Page 57 of Chasing Caine
“Quite the talk.” The buzz from the alcohol was wearing off, but the buzz from him would likely continue a long time. A very long time. “Can I have my underwear back now?”
As he washed his hands and the lower half of his face, he said, “No. I think I’ll keep them.”
“Then I’m not dancing with you for the rest of the evening.”
He patted his face dry with a small towel, eyes on me in the mirror. “Oh, I think you will, Ms. Caine.”
I folded my arms and narrowed my eyes at him.
He leaned a hip on the counter and looked at me straight on. Folded his arms right back at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, okay, fine.”
He held my waist as I hopped down.
Pounding on the door again.
“What do we do now? They’ll know what we—”
He waved the dismissive hand. “Anyone who saw us on the dance floor would assume we’re sleeping together. So what if we did it here?”
“Not much sleeping going on.”
“This embarrasses you, sì?” He unfolded my arms and wrapped them around him.
I couldn’t meet his eyes. ‘Embarrassed’ was an understatement.
“I’ll make you a deal. You walk out with your head held high and I’ll stop being the stubborn and selfish boyfriend. We’ll go back to Pompeii tomorrow and dig for information.” He leaned his chest far enough away from mine to extend his hand in the tiny space for me to shake. “Partners.”
First, I won the battle of seduction. Then he conceded about Pompeii. What was going on?
Looking up at him, at his smirk, his bedroom eyes, I melted a little. And shook his hand. We did make a good team, just like Elliot had said. “It would appear you know my weakness, Dr. Ferraro.”
Chapter 20
Antonio
Saturdaymorning,thecrowdswere thick in Pompeii. A glorious late summer day, tour groups followed their guides, families and couples consulted maps, while others simply wandered about the ruins. Samantha and I dodged between them, at her brisk pace, toward Casa di Marte. It was a surprise she was up so early and with such energy, given our late and intoxicating evening the night before. It just went to show how strongly she felt about this.
I couldn’t shake the feeling Cristian was involved somehow. He knew exactly the piece to prevent my team from starting work, which meant the Casa would be empty and prime for theft. What if convincing me to visit was not his goal with the delay? What if he was merely attempting to keep the site unoccupied?
If I was right, perhaps the flowers were not the only target. He suggested the equipment would be returned Monday, so today would be the last day he might try to take something from the walls. Surely he wouldn’t get his hands dirty. There would be at least one other person involved. Not the thugs with him, though. Someone who knew what they were doing, who knew how to liberate an ancient fresco from the wall without destroying it.
It was a leap. One I didn’t want to take, but I’d made it before I’d said goodbye to him last night at the club. I was now preoccupied with tracking the stolen flowers, yet terrified what I would find. The offer to return to the site was about Samantha, but part of me wanted to know as well.
“What are you thinking?” Samantha was back to her shorts and T-shirt. She was not the security consultant in her pretty blouse and pants, nor the girlfriend. Today, she was the investigator, and the excitement radiated off her.
Resisting her search for the stolen fresco was a selfish desire to have her all to myself. But this lively creature was the one I’d fallen for. The one who was passionate about matters of import, who saw a need to put things right in the world.
Her steps were more like bounds. “Double-check the Casa? See if anything else is missing? Inspect the cut marks? See what type of tool was used? Not interviews today, though.”
“I don’t know, bella. This is apparently your specialty, not mine.”
She wore her visitor’s badge and carried a backpack I had approved by security. Measuring tape, notepads, plastic bags, tweezers, and Mario’s camera with a few lenses and a tripod. Samantha had planned it all, gathering items like a child in a candy store from about the villa. And she refused to let me carry the pack.
“We’ll start with photographs, especially of the cut marks on the wall, to help identify what they used to remove it. Measure the missing area. Do a tracing of the shape. It may be far-fetched, but we can always check for things like hair samples or… Bianca narrowed it down to last Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, right?”
“Sì, she did.”