Laura And The Lawman. Shelley Cooper
Читать онлайн книгу.
in the fluttering-of-the-female-heart department.
In addition to his good looks, he possessed a charisma that had the crowd eating out of his hand. He was the perfect auctioneer. What galled Laura was that, against her will, she found herself wanting to eat out of his hand, too.
Dismay filled her, and her heart thudded unevenly. Before her face could betray her thoughts, she returned her gaze to the cup in her hands.
It wasn’t just that everyone in the room believed she belonged to Joseph, although that was a major consideration. What was even more important was that she knew who Michael Corsi was and who he wasn’t. And who he wasn’t was one of the good guys.
To be attracted to any man seemed a betrayal of both her husband and her son. To be attracted to Michael Corsi was ten times worse. He wasn’t fit to shine the shoes Jacob had worn, which still lined the floor of her closet in her home back in Queens, let alone to try and take his place.
When she’d learned Michael Corsi would be working for Joseph, she’d had her contact officer investigate him. The information he’d relayed back to her had been extremely interesting. Michael Corsi had done time for dealing drugs. Was his acting as an auctioneer just a front for his real job, which was helping Joseph in his drug operations?
She didn’t know. Not yet, anyway. But she intended to find out.
This time, when her gaze traveled to him, she felt nothing but disdain. The past six weeks spent trying to win Joseph Merrill’s confidence had been more stressful than she’d expected. She was exhausted. As a result she’d misread simple appreciation for a handsome, albeit amoral, man as attraction. It was nothing, she told herself. Just another lapse proving how badly she needed a vacation.
Yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t forget the moment she had first gazed into his eyes. For a slice out of time she’d forgotten where she was. She’d even forgotten who she was.
It wasn’t Ruby who had returned his piercing regard, but Laura. Laura, who had let her guard down and allowed the emotions of the past four years to shine in her eyes plainly for him to see. For surely he would understand.
When she’d realized her folly, she’d done what she could to repair the damage. She’d banished Laura and had Ruby smile her empty, flirtatious smile at him. She hoped he didn’t puzzle too long over the seeming contradiction.
“Ruby?” Joseph said, sounding far away. “Ruby, did you hear me? I asked you a question.”
“What?” She blinked and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m a little preoccupied.”
“I was wondering what you thought of my newest employee.” There was a trace of impatience in his voice, and Laura knew she’d made a mistake by letting Michael Corsi unnerve her to the point where she’d forgotten the role she was playing.
She pretended to assess Joseph’s new auctioneer the way she would a painting she was trying to value. “The crowd is involved, and he’s moving things along at a good pace,” she said carefully. “He’s also getting top dollar for almost every item. Overall, I’d say he’s doing an excellent job. I think he’ll be a good addition to the team.”
“He will, won’t he?” Joseph murmured.
“You seem surprised,” Laura said.
“Just intrigued.”
“About what?”
It was Joseph’s turn to seem distracted as he dropped his arms from around her shoulders and straightened to his full height.
“About whether Michael Corsi just might turn out to be far more valuable to me than he ever anticipated,” he murmured.
Laura wondered what he meant, but didn’t dare ask. Only six weeks had passed since she’d finagled their meeting and talked her way into the job as his art appraiser. She didn’t want to appear overly interested in his personal business, didn’t want to arouse his suspicions that she was anything more than a woman who did her job well. A woman who preened under male attention and who always kowtowed to a man’s acknowledged superiority. Joseph’s acknowledged superiority.
If the rumors were true, and she believed they were, Joseph was one of the biggest drug distributors in the eastern United States. He hadn’t acquired that status by trusting blindly. As Laura kept reminding her contact officer when she reported in to him, this was nothing like making a buy from a street dealer. If the department was serious about taking out the big guys, then they had to be willing to put in the necessary time.
She would have to earn Joseph’s trust. She’d made great strides in that arena, but he had yet to invite her into his inner circle. Laura had every expectation that the invitation was looming ever closer on the horizon. She just had to bide her time and play her part.
In the meantime every penny Joseph paid her, minus applicable expenses, was going straight into police coffers. They weren’t losing money on this deal. When it all ended, hopefully many lives would also be saved.
“When I asked what you thought of him,” Joseph said, “I wasn’t talking about his performance on the podium. I want to know what you think of Michael Corsi as a man. Do you find him attractive?”
Laura stilled. At the time she’d started the job, she’d been prepared to have Joseph direct his attentions her way. In fact, that had been essential if she was to earn his confidence. What she hadn’t been prepared for was the revelation that he was gay, that he wanted her to pose as his lover, and that he was willing to pay her a generous stipend, in addition to her regular salary, for her to do so.
His standing in the community was important to him, he’d told her. He didn’t want it jeopardized, and he was apprehensive about what might happen if the truth of his sexual orientation were to become common knowledge. If she took the job, he wouldn’t expect her to live a celibate lifestyle. She was free to take a lover, so long as she exercised extreme discretion.
Since his request had meant she would be working even more closely with him, and that he was growing to trust her, Laura had readily agreed. Was he toying with her now? she wondered. Testing her loyalty? At times Joseph Merrill was an extremely difficult man to read.
“Is he gay?” she asked.
Joseph leaned over her again. “Checking to see if I’m staking a claim?” he whispered into her ear.
“You are my boss,” she replied lightly. “I wouldn’t want to overstep my bounds. You pay me too well.”
Joseph chuckled his appreciation. “I do like a woman who knows on which side her bread is buttered. Alas, he’s not gay, more’s the pity. So, what do you think?”
Laura gazed at Michael Corsi and felt a flutter in her midsection. There it was again, that unwelcome awareness of him as a man. A starburst of anticipation radiated outward, leaving a tingling sensation in its wake. She fought it back, searching instead to retrieve her earlier feelings of disdain.
“He is a handsome devil, isn’t he?” she said, knowing Joseph would expect Ruby to make such a remark.
“Adorable,” Joseph replied. “Too bad they buried your heart with your fiancé.”
Rule number one of undercover work was to come up with a good cover story. Before she had known he was gay, she’d wanted Joseph to be attracted to her. But she hadn’t wanted their relationship to become intimate. To prevent that eventuality, while hopefully keeping his interest in her heightened, she had concocted the story that Ruby O’Toole’s fiancé had been killed in a car accident on the eve of their wedding. The loss was still too fresh, too painful for her to enter into a new relationship.
“Yeah,” she agreed, sighing theatrically. “Too bad.”
“Yet you still dress and act provocatively around men. You still flirt outrageously with them.” There was a speculative gleam in Joseph’s eyes that she didn’t like and needed to put to rest. Immediately.
“That’s