“You brought her with you to rob the place?” Stone asked, a frown pulling his brows into an unhappy V.
“No, I brought her to a benefit gala for a charity I’m happy to support.”
“Bullshit.”
Finn shrugged his shoulders. “You asked me to take on this project. Let me do it.”
“Oh, I have no qualms with your ability to successfully complete the assignment. I do, however, question your judgment in bringing Genevieve into it.”
“Really? She’s the perfect cover for a little theft.”
“Sure. Until she figures out you’ve used her and then she’s gonna be pissed.”
“She’ll never know.”
“Uh-huh. Man, if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that women always find out.” Stone sent a sardonic expression in Piper’s direction. If Finn was a better friend, he might ask questions about what Stone was talking about.
But he wasn’t a good friend.
Finn shrugged. “I’ll take my chances.”
“You’ll have a preliminary report tomorrow?”
Business concluded, Finn was eager to get back to Genevieve. He wanted to enjoy the party for a little while longer before using the cover of the crowd to slip off and see what he could haul home with him.
Returning to the women, the four of them chatted for several minutes. Piper invited Genevieve out for lunch next week and he was happy when she agreed. Lackland had isolated her so much that she’d never really had the opportunity to build strong friendships.
Piper was the kind of woman who liked to take on the wounded and lost. While Genevieve didn’t quite fit into that category, he had no doubt Piper would sense her need for friendship and attempt to fill the role. If for no other reason than she liked him and Genevieve was important to him.
Leaning into her personal space, Finn drew her close. “Dance with me,” he murmured against her temple.
Her answering nod was slow and deliberate. Leading them out onto the floor, Finn spun her around and into his arms.
Together, they moved with smooth, sure steps. The melody of the music pulsed beneath the surface of his skin. Finn relished the brush of her body against his. The delicate feel of her. The rough brush of lace as his palm slid across her hip. The heat of her melting deep into his blood.
Finn closed his eyes, soaking up each moment.
Which was why he missed the sneak attack.
“I’ll have to speak to Hunt about his guest list. Obviously, he doesn’t realize that he’s let the serpent into the garden.”
His arms wrapped around her, Finn couldn’t miss the way Genevieve’s body stiffened. She couldn’t even see the man standing behind her, but it didn’t matter. The voice was obviously enough.
Finn tightened his grip on her, maneuvering them both so he could tuck her protectively against his side.
“Grandfather,” Genevieve finally spoke, her voice cool and remote.
“Granddaughter,” Lackland countered, his snide voice full of disdain. “I see you haven’t gotten any smarter. I can’t imagine why you’d let this man anywhere near you given what he did the last time you spread your thighs wide.”
Finn took a menacing step forward. Lackland didn’t flinch. In fact, he moved closer, raising his chin in a taunting invitation to make a spectacle in the middle of the crowded ballroom.
Genevieve was the one who stopped Finn. A cool hand on his arm, she squeezed. “He isn’t worth it.”
Finn’s gaze was hot when he turned to look at her. Her face was pale and drawn, her jaw tight from grinding her teeth.
“Maybe not, but you are and I won’t have him making malicious remarks about you.”
“Nothing malicious about my remark, DeLuca. You seduced an innocent woman to gain access to my family vault, stole from us and then left my granddaughter alone and pregnant.”
“Every sin you just named was mine, not hers.”
“She let you do it. I raised her to be smarter than that.”
“You raised her to be an obedient servant. But she isn’t. She’s a human being with feelings and needs.”
“And you had no problem exploiting those needs.”
Seriously, if Lackland didn’t get out of his sight, Finn was going to deck the man. Spectacle be damned. “You better watch your words, old man. Speak that way about her again and you’ll regret it.”
“The only thing I regret is that you didn’t spend more time behind bars. But I’m certain you’ll land yourself back there soon enough. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
Finn balled his hand into a fist. Genevieve yanked hard on his arm. “Walk away, Finn. He’s goading you into making a scene.”
Logically, he knew Genevieve was right. But he wasn’t certain it made a difference. Someone needed to put the bully in his place and Finn had been itching to do it for a very long time. If they’d been anywhere else, he wouldn’t have hesitated.
But he still had a job to do.
