“Do you know what’s distracting me right now?” I ask.
“What?” she whispers, her voice catching as if she isn’t sure she wants to hear the answer.
“You.” My eyes flick briefly to her lips, just long enough for her to notice before returning to hers. It’s subtle, a calculated move, and I see the way she sways ever so slightly toward me, like gravity itself is shifting.
And that’s when I move.
My hand dips behind her, gliding only close enough to her back pocket without brushing her skin. She’s so focused on me,on my face, my voice, the tension between us that the phone slides free with no resistance.
I step back and hold her phone up between us like a prize. “That’s distraction.”
Sylus lets out a sharp whistle, leaning back in his chair with a laugh. “Ric, you smooth bastard. I don’t know whether to be impressed or terrified.”
Nova crosses her arms, but there’s no hiding the way her lips twitch into a reluctant smile. “You’re a jerk.”
“And you’re so easy to distract,” I counter and toss the phone back to her. She catches it mid-air.
The adrenaline of the steal hums in my chest, but it’s the way she looks at me that has my blood running hot. Damn, I was addicted to this eight years ago, and suddenly I’m right back to craving her.
“All right, what else you got?” Koen smirks, bringing me out of my head.
“Chest pocket steals,” I say, eyes still on Nova’s green ones. “They’re all about hiding the motion. Problem is, you don’t have a chest pocket.”
Nicholas stands abruptly, unbuttoning his shirt. Annabelle lets out a low whistle when he’s left bare-chested.
“Now that’s teamwork,” she teases, earning a sharp glare from Nova that only makes her chuckle.
Nicholas steps up behind Nova, draping the shirt over her shoulders. She pulls it on without hesitation, buttoning it to keep it closed. While she adjusts the shirt, her focus momentarily distracted, I slip her phone from the back pocket of her jeans again and smoothly place it into the chest pocket of Nicholas’s shirt. When she notices, her sharp look meets my grin, and I can’t help the chuckle that escapes me.
I rest a hand lightly on her shoulder, right above the chest pocket. “Do you still have your matchbox?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Let me see it, please.” I extend my free hand.
Nova reaches into her jeans pocket, pulling out the small metal matchbox I haven’t seen in years.It’s still the same.As she moves to hand it over, I let it slip from my grasp, the box tumbling to the carpeted floor.
“Oh no.” I feign exaggerated dismay.
She narrows her eyes suspiciously but leans down to retrieve it. As she does, I dip the hand I had resting on her shoulder into the chest pocket of the shirt, retrieving her phone without a hitch. When she straightens, I’m already holding it out between us with a smug grin.
“Dammit.”
Annabelle lets out a low whistle. “This time, the movement did the work, didn’t it?”
“Exactly.” I nod, handing the phone back to Nova. “Let the mark do the work. Kinetic energy does half the job for you. And timing? Timing is everything.”
“All right,Houdini,what’s next?” Sylus chimes in with a smirk.
“Well, those are probably the main ways to snag those phones.”
“But we want to see more.” Annabelle pouts, jutting out her lip in exaggerated disappointment, but it does absolutely nothing to me.
Then I glance at Nova.
She leans in, whispering, “Come on, show them.”
And that?That does everything to me.
