Strange Tango

by Michelle Dayton

  Strange Tango

  By Michelle Dayton

  Diamonds are a thief’s best friend

  Adam Patrick Henry, professional jewel thief, knows an amateur—and a cheap wig—when he sees one. The mysterious woman across the room is far from a pro, but her good instincts might come in handy on his next job. He could use a partner, and if that partner happens to be irresistible, all the better.

  Jessica Hughes has a long way to climb—and a whole lot to prove—before she’s back where she belongs. A cruel setup cost Jessica her job and her reputation, and she’s not opposed to a disguise and some underhanded tactics if it means getting her life back. But she’s no thief, not really, and teaming up with a gorgeous stranger who’s clearly up to no good might prove more dangerous than it’s worth.

  Working a job this big could give Adam and Jessica everything they’ve ever wanted—if their rocky partnership lasts long enough to carry it off.

  This book is approximately 37,000 words

  Carina Press acknowledges the editorial services of Lauren Plude Editorial Services, LLC

  Dear Reader,

  I love the summer. I hoard most of my vacation for the summer months because I live near the ocean, so I like to spend my time at the beach, Jet Skiing, drinking frozen tropical drinks and, of course, reading. I always try to stockpile books I’m looking forward to for these lazy days. If you’re like me and you want to always make sure you have something great to read on vacation, I have some books you’ll want to check out!

  Rhenna Morgan is back with her badass good guys of the Haven Brotherhood in Claim & Protect. Natalie’s only interest is in making a fresh start. She’s a woman with a plan and the plan doesn’t include a man with secrets, no matter how sexy he is. Trevor had no interest in settling down, but there’s something entirely too appealing about this woman he can’t stay away from. There’s only one thing to do—change his plans...and hers. Jump into this series now, or go back and read Rough & Tumble and Wild & Sweet—you’re going to want to read them all once you read one!

  Readers loved male/male romance Off Base by Annabeth Albert, and now she’s got a new book in the Out of Uniform series. After a mission strands them in the jungle, two best friends and fellow SEALs must confront their long-buried passion for each other and decide if they have something worth fighting for back home. Buy On Point today.

  Julie Hall is an unintentional corpse magnet who can find the dead. Three girls are still missing. The killer is still out there. And when the killer turns his sights toward her, even her growing relationship with the protective Agent Garrett may not be enough to save her. If you’re a mystery fan, you need to read A Grave Calling from Wendy Roberts, a book that made our entire acquisitions team say “I love it!”

  Everyone gets a happy ending as Jade A. Waters brings her erotic romance trilogy to a sexy conclusion, following The Assignment and The Discipline. In The Reward, Maya Clery and Dean Sova’s passionate exploration has gotten as hot as their love has grown deep. But once they move in together, their dynamic is tested with dangerous connections to the distant past in a story of desire, empowerment and the strength only found in a lover’s arms.

  Easygoing mechanic Bryan doesn’t believe in soul mates, much less dragons, but he’s confronted with both when rescue diver Deke comes into his life. When Deke shifts for him, Bryan decides he must be dead. After all, that’s much easier to believe than the truth. Let yourself be Seduced by the Tide along with Bryan and Deke in Sean Michael’s latest male/male erotic paranormal romance.

  Speaking of erotic, have you picked up one of Brianna Hale’s naughty novellas yet? In her newest, Princess Brat, tantrums, tricks and insults won’t get Adrienne’s bodyguard off her back, and she’s about to find out what happens to bratty little girls who provoke a Dom—they get put over daddy’s knee. Looking for another novella to spice up your life? Little Dancer, Brianna’s debut erotic romance, will heat things up.

  Kerry Adrienne returns to the world of the Shifter Wars with Taming the Lion. The battle between the lions and bears decimates Deep Creek, and one of the heirs to the lions’ throne is saved from death by a beautiful bear medic who’s torn between her allegiance to her den and her attraction and obligation to the wounded lion. Want to start at the beginning? Pick up Waking the Bear, available now.

  Here at Carina Press, we love a good heist or caper romance, so we decided to publish Caught in the Act: A Jewel Heist Romance Anthology, containing three charming and seductive heist novellas. In “Hoodwinked Hearts” by Ainslie Paton, two thieves collide in a high-stakes dirty double cross that would be strictly business...except Cleve Jones and Aria Harp were childhood sweethearts before betrayal broke them. Can they steal each other’s hearts again?

  The one thing reluctant debutante Anastasia Staffordshire wants most in the world is the diamond that bears her family’s name. Standing in her way is sexy head of security and lifelong crush Jake Hoffman. Her plans to seduce the diamond out from under him never included his dominant personality or her feelings getting in the way. “Rough Edges” by Emma Sinclair will capture your imagination.

  And professional jewel thief Adam Patrick Henry and disgraced technology genius Jessica Hughes team up—temporarily—to foil a diamond-smuggling plot, but their sizzling attraction might be even more dangerous than the heist in “Strange Tango” by Michelle Dayton. Check out all three of these fun novellas in June.

