Her eyes flashed. “That is where you are wrong. I am the one with the fortune, ergo the one with the power.”
How little she knew of men. “And what of your reputation?”
Her laugh did nothing to amuse him. “What I have left of my reputation will remain unscathed. He is not interested in my person. He only needs my fortune. In addition, as a second son, he does not require an heir; therefore, our living apart should not cause a problem with his family. And should he need companionship, he is free to find it elsewhere, so long as he’s discreet.”
“You sell yourself so easily, believing your worth is nothing more than your father’s account ledger,” he growled, his temper getting the better of him. He’d never lost control of it before, but for some reason this tested his limits. If he could see she was more than a sum of wealth, then she should damn well put a higher value on herself. “If you were my sister, I’d lock you in a convent for the rest of your days.”
Miss McFarland stepped forward and pressed the tip of her manicured finger in between the buttons of his waistcoat. “I am not your sister, Mr. Croft. And thank the heavens for that gift, too. I can barely stand to be in the same room with you. You make it impossible to breathe, let alone think. Neither my lungs nor my stomach recalls how to function. Not only that, but you cause this terrible crackling sensation beneath my skin, and it feels like I’m about to catch fire.” Her lips parted, and her small bosom rose and fell with each breath. “I do believe I loathe you to the very core of your being, Mr. Croft.”
Somewhere between the first Mis-ter-Croft and the last, he’d lost all sense.
Because in the very next moment, he gripped her shoulders, hauled her against him, and crushed his mouth to hers.
An Excerpt from
TAKE THE KEY AND LOCK HER UP
by Lena Diaz
As a trained assassin for EXIT Inc—a top-secret mercenary group—Devlin “Devil” Buchanan isn’t afraid to take justice into his own hands. But with EXIT Inc closing in and several women’s lives on the line, Detective Emily O’Malley and Devlin must work together to find the missing women and clear both their names before time runs out . . . and their key to freedom is thrown away.
“I want to talk to you about what you do at EXIT.”
“No.”
She blinked. “No?” Her cell phone beeped. She grabbed it impatiently and took the call. A few seconds later she shoved the phone back in her pocket. “Tuck’s outside. The SWAT team is set up and ready to cover us in case those two yokels decide to start shooting again. The area is secure. Let’s go.” She headed toward the door.
“Wait.”
She turned, her brows raised in question.
He braced his legs in a wide stance and crossed his arms. “If I’m not under arrest, there’s no reason for me to go to the police station.”
Her mouth firmed into a tight line. “You’re not under arrest only if you agree to the deal I offered. The man who killed Shannon Garrett and the unidentified victims in that basement is holding at least two other women right now, doing God only knows what to them. All I’m asking is that you answer some questions to help me find them, so I can save their lives. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
Of course it did. But he also knew Kelly Parker, and anyone with her, couldn’t be saved by Emily and her fellow cops. It was becoming increasingly clear that Kelly was the bait in a trap to catch him. The killer would keep her alive, maybe even provide proof of life at some point, to lure Devlin to wherever she was being held. Did he care about her suffering? Absolutely. Which meant he had to come up with a plan to save her without charging full steam ahead and getting himself killed. Because once the killer eliminated his main prey—Devlin—he’d have no reason to keep either of the women alive.
He braced himself for his next lie. If Emily thought he was bad to supposedly get a woman pregnant and abandon her, she was going to despise him after this next one.
“Finding and saving those women is your job,” he said. “I have other things to do that are a lot more fun than sitting in an interrogation room.”
The shocked, disgusted look that crossed her face was no worse than the way he felt inside. Like a jerk, and a damn coward. But if sacrificing his pride kept her safe, so be it. He had to get outside and offer himself as bait to lead his enemies away from the diner before she went out the front. He strode past her to the bathroom door.
“Stop, Devlin, or I’ll shoot.”
He slowly turned around. Seeing his sexy little detective pointing a gun at him again seemed every kind of wrong, especially when his blood was still raging from the hot kiss they’d just shared.
“Seriously?” he said, faking shock. “You’re drawing on an unarmed man? Again? What will Drier say about that? Or Alex? I smell a lawsuit.”
She stomped her foot in frustration.
The urge to laugh at her childish action had him clenching his teeth. She was the perfect blend of innocence, naiveté, and just plain stubbornness. Before he did something they’d both regret—like kissing her again—he slipped out of the bathroom.
A quick side trip through the kitchen too quickly for anyone to even question his presence, and he was down the back hallway, standing at the rear exit. Now all he had to do was make it to some kind of cover—without getting shot—and lead Cougar and his handler away from Emily, all without a weapon of his own to return fire.
Simple. No problem. He shook his head and cursed his decision to go to the police station this morning. Then again, if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have gotten to kiss Emily. If he were killed in the next few minutes, at least he’d die with that intoxicating memory still lingering on his lips.
He cracked the door open and scanned the nearby buildings. Then he flung the door wide and took off running.