Lover Enraptured: Thieves of Aurion, Book 2 (11 page)

The mattress springs squeaked, and the next instant she was standing in front of him, her face a dangerous shade of red and her body trembling with anger. “This is a whole new low for you. Throwing away my love
and
our partnership in this job.”

The hurt in her eyes was well deserved and only added to his conviction that he was the world’s biggest bastard. “We both know this plan won’t work. You’re a
virgin
, for gods’ sake. You know nothing of sex and what goes on inside of clubs like Rapture.” Bloody hell. What had she been thinking, insisting she could pull off the dominatrix act?

She did a damn fine job convincing
you
.
Deliberately tuning out that disturbing reminder, he shoved up from the mattress. He scanned for his T-shirt before remembering it was still in the bathroom. He started for the door, but Avi’s stony expression stalled him short.

“Just because I haven’t technically done the deed doesn’t mean I can’t handle this job.”

The familiar stubbornness in her eyes instigated an ache in his brain. “Don’t make this into a challenge.”

“Then give me a chance to prove you’re wrong.”

“No.” Before she could plead her case further, he edged past her and strode to the bathroom. After yanking his shirt on, he returned to the living room and collected his jacket. Slinging the garment over his shoulder, he slid a glance toward the mouth of the hallway, where Avi stood glaring daggers at him. Despite the ferocious waves of pissy fury radiating from her, she’d never looked more beautiful and desirable. And off-limits.

A virgin. How was that remotely possible? Were all those men she’d dated throughout the years complete limp-dicked pansies? Gods knew if he didn’t have this curse hanging over his head, he’d have Avi beneath him and his cock lodged balls-deep inside her in zero seconds flat. A trickle of foreboding skipped down his spine, and he stared at her. “Why are you still a virgin?”

Her cheeks pinked again, but this time he suspected it had nothing to do with outraged fury. Unlocking her gaze from his, she transferred her focus to the floor. “Because I’d stupidly thought one day you might come to your senses.”

Sonofabitch. She’d been saving herself for him? “I’m not going to bind you to me. You deserve better than that.”
Better than me.
He left the remainder of his determination unspoken, but he felt the undeniable truth of it to the marrow of his bones.

She eyed him for an endless moment, the emotion in her heart starkly written upon the canvas of her face. “I
will
prove how wrong you are, Jer.”

She could have been speaking of his disbelief of her pulling off the dominatrix cover, or deserving better than him. Either way, both were challenges she was doomed to lose.

Chapter Ten

After a pitiable night’s sleep, Jerrick was no closer to devising an alternate plan for getting inside Club Rapture. Shelving that drawback for the time being, he focused on the details he
did
have control over. Namely, ferreting out all the info he could about the club and those who might have had contact with Casper Winston.

Fetching his micro com from his pocket, he punched the sync link for Hammond—his most trusted and reliable source when it came to intel. Scoping the patrons of the busy dining hall, Jerrick took a seat, his position at the rear of the noisy building awarding him relative privacy while also affording him the opportunity to keep an eagle eye on his surroundings. An old habit that died hard. Still, a thief didn’t last long in the trade if he wasn’t observant, as well as constantly within a few feet of a handy exit.

Hammond’s familiar cranky baritone boomed over the line. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“You can get your beauty sleep later. Right now, I need you to run intel on Club Rapture. The big players there, who runs the joint, all of it.”

“How fast do you need everything?”

“Deliver by eleven, and I’ll owe you big time.”

A grunt fell from Hammond. “Better believe you will.”

Once he’d secured the man’s surly promise to put a rush on the job, Jerrick disconnected and stuffed the com back in his pocket.

Margarethe, his favorite waitress, approached with a carafe of Jufferi and her ready smile. “Having your usual, handsome?”

He nodded. “And throw in an extra griddlecake.” His mind veered to Avi’s crack about him developing a spare tire. “On second thought, nix that last part. And no whipped cream.”

