Reckless Night Read Online Free PDF

a vivid glow, bringing out the intense colors of the ocean, the light reflecting like diamonds off the many beautiful buildings.

    Seeing things from an aesthetic point of view was new. It was his curse and his pleasure, and entirely Grace’s fault. A ll his life, it had never occurred to him to look at things and see their beauty. A ll he had ever done was scan his environment for threats and, God knows, there had been enough of them.

    Threats.

    He sent out his senses, reviewed the situation. They’d flown over in his company’s private jet.
    They’d entered the country under different identities, he’d rented the apartment in the name of a shell corporation that could never be traced back to any specific human being, and the tickets had been bought in the name of yet another identity.

    They’d worn broad-brimmed straw hats and large sunglasses from the airport to the apartment, which was perfectly plausible since it was nearly 100 degrees outside.

    Heat at Christmas. He’d spent his entire life in the Northern Hemisphere with the exception of two visits to Johannesburg. A balmy Christmas season still surprised him.

    It had been 92 degrees in Sivuatu when they’d left.

    He admired the scenery while continuing to scan for threats, but nothing pinged his radar.

    Of course, it was perfectly possible that his radar had been permanently ruined by the most frightening emotion known to man—happiness.

    Happiness could kill him.

    Happiness terrified him and fascinated him. He’d never been happy in his previous life. Though he’d been the top player in a dangerous game for a very long time, his ascent there had been brutal and he’d had to remain vigilant every second of every day to stay alive on the top of that heap.

    What he’d had had seemed enough. Power and the luxuries money could buy.

    But then, of course, there was the blood price to be paid—hatred and fear and envy. Murderous rage. Men on three continents whose only thought was to assassinate him and take his place.

    Vigilance was in his DNA , but he’d had little reason to exercise it since he’d died and started his new life with Grace.

    Was he getting soft?

    He mulled that over. A safe life, someone to love…

    would that be his downfall? Men had been known to grow soft, lose their edge, and then their life.

    He searched inside himself carefully because he was betting not only his life but Grace’s.

    No. Certitude settled in his chest. They were safe.

    This could be done. This might even be the new normal.

    A safe, happy life with the woman he loved.

    Unthinkable before now.

    “Darling?”

    Drake whirled and his heart turned over in his chest.

    How could that be? They’d been together a year. He’d had her hundreds of times. He knew her body and her soul inside out. And yet, there it was.

    When he saw her unexpectedly, his heart would give this huge thump in his chest like a heart attack, only not.

    He knew because he’d gone to a cardiologist and had his heart checked. The doctor had smiled and said he would heart checked. The doctor had smiled and said he would live to be a hundred.

    It was Grace who did this to him.

    There she was, in a beautiful dress she’d had made from a bolt of pale turquoise Chinese silk her seamstress’s son had sent from Shanghai. It had cost practically nothing. The seamstress was superb but inexpensive.

    Grace had made her own jewelry—glass beads with intricate swirls of color strung on strands of silk. She had a cream shawl in case the air turned chilly later on, simple sandals, a simple small black purse. Her entire outfit cost about half what he usually spent on wine at dinner with one of his mistresses back in Manhattan and she looked like a million dollars.

    “You look beautiful,” he said softly and she looked up at him in surprise.

    His entire body felt on edge, skin too tight to contain it.

    “Thank you,” his love said with a smile. She walked up to him and touched his