  Pick up one of our June releases—or check out our extensive backlist for a new favorite to fall in love with this summer.

  As always, until next month, my fellow book lovers, here’s wishing you a wonderful month of books you love, remember and recommend.

  Happy reading!

  Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  Dedication

  For my family, who never minded my extreme fondness for nonsense...

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  He noticed her legs first and the wig second.

  Playing his part, Adam had wandered into the elegant ballroom, tuxedo-clad and with a champagne flute in hand. Tickets to the Ignatius University annual ball cost a pretty penny, but at least part of the proceeds would go to charity. He’d scanned the room with lazy eyes, identifying his quarry at a table in the northeast corner of the room almost immediately.

  Then he spotted the blonde.

  She stood facing the arched windows that overlooked the lights of Michigan Avenue, wearing a sleeveless gown made entirely of white sequins. A gown so short that its hem rested only about two inches south of her rear. Her limbs were golden, like she’d just returned from a month in the Caribbean. An active month, if the long, lean muscles on her arms and legs were any indication.

  Probably a rich socialite who spent her days playing tennis, he decided, already bored. She might have had the best pins he’d ever seen, but he had only one use for self-involved members of the one percent, and he had a different target tonight.

  He’d been about to turn away whe
n she swiveled to face the ballroom and he noticed her hair. It was blown out in smooth butter-colored waves that framed her face and had wispy ends that curled just under her breasts. Long, sleek bangs brushed the tops of her thick black eyelashes. He recognized the manufactured perfection instantly—he’d bought the exact same wig for an accomplice in a New Orleans job last year.

  It had been a great wig for his accomplice. The color was so yellow, and the bangs and length were so striking that witnesses had very little to remember about her except that she had “long, blond hair.” Which, of course, was the entire point.

  But this particular wig made no sense for the woman in white sequins. Plenty of rich people wore wigs. Even money couldn’t prevent thinning hair or baldness. But a rich socialite wearing a $5,000 Armani dress wouldn’t wear a cheap wig made of synthetic hair. A rich woman would splurge on one made of actual human hair.

  In another setting, he might have offered to get her a drink. Adam liked the challenge of figuring out anomalies. But tonight, he needed to work.

  Adam refocused on tonight’s goal: surveillance of Maurice Knoll. True, there wasn’t much he didn’t know about the man already. Along with his cache of childhood memories, he’d spent years tracking the man. He’d followed Knoll’s rise to prominence as the owner of transportation companies. Knew he’d sold the last one, a competitor to Uber, a year ago. He’d also paid handsomely for Knoll’s personal and business financial records, in search of more than what could be found on Google. Which confirmed some of his suspicions about the man’s recent activities.

  He still had one open question, however, and that’s what he was hoping to answer tonight. The banquet dinner was about to be served, so he ambled over to the round table next to Knoll’s. He wasn’t worried about Knoll recognizing him; the man had always been too self-involved to look at other people very closely. Besides, it had been almost a decade since they’d actually been in the same room together, and Adam had been little more than a teenager then. Snagging a seat within hearing distance, he settled in for a couple hours of listening. Not the most exciting part of his chosen profession, but absolutely critical to its success.

  Knoll had been quite handsome as a younger man, Adam recalled. But in his mid-fifties now, his face and physique were starting to reflect decades of red meat and booze. Still, he didn’t lack for admirers. Adam watched in amusement as a parade of Botox’d women stopped by Knoll’s table to congratulate him on his recent appointment to the school’s Board of Trustees.

  Clearly, the women were aware of Knoll’s recent divorce. But they were probably not aware of how much that divorce cost him. Or the extreme lengths he was willing to go to recoup his fortune.

  As the waiters carried out plates of salmon and pork tenderloin, Adam automatically filed away his observations: the make and model of Knoll’s phone, as well as how many times the man looked at it in the space of an hour; his approximate height and weight; the brand of his tux, shoes, and watch.

  As with all his potential targets, he watched Knoll’s interactions with other people. To his fellow Board members, he was attentive and thoughtful, speaking in a deep, authoritative tone. To the women who stopped by to flatter him, he was complimentary. At least until they walked away. At that point, he tended to make crude comments about their looks or bank accounts to a crony sitting next to him. And to the wait staff, he was downright rude. He berated a teenage waitress for the quality of the wine and backed his chair into a busboy without apologizing.

  Adam took note of it all while making light conversation with the other men and women seated at his table. The woman to his left, a busty brunette in a purple lace gown, batted her eyelashes harder at him with every sip of her Chardonnay. But he was able to handle her less-than-witty repartee with bland responses and smiles.

  By the end of dinner, Adam’s memory of Knoll had been confirmed. Maurice Knoll was still an asshole. Good. Knoll had cemented his fate with Adam years before; he was going to lose and lose big. Because he liked to stick to the few rules he lived by, Adam was glad that Knoll hadn’t reformed in some way, glad that he was still the same bully and prick he remembered from childhood. Adam had few virtues, but he truly preferred to steal from assholes. He couldn’t wait to liberate Knoll of his impending diamond shipment.

