Inevitable (13 page)

Jackpot,
Ryan thought.

“Come,” Xavier beckoned them and they moved to look into the other room that resembled a wing of a museum. Glass cases, lit up from the inside, showed pieces that Xavier had collected over the years. Pottery, jewelencrusted boxes no bigger than a deck of cards. Vases,
plates, jars, bottles of all shapes, sizes and colors. The old man gazed around at his hidden collection with pride. “These are some of my favorites.”

“All glassware,” Ryan observed.

“All
erotic
glassware, actually,” Xavier corrected with a smile. “My tastes lean toward the more sensual side of history. For example, this necklace—” he placed his hand against a cabinet that held what looked like a small green sphere of jade clasped in a dragon's claw “—when worn by either woman or man will intensify their orgasm by a hundred fold. I made the mistake of wearing this one wild weekend in the sixties. I was in a coma for over a week, but I have to tell you, it was well worth it.”

Emma blinked. “That sounds…interesting.”

He nodded. “It was.”

Ryan repressed a smile. “And how about this one?” He pointed at a small box with roses entwined on the lid. It was also made from glass, dark blue, with a mother of pearl inlay.

“That is less erotic and more filled with melancholy,” Xavier said, sobering. “It's where memories of desire can be stored when they become too distracting. Many of my memories of my first wife, Gloria, are kept in there. I only open it when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic.”

“She passed away?” Emma asked, gazing through the glass barrier at the box.

“No, she divorced me because I liked to sleep with other women,” Xavier said bluntly. “But that didn't mean I didn't love her. One must accept who one is and the people who truly love you in return should be willing to adapt.”

Ryan wasn't sure he totally bought that. Hell, he supposed he was a diehard romantic since he believed in monogamy. Outside of a relationship, sleeping around
wasn't a problem. But when in a relationship, he was a one-woman man.

Who enjoyed reading erotic romance novels.

Who knew?

“It's an incredible collection,” Emma said. “One I think would benefit from a quintet of djinn glassware.”

Ryan grinned. “They are definitely not something you're going to see on the home shopping network.”

“No, I don't suppose I would.” Xavier clasped his hands together. “It does sound incredibly tempting. Perhaps I'll ask my supplier if there's any problem with my dealing with another PARA agent.”

Emma's eyebrows went up. “
Another
PARA agent?”

“Yes, and I have a meeting with that agent in—” he glanced at his Rolex “—half an hour. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this discussion short so I can deal with that matter. Thank you, though, for coming to see me. It was much appreciated.”

Ryan felt stunned, like the wind had been knocked out of him, even though he'd half-expected this outcome all along. Another PARA agent was likely the one who'd set him up that night six months ago. And they were going to be here in only a matter of minutes. Jackpot, indeed.

W
HILE IT WAS GREAT TO HEAR
their suspicions confirmed, it left Emma with a sick, churning feeling in her stomach.

“A half hour?” she asked. “And this contact of yours is another PARA agent? You're absolutely sure about that?”

“Yes, of course I'm sure.” Xavier pursed his lips as he studied her. “Confidentialities aside, perhaps you might all wish to work together in the future.”

While this ruse was good enough to get Xavier to open up to them, the last thing Emma needed was for someone untrustworthy to think she was supplying black market enchanted objects to the highest bidder alongside Ryan Shephard, a man who'd already been falsely accused doing just that. She knew he was innocent, but nobody else did.

“Xavier.” She curled her fingers around his arm and forced a flirtatious smile to her face. “It's very important that you say nothing about the fact we were here. While the saying goes that there is honor among thieves, that's not really true. Your regular supplier would likely feel
that we were trying to infringe on their territory and they'd try to get us fired.”

Ryan nodded. “It happens more often than you might think.”

“Then we wouldn't be any help to you in the future, would we?” Emma finished.

The billionaire looked dismayed by this. “No, I suppose you're right.”

“I like you, Xavier. And I hope you like me, too.”

“Yes.” He nodded and his gaze moved to her cleavage. “I like you very much.”

Emma had worn this low-cut, thin angora sweater especially for him, despite the heat of the summer day. It was good to see her efforts hadn't gone to waste.

“Then you don't want to get me in trouble, do you?” She tried to make it sound sexy. She braved a look at Ryan—he was trying not to laugh. She glared at him. Really helpful support.

“Of course not.” Xavier watched her carefully. “I promise not to say a word.”

“Thank you.”

“And let me think about the djinn bottles. It does sound incredibly tempting.”

“I knew you'd think so. All the possibilities.”

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I've read that djinn are very difficult to predict. That your wish must be perfectly worded or they'll take liberties to make sure you don't exactly end up with what you wanted.”

