Page 5 of Unmasking Mr. Crown

CHAPTER TWO

NATALIE

“I think that’s checkmate.” Eddie winked again.

"Maybe,” the man drawled, “but I don’t play chess. I prefer Twister. Or Scrabble …” His voice dropped to a delicious whisper. “But only to spell out the dirty words.”

Natalie bit back a grin. “Does your little stopwatch trick rate a high yield of return?”

“They say there’s no such thing as a sure thing,” he said, a smile tugging at his mouth, “but I’ve yet to miss with it.”

“Really? Don’t they also say there’s a first time for everything?” Natalie countered.

“They do, they do … which is why I think you and I should make it a night full of firsts.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Would telling you I’m not interested be a first for you?” she asked.

The man turned fully toward her, his posture loose but confident. “Based on your recent phone conversation and our current discourse, I’d say you’ve crossed the line from uninterested to mildly curious. And if I play my cards right, you might end up somewhere between enamored and smitten.”

The sexiness of his tone coupled with the sparkle of mischief in his eyes scattered Natalie’s normally well-organized thoughts.

This guy’s got more lines than Disney World at Christmastime.

And that smolder? Weaponized.

Maybe he’s an actor?

With lines this good, what else could he be?

Women must throw themselves at him.

In fact, she’d ask that last one.

He smirked. “Only the quick-witted, extremely beautiful ones.”

“Like me?”

“A man can hope.”

And so, it began. One flirty quip led to another and before she knew it, they’d laughed and talked for half an hour, never straying into anything too personal. Casual talk. Nothing messy. Nothing dangerous. Nothing that might follow her to Chicago.

At one point, he said, “You haven’t asked me.”

“Asked you what?”

"What I do for a living."

Natalie chuckled. “I wasn’t planning to.”

“But you're curious, right?” He made a mock, covert check over each shoulder, then leaned in close, all secretive-like, and whispered these words: “Fine, I’ll tell you. I steal priceless works of art.”

She repeated his unexpected words to herself in silence, unable to decide if he’d placed the emphasis on steal, priceless, or art. When he leaned back on his stool, he hit her with another smolder. Like the stopwatch, she decided, this routine had mileage.

Natalie’s head cocked to one side. "Is that so? You have an obsession with expensive things?"

It wasn’t a real question. She'd already sized him up, making note of his head-to-toe style. The gorgeous charcoal-gray suit. Lace-up oxfords with an almost blinding shine. Pocket square in a stunning fall palette floral. It sat slightly askew in his pocket, and she fought the urge to straighten it for him. Two-tone metallic watch. No wedding ring … and no tan line to hint that a band had ever encircled his ring finger either.

Other than his tie, which was downright awful, everything about this thirty-something guy screamed first-class. He had money. Lots of money. After years in event planning, Natalie could spot ‘em a mile away.