“Fine,” he ground out. Turning to Genevieve, he cupped her face in his hands and brought her close enough that he could stare straight into her eyes. “You and Noah do not need this man in your life. He’s poison and has nothing to offer anyone. You, on the other hand, are one of the kindest, most talented and beautiful people I’ve ever met. I have no idea how you managed to flourish when this man did everything in his power to snuff out your light, but I’m grateful that you did.”
Genevieve’s eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed. He didn’t wait for her response, mostly because he didn’t want one. What he’d wanted to do was replace her grandfather’s toxic words with something more uplifting.
Arm around her waist, Finn turned his back on her grandfather and led them both across the ballroom and into a hallway off the far side.
The first few rooms had blazing lights and knots of people inside. A game room, a drawing room. What he wanted was a few quiet minutes with her.
Farther down the hall, the noise of the party faded. The bright lights were replaced with muted lamps and sconces. Peeking into a room to the left, Finn found a sunroom. Another door down was an office with an imposing desk and a tufted leather sofa.
He made a mental note to come back in a bit, assuming this was the perfect place to hide a safe.
Another two doors down revealed a smaller, intimate room. The far wall was floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the rolling lawn of the estate. The other three walls contained soaring shelves of books with several groupings of furniture clearly designed to curl up and relax.
Tugging on her hand, Finn pulled Genevieve inside and shut the door behind them. This was perfect.
A few feet in, she pulled to a stop. “We shouldn’t be here.”
“Yes, we should.”
“No.”
Finn reeled her in, using his hold on her hand to draw her to him. So small, she settled into the shelter of his body. Even reluctant, she didn’t hesitate to let herself relax against him.
Her trust was a gift, one he never wanted to screw up again.
Bending his knees, Finn brought his mouth to the naked line of her shoulder. Placing gentle kisses along her skin, he followed the curve up to that sensitive spot on the side of her neck.
The sharp inhale of her breath when he nipped right there sent a surge of need thundering through him. The erection he’d been fighting since she walked out of that bathroom came back full force.
Genevieve’s fingers, buried beneath his suit jacket at his hips, curled into his body. Her head dropped sideways, giving him better access to tease her with his mouth.
Finn wasn’t the kind of guy to let an invitation like that go unaccepted.
Walking backward, he pulled them both farther into the room until a patch of moonlight, streaming through the gigantic windows, fell across Genevieve’s pale skin.
Dropping to his knees at her feet, Finn looked up at her. She was gorgeous, but what sent his heart fluttering was the unguarded way she watched him, her eyes filled with hope and something deeper.
Hands braced on his shoulders, she waited.
Slowly, Finn began to gather the hem of her dress in his hands, revealing her ankles, calves and thighs.
But the real jewel was the dark apex of her sex.
“Lean back and grab the table behind you,” Finn ordered. He didn’t wait for Genevieve to comply before moving in, murmuring, “I’ve wanted to do this since you stuffed those panties in my pocket.”
Spreading the lips of her sex wide, Finn found her warm center glistening with the evidence of her desire. Genevieve’s body rocked backward when his mouth latched on to her. Licking, sucking, using every part of his mouth, Finn relished the explosion of her taste across his tongue. The muffled sound of her whimper as she tried to be quiet.
Her hips moved in time with his motions, rocking harder against his mouth, trying to find more. But he wasn’t ready to let her go.
Finn kept her teetering on the edge of release, bringing her close and then moving back. He relished the way her wild hands found his hair, tangling in the strands and using the hold to try and get what she wanted.
“Finn,” she finally breathed. “Please.”
He couldn’t deny her anything.
Adding a finger deep inside her body, Finn ran the flat of his tongue across her clit several times. Adding a second finger, he pulsed them in and out, finding the spot that had her whimpering.
Her body drew tight right before the explosion of her orgasm erupted around him. Finn rode it out, milking her body for every speck of pleasure she could give him.
But the moment she went lax, he shot to his feet and began undoing the fly at his pants. His cock pulsed with the need to feel her warm, wet heat. He wanted to be buried inside her. As close as he could possibly get to her.
Picking her up, Finn flicked the tail of Genevieve’s gown out behind her as he set her onto the surface of the table. She hissed at the unexpected cold, but didn’t stop him. Instead, she took up the task of freeing him.
Her palm was hot as she stroked up and down his throbbing shaft. “I’m not going to last long if you keep doing that,” he breathed.