  As the staff cleared the dessert plates, many diners migrated to the dance floor where a ten-piece orchestra played “As Time Goes By.” Knoll and a couple of other Board members clustered in a corner of the room discussing University business. He hadn’t answered his question, but he wouldn’t be able to learn anything more tonight. Time to go home.

  “Would you like to dance?” The well-endowed woman in the purple dress hiccupped and looked up at him with bleary eyes.

  “Oh.” He looked at the crowded dance floor, intending to make an excuse to get the hell out of there.

  But then he saw the blonde in the white sequins dancing. The flawless legs, the inexplicable wig. He just couldn’t stop the flare of interest. Or the desire to get a closer look at her face.

  He grinned down at the brunette. “Why not?”

  * * *

  Jessica Hughes couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so physically uncomfortable. The wig from hell was so itchy her eyes were watering with the effort not to scratch her head. The sequins from the stupid dress were poking her in the armpit like tiny little daggers. None of the reviews on Rent the Runway had mentioned that fun detail. The sexy pink pumps that RTR recommended as an accompaniment to the dress looked great, but they also pinched her toes and heels. She was going to have feet full of blisters tomorrow.

  And maintaining a British accent was a lot more difficult than she expected.

  Luckily, the idiot she was dancing with had quite a bit to drink with dinner and didn’t seem to notice how she kept repeating words like “brilliant” and “fancy” and “fortnight” in their conversation.

  Now if only she could distract him enough to get his keycard out of his pocket.

  She glanced over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. In five minutes the speeches would begin and he would be up on the stage for a half hour. That was her window. Unfortunately, she was running out of ideas on how to pull the keycard out of his front pocket without getting grabby. Uck.

  He picked just that moment to run his sweaty hands down her mostly bare back and pat her on the bottom. She was lucky that her face was over his shoulder so he couldn’t see her suppress a gag. Luckily, she recovered quickly and gave an approving squeak. So gross. I just let Jerome Taft touch my ass.

  Oh, how the mighty had fallen. Six months ago she’d been a star. The youngest VP in the history of the University. The boss of Jerome’s entire department. Thank goodness they’d never actually met in person. The University had three campuses across Chicagoland and he’d worked at the suburban campus. While she’d been VP, his reputation had been less than stellar. She remembered that in last year’s performance review, his manager had labeled him “eager for advancement but unwilling to put in the hard work required.” In other words, he liked to complain about his lack of authority while he sat around playing on the Internet all day. Exactly the opposite kind of employee she wanted in her department.

  And now she was dressed like a pricey call girl and letting him grope her. She felt like crying. Or slapping him in the face.

  Pull it together, Jess. Focus on the goal. He’s a necessary evil for tonight.

  She glanced around the dance floor to make sure that no other members of her old department had decided to dance. For those who didn’t know her well, she was confident that her disguise was good. Tonight she didn’t look anything like Ignatius University’s disgraced former Vice President of Technology. The one who’d been led out of the building by security officers last October.

  No, tonight she was a skinny, tan, tarty, blonde Brit. But there were a few people in the ballroo
m who had known her for years. If one of them got a good look at her face...well, that could be trouble. She’d been vigilant and hyper-aware for hours, spending most of the night with her back to the room. Waiting patiently for Jerome to be alone before she approached. Don’t let down your guard. Some of the IT crowd is still here.

  Luckily, the dance floor was still safe. It was crowded with couples, but no one she recognized. The band finished “As Time Goes By” and transitioned to “At Last.” She sighed. She loved that stupid, sappy song. Trying to distract herself from Jerome’s hands and the ticking clock, she closed her eyes and counted backward from ten.

  When she opened her eyes, a tall man with brown hair was staring right at her.

  About five feet away, he danced with a brunette in a purple dress. For a moment, his open stare convinced her that she’d been recognized. Her pulse raced, and she started to sweat. But, no. After meeting his eyes for ten seconds, she knew she’d never met him before. Because, good God, she would have remembered this one. Wow. He was about 6’3” with broad shoulders and wavy hair. His eyes were a vivid bright blue.

  The brunette said something to him, and he broke eye contact with Jess to look down at her. Jess kept on staring. She’d been looking for a distraction and this potent combo of Tom Hiddleston and Gerard Butler had given her just that. Men dancing in tuxedos didn’t usually look so...masculine.

  He looked back up at her and their eyes locked again as the female singer of the band crooned the lyrics to “At Last.” Inwardly, Jess snorted. Probably every woman in the room looked at that guy and heard Etta James singing “At Last.”

  Jerome gave her butt such a hard squeeze that she swallowed a yelp. She forced herself to look away from Mr. At Last.

  Get your head back in the game.

  Christ, now she was channeling her father. Regardless of the situation, his encouragement was always provided in the language of sports. But her head did need to get back in this game. She was running out of time to get that damn keycard. Pulling away from Jerome, she gave him a sassy little wink before twirling in front of him. Ending her spin, she looked down at his front right pocket, elated to see the white edge of his keycard poking out.