Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,21

side with Gates, watch everything the way he was doing.

Personally, she also wanted to feel his hands on her back again, which was stupid and irrational. She was unaccountably attracted to him, even without the obvious provocation he offered with his hot hands. She couldn’t help being intrigued. Fascinated, in fact.

“So, Carrie,” Dav shifted his attention to the gallery owner. “I believe you have a hit on your hands despite the difficulties, my dear.”

Carrie’s faint blush was either from heat, or a reaction to Dav, Ana couldn’t be sure.

“So, do you like gallery openings?” Gates asked at her elbow. She’d been so wrapped up in observing Carrie, she hadn’t seen him move to her side.

Bad sign. He hadn’t set off her radar when he moved, which meant somewhere in her subconscious, she’d decided he wasn’t a threat.

Jen wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Ana as D’Onofrio excused himself and Jen, and led her away. It amused her that Jen’s millionaire didn’t want to compete with Dav and his entourage. “Congratulations, Carrie,” D’Onofrio said in parting. “Dav, Gates, good to see you again. We’re going to the next room. Shirley?”

“Oh, I think I’ll hang here for a few.” She simpered toward Gates and Dav. “I’ll catch up.”

“Or not,” Gates muttered, low enough that only she heard. His fingers slipped to her back again, as he leaned in. Smooth move, she decided.

“Who’s the friend?” he asked.

“Just that, a friend.”

“Tell her to watch out for Jack D’Onofrio,” he whispered, never faltering in the featherlight stroke, stroke, stroke on her back. She’d always griped about people getting distracted by the physical when they were on the job. If this was what they went through, she had a new sympathy.

“Danger or jerk?” she said, acting as if she were laughing at a joke.

“Mostly jerk,” he said, before answering a question Dav had thrown his way. “Not sure about the danger.”

With no visible effort, he eased her forward into the conversational circle. He was obviously strong, but when she’d put her hands on him, it had been like a shot to the gut. Her imagination had gone into overdrive.

Stop thinking about his abs and focus on the work.

Redirecting her thoughts, she observed just how careful he was of his boss’s safety. She pretended to natter on about the art, but kept one eye on him, as he kept both on Dav. All without ever ceasing that restless pattern on her spine.

It was driving her mad.

“It would be a privilege to discuss that with you, Dav,” Carrie was saying warmly, and Ana wondered what she’d missed.

“We’ll make an appointment, shall we? I’ll be in touch in the next few days, and we’ll set it up.”

“Lovely,” Carrie replied, an edge of puzzlement in her smile.

“It’s always a pleasure to do business with you, and with Prometheus.” It was such a hearty endorsement that Ana surreptitiously scanned the nearby faces. Dav was making a point, giving Carrie an all-out seal of approval.

The crowd shifted again, and Dav’s demeanor changed from social politeness to distinct interest. There was a keen awareness in that shift, and something else, something Ana didn’t quite recognize, as Dav took Carrie’s hand and bowed over it in a courtly manner.

“We’ll make that a date, then.”

“Absolutely,” she agreed, the puzzled look still a faint crease on her brow. Ana caught the masculine interest in Dav’s reply, but Carrie seemed oblivious. From the corner of her eye, she saw Gates’s scowl. What, no nookie for the boss-man? she wondered irreverently. Or was it just a matter of security? Tough to date, she decided, if one was a marked man, as Davros seemed to be.

She’d pulled up more than five attempts on his life in the last couple of years, and that just here in San Fran. She wanted to dig further into that. She’d turned up business rivalries from at least one of the Central American nations, but what notes she’d scanned said one of them went back a long way and it was family oriented.

Filing that for later consideration, Ana saw with amusement that Dav had truly flustered Carrie. She withdrew her hand, but kept her businesslike smile firmly in place. “Of course, it will be a delight to do business with you again.”

Ana nearly broke character and snorted over how oblivious the woman was. Ana was pretty sure Dav wanted to discuss something other than art. To cover the gap, Ana kept to her vacuous chatter as Shirley. “Oh, how fun, even if business is involved.