“All right,” she said, when his continued silence started to grate on her nerves. “Let’s get going.” She peeled off her latex gloves and shoved them into her fanny pack.
“I don’t think so.”
She lifted a brow in a gesture that she hoped was regal. “I don’t recall making that a question.”
He studied her, and she pulled herself up to her full height, all five feet six inches, determined to make absolutely clear that she didn’t intend to broach any argument. “I told you. You’re not getting rid of me. Get used to the idea.”
Apparently, either her words or her body language worked, because he finally gave one curt nod. “Fine. It’s not worth arguing about. We’ll go in the morning.”
She put a hand on her hip. “Oh, right. Like I’m going to let you slip away for eight hours. We go now.”
“It’s after midnight. No.”
She exhaled. “Why the hell not? She’s got a butler, right? Just call ahead, we go over, give the necklace to him, we go home.”
“Frances doesn’t know the necklace is missing. And I don’t want her to.”
Well, she couldn’t argue with that. “So we gonow, sneak inside, put the necklace back and get the hell out.”
“She’s got a state-of-the-art alarm system. I installed it myself.”
She almost asked him what he meant by that, then realized it didn’t matter. “I can get around it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “Wanna bet?”
“The morning,” he said. He took her by the elbow and steered her toward the door. “We’ll go first thing in the morning.”
She squinted at him. “And in the meantime? We’re just going to hang out here until morning?”
“Not here,” he said. “But we are going to be spending the night together.” His smile broadened and she saw amusement dancing in those deep-blue eyes. “It’s a long time until morning.” He took a step closer, and her pulse picked up tempo, his proximity firing her senses.
He reached out, curled one strand of hair around his finger. “So tell me, sweetheart. Got any ideas about how we might pass the time?”
