Dangerous Seduction by Zoë Archer

Author:Zoë Archer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2013-11-25T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10.

“You’re sure we can trust her?” Marco asked for the fourth time.

“She’s green,” Simon answered, “but I trust her as much I trust you.” Hands in his pockets, he stopped his pacing and stared at the bedroom door, straining to hear the sounds of the women inside moving about.

Bent over the sheets of paper, his pen moving slowly but methodically, Marco shook his head. “Always thought you were a damned idealist.”

“It’s my fatal curse and eternal blessing. How’re the documents coming?”

“They’d be progressing faster if you’d shut your gob and let me work.”

“You’re the one who keeps asking about Alyce.”

“And you’re the one who keeps staring at that door as if you could burn it down with your eyes.”

Simon clenched his jaw. Herein lay the problem with observant colleagues. “Keep forging. That’s what you do, isn’t it? Fabricate things?”

As Marco got back to work, Simon paced over to the window and looked out through the curtains. The room faced the street, so he could distract himself with the comings and goings of people on the avenue. Trouble was, it was early as hell, and the distractions were minimal. The Hotel Imperial was located in a relatively genteel part of town. No late-night mischief on the street to keep his mind from wandering into the bedroom—where Alyce and Harriet were sequestered, fitting Alyce with an appropriate wardrobe.

He wouldn’t think about Alyce stripping out of her petticoats, down to her combination. The lamplight on her bare limbs. The exposed curve of her neck and slopes of her shoulders.

No, he wouldn’t think about any of that. He’d enough to stew over—such as whether or not this gambit was going succeed, or whether he and Alyce would be caught in the middle of it, and everything would go up in flames. There was always a risk to himself, but it was she and the miners that worried him. Far easier for him to walk—or slip—away from a disaster. But Alyce, her family, Edgar, all the men and women he’d come to know over the past few weeks—they’d be the ones to suffer if it all went south.

“Jesus, I can hear you thinking,” Marco muttered. “It’s like a rusty gearbox.”

“As opposed to the smooth, glassy waters of your brain,” Simon fired back over his shoulder. “Not even a ripple to disturb the surface.”

After setting his pen down carefully, Marco linked his fingers behind his head and studied Simon. “Four years we’ve been doing this together, and I’ve never seen you like this.”

Simon turned around and folded his arms across his chest. “Like what?”

“Like you’re about to kick the walls of the hotel down. This mission’s a tough one, no denying that, but you’re strung taut. The wrong word, the smallest look and”—he snapped his fingers—“you’ll explode like mercury fulminate.”

“Of course I’m tense, you ass. Hundreds of people’s jobs are at risk. Their lives, too, if things go disastrously.”

“And it’s got nothing at all to do with…” Marco flicked his gaze toward the bedroom door.

Simon stalked the perimeter of the room.

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