She raised an eyebrow but dutifully typed his order into her compu-pad. After topping his mug with the steaming Jufferi, she ventured to the neighboring table, leaving him to his solitude. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the vacant one across from him. Most days he reveled in his lone-wolf status. After the fiasco with Leena, it’d been easy to make the conscious decision to stay single. He wasn’t cut out for any life but this one, which meant that aloneness was a necessity. Still, there were days the void of companionship rested like a hollow chamber in his chest.

He knew with everything inside him that he did the right thing keeping his dick away from the temptation of Avi. But he’d be a filthy liar if he didn’t admit to wondering how different his life might be if he’d taken the gift of her virginity. Much as the thought of binding himself to anyone made him queasy, she was the one woman capable of changing him. The only one who made him long to be something better than what he was.

Bottom line, he’d be the worst kind of selfish bastard if he bedded and bonded her. He couldn’t change the fact that associating with him endangered her, but once this current threat was behind them, he’d do right by her and stay gone for good. He’d hold firm to his sworn oath to Avi’s mother to watch over her daughter, but his contact with Avi would be limited to a safe, discreet distance. She wouldn’t even know he was there. Sooner or later, she’d forget about him, and her world would be normal again.

He chugged a swig of his Jufferi, the empty ache in his belly refusing to be satisfied by the weak offering.

Margarethe reappeared, bearing his meal. He wolfed through it, barely tasting anything. Several minutes later, bill paid and his stomach full, he exited the jam-packed building. He hit the Air Racer’s lock release and gripped the door handle just as a familiar face appeared amongst the throng congesting the adjacent sidewalk.

Narrowing his eyes, Jerrick watched as Thane paused outside a shop window. Jerrick reset his locks again and crossed the street, easily merging with the flow of pedestrian traffic. He tailed several paces behind his quarry, his focus glued on the man’s every move.

Out of nowhere, Avi’s scornful voice floated into his head.
You are such a freakin’ stalker.

Bloody good thing she couldn’t see him right now. No doubt she’d chastise him plenty for running surveillance on Thane, but considering the very real threat against her life, Jerrick viewed everyone as suspect. Went double for any dude who’d had his damn tongue rammed down her throat.

Thane hesitated in front of another shop before disappearing inside. Jerrick debated finding a spot to keep a covert eye on the entrance but quickly decided he couldn’t risk losing the man to the crowds. A horde of giggling schoolgirls piled into the store, and Jerrick followed after them. He scanned the brick-walled interior, his scrutiny skipping over the displays of overpriced compu-gizmos. A robotic hound bounced near Jerrick’s feet, its tail wagging ferociously. Ignoring the device, Jerrick headed toward a tower of tablet screens that offered a prime cover while he spied on Thane. He spotted the man a few aisles over, talking to a shop employee.

Bark! Bark, bark, bark, bark!

Jerrick glared at the robotic hound running circles at his feet. “Scram,” he bit between clenched teeth.

Bark, bark, bark!

“Bloody mongrel.” From the corner of his eye, Jerrick noticed Thane turning his attention toward the tablet tower. Cursing, Jerrick crouched low. The robot dog jumped onto his boot and blasted a high-pitched
Bark!
right into Jerrick’s face. He winced. “I’m going to neuter you, little fucker.”

That threat seeming to do the trick, the yapping ankle biter whined and scurried off to find another customer to harass. Jerrick cautiously straightened and glanced in Thane’s direction.

“Jerrick!” The sound of Lex Tarker’s boisterous shout cracked through the room, drawing all gazes.

A sense of doom descending on him, Jerrick scanned for a place to hide. Too late—Lex was already trotting toward him. The man’s tongue was wagging a mile a minute, no doubt spouting off god knows what nonsense about one of his family members. In his mind, Jerrick superimposed Lex’s words with the
bark, bark, bark!
of the compu-dog. Same aggravation, different mouth.

“Fancy seeing you here. I stopped in to check out their selection of micro coms. I originally planned on upgrading to the new XL30911, but since you broke my old one, they probably won’t give me credit. Still, I hear the RN665 is a reliable model. Why my Great Uncle Hoosterwheel—”

“Tarker, I’ll buy you a damn pallet of XL30911s if you’ll shut the fuck up.”