“Who said anything about lasting long?”
She scooted to the edge of the table. Spreading her thighs wide, Genevieve drew him closer to the waiting heaven she was offering.
Finn bit back a belly-deep groan when he sank inside. She was so wet and warm. Her body fit his like a glove, opening up and welcoming him home. Every time he touched her, he wanted more. Tonight, the need for release was pounding against his brain, but he would have been just as content to stay like this, connected to her in the most primitive and fulfilling way.
But she had other plans.
Hands on his waist, she started guiding him in and out. Finn let her set the pace...for a minute or two. But then it became too much.
Using his grip on her hips, Finn held her steady as he began to pump in and out. Long, even strokes that made his eyes want to cross.
“So damn good,” he whispered.
Urging her backward, Finn placed his hands on the tabletop. His thrusts became harder, a rhythmic snap accompanying each as the table tapped the wall behind them.
“Someone’s going to hear,” Genevieve protested.
“Let them. I want everyone in that ballroom to know you’re mine.”
Genevieve’s eyes sharpened and glittered like the jewels circling her throat. Dropping her head, she exposed the tender underside of her jaw. Finn leaned forward, finding the pulsing vein running along the side and sucked hard.
Her body bowed up and her gasp echoed through the room. Her sex fluttered and tightened around him, another orgasm slamming into her.
And that was all it took for him to topple over. The explosion of pleasure rocked through him, blacking out everything except her.
He was breathing hard several minutes later when his brain clicked back on and everything came into focus. Genevieve had collapsed onto the table beneath him, but she was staring up at him with a sleepy, satisfied expression.
Her hair was messy and her necklace was twisted sideways.
“You look like you just had sex.”
A wry grimace pulled at her mouth. “Go figure.”
Pulling away, Finn grasped her hands to pull her up. “I’ve already said it, I don’t care what anyone else thinks of us. And I don’t mind them knowing we just had sex. But I know you do. So, stay here. I’ll go find something to clean us both up.”
Quickly working the fly of his pants, Finn strode out into the hallway, but didn’t get very far.
His feet faltered halfway past the doorway to the office. It would only take a few moments to do a little reconnaissance.
Genevieve would never know.
Genevieve had no idea how long she stayed in the room. It probably wasn’t more than five minutes, but it felt like forever. She was rumpled and clearly sexed up. If anyone walked in right now...
Looking around, Genevieve was hoping to find a mirror hanging on one of the walls that she could at least use to repair her hair. No such luck.
A few more minutes had an anxious sensation pulling at the muscles between her shoulder blades. Maybe Finn had been caught by someone in the hallway and he was attempting to extricate himself from a conversation so he could return to her.
Either way, she was tired of waiting. Surely there was a bathroom somewhere close.
Returning to the hallway, she began moving down, peeking into each room she passed. One door was partially closed so she started to ignore it, but halfway past a noise from the inside caught her attention.
Something made her turn. When she pushed against the door, it didn’t even creak as the well-oiled hinges gave way, revealing a large room with an imposing desk prominently displayed.
The piece was massive and intricate. She didn’t have to touch it to know it would be heavy. The wood gleamed with the patina of age and the color reminded her of the tobacco leaves she’d once seen on a documentary about Southern plantations.
This room didn’t benefit from a massive wall of windows overlooking the back of the estate. The natural light from the few high panes of glass weren’t enough to beat back the gloom of darkness that shrouded the edges of the room.
She wasn’t supposed to be there.
Genevieve might have backed out, except a movement off to her right caught the corner of her eye. It took her several seconds to register the shape of a man in the shadows, but the minute her eyes picked out the image, the hair at the back of her neck stood on edge.
And not because she was scared.
She didn’t need to see clearly to recognize Finn. She’d know the lithe, controlled way he moved anywhere.
Genevieve watched him as he ran his hands along the large frame of a painting mounted on the wall. When that one revealed nothing, he moved to another. The muffled sound of triumph that fell from his lips as he found the catch made her throat ache. The frame swung away from the wall revealing the huge face of an inset safe.
Finn didn’t hesitate, but quickly pulled a set of tools out of the pocket of his jacket. How the hell had she missed those? She’d had her hands all over him tonight and hadn’t felt them.
He’d brought her here for cover.
Hell, sneaking off to have sex with her had no doubt been another layer to that subterfuge.
