Sure as Hell by Julie Kenner Read Free Book Online Page B

father, but simply from the universe. Karma. Fate. Whatever you wanted to call it.
    So few genuinely nice things had happened to her in her life. And, honestly, she hadn’t expected them to. Why would she? Considering her heritage, warm fuzzies were hardly the norm.
    But with the man in the other room . . .
    She stifled a shiver. Now that she had the chance for affection, no matter how fleeting, she could hardly walk away.
    More, she didn’t want to walk away.
    And that, ultimately, was the deciding factor.
    Test or gift or simple coincidence, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she wanted him.
    She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths for strength, and then she turned to face the open door to the bedroom. She moved to the threshold in three long strides, then saw him there, standing by the window, nothing more than a towel around those perfect hips.
    But although his stance was confident, the face reflected in the glass told a different story. And looking at that expression, she felt both power and shame. Power that she could invoke such a longing in a man. Shame that she had taken so long to make her decision.
    He turned around, his expression blank except for the hint of a question in his eyes.
    She smiled, hoping that if the simple gesture didn’t soothe him, that her words would. “Hi,” she said. “My name is Lucia. And you still owe me dinner.”

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Chapter Six
    L ucia. He’d been saying the name all day, albeit quietly to himself. He could still feel the tremor of pure joy that shot through him when she’d smiled, said her name, and tossed their dinner plans into the mix. She’d had a point; he never had bought her dinner. But that was an oversight he intended to remedy this evening.
    They’d parted ways with a kiss and a promise, and although his body had ached for more sex, his heart ached to romance her. Never before had he reacted so strongly to a woman, either physically or emotionally. Had anyone cornered him yesterday and told him that his heart would soon be twisted into knots by a lithe brunette with a devilish gleam in her violet eyes, he would have announced to anyone listening that the speaker was clearly nuts.
    Now he was the one who was nuts, and he couldn’t have been happier about it. The only downside, in fact, to his newfound infatuation was that he couldn’t devote his time to Lucia 24/7.
    Because although he’d never expected himself to say it, in these particular circumstances, his father really did come first.
    Assassination.
    Could it really be true?
    He couldn’t imagine why his father would lie, and yet at the same time, he couldn’t imagine why his father would be at the dangerous end of an assassination threat. Jacques Moreau had offended quite a few people in his time, sure. But in the end, he was nothing more than a businessman. He wasn’t destroying rain forests. He wasn’t putting people out of work. Just the opposite, in fact. Moreau’s hotels and casinos provided jobs and insurance to thousands who’d worked for minimum wage before the Moreau empire had moved into their town. He donated a huge percentage of his profits to charities, putting Moreau’s name at the top of most philanthropic charts.
    Not exactly the kind of man against whom most people held a grudge. Dante being, perhaps, the sole notable exception.
    Even he, however, didn’t want his father dead. At most, he wanted to go back in time and teach the man how to be a parent. At worst, he wanted to be left alone to live his own life.
    Neither was going to happen, and now he was here, in Monte Carlo, trying to decide if his usually sane father had dipped into paranoia.
    The door to the conference room opened, and Linus stepped in. “Find anything?” Dante demanded.
    The techie shook his head. “I’ve got filters searching all the back traffic over the incoming and outgoing servers, and I’ve got a team watching the actual security footage. I don’t see anything related to a threat, and