Fate's Edge

shouldn’t have done that,” Kaldar said.
    She gave him an innocent look.
    “You’ve made yourself into a challenge. Now I’ll have to seduce you out of principle.”
    “You can try. Not that you’ll get anywhere. If you were in love, that would be one thing, but we both know this is pride talking.” Audrey patted his forearm. “It’s all right. I won’t tell anybody about your shameful failure. I’ll keep it completely confidential.” She pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key.
    “I’ll remind you of this when you’re collapsing on my sheets, all happy and out of breath.” He leaned closer. “I’m picturing it in my head. Mmm, you look lovely.”
    “Whatever fantasies help you get through the day,” Audrey said.
    “So kind of you.”
    “I’m all about being charitable when it doesn’t cost me anything.”
    Charity? For me ?
    Before this was all over, either they would be lovers or they’d kill each other. Right now, he had no idea which it would be.

    AUDREY stared out the window. The car suffered from a desperate lack of space, especially when it came to the front. Specifically, the front seats. Specifically, Kaldar in the front seat, who was sitting entirely too close.
    And Kaldar was getting hotter by the minute. When they’d first met, he was handsome, then hot, and now he had moved into the irresistible category. When he’d leaned toward her and said her name in that bedroom voice, every nerve in her body came to attention. She actually got the shivers. If he’d leaned in and kissed her, she would’ve kissed him right back, then she would’ve slapped him again, just so he wouldn’t get any ideas. She liked looking at him. She liked the sound of his voice. She liked when he paid attention to her. They were in the Broken, which meant that Kaldar’s increasing hotness couldn’t be magic, and that left only one explanation: she was falling for him.
    Audrey glanced at him. He turned to her right when she looked and gave her his evil grin. Wow. She was in so much trouble. Audrey rolled her eyes and looked back through her window.
    If they were strapped for cash, they could just sit Kaldar on a street corner with an empty coffee can and a phone book to read. They’d make decent money until the cops chased them off because crowds of women were obstructing traffic. It wasn’t just his looks. Looks alone she could resist. It was the wicked glint in his eyes. He was a smart, sly bastard, quick on his feet and equipped with a silver tongue. He could run circles around the best professionals she knew.
    Audrey hid a sigh. Before her grandmother died, she had given Audrey only one piece of advice: never fall in love with a conman. Conmen couldn’t stop grifting. It was like a drug, an addiction, like her lock picking. And born con artists like Kaldar grifted for the hell of it. Everything was a game to them, and pretty soon the game became not just “can I take this poor sucker’s money” but “can I fool my wife into thinking I’m where I’m supposed to be.” Eventually the game would turn into “can I keep my ball and chain from knowing about all of my women on the side,” and you would end up with your heart crushed into dust. She’d seen her father do it, she’d seen Alex do it when he was still sober, and she’d seen other conmen do it. They lied, oh how they lied.
    Kaldar was too talented, too clever, and too full of pride not to play the game. She didn’t even know the real him. He showed her what he thought she wanted to see. And he would expect her to be okay with all of it because she knew the score from the start. All the girls in the business knew it. Marry a mobster, take collect calls from prison. Marry a gambler, hide your paycheck. Marry a conman, nurse a broken heart. You made your bed, and you had to lie in it.
    No, thank you. No matter how fast her pulse sped up when he played with her hair, she didn’t want that kind of heartache. Nor did she want to be somebody’s “ball and chain” or “old lady.” If a man thought she cramped his style that much, he could go and find himself someone else. She needed someone straightforward and dependable—but then those guys were boring. Audrey smiled to herself. There was always time to settle down to boring and dependable. Flirting with Kaldar was fun. She might even dip her toes into those waters, but she wouldn’t be taking a swim anytime soon. Unless, of course, she wrapped him around her finger