The London Deception (17 page)

Rowan’s hands were tight on his and she dragged at his shoulders, one hand fisted in the material of his shirt while the other dragged at him from under his arm.

He finally managed to get his body fully inside the taxi and slammed the door closed. On a heavy breath, he reached for her and pulled her close. “That was fun.”

“Are you okay?” Her hands were already roaming over his body, checking for any damage, when he caught sight of the blood that covered her fingers.

“Me? You’re bleeding.”

“It’s not mine.” When he reached for her hand, she lifted them out of reach. “Don’t touch me. There are wet wipes in my purse. Would you grab them?”

He dug out the small packet after she directed him to a side pocket, and pulled out several sterile, wet sheets. “Here. Get that blood off you.”

“With pleasure.”

It was only as she was scrubbing the blood off her hands, the thin bones of her wrists flexing with the motions, that the thug’s words struck a chord.

You really don’t know?

With startling clarity, Finn did know. And he had a rising sense of panic the people after them knew, too.

None of this was about the Nefertari tomb. Or Egypt. Or even discrediting a made-up curse.

Someone wanted the Victoria bracelet. And he’d walked straight into their trap.

* * *

Rowan tried desperately to wash the stench off her body, but no amount of soap seemed to make her feel clean. Hot water sluiced over her head and neck, then down over her breasts and stomach, but it didn’t seem to matter. The physical traces of blood and smoke were long gone, but the water still couldn’t erase the brand both had made on her skin.

“Rowan.” Finn’s voice echoed from the doorway. “You’ve been in there for a while. Are you okay?”

Her lack of a response had him across the bathroom in seconds, and before she could think to protest, he was inside the stall. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re pale and shivering and it’s a billion degrees in here.”

He reached over her shoulder to adjust the steaming water before his gaze swung back around to her face. “Tell me.”

A hard sob caught her square in the throat, the harsh events of the past several days finally overwhelming her. “I thought I was okay with it. Really. And then I got in here. And all the dirt started streaming down the drain and I wasn’t okay with it anymore.”

He pulled her against his chest, the wet cotton of his T-shirt warm against her cheek. “It’s a lot to take in.”

His heart thudded strong and solid beneath her ear and she tried to focus on that, taking comfort in the sure, steady beat. “I’m glad you’re here, Finn. So glad.”

The water continued to sluice over them both, and as his clothes got soaked, her thoughts shifted and grew more urgent. She
needed
him. Needed the comfort and the mindless pleasure to be found in his arms.

He’d already changed out of his clothes from earlier, replacing both with the fresh T-shirt and shorts he now had on. His erection pressed against her stomach through the thin material and she focused all her attention on his body. With quick movements, she slipped her hand beneath the waistband of his shorts and gripped his full length.

“Rowan—” Her name came out on a clipped groan. “I already feel like enough of a lecher for getting a hard-on while trying to comfort you.”

“We’ll comfort each other.”

He gripped her wrist, holding her still. “I’m serious. Just let me hold you.”

“I want more.” She reached up and nipped his jawline with her teeth and lips. “So much more.”

“We can’t.”

“Yes, we can.” She captured his lips once more with hers, desperate to show him with her mouth and her hands how badly she wanted him.

So why did she get the vague sense he was holding back, even as his body betrayed him with the urge to give in?

And then there was no time to question or argue because his hands were on her, sliding over her skin and pulling the most exquisite pleasure from her body.

She dragged at the wet T-shirt, lifting it over the hard planes of his stomach and chest. When the wet material caught on his chin, he smiled. “Let me.”

The wet cloth hit the floor of the shower with a heavy
thwack,
followed almost immediately by his shorts, and then he was back against her, his body hard and demanding as he pressed her into the shower tiles.

Rowan celebrated the moment, so much ugliness fading away as he made her clean with his body. The play of his hands over her skin, the drag of his lips over her flesh and the brand of his body as he filled her—all of them combined together to chase away the ugliness of what they’d both survived over the past days.

She traced the slim line of the knife wound, now free of its bandage, and was pleased to see the flesh already knitting together.

Her warrior.

Hers.

The thought was so swift and immediate, she stilled, her fingers hovering over the cut.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.” She whispered it on a shake of the head before she placed her fingers back on his body and traced the hard lines of his stomach. At the thick, heavy pace of his breathing, she reached for the condom he’d had enough sense to snag from his shorts and leave on a small ledge, tearing the foil in quick movements.

Finn’s question faded away under the pounding spray and he returned to her body. With his mouth and hands, he pleasured her. With his quietly whispered words, he seduced her. And with deep, soulful gazes, he worshipped her body.

