Chapter 1 #3
“Shh.” He slapped her clutch against her abdomen, where her free hand snagged it, and then towed her by the arm toward the bedroom, taking advantage of her lapse in defiance.
“Look, this gig is my ticket out of stealing without doing any time. I’m undercover as a mole for the FBI, working as one of Alban’s security guards. That’s all I can say right now.”
“Well, that’s dandy for you.” She dug her heels into the carpet at the doorway of the bedroom. “Milo, I need those diamonds. It will only take me a minute.”
“Dammit, I’m not messing around, Serena.” He held fast to her bicep and opened the door to the hallway. “This place is crawling with guards. Alban will be up any minute to get the diamonds and—”
“He’s getting the diamonds? Why?”
He scanned the shadowed hallway and pulled her after him.
He grunted his impatience. “Because he’s auctioning them off tonight.
” Her skin went cold in his palm. Knowing Serena, she’d likely diligently planned her heist. She never walked into a job half-cocked, but there was no way she would have gotten wind of the auction.
Nor would she have foreseen that tonight, the FBI was ready to lock Alban up on a shit ton of charges—charges that his intel was helping to lay.
He checked his watch again. Six minutes. He cursed and picked up the pace. There was only one exit they could get to that quick. He rounded the corner of Alban’s suite and ran down the butler’s hallway.
“Where are you taking me?” Her voice shook, but it was more likely because of his rushed footsteps than fear.
“Closest exit.” He stopped at the top of the stairs leading toward the servants’ quarters.
“Wait,” she said, as she bent down and grabbed a handful of her train.
“If you don’t hurry your ass, I’m going to carry you.”
“Go to hell,” she mumbled. She flicked his waiting hand away and proceeded down the stairs in front of him.
He closed in on her retreating form. Her temper hadn’t changed one bit, either.
She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and he locked his hand around her shoulder before she could step into the hall.
He didn’t dare pull out the flashlight at his hip, but the soft hum of the fridge in the kitchen around the corner reached his ears.
The coast was clear. He stepped in front of her, and she followed close to his back.
They reached the servants’ entrance, and he eased the door open.
The chirp of crickets peeled through the summer night, and he eased her into the darkness and against the side of the house.
It was pitch black, the only illumination coming from the stars.
Stars. That was another thing he hadn’t been able to get out of his head. Lying on the grass of one of the local lookouts, the stars bright above them, her warm, lithe body curled into his arms. The night they’d almost had sex.
He coasted his hand down her arm. Her skin was as soft as silk against his much rougher palm. He hooked his fingers into hers, and she gripped his hand.
A thrill raced through him.
He glanced down at her and his heart knocked in his chest. Still so damn beautiful.
How could someone be so perfect? It was dark, but his eyes had long since committed her features to memory.
Slightly upturned nose, dusting of freckles over the bridge of it, eyebrows delicately arched and always so cynical without the least bit of effort.
And when she was mad . . . Christ. Nothing turned him on more than her temper.
And now, just like a decade ago, he couldn’t be with her.
Her breath spiraled in the air between them, hot and sweet—like the taste of her mouth and pink flesh between her thighs had been that night.
He bent his head and pressed his lips to hers.
Her body surged against him. She lifted to her toes, her tongue meeting his in a tentative dance.
Her hand curled into the crook of his neck, pulling him to her.
His phone buzzed against his leg.
Sonofabitch. It was time. Time for him to walk away from this dangerous life and let go of his past. He pulled his lips away and pressed his forehead to hers.
“I never want to see you again,” he said, his voice so hard it pained him. She stiffened. “Get the fuck away from this life, Serena. You’re better than this.”
Click
The metallic sound shot through his ear canals. Serena shrieked and then pressed her hands against her mouth.
“Step away from her, you traitor.”
“Goddammit,” Milo breathed. More curses fell from his lips. He couldn’t let them get her. Serena’s eyes shifted to the asshole behind him. The whites of her eyes matched her colorless lips.
“I’m at the servant’s entrance with a thief and—”
Milo snapped his fist over his shoulder and caught the guy in the nose. He jerked his elbow back and the guard coughed out a breath. Then Milo snatched the gun and jabbed the bald guard in the face. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head. Milo rounded on Serena.
“Go! Now,” he snarled, jutting his forefinger toward the forest that surrounded Alban’s property. Any second and they’d be ambushed by guards. Her hands stayed cupped over her mouth, terror sharp in her eyes. A figure stepped out of the shadows, and his senses prickled before he recognized Peyton.
“Serena, let’s go!”
Serena picked up her dress, turned, and ran into the darkness.
Taking his heart with her.