Page 35 of Take the Bait

“By New York City standards, it is. Or has it been divided into apartments? I didn’t think the city let these historic brownstones get subdivided.”

“The city doesn’t. The whole place is mine.”

She gaped as he pulled into the garage and cut the engine.

In a lame attempt to cover up her abrupt nervousness, she quipped, “Is this the part where you drug me, tie me up, and torture me, then shove my dismembered parts in a storage locker somewhere in New Jersey?”

He chuckled. “It’ll be fun. I promise.”

“Hah. That’s what all the psychopaths say.”

11

Dani started when the door lock clicked shut beside her. Had he just locked her in? Panic jumped in her gut. Was Cam a creepy serial killer, after all?

Her door opened, and he stood there, smiling, holding a hand down to her to help her out of the low seat.

“Why did you lock me in?” she challenged nervously.

“You strike me as the kind of woman who wouldn’t wait for me to come around and open your door for you. Thing is, my grandmother would tan my hide if I didn’t do it for you.”

“So, you’re motivated by fear of her?”

“You have no idea. She’s a formidable woman.”

Okay, so maybe he wasn’t a serial killer.

She laid her hand in his warm, strong palm. He grasped her hand lightly and lifted her out of the low seat with powerful ease that managed to feel entirely safe and non-murder-y.

She almost forgot her bag of clothes and turned around to grab it out of the car. He led her up a steep, narrow set of stairs and unlocked the door at the top. He went ahead, opening the door with a gallant gesture for her to enter.

She stepped into the coolest kitchen she’d ever seen. Tiny stainless steel tiles lined the walls and gorgeous black, cream, and gold granite swirled on the counters between top-end stainless steel appliances.

“Sorry I didn’t let you in through the front door,” he murmured over his shoulder, “but it’s still raining cats and dogs out there.”

“I didn’t need to make a grand entrance,” she replied, looking all around in wonder behind him.

He led her down a wide hallway lined with painting after painting like a mini-museum. She would’ve loved to stop and examine a number of the pieces, but Cam was moving swiftly in front of her.

They went past a dining room with a large modern painting on the far wall. The piece was so stunning she did stop to stare at the life-sized nude woman. Her face was depicted in hyper realistic detail, but her body was just a series of sketched outlines and a few shadows, not otherwise completed.

The simple lines of her figure were bold, though, sensuous and evocative. A confident hand had drawn the woman’s lush curves with quick, slashing strokes of a brush that left Dani breathless with the realism the painter had managed to capture in a nearly abstract depiction.

Cam’s steps stopped down the hall. Came back toward her. Stopped beside her. So mesmerized was she, though, that she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the mesmerizing woman and the way the model’s dark eyes smoldered down at her and Cam.

“Like her?” Cam asked quietly.

“She’s incredible. Who’s the artist?”

“It’s probably by Gustav Klimt. This piece is thought to be a study for another portrait he completed. But the provenance on this piece was lost during World War Two, so no one can say definitively that she’s a Klimt.”

“Wow,” Dani breathed.

“It’s a good thing for me her papers were lost or I couldn’t possibly have afforded her.”

Dani blinked. No freaking way had he bought a painting by a modern master on his ADA’s salary. This guy must come from some serious money or have some other gigantic source of income besides his day job.

Stunned, she followed him into a living room decorated in shades of white on white with plush area rugs, a simple but elegant sofa, sleek leather chairs and light wood end tables. But the walls—they exploded with color and texture from a half-dozen dynamic pieces of modern art.

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