And when he lifted her leg and wrapped it around his waist, she took him in, welcoming him fully into her body. His thrusts were sure and deep, and with each movement Rowan could have sworn she heard her soul shatter into a million tiny pieces, right along with her body as her release exploded from the depths of her being.

She took him and they rode the pleasure together.

Her warrior.

The man she loved.

* * *

Rowan turned off the bathroom lights and stepped into the bedroom. Although she’d originally worried sharing a room would be awkward, it was the opposite. She felt safe knowing Finn was with her, and the moments between them were slow and easy, full of lazy, knowing glances and gentle caresses.

And the very real knowledge that she was in love.

Whatever she’d expected it to feel like, the simple, easy slide that had consumed her over the past few days was more powerful than she’d ever imagined.

And while she knew they still had things to work out, she was confident they’d find a way.

She’d finished up her time in the bathroom and had changed into capri pants and a thin blouse. They’d opted not to go out to dinner, not knowing what still might await them out in the open. Instead, Finn had ordered a lavish dinner from the hotel restaurant, and even now the room-service attendant was setting up their feast at the small table that dominated the far side of their room.

The man added the final flourish of a bottle of wine while Finn dealt with the bill, then gathered up his things to leave with a kind smile. He navigated the small space with his delivery cart and misjudged when he passed the bed.

Their bags lay in a small pile on the floor, and the delivery cart struck her purse and an old leather backpack of Finn’s as their attendant attempted to pass by. His profuse apologies had Rowan smiling and she quickly assured him in Arabic there wasn’t anything to worry about. She let him safely out the door, locking up behind him, then turned, already anticipating the dinner they were about to share.

Her gaze focused on Finn, Rowan made the same mistake as the waiter and stumbled over the thick strap of Finn’s bag.

And then everything happened at once.

The force of her foot pulled his bag loose, dragging it several feet from where it lay on the floor. The contents that filled the bag spilled from the top, and a small velvet pouch, no larger than the width of a baseball, tumbled onto the top of the heap.

Whether it was simple memory or something more, she didn’t know, but as she stared down at the velvet pouch, Rowan knew.

And when she lifted the small bag and untied the drawstring, she could only let out a cry of dismay when the Victoria bracelet fell into her hands.

Chapter 16

R
owan’s shock registered from clear across the room and Finn knew his moment of reckoning had arrived. The warm, rosy glow on her cheeks faded, replaced with something he’d never thought he’d see.

Despair.

“Why is this here?”

“Because I travel with it.”

Her eyes widened but the exaggerated motion did nothing to bring any color or warmth into her pale face. “I’m sorry?”

“I carry it with me.”

“It’s a stolen object of priceless value. What do you mean, you travel with it?”

How did he explain this to her? And why did every excuse springing to his lips feel wholly inadequate?

“I can’t leave it among my personal things in my home. There’s danger in what I do, and I can’t risk dying and having the bracelet discovered.”

“So carrying it in your things is better?”

“I can dispose of it more easily if it’s with me and things get sticky.”

“You don’t worry about customs?”

“I have provenance papers that usually let me pass without question. You know our profession helps on that front.”

“You had it today? In Old Cairo.”

“Yes.”

Her fingers trembled around the edges of the cuff. “And you carry it so you can easily dispose of it? So this priceless object that isn’t even rightfully yours could be tossed away in a jungle or buried in a tomb somewhere if you get into a jam?”

“Yes.”

“But it’s priceless. How could you see it thrown away instead of simply given back to its rightful owner?”

He swallowed hard at the disappointment that rode her face in harsh, tired lines. “It’s mine.”

“No, it’s not yours!”

The shout carried across the room and he moved quickly to stand beside her. “Shh. We don’t know who’s nearby.”

“Fine. Because there’s really nothing more to say.”

“Rowan—” He broke off as she snatched her hand away from his.

“I trusted you. Believed in what could be possible between us. And this is the proof that there can’t be anything between us.”

“An hour ago in the shower you felt differently.”

“An hour ago I thought I was sharing my body with the man I loved. But this?” She tossed the bracelet onto the bed. “I don’t know who you are.”

She loved him?

The knowledge slammed into him with the force of an avalanche.

Rowan loved him.

Before he could say anything, she ran back to the bathroom and he heard the lock click from the inside.

“Rowan, come back. We need to talk.”

Her voice was muffled from the other side of the door. “I can’t leave our hotel room and I can’t be near you right now. Please go away.”

When she said nothing further, he sat down hard on the bed and picked up the bracelet she’d tossed down. He’d always believed the bracelet brought him luck. And now? When faced with the evidence of her shattered feelings for him, Finn knew the bracelet had been nothing but a pile of fool’s gold.