“Really? You’d do that? But—”

Jerrick pinned Lex with a hard look, effectively muting his trap. He returned his focus to Thane and met the man’s amused regard. After awarding Jerrick a mock wave, Thane said something to the salesperson before heading for the exit.

No point going after Thane now that he knew he was being tailed. Biting back a growl, Jerrick stalked from the store. Circumnavigating the milling pedestrians, he strode toward his vehicle.

Lex fell in step beside him. “What’s on today’s agenda?”

“I’m picking up some paperwork. You’re going back to work.”

“I have the day off.”

Just my bloody luck.
“Hit an afternoon matinee then.”

“I’ve seen everything at the Tula Plex.”

“There’s an exhibit on Frittonian wildlife at the Museum of Natural History.” Nothing like pulling at straws.

“The stuffed lizards scare me. All those creepy eyes…” Lex shuddered.

“The lizards are dead, Tarker. They won’t attack you.”
Unfortunately.
They’d reached the Air Racer and Jerrick released the locks.

“Are you sure? Why my Aunt Jonquil—”

“How many damn relatives do you have?”

That was precisely the wrong question to ask. For the next fifteen minutes he was forced to listen to the rundown on Lex’s entire family tree. By the time Jerrick pulled the Air Racer to a stop in front of the museum, he was more than ready to dropkick Lex out the door. Grateful that he had no qualms about being rude, he squealed away from the curb the instant Lex stepped from the vehicle.

Fifteen minutes later he found a parking spot in the underground garage across from Hammond’s office. After depositing enough credits into the meter to keep the ticket cops off his ass, he rode the elevator to street level.

Hammond gave Jerrick a baleful glare the moment he sank into the seat across from the man’s messy, paper-strewn desk. “It’s not eleven.”

“I figured with your talent, you wouldn’t need that much time.”

“Your charming-fairy bullshit doesn’t work on me.” Grumping beneath his breath, Hammond flicked a sheaf of papers in Jerrick’s direction. “This is all I could come up with under short notice. It’s damn paltry, since Francesca Dominitri—the woman who runs the place—guards her client’s privacy like it’s the crown jewels. I did uncover a promising lead that might be worth investigating though.”

Jerrick stopped thumbing through the papers. “Lay it on me.”

“Apparently Francesca first gained status as a highly sought-after dominatrix at a rival club here in town called Lover’s Knot. Word on the street is the proprietress there used to be fairly chummy with Francesca.”

“Any way you can get me a meeting with the woman?”

“Already done. You’re invited for a drink at her bar around seven.”

Grinning, Jerrick thwacked the papers against the edge of Hammond’s desk. “You might be a cranky sonofabitch, but you’re a damn good man to have on my side.”

“Keep the flattery for the ladies. Just make sure you deliver that special-reserve Ginnish you’ve been promising the past two months, asswipe.”

After collecting a few more of Hammond’s endearments, Jerrick stuffed the papers in his rear pocket and headed back to the parking garage. If he was lucky, his meeting tonight would get him behind Rapture’s doors and one step closer to ensuring Avi’s safety.

Chapter Eleven

The way Avily saw it, if she was going to convince Jerrick she could fake being a skilled dominatrix, she needed to do some reconnaissance. Which meant covertly scoping the pros in action. Since she couldn’t very well waltz into Club Rapture without blowing her cover, Plan B was in order.

She gave the rather intimidating bald, tattooed fellow guarding the entrance to Lover’s Knot an uncertain glance and decided to resort to Plan C instead—finding another way in besides sweet-talking her way through the front door. Backtracking to the alley she’d passed earlier, she systematically checked the two side exits and found them aggravatingly inaccessible from the outside. Unlike Jerrick, lock picking had never been her forte. Just as well, considering she didn’t even have a measly compu-card handy to jimmy the locks. She rounded the rear of the building and spied a door propped open with a small wooden crate. Pumping her fist in victory, she ascertained the coast was clear and made a dash for the door.