Sweet Revenge

when Philip followed her into her suite.
    “Incredible, simply incredible.” She dropped into a chair, sprawled out, relaxed, her face glowing. This was a side of her Philip hadn’t seen. After toeing off her shoes, she smiled at him. “It was so incredible that I’m almost not mad at you anymore.”
    “Well then, I can sleep tonight.”
    “Are you always cranky after a job?”
    What he was, was wired. It had been a mistake to let her lead the way out of the ducts. He’d had to crawl along, tantalized and teased by the view of her pretty, tightly clad bottom. Unable to sit, he paced to the window and back.
    “I missed dinner waiting for you to move.”
    “Aw.” There was little sympathy in the sound. “No room service at this hour, I’m afraid. I do have a chocolate bar.”
    “Hand it over.”
    Because she was feeling too good to be ungracious, Adrianne routed it out from the depths of one of her bags, then tossed it to him. “There’s some wine left.”
    Philip ripped at the wrapper of the plain, inadequately thin Hershey bar. “No almonds.”
    “I don’t care for nuts.”
    “You proved that when you slammed your foot between the legs of your friend this evening.”
    “Crude.” She poured wine into two glasses and took one to him. “I suppose I shouldn’t really be angry. I do still have the money.”
    He took her wrist before she could go back to her seat. “Is the money so important?”
    She thought of the abuse center she’d earmarked. “Yes, it is.”
    He let her go to resume his pacing. “What do you get out of this, Addy? Does he toss you a few thousand now and again? Are you indebted to him, in love with him? Either the debt or the love must go a long way, because as far as I’ve been able to see, he takes none of the risks and you put yourself on the line over and over again.”
    She sipped the warm wine as she watched Philip move around the room. Like a panther, she thought. Restlessly pacing off the length and breadth of his cage. “Who,” she asked slowly, “is he?”
    “You tell me.” He whirled back to her. Neither of them had realized how close both his patience and control had been to snapping. Jealousy, bare and ugly, was too easy to recognize in himself. And he’d be damned if he waited another hour to learn whom he was jealous of. “I want to know who he is, why you fell in with him, why you help him steal.”
    She watched him intently as he found his cigarettes and pulled one out before he tossed the pack on a table, then said softly, “I don’t help anyone steal.”
    “I’ve had enough games for one evening.”
    “I told you before, I do what I do of my own choice.”
    “You also told me you do it because of a man.”
    “Yes, but not in the way you seem to think. There is no man blackmailing me, paying me, or sleeping with me.” She sat again, lounging back. “I work alone, for myself. I have no partner and no debt to pay.”
    Slowly, he blew out smoke. He seemed to shrug impatience off like an annoying hand on his shoulder. In its place came interest and intensity. “Are you trying to make me believe that you and you alone are responsible for the theft of millions of pounds in gems over the last nine to ten years?”
    “I’m not trying to make you believe anything. You asked for the truth, and I decided to give it to you.” She frowned consideringly into her wine. “It doesn’t really matter, you see, because you’ve no evidence you can take in. Your superiors would think you were crazy, and in any case, I had already decided that this particular job was the last in this phase of my career.”
    “That’s ridiculous. You’d have been a child when this began.”
    “Sixteen when I started. Very green,” she continued when he stared at her. “But a fast learner.”
    “Why did you start?”
    The faint smile disappeared, and she set her wine aside so that the glass clicked against the table. “That’s none of your business.”
    “We’re past that, Adrianne.”
    “That’s my private life.”
    “You don’t have one any longer that doesn’t include me.”
    “A very large assumption, Philip.” She rose, looking across at him. She could, when necessary, be as royal as her title. “Not that it hasn’t been an entertaining evening, but I really must say good night. I’m exhausted.”
    “Sleep late tomorrow; we haven’t finished.” He glanced at his watch. “I need to make a call before we go on. I have a friend in Paris who can make