* * *

Bethany Warrington sat back and took in the man sprawled across the cabin from her. For all his cutthroat business practices, Jared Wright was a surprisingly huge rube and she was counting the minutes until she could get rid of him.

He’d grown up on the streets and had never fully eliminated his street-rat tendencies. Or the naïveté of the uncultured masses.

Their flight attendant sauntered out from the back galley of the private plane with a full bottle of champagne and leaned over his sprawled form. “More champagne, Mr. Wright?”

“Yes.” He eagerly lifted his empty glass, and even from a distance, Bethany could tell he’d spent a long, leering minute eyeing the attendant’s cleavage.

Boorish behavior that only reinforced her thoughts.

With a throaty purr she’d perfected before she was even out of her teens, she called to him across the cabin. “Enjoying yourself, darling?”

He lifted his refilled flute. “Quite.” He patted the seat next to him. “Come sit by me.”

“I’m working.”

“I’m working, too, but it’s a long flight. Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves a bit before we get down to all that hard work.”

Her smile never dropped, but the press of her fingernails into her palm nearly drew blood. “We’d be working a lot less if your men in Cairo hadn’t bungled the kidnapping.”

“Tomorrow, my love. We’ll get them tomorrow. For now, come join me.” He patted the seat next to him once more.

She fought a huge sigh and crossed the cabin. She was at no one’s beck and call, but it wouldn’t do to get him overly suspicious. They still had several pieces that now needed to fall into place in Luxor, and she couldn’t afford for him to grow a brain at this late hour.

“What did you have in mind, darling?”

“Let me show you.”

She fought an eye roll and let him have his moment, groping her breasts and moaning in her ear all the ways he wanted to take her. Whispering “oh, yes” a few times, she succumbed to his ministrations before taking the upper hand.

Literally.

As his eyes practically crossed in his head, she counted off all she needed to do upon their arrival in Luxor. She’d waited so long for this moment, and her own arousal spiked at the proof that she’d finally have what she’d wanted all these years.

“That was amazing, baby.”

“That’s exactly what I was going to say about you.” She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and hid her amusement behind the toss of her long mane of hair. She’d avoided his attentions for a long time, but it had become necessary a few years before to give in to his interests in order to meet her own.

Damn sod had grown a fat head, convinced his successes in London’s seamier activities were all his own doing instead of her careful work behind the scenes. It still amused her how quickly sex rebalanced the scales in her favor.

Thankfully, their moments together were blessedly short, and it never failed to entertain her that he was so easily fooled by a few complimentary words and some light panting.

Men.

They were so quickly distracted by the lure of sex.

In her experience, the quick score of physical pleasure beat out their ability to think rationally each and every time. They believed what flashed on the surface, and if they could taste and touch it, that only made it better. Men held little imagination and even less ability to work toward a goal. Which was why they made the perfect partners for her work.

She’d learned young she had to reach out and take what she wanted. Sitting around waiting for it got her nothing but waiting. Action, however, got results. And if that action was outside the bounds of what was considered right and proper, that was just too bad.

As she envisioned the way the next forty-eight hours would unfold, Bethany had to admire how neatly everything had come full circle.

After all, it was Rowan Steele who had set her on the road to her future.

Oh, her dear childhood friend had thought herself so clever, but Bethany had seen through it all. The girl had a chip on her shoulder the size of Russia and had moped through high school like a zombie. Bethany had steered clear of her until that one day.

That one fateful day.

Rowan nicked a wallet out of Serena MacAlister’s brand-new purse, and that lone action had been enough to give Bethany an idea.

The rest had simply fallen into place.

She’d set the wheels in motion within days, easily luring Rowan’s unknowing cooperation through the promise of information and a few airheaded moves with the alarm code and the safe combination. It had been so easy. So simple.

She’d watched her mother play the fool for years and had mimicked sixteen years’ worth of teaching.

And the anticipation of seeing Rowan thinking things through had been thrilling, even if Bethany had found the waiting game tedious at times.

In the end, despite the fact she didn’t get the bracelet that evening, things had worked out strangely for the best. Her father’s acquisition wasn’t exactly a secret and others had paid attention to the annual holiday departure of one of London’s wealthiest households.

Three separate parties had descended on the house that night, and two came up empty-handed. It had taken years of digging and she’d never discovered the identity of the third until a bit of news came to her attention.

A priceless bracelet Finn Gallagher secretly kept on his person when he traveled.

And just like that day outside Serena’s locker, all the pieces had once again fallen into place.

