Page 69 of The Girl Who Knew Too Much

“Are you always this irritable?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask my staff.”

She startled him with a steely smile. “No need to do that. I’m quite capable of forming my own opinion.”

He watched her warily. “And just what is your opinion?”

“I think certain subjects, such as a mention of your leg, annoy you.”

“It’s a mention of mypoorleg that annoys me.”

“I’ll try to remember that.” She glanced around the patio as if searching for another topic of conversation. “I see you have your own pool.”

“I use it for exercising my poor leg.”

“Right.” She rose, clamping the lapels of the robe with one hand. “I think I’ve irritated you enough for one day and the sun isn’t even up yet. I had better go upstairs and see about getting dressed. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us.”

She turned and took two steps back toward the shadowed interior of the villa.

“Irene?”

She paused and looked at him over her shoulder. “Yes?”

“It’s going to be all right. We’ll figure this out together. Partners, remember?”

She walked back and came to a halt in front of him.

“Not just partners,” she said. “Not after last night.”

“What, then?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I told you I knew that your friend Luther Pell trusted you. I found that... reassuring. But after what happened last night, I know I can trust you. That means a lot, believe me.”

“You know hardly anything about me.”

“Everyone has secrets,” she said. “It doesn’t mean I can’t trust you.”

“That’s good to know,” he said. “Because I trust you, too.”

“Why?”

“Hell, I don’t know. Maybe because you refused to leave me alone in a burning building?”

“You wouldn’t have left me there, either.”

“So we know that much about each other. Is that enough?”

“It is for me. For now.”

Then, before he realized what she intended, she bent down and brushed her lips lightly across his cheek.

The heat of her body whispered to his senses. An unfamiliar certainty flashed through him. He started to reach for her but she was already stepping back.

He watched her disappear into the shadows of the living room.

It was only after she was gone that he realized that for the past few minutes he had been entirely unaware of the pain in his leg.

He smiled, bemused by his own reaction to the woman and the dawn of the new day.