An Unforgettable Lady(95)

And she was sexy as hell. All he could think about was taking off her clothes so he could taste her again.

The plane pivoted, sending a shaft of sunlight through the cabin. As the flash traveled around, it fell on the count's sapphire engagement ring. The gem sparkled brilliantly.

A rich man's fancy jewels, he thought. On a rich man's fancy woman.

He wanted her to take them off, but knew he had no right to be possessive. Especially after the way he'd treated her.

"Grace?"

She didn't look up and her voice was brisk. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

He watched as she circled a paragraph and wrote something in the margin. "About what."

"This morning."

She looked up toward the front of the plane, as if she'd just noticed they'd landed. "Don't worry about it."

She began picking up the papers, shuffling them together into neat piles and putting them into folders.

"Grace. Look at me." When she didn't, he unbuckled his seat belt and went over to her. "I'm honestly sorry that I hurt you this morning."

Her hands stilled. There was a long pause.

"You didn't hurt me. I hurt myself because I knew what the rules were." She looked up at him, her eyes somber. "You told me all along what you wanted and what you could give. My ego made me look further into what you did to my body than I should have."

"Grace—".

"Are you going to leave?"

"No." He frowned. "What makes you think I might?"

"That's pretty obvious, isn't it?"

"I'm still going to take care of you," he said, meeting her eyes directly. "Nothing's changed."

She took a deep breath and let it out. "Unfortunately, I suppose that's true."

The plane came to a standstill.

"I wasn't prepared for what happened last night," he said grimly.

"Look, you don't owe me anything. Apologies or explanations." She shot him an overly bright smile. "I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. You should just forget about it."

Throwing off her seat belt, she reached down for her purse, gathered her folders in her arms, and rushed off the plane as if she couldn't wait to get rid of him.

Christ.

He knew that getting involved with her would be one hell of a complication. Now he was acting like a head case, she was hurt, and they were back in New York, where the killer had probably spent the weekend sharpening his knives.

If this job were going any worse, Smith thought, someone would be bleeding.

Eddie was waiting for them in front of the terminal and he helped get the luggage into the Explorer. The man was in a sunny mood.

"I was surprised you came back so early," he said as they got into the car. "What with the good weather and all."

Smith grunted while Grace offered the man a tight smile,

"Say, how are the creative writing classes going?" she asked him.

Eddie smiled into the rearview mirror as he pulled away from the curb. "They're going real well. We're doing dramatic tension right now."

How appropriate, Smith thought.

The ride into the city was quiet and strained. When they slowed to a stop in front of the penthouse, Smith got out first and was looking around as Grace stepped onto the sidewalk.

When the release on the back hatch popped, Smith went around to pick up their luggage. He'd grabbed Grace's bag and was pulling it free of the car when she went to take it

from him and stumbled on the curb. He had just slipped his arm around her waist to keep her from falling when they heard her name being called out.

They both looked to the sound just as a photographer leaned out of a car window and started snapping pictures. With the flashbulb going off like a strobe light, the car careened into traffic.

Smith cursed and almost ran after the guy but he didn't want to leave Grace. Even as he trained his eyes on the license plate, he knew it was too late. The pictures had been taken and there wasn't much he could do about it.



As he looked at Grace, he saw exhaustion settle into her eyes.

"It's going to be everywhere tomorrow," she said, wearily.



* * *



It was past eleven o'clock when Grace decided to take a warm shower in hopes of making herself sleepy. She was on her way to the bathroom when the phone rang and she let it go into voice mail. There was no one she wanted to talk to at this hour.