Illegal Possession Read Online Free PDF Page A

very still, the smile in her eyes briefly extinguished. But then it surfaced again. “You know,” she said slowly, “I’m…almost…tempted to call you on that.”
    “It’s not a bluff,” he warned evenly.
    “Why?” she asked. “Why so determined?”
    “You know. You’re woman enough to know.”
    She tamed the leap of her heart again. “You’re asking for trouble,” she warned in turn. “I honestly don’t believe that two people as different as you and I could ever find common ground. And I’m past the age of believing that chemistry can form the basis of anything except experiments in a laboratory.”
    Dallas ignored that. “It’s your choice. Either you let me find out about you in the…acceptable way, or else you force me to employ other methods.”
    “What do you expect to find out?” she asked, suddenly curious. “That I was twisted by heredity and environment and turned into a criminal? That I lead a life of shadows, a life filled with shady meetings and surreptitious phone calls? That I live in a house filled with stolen loot and cringe whenever a police officer passes?”
    “I want to find out what’s there,” Dallas said flatly.
    Troy looked at him for a long moment. Then she shrugged. “All right. If you’re so damn determined to look into the nooks and crannies of my life, feel free. Believe it or not, I’ve nothing to hide.”
    Dallas almost relaxed. “Fine. Where do I pick you up for dinner tonight?”
    She bit back a laugh. “Arrogant, aren’t you? Give you an inch and you run away with it.”
    “You didn’t answer the question.”
    “Was that a question? It sounded like a command. If I must have a sparring partner, you’d better know the rules. And rule number one is that I won’t be ordered around. Period.”
    “Pardon me. Would you please have dinner with me tonight?”
    “No.”
    “Dammit!”
    Dryly Troy said, “Look, last night was a long one, and it didn’t end for me after I left you. In fact, I haven’t been to bed. I intend to go home and have a nice nap, after which I’ll call the collector in Paris. Then I plan to fall back into bed and sleep all night.”
    Dallas controlled himself. “Tomorrow night then?” He only just remembered to make it a question.
    “I’m giving a party. You’re welcome to come: the address is Three-oh-nine Oak Street. It starts at eight or thereabouts. Formal.” When Dallas looked at her suspiciously, she shook her head slightly. “I’m not giving a phony address: I don’t lie. Funny little quirk of mine.”
    He finally nodded. “All right.”
    “Don’t expect to meet the cream of thieving society,” she warned lightly. “You’re more likely to see diplomats, politicians. Army and arty types, maybe a few senators or congressmen…judges. I’m a democratic hostess.”
    When he recovered from that, Dallas said wryly, “Maybe I’d better ask something before I come to your party.”
    “Ask away.”
    “Among the distinguished types mentioned, there isn’t a husband, is there?”
    “Scores of them. But none belonging to me.”
    “You’re not married?”
    “Someone’s going to have to get me pregnant first,” she said sweetly.
    “I’ll remember that,” he shot back calmly.
    Troy remained seated while he rose to his feet, thinking that she was going to regret this. As a sparring partner, he lacked nothing; but sparring partners didn’t exactly make for comfortable relationships—and Troy found all the excitement she needed in her work.
    “Eight,” he said, looking down at her.
    “Or thereabouts,” she responded easily.
    He kept looking down at her. “You haven’t called me by my name yet,” he noted neutrally.
    “Is that a prerequisite to being investigated?” she asked dryly.
    “Troy.”
    She was never able afterward to explain to herself what it was about his voice that got to her. It might have been the yearning note that, she was certain, echoed only in her imagination. It might have been that