* * *

Rowan traced the edge of the bath towel in her hands, the pattern likely committed to memory for the rest of her life she’d followed it so many times. Up, down, over, around.

Over and over and over again.

No matter how many ways she tried to see Finn’s point of view—what little he’d actually shared—she couldn’t understand his motivations. Or the crazy, idiotic reason the man chose to carry the bracelet with him.

But as long minutes had stretched into even longer hours, she’d been forced to look inside herself and acknowledge the one area that was her sole responsibility.

The two of them hadn’t resolved their differences of opinion or the disparate ways they chose to live their lives. She’d fallen into a physical relationship with him and he’d never once said he’d changed his mind on keeping the bracelet. He’d even gone so far as to try to stop their first night together because they were still on opposite sides.

Yet she’d blithely believed they’d figure it out and work through their differences. Which, if she were honest with herself, meant she’d convince him to give the bracelet back, stop any extracurricular thieving and settle into the life she wanted him to lead.

While she refused to fault herself for wanting something better for him, she knew full well she’d been narrow-minded in her approach.

And none of it changed the fact that she was still madly in love with the man.

Be bold, Rowan Steele.

Her father’s long-ago words rose up in her mind, stilling her hands on the towel. She hadn’t thought them in years, the warm, encouraging gaze that accompanied his inspiration too difficult to bear thinking about.

But she thought about them now.

Be bold.

Even now, so many years after he was gone, she could hear her father say the words. The deep timbre of his voice filled with equal parts encouragement, excitement and pride.

Be bold.

She’d spent her adult life equating boldness with risk taking. But it was something more.

What if being bold meant you loved with all your heart? What if it meant you had to take a leap with the one you loved, even when all the pieces didn’t add up? Or what if it meant you had to walk away when the values you held dear weren’t the same as those you cared about?

Rowan leaned her head back against the counter and closed her eyes, her father’s voice echoing in her head, encouraging yet providing no answers to her questions.

Be bold.

* * *

The drive to the airport and the short flight to Luxor were uneventful. All signs of the previous day’s danger had vanished as if it had never been. If only the anger she couldn’t let go of could do the same.

She and Finn had kept to opposite sides of the cabin the entire way and it was only now, as they stood before their side-by-side hotel doors, that Rowan knew things were really at an end for them personally.

They’d each do their portion of the excavation—cool, calm, professional—and get the hell out of Dodge. She was committed to preserving whatever came out of the tomb, just as she’d signed on for, but that was it. She’d also mapped out just how she’d get her hands on the wall that outlined Nefertari’s heritage, but she needed to get a feel for the dig team before she could finalize those plans.

“Would you like dinner?”

His quiet words pierced her heart, but she shook her head. “I’m going to order something in my room.”

“We should probably get to the site around seven tomorrow.”

Her cell phone buzzed from where she juggled it in her hands and she absently glanced down at the face. And saw the message from Campbell.

Call me. Nearly rerouted the London internet signature.

“What is it?”

“It’s Campbell. He’s got something.”

Finn was at her side in a moment. “We’re calling him back together.”

“Of course.” She made quick work of the door lock before tossing her things in the corner of the room, with Finn following suit. In moments, she had her phone on speaker and Campbell’s voice greeting them.

“Hey there, Dora the Explorer. How’s Egypt?”

“Eventful.”

As soon as the words were out, she wished she could pull them back as Campbell went into overprotective-big-brother mode. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Look. I’ve got Finn here with me. Tell us what’s going on.”

“Only if you promise me you’ll be careful.”

“I’m always careful.” She tossed the words back at her brother, so similar to the conversation she’d had with Kensington before leaving New York.

“No, you’re not. That’s what always worries us.”

Finn’s knowing gaze only added to the wedge of guilt that lodged in her chest. “Come on, Campbell. I will be. I promise.”

As if sensing that was all he’d get, Campbell’s somber tone faded, replaced with his trademark geek speak. “I traced the internet signature on the forums. The one coming from London but bouncing around the globe.”

“Yes?”

“So if bouncing the signal wasn’t the first clue something was going on, the significant encryption on it is great big clue number two.”

“You get to the bottom of it?” Finn’s absolute focus on the call and Campbell’s intel had a small wave of regret washing through her. Finn was good at what he did and he knew how to work with others. He’d be a great partner.

They’d
be such great partners.

Only they couldn’t be.

“All I have so far is that it’s centered around Knightsbridge.”

Her gaze collided with Finn’s at the mention of their long-ago meeting place. Raw emotion clouded his eyes and Rowan was pretty sure he saw the same in hers.