Heart of a Thief (Silhouette Romantic Suspense #1514)

The blonde sauntered into view on the security monitor, looking like every erotic dream he'd ever had--sultry, seductive, sin-on-heels sensuous. Luke Moreno's pulse hitched, and a wild laugh rose in his throat. Oh, yeah. This woman was his fantasy, all right. His Delilah. His Mata Hari. His Eve in the Garden of Eden.Too bad she was just as corrupt.He watched, riveted, as she approached the glass display case cordoned off with velvet ropes. She played the elegant guest role to perfection, bending close to admire the primeval amber, the meticulously hammered gold. As if she'd never seen the ancient necklace before. As if she hadn't come here to steal it. As if she weren't setting him up to take the blame--again.Damn her conniving soul."Who let her in here?" he demanded, still not pulling his eyes from the screen."Who?" Luke's partner in his security business, Antonio Flores, leaned across the crowded console toward the monitor."La americana. Sofia Mikhelson."His partner raised one stocky arm, reached for the laptop nearby and tapped the keyboard to scroll down the names. "Mikhelson. Sofia. She's on the list. Part of the antiquities crowd.""She wasn't on the list last night.""We added a new batch this morning." Antonio leaned back in his chair and lifted his hands, palms out. "You know how it's been. We've had experts calling from all over the world. It's been a nightmare trying to vet them all."Luke grunted. He couldn't argue that. It wasn't often a thousand-year-old necklace surfaced in a Spanish bank vault--especially this necklace. The Gypsy's Revenge, coveted for centuries, shrouded in legends, haunted by an ancient curse--a curse that condemned any non-Gypsy who touched it to die. An artifact so elusive, so priceless, so powerful that few experts even believed it existed until now.But the necklace was real, all right, and sitting in that case--a dazzling gold collar inscribed with ancient symbols, inlaid with multi-hued amber, adorned with miniature bells. And its discovery had ignited a firestorm of controversy--former Nazi war loot, Swiss banking connections--an international scandal ready to explode. Now every antiquities expert on the planet had converged on the palace outside of Madrid demanding a close-up look.But this woman hadn't come here to admire the necklace. His gaze hardened on the lush curves sheathed in the black satin gown, the gleam of her naked back, that slow, smoldering smile that still incinerated his nerves like lightning scorching parched earth.No, she hadn't come here to view the necklace. Sofia Mikhelson was as deceptive as the forgeries she made. Exquisite, enthralling, alluring--but fake.Anger whipped through his gut."The ceremony's about to start," he told Antonio, the raw heat making his voice clipped. "I'm going to check out the crowd. Keep your eye on that necklace."A tense buzz rising in his ears at the thought of Sofia, he stalked from the brightly lit office and headed down the carpeted hallway past dark, massive portraits of centuries' worth of Spanish nobility as cameras winked from silk-lined walls.It had taken him five years to salvage his reputation. Five years battling suspicions and accusations, fighting the arrogance of power, the tyranny of wealth.And now he had everything riding on this ceremony--his career as a security expert, his honor, his pride. This was his one chance to finally redeem himself, to prove himself to the world.The muscles along his jaw bunched while resentment seared in his chest. He'd played the fool once with that woman. It had ended with his illusions shattered and his reputation destroyed. No way would he do it again.No matter what she had planned.He strode into the throne room, paused, then skipped his gaze across the crowd shimmering beneath the chandeliers, their tumult of languages muted by the thick Belgian rugsBarrett, Gail is the author of 'Heart of a Thief (Silhouette Romantic Suspense #1514)', published 2008 under ISBN 9780373275847 and ISBN 0373275846.