Chapter 4 #3
She cocked an eyebrow. “You could’ve informed me earlier.”
“And you could’ve told me you’d already seen him, last night and today.
” He turned to her and tipped her chin up.
“Can we agree to get better at following the rules?” he said, lowering his voice to a sexy drawl like he was whispering sweet nothings—something he’d rather be doing than faking an attraction that wasn’t fake.
He bent close. “Now, kiss me and look like I’m the best thing since Prada shoes, or whatever shoes are special. ”
She hesitated for a moment, a shadow passing over her eyes.
“All for show,” he whispered. “Take one for the team.” And he winked.
Cate rested her hands on his chest.
For a second, he thought she’d push him away. Instead, she curled her fingers into his shirt, rose on her toes and brushed her lips across his.
His arms automatically curved around her waist, dragging her body flush against his.
As soon as her lips touched his, he knew a simple butterfly kiss wouldn’t do.
Not wanting to push her too fast, he swept his tongue across the seam of her mouth.
When she opened to him, he dove in. She met him, swirling and caressing.
Draco forgot where he was, why they were there. All he could think, feel and focus on was her.
When he had no choice but to breathe, he raised his head and stared down into her eyes.
She blinked up at him as if waking from an erotic dream, nearly undoing him in that one look.
An old woman approached, carrying a large bag, her gray hair pulled back in a bun at the back of her head. She frowned fiercely at Cate and Draco and spoke in fast and furious German. Draco could only translate one of the words. Scham. Shame. She harumphed and brushed past them, shaking her head.
Draco chuckled, releasing some of the tension of the kiss. “I think she just told us to get a room.”
Cate bent her head, fiddling with the purse she had slung over her shoulder. When she looked up again, her professional, expressionless PI face was in place. “We should get moving.”
“Agreed.” He hooked her arm. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s change things up.”
She murmured something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like, “Seriously, like we haven’t already?”
Draco’s grin broadened. “Too bad this store isn’t open. I know you’d like a chance to try on that outfit.”
“I really like it.” Cate sighed dramatically. “Do you suppose there’s a place further up that’s open? I’d love to take something home from Zurich.”
“I bet there is, darlin’,” Draco said. “Let’s find it.” He pressed his hand against her back and turned her away from their shadow. “Now,” he said, “this is when you do precisely what I say.”
“Is that right?” she said and batted her eye up at him. “Please, tell me, oh wise one.”
Draco snorted. “Keep it up, woman.”
“I plan to,” she said, batting her eyes again. “What do you have in mind?”
“Turning you over on my knee and spanking you soundly.” He winked and kept walking. “We’re going to keep walking like a couple so in love we don’t care where we go.” If only, he thought. “When we get to a department store up ahead, we’re going inside. It has two exits and four floors.”
“And you know this because?” she asked.
“I scouted it earlier.”
“You did not,” she frowned up at him. “When?”
“While you slept and I didn’t.” At the department store, he held the door open. “You snore.”
“I do not,” she protested.
“We’re going in one door and out the other.” He followed her inside, letting the door close behind them before he stared through the glass at the man in the gray overcoat. “And, yes, you do.”
“You scouted while I slept?” she whispered. “How did I not know that?”
“The point is that you slept,” he said. “And it all worked out, giving me the time I needed to look around.”
“And you just left me alone?” Cate glared up at him.
“Frau Bieri is a force to be reckoned with,” Draco said. “I had no doubt she would make sure no one would get inside while I was out. Hell, she scares me.”
Cate laughed. A full-throated, belly laugh that made Draco’s day light up.
“I can see her standing up to the man in the gray coat,” Cate said, wiping tears from her eyes, “and intimidating the hell out of him.”
“As I said...she likes you. Not so much me.” Draco led her to the stairs going up to the second floor, all the while watching the door in case the man in the gray coat followed them inside.
He didn’t.
They weaved in and out of the clothing racks for a few minutes. Draco bought Cate a scarf the color of her blue eyes.
She said she didn’t want it.
He said they needed a bag to carry out and won the argument by handing the clerk his credit card before Cate could snatch the scarf away.
Bag in hand, he led her to the staircase and back down to the ground floor.
Instead of heading for the front entrance, he led her to the rear entrance, which opened onto another street with a different flow of foot traffic.
He swept the immediate vicinity before the muscles at the back of his neck relaxed a little.
“We ditched him,” he said.
“For the moment,” Cate added.