Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,60
about that, but he’d pulled news reports and other data. There’d been a bombing, an attempt on the parliament about the time she’d come back to the States. He’d lay odds that was part of what had put the hesitation in her step, in her decision making.
Dessert arrived with coffee, and it looked, smelled, and tasted like heaven. He’d never considered blueberries an aphrodisiac, but apparently, where Ana was concerned, he was going to be discovering all kinds of new things.
“Oh, my God, this is fabulous,” she murmured, slipping the fork out of her mouth and licking the back of it. The sweep of her tongue over the tines had him reacting, and he felt the beat of excitement in his blood. She portioned off another bite, but before she lifted the fork, he intercepted it.
“Here, let me.” Dipping the bit in the whipped cream, he conveyed it to her mouth, waited for her to open, and slid the fork in. The simple dance of it, the connection, was sensual and powerfully arousing.
“Mmmmmm,” she murmured, holding his gaze. There was a flicker of excitement in her eyes, and a feminine smile curved her lips; lips he wanted to capture, lips he wanted to take. With studied care, he brought the fork to his own mouth, licked the tines as she had done.
“Delicious,” he murmured, never breaking eye contact.
A presence at the edge of the table distracted them both.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the driver apologized, his nervousness shouting from every twist of his hands around his hatband. “Mr. Gianikopolis needs you right away. He said to tell you there’s been another incident.”
Chapter Ten
Ana was as fast to gather her things as he was. The bill was settled without incident, and the mood turned dark as the driver led them to the car.
“You can drop me at the Rialto, I’ll catch a cab there.”
“No,” Gates’s answer was unequivocal. “We’ll take you home. It’s on the way.” He nodded to the driver as they slid into the back, and within seconds they were easing into traffic.
“You should call,” Ana said. “Please, go ahead.”
“Okay.” Gates had the phone in his hand before he finished the word. Dav had been in all evening, working on a major restructuring of a small Algerian shipping company he’d acquired a year ago. He’d let it run with minor changes for the last ten months, waiting to see if it had been the owner’s personality driving the business into the ground, or the internal accounting. With a year’s worth of accounting to reflect on, Dav was now making drastic changes. Dav hadn’t, however, planned to leave the estate, which was why Gates had felt he could be absent.
“Dav?” Gates put all his questions into his boss’s name.
“I’m fine. The incident was outside the gates. Two of your guys were coming back from a quick trip for coffee. There was a bang-strip at the bottom of the driveway, and someone shot up the car. Neither of them are hurt, thanks to the bulletproofing, but it’s outrageous.” Dav was worked up, and pissed. “It wasn’t even dark,” he snarled. “It is too easy to access us here in the United States. I think it’s time to head to the house in France.”
“I don’t think so,” Gates disagreed. “We’ll talk when I get there. The team called Detective Baxter, I presume?”
“Of course,” Dav dismissed that. “They picked up shell casings and hauled the car away. The usual.”
Gates hated that it had become SOP—standard operating procedure—to have things happen at the estate, to get shot at. He’d left his PDA in the limo, locked in his briefcase. As he retrieved it, he heard the soft chime that meant he had voice mails, texts, and other contacts.
“We’ll talk about it when I get there,” he said to Dav, absently scrolling through the e-mail on the PDA, all while making sure Ana was settled and they were going the correct way to drop her off. “I’m sorry I wasn’t available.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Did you find out anything useful?”
“Still working on it. I’ll be back shortly,” Gates said by way of good-bye and disconnected. He shifted to look at his lovely companion. He hated that their ongoing difficulties were ending the evening. He’d been dramatically attracted to Ana from their first meeting at the estate. Having dinner with her tonight had only heightened the sense that he wanted to know her better, get to her intense core of brilliance both mentally and physically.
“What’s up?” she demanded, her