He’d used her. And she’d blindly let him.
But she was done accepting that kind of behavior—from him and herself.
The plush carpet silenced her heels as she crossed the room. But something must have tipped him off because he spun around just steps before she could reach him.
“Genevieve,” he said, the single word as grim as his expression.
His gaze skipped up and down her body, settling squarely on her face. No doubt she looked like she was pissed. Because she was.
“This isn’t what it looks like.”
“Oh, you didn’t use me so you could break into Hunt’s estate and rob him blind?”
“No.”
“Bullshit.”
“I mean, yes, I am here to rob him, but you weren’t cover for that.”
Genevieve’s head threatened to explode. “I wasn’t cover? So I’m just an accomplice instead? Sure, much better. This way our son can lose both his parents when they go to jail.”
“Neither one of us is going to jail.”
“Because you’re going to put—” Genevieve waved her hand toward the tools still clutched in his hands “—whatever those are away, lock the painting back over that safe and we’re going to walk out of this room together.”
The expression on Finn’s face went even grimmer. “I can’t do that.”
“Oh, yes, you can. If you want to be part of my life, you can.”
Closing his eyes, Finn pulled in a deep breath, held it for several seconds and then let out a soul-deep sigh.
“I’m working for Stone.”
Seriously, he kept saying things like the words were supposed to make things better, but they just didn’t. “I don’t care if the queen of England hired you to rob Hunt blind. I won’t let you do it.”
“The queen of England didn’t hire me to rob him, but Hunt did.”
Genevieve blinked once. And then again. “Excuse me?”
“Well, technically, he hired Stone Surveillance, but since I’m one-third owner and the resident expert on relieving people of their unprotected valuables, this assignment fell to me.”
Seriously. “Are you speaking English?”
“Apparently, Hunt isn’t just a longtime friend of your grandfather’s. He’s known Stone all of his life and been in business with Anderson Steel for years. He approached Stone about beefing up his security, but when Stone made several suggestions, he didn’t see the value. They made an agreement, allowing me to break in to take whatever I could.”
Genevieve’s mind spun with the information. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d taken an assignment with Stone? Or that you’re part owner in the company?”
“Because until a few days ago I wasn’t. Stone’s been trying for months to get me to join the team, but I really didn’t want to do it.”
“Why not?”
“Because I thought it would be boring. I already own a company and don’t enjoy being involved with it. Why would I want to take on the responsibility of another? Especially one that needs to be built from the ground up?”
After meeting him, something told her Anderson Stone would have no problems building the business into whatever he wanted it to become.
“What changed?”
“You did.”
For the second time tonight Genevieve found herself asking, “Excuse me?”
“I needed Gray’s expertise and Stone’s resources in order to get the security at your studio and house upgraded quickly. Stone drives a hard bargain.”
“You agreed to something you didn’t want to do, something you’ve been telling your closest friends no about for months, in order to protect me and our son?”
“Of course.”
How could she go from wanting to strangle the man to wanting to jump his bones in the space of five minutes? One thing was for sure, Finn DeLuca definitely made her react.
But he wasn’t finished shocking her.
“I had every intention of just being a silent partner, in name only.” Suddenly, Finn shifted, running an agitated hand through his hair. For the first time since she’d caught him, he began to look guilty. “I’ll be honest, I’ve loved spending the last few weeks with you and Noah. But I was starting to get restless, chafe at the normal. I went to talk to Stone and he suggested I take this job. Use my skills in a way that might scratch the itch without jeopardizing everything.”
Genevieve watched him, trepidation churning sickly through her belly. She had to ask the question, but she really wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
“And?”
A smile tugged at the edges of his mouth. “I thought knowing it was legit would take the edge off, but it didn’t. Or at least, there was enough left to make the experience an interesting challenge.”
That’s what Finn needed and why he did the things he did. Not because he wanted the things he stole. But because he wanted to feel alive. Needed to feel alive.
In a way that wouldn’t cost someone else their life, like Sawyer.
God, what was she going to do with him?
Shaking her head, Genevieve was at a loss. She believed him. Maybe she was stupid to, but she did.
Before she could regret it, she grumbled, “Hurry up. I have your come dripping down my thighs and would really like to go home.”
The shocked laughter that burst from Finn was totally worth it.