Page 5 of Over the Edge

His hand settled on my knee, fingers sliding beneath the slit of my dress. “The auction isn’t until Saturday. Perhaps we could spend the intervening days... getting to know each other better.”

“Perhaps.” I leaned toward him slightly, even as I fought the urge to break his fingers one by one. “But first, I need to see the merchandise.”

“Then would you be interested in a private showing on my yacht tonight?”

That wasn’t part of the plan. I was supposed to plant the tracker now, but if the real goods were on the yacht...

I opened my mouth to reply?—

The terrace doors exploded inward.

CHAPTER2

LYRIC

I froze,hand hovering over the weapon strapped to my thigh, pulse spiking as a man strode into the room like he had every right to be there. My first thought: security. My second: assassin. My third?

Damn, he was hot.

Not ideal, brain. Not the time.

“Ms. Deveraux,” he said. “I don’t appreciate you disappearing on me.”

Moreau’s guards materialized from everywhere like shadows, but the stranger wasn’t intimidated. His focus was entirely on me. Like he knew me. The real me.

But that was impossible.

I’d never seen him before in my life. He was tall and heavily muscled, with scruffy dark hair and eyes the color of the cognac I hadn’t touched. He carried himself like a soldier and wore a well-tailored suit designed to disappear.

Moreau turned to me. “You know this man?”

Nope. But I had my suspicions that Ethan Voss was behind this.

I rose smoothly, setting my untouched glass aside and adopting the irritated expression of an heiress whose plans had been interrupted. “My head of security, apparently under the misapprehension that I need constant supervision. I believe I made it clear I didn’t require your services this evening, Mr. Mercer.”

It was the first name that came to mind. Mr. Mercer had been my piano teacher as a kid, but this guy definitely didn’t look like him.

A piano teacher wouldn’t have the lazy, predatory confidence of a man who knew exactly how much space he took up and dared anyone to challenge him for it.

A piano teacher wouldn’t have a body built for violence.

And a piano teacher certainly wouldn’t make heat curl low in my stomach.

Oh, perfect.

Now my libido decides to come out of hibernation and take notice of a guy?

Annoying. So annoying.

I stared at the man.Don’t ruin this. Just go with it. Please, for the love of God, play along.

The stranger moved further into the room. “Your father pays me to disagree with you when necessary, Ms. Deveraux.”

“Thisman is your head of security?” Moreau waved off his guards and closed the case containing the drone schematics. He passed it to Vidal, who carried it into the other room and put it into a lockbox.

Goddammit.

Now I’d have to find something else to put the tracker on.

---