She had been hoping that he wouldn't know anything at all about djinn so she wouldn't have to elaborate on her story. “I never said it wouldn't be a challenge. But you seem to be the sort of man who can handle something like that.”

“I am indeed.” He squeezed her hand. “Thank you for stopping by. I'll be in touch.”

“I look forward to it.”

He looked at Ryan. “Take care.”

“Oh, I will,” Ryan replied. “And don't worry, we can see ourselves out.”

Xavier nodded and gave Emma one last searching look. She wondered if he expected her to throw herself into his arms, overwhelmed by her sudden desire to become one of his mistresses after all.

She hoped she'd reassured him that the only man she wanted to throw herself at was Ryan. After all, it was the truth.

Ryan hooked his arm through hers and directed her out of the library. There was no one in the hallway leading toward the front foyer.

“You're sure you don't want to stay?” Ryan teased under his breath.

“I don't think so.”

“He's not your type?”

“I'm afraid not. Even if he was younger, I'm not sure our personalities would mesh.”

Ryan glanced over his shoulder back toward the library. “You know, when I shook his hand, I tried to get an empathic read on him. From what I could tell, the guy is genuine. He's not one of the bad guys. He just has a ton of money and he likes to collect pretty things.”

“So what you see is what you get?”

“Pretty much.” Ryan looked into her eyes. “Not like you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Not like me?”

He stopped walking and gathered her into his arms, pressing her back against the wall by the front door. “I never dreamed you were such an accomplished liar.”

He made it sound like a compliment. A big one. “I wouldn't really call what I did lying.”

“What would you call it, then?”

She hesitated, distracted by the sensation of having Ryan's warm, muscled frame pressed against hers. The Desidero potion's effects swirled, making it difficult to think. “Uh, creative bargaining.”

He grinned. “Right. That sounds good, actually. If you don't continue on as a paranormal investigator or a novelist, you should go into advertising.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” She scanned the hallway looking for the butler. “So what do we do now?”

His gaze darkened. “Your performance back there makes me think maybe I don't know you as well as I thought I did. You're a woman of mystery.”

She laughed. “Yes, so mysterious.”

“I was impressed.”

“Well, don't be. Even though I was doing it for a good cause, it made me feel bad. A little bit.” She frowned. “A
really
little bit. But if it helps us figure out who the real thief is, then it'll be worth it.”

“And you're doing it for me.”

She looked up at him, surprised to see the depth of emotion in his tone was mirrored in his eyes. This conversation had sounded light and amusing on the surface, but she saw that he was still uncertain about her feelings for him. She'd guarded them to the best of her ability, holding how she felt very close to her chest where it could stay safe.

“You'd be surprised what I'd be willing to do for you, Ryan,” she whispered, moving her hands over his shoulders.

He slid his fingers through her long red hair and pulled her closer to him, angling his mouth down to hers so that
their lips pressed together. She felt him grow hard against her as the kiss deepened. She let out a little moan against his lips.

“This probably isn't an ideal place to lose our focus and give in to the potion's power right now,” she whispered.

“Lose focus.” He slid his hand down her side and a shiver of pleasure went through her at his touch. “Another well-worded phrase that means something much less polite. You mean that I should try to keep from getting hard as a rock when in public.”

She snorted softly. “Something like that.”

“Impossible. Not when I'm around you. Your touch, your kiss, your smell…turns me on no matter where we are. Damn it, Em. I want you so much.”

He kissed her again and she returned it as passionately. It didn't matter that they were in the foyer of Xavier Franklin's house. Her desire for Ryan was a driving need that didn't need much to shift it into overdrive.

“Do you want me, too?” he whispered.

She felt breathless. “I get the feeling you know exactly what I want.”

“I've kind of tapped into my empathic ability today. I can just feel it.”

“The potion—” she interrupted.

“This isn't the potion,” he said.

Emma looked up at his face. “What do you mean?”

“The effects dissipate after we give in to our desires.”

“But I still feel it.”

“One day, that's the most it can last. I read up on it. Consider me an expert on the Desidero potion now. It's been well over a day since we were at the hotel.”

“A day?” She drew in a breath. “So it's gone? Completely out of our systems?”

“Yes.”

“So this… What I'm still feeling for you—”

His mouth closed on hers and he kissed her, taking her breath away. “It's the way I feel, too. I want you, Emma. The potion was only a push. This is real. And lasting.”

Even without the potion to blame, she wanted him as desperately as ever. And now that she concentrated, she knew it was true. It felt different. Before she'd been swept away, wanting him, as if a force outside of herself had pushed them together. This was different. More focused. More acute. And it came completely from inside of her.

She wanted him without any outside influences.

He pulled her around the corner of an open archway, into the large parlor that was the main party room the other night. Emma pressed back against the wall and Ryan's hand slid under her skirt, up her bare thigh, to stroke against the damp fabric between her legs.

