of relief, but felt disappointed that she wouldn’t have to fight him off. She hadn’t really expected to, but after the tangle in the ditch she couldn’t help her mind from considering such things.
    It was a waste of time. People who looked like her companion were never interested in plain Janes, and people who lived as she did weren’t interested in compromising themselves with professional criminals. They were nothing more than partners in crime, and unless they ran across more Dobermans and armed guards he wouldn’t have to touch her again.
    He reached over and caught her willful chin, his long fingers cool against her heated flesh. “Earth to Jane, come in please,” he murmured.
    “Sorry, I was distracted.” She was still distracted, by the look, the scent, the heat, the touch of the man beside her. She pulled back, and his hand dropped too readily. “Tomorrow,” she said, climbing out of the car and locking it behind her.
    He was coming with her. She couldn’t read his expression in the artificial light, wasn’t sure she even wanted to. “There’s no need to see me to the door,” she said hastily.
    “I’m not. I’ve got the room next door.”
    The darkness covered her embarrassment quite nicely. “Since when?”
    “Since this evening. I’d already checked out when you came up with your charming proposition. When I reregistered I had them move my room. I thought it might come in handy.”
    I
’
ll just bet you did,
Jane thought, then wiped out the fantasy. Why in the world was she so paranoid about the man’s intentions? He’d said and done nothing to suggest he had any physical interest in her. For all she knew he might even be gay. No, scratch that. The man standing tall and straight in the lamplight was definitely, distressingly heterosexual. And even if her instincts told her he wanted her, her intellect assured her that fantasy was nothing more than wishful thinking on her part.
    “Tomorrow, then.” Her voice was steady, showing none of the tangled thoughts racing around in her weary brain.
    “Tomorrow,” he agreed, standing by his door as she fumbled for her key in her back pocket.
    He waited until her door closed behind her, waited until he heard the distinctive sound of bolts being shot into place. “Damn,” he muttered to himself, opening the peeling green door that was a twin to Jane’s. “How do I get myself into these things?”
    Of course the answer to that, he thought, pouring himself a generous shot of Scotch and dropping down on the bed, was that he didn’t. This was the first time he’d ever gotten