Innocent in Death (In Death #24)(16)

“Roarke.”

She said it again in a kind of throaty purr that brought up the hackles on Eve’s back. And she glided as such women do, to the table, holding out her hands for his.

“‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world,’” she murmured as he rose, and lifted her face for a kiss.

“Magdelana,” he said with the Irish in his voice cruising through the name, and he brushed her lips very lightly with his. “What a surprise.”

“I can’t believe it’s you!” Magdelana laid her hands on his cheeks, stroked. “And as handsome as ever. More. The years agreed with you, lover.”

“And with you. Eve, this is an old friend of mine, Magdelana Percell. Magdelana, my wife, Eve Dallas, and our friends, Sam and Natalie Derrick.”

“Wife? Oh, of course, of course. I heard. One does. I’m delighted to meet you. And you,” she said to the Derricks. “You’ll have to excuse me for breaking into your meal. All I saw was Roarke.” She smiled down at Eve, that glitter in her eyes. “You understand.”

“Oh, yeah.”

With another full-wattage smile, Magdelana dismissed Eve, then all but melted into Roarke. “I’ve only been in town a few days. I was going to contact you, see if we could make a date to catch up. It’s been, my goodness, ten years?”

“Nearer to twelve, I’d think.”

“Twelve!” She rolled her exquisite eyes. “Oh, Franklin, forgive me! My escort, Franklin James. This is Roarke, his wife, and the Derricks.”

“We know each other.” Roarke held out a hand. “Hello, Frank.”

He was thirty years her senior, by Eve’s gauge, looked prosperous and hale. And, she thought, slightly besotted.

“We’ll let you get back to your dinner.” Magdelana ran a hand down Roarke’s arm—a light, somehow intimate gesture. “I’m just thrilled to see you again.” And this time she brushed her lips against Roarke’s cheek. “We’ll have lunch, won’t we, and take a walk down Memory Lane. You won’t mind, will you, Eve?”

“The lunch or the walk?”

Magdelana laughed, a frothy gurgle. “We’ll have to have lunch ourselves, us girls. And tell secrets about Roarke. I’ll be in touch. So nice to meet you.”

Conversation picked up again, over food, and fishing. Though Roarke’s face betrayed nothing but interest in his companions, Eve knew him. So she knew while he ate, he drank, he spoke, his mind was across the elegant room where the stunning Magdelana sipped wine in her bold red dress.

When the evening was done, they put the Derricks in one of Roarke’s limos for the drive back to their hotel, then got into Eve’s vehicle.

“There have probably been a dozen murders committed due to the way you parked this thing.”

“Who is she?”

“I told you, she and Sam own not only a very large portion of Montana, but one of the most successful resorts in the state.”

“Don’t play me that way. Lover.”

“An old friend.” He shifted, his eyes meeting Eve’s. “And yes, we were lovers. It was a long time ago.”

“That much I already know.”

He sighed. “She was in the game. We…competed for a while, then we worked together on a couple of jobs. Then we parted ways.”

“She’s a thief.”

“She was.” He said it with a shrug. “I wouldn’t know if she continues in that profession.” He reached out, and since Eve had gotten behind the wheel, flicked at her hair as she drove. “What does it matter to you?”

I saw something in your eyes, she wanted to say. “Curiosity,” she said instead. “She’s a looker.”

“She certainly is. Do you know what I thought when you walked into the restaurant?”

“Thank God she doesn’t have blood all over her shoes?”

“No, but good point. I thought, there is the most compelling woman in the room. And she belongs to me.” He laid a hand briefly over hers. “Thanks for tonight.”

“I was late.”

“I noticed. New case?”

“Yeah. Caught it this afternoon.”

“Tell me about it.”

She ordered herself to put old lovers out of her head, and gave him the basics.

4

SHE GRABBED A SHOWER TO WASH AWAY THE LONGday, and tried not to obsess when Roarke didn’t make his usual play to join her under the hot jets. A woman who got herself twisted up because her man—who’d led a very full and…adventurous life before they’d met—ran into a former lover was just asking for stomach spasms.

And she didn’t get herself twisted up, Eve reminded herself as she stepped out of the shower and into the drying tube. Or she never had before this.

She was making too much of a…of a glint, she decided. Of a fraction of a second. Whoever Roarke had bounced on more than a freaking decade before had nothing to do with now.

Nothing at all.

He wasn’t in the bedroom when she went back in. But that meant nothing either. She dragged on some sweats, hunted up some socks that turned out to be cashmere, then headed toward her home office.

Roarke’s adjoined hers. The door was open, the lights on. No reason not to step over and see what was going on.