When his fingers slipped under the edge of her panties to slide against her sex, she had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from crying out.

“Even still, this—this…is extremely unprofessional, Ryan,” she managed to whisper after a moment.

“That I want to take you right here, right now.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“But you want me to.”

“Yes. But—” Her words cut off when he kissed her and slid his middle finger into her heated core. Her knees nearly gave out right then and there.

“Oh, screw it,” she moaned. “Yes…I want you. Here. Now.”

Emma fumbled to undo the button at the waist of his
jeans and unzipped him. She reached inside his fly and wrapped her hand around his hard length so she could pull him free.

“You make me crazy,” he whispered into her hair. “With or without any damn potion. You're so wet, so hot. I need you.”

“I need you, too.”

He fumbled to pull a condom from his wallet, quickly ripping it open and sheathing himself. “You're sure?” he asked, very serious. “Right here?”

Instead of answering him with words, she smiled wickedly and turned around to face the wall, reaching back to pull him up against her.

He swore under his breath. “I'll take that as a yes.”

She felt him slide her skirt up over her hips and tug her panties down over her hips so she was bared to him. He rubbed the tip of his hard cock against her.

“Please…oh, yes.” She moaned as he entered her much slower than she'd expected, stretching her an inch at a time, until he was fully seated within her body.

“You feel so good,” he growled.

The sensation of being filled by him swept over her and she gasped, clawing at the wall as he began to pump his hips against hers.

“This is so incredibly unprofessional,” she managed to say, looking at him over her shoulder.

“No wonder I was fired.” He tried to grin at her but failed. His hands moved to cup her breasts through the thin angora of her sweater, one hand slipping past the low-cut front and under her bra to stroke her pebble-hard nipples.

A wave of pleasure crashed over her, stealing her breath, her thoughts, any inhibitions she still had—not that there were many left. There was something about
Ryan taking her like this that was so exciting. There was no thought, only sensation overwhelming her. She'd never felt like this with anyone before. Only Ryan.

She loved him, beyond sex, beyond anything—and she always had. She wanted him to make love to her every day for the rest of her life.

She wondered what he'd think about an admission like that.

Ryan uttered her name, a raspy cry from deep in his throat as he climaxed. He embraced her from behind, pulling her up against the front of him, his lips tracing the contour of her throat.

“Emma…” His voice was hoarse. “You're so amazing.”

She tried to breathe normally, which was a challenge. “Is that a compliment or a general statement?”

“Both.”

She turned around in his arms and pressed her mouth softly against his. “Ryan, I want to tell you something.”

“What?”

She looked up into his blue eyes. “I'm in—”

The doorbell rang, cutting her off. Startled, they moved further into the party room. The only thing that separated it from the foyer was an open archway. Ryan pulled her further into the corner so they wouldn't be seen.

The footsteps of the butler could be heard, hard soles loud against the marble floor. He opened the door.

“Yes?” he asked, a thin baritone echo of how he'd greeted them only a short time ago.

“I have an appointment to speak with Xavier Franklin.” It was a woman's voice.

“Of course. Please come in.”

Emma had forgotten how to breathe. She
knew
that
voice. Ryan's grip tightened at her waist and her fingernails dug into his arm. They looked at each other in shock as recognition dawned on both of them.

“Mr. Franklin is waiting for you in the library.”

“I'm a bit earlier than I usually am for our meetings.”

“It's fine. He had a meeting with some other people, but they've left. He made sure to tell me that he'd see you the moment you arrived.”

Emma pressed tighter against the wall, but she could see a sliver of the hallway. And she saw a sliver of the blonde woman who accompanied the butler down the hallway toward the library to see Xavier.

Yes, the woman was very familiar. She should be, since Emma had known her for more than a year.

It was Charlotte.

Denial clouded her thoughts. “No,” she whispered. “It's impossible. It can't be her.”

“Maybe it's a mistake,” Ryan replied quietly. “PARA sent you here to retrieve the potion bottle the other night. Maybe they sent Charlotte to retrieve something else? Maybe the real thief is on his way later.”

Emma was in shock, but she wasn't that naive. “She just said that they have regular meetings.”

Ryan's jaw was tight. “I am, of course, reaching for straws right now. I'd rather not think that the woman I once dated had a large part in trying to ruin my life.”

Emma couldn't think straight, but she forced herself to clear the fog from her mind. They needed answers, that was why they were here in the first place. And the first answer just walked through the front door. “We need to follow them.”

She straightened her clothes. Her legs were shaky, but she summoned the will to take Ryan's hand and pull
him along with her down the hallway, hoping very much that they wouldn't be discovered. As far as Xavier or his butler knew, they'd already left.