Steal My Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

him.
    Slowly, she let her arm drop until her fingers touched the metal bat she kept under her bed.
    He was down the hall, not yet to her room. She was sure of it. There was still a little time.
    She lifted the bat, slipped it under the sheets, and pretended to be asleep. With one eye half open, she held her breath and watched a dark figure appear in her doorway. The kidnapper. Was he here to take the necklace? Without giving her Holly back? She’d fight him to the death before she’d let that happen.
    He took a step toward her. She gripped the bat tighter. Another step. Her heart hammered in her chest. One more step.
    “Hold it right there.” She spat out the words like a cop, and must have sounded commanding, because he stopped. For what seemed like an eternity, he just stood there staring at her.
    What’s he waiting for? She couldn’t see him but his scent was familiar. Something made her reach for the light. Her fingers shaking, she managed to find the switch and turn it on. The glow spilled over the darkly clad man before her.
    “Oh, my God.” She sat up and glared at him. “Mark.” That familiar outfit made her want to smack him with her bat.
    Wait. That meant the kidnapper would call. Holly was all right. Wasn’t she?
    Mark grinned down at his ex-wife, who was sitting before him on the bed, wielding a silly baseball bat and wearing a flimsy spaghetti strap tank top that showed off her pretty breasts. Beneath the cotton fabric, he could see her physical reaction to him and he felt pleased. As well as aroused. Why he should still want her, he couldn’t say. But he did.
    “I didn’t mean to frighten you, Angel Eyes.” He only meant to retrieve the jewels she’d stolen.
    She gave him a look of scorn. “Is that why you dressed up in your Batman suit?” His cat burglar suit. The one she’d learned he wore to scale high-rises and break into high-end apartments to steal jewelry. She had to get him out of here. “How dare you break into my house?”
    He couldn’t help chuckling. He’d forgotten her pet name for his outfit. Back when they were married, he’d had her believing he used the suit for research for Our Day Will Come . She liked to peel it off him and distract him from his “work.” They’d make love for hours. Those were the days. “You can laugh at my outfit, Paige, but it makes me invisible.”
    “Except to those who really know you.”
    “I guess I don’t need this any more, then.” He produced a handkerchief and began to wipe the paint off his face. He chuckled as memories hit him. “You also used to call it my Halloween costume.”
    “Did I?”
    He dared to move closer to her. “Don’t you remember?”
    Paige narrowed her eyes at Mark. She didn’t want to admit that his all-black skintight suit that revealed every contour of his muscles, even with his face hidden under paint, made him look sexier than a Chippendale dancer. Or that she remembered taking it off of him and everything that followed, all too well. “Sorry, but you’re out of season. It’s summertime.”
    “Am I?” He took another step toward her.
    She gripped the bat and raised it. “I’m warning you, Mark. Don’t come any nearer.”
    He was already at the corner of the mattress. He pulled off the hood, revealing the dark, tangled waves his hair. “Give it up, Paige. We both know what you did tonight.”
    She stiffened, braced herself against the headboard. “I don’t know what you mean.”
    He laughed. “Yes, you do. You didn’t think you could fool me, did you? I know you took the Fantasia necklace.”
    That was pretty ironic, coming from him. Still, his accusation stung. But Holly was all that mattered. “You must be delusional. Why would I do something like that?”
    He shook his head and inhaled slowly, as if drawing on all his patience. “C’mon now, Angel Eyes. A jewel thief knows another jewel thief.”
    “Don’t you dare put us on the same level. And don’t call me Angel Eyes.” He