SeductiveTracks (15 page)

Kelly blinked in astonishment for a second before she
recovered herself.

“We?” she parroted. “Don’t you mean
I’m
going in
tonight?”

“Of course
we’re
going in.” Matthias winked at Liv
who, Kelly noticed, winked back at him and gave him a grin. “You’re the expert
at breaking and entering, and you’ve certainly managed to convince me that this
is an opportunity that can’t be missed. Besides, we’re a team now. That means
we
will be going in.”

“I’d suggest you wear the red dress, Kel,” Liv interjected
with studied innocence. Kelly pierced her with a killing stare.

“Red dress?” Matthias echoed with an attempt at innocence.

“I’ll need to pack my kit,” Kelly said, ignoring the byplay
between Matt and Liv. “And—”

“You can leave the backpack in the car,” Liv replied in her
no-nonsense tone. “The black beaded purse will be perfectly fine with the red
dress and it will hold your picks and your master key as well as the odds and
ends you’ll need to crack his safe and bypass the Remington.”

Kelly pressed her lips together for a moment and thought.
She’d had a different dress in mind, but to be honest there wasn’t a reason for
her not to wear the red one. She didn’t want to waste time arguing, so she gave
in as gracefully as possible.

“If I’m going to wear something that skimpy I’ll need a
change of clothes for when we’re done, then. That means the bigger backpack, so
yeah, it will all have to stay in the car.” She sighed and gave up the fight.
She knew Liv was right—it just pricked her ego a bit to admit it.

“I’m going to love this dress,” Matthias interjected,
“aren’t I?”

* * * * *

“I thought you said security was lax at parties like these?”
Matt whispered against her ear. Kelly brushed a straight tendril behind her ear
after his breath had moved it. Her cap of hair had been combed to frame her
face, but she was used to working with it tied back and out of her way.

“It is,” she said after a moment, not having wanted to break
her concentration as she picked the lock of the second-story window. “We
checked the security box. Only the external wall monitors are on and the
third-floor rooms are still on UV radars. Everything else is turned off.”

“So, remind me,” Matt said as his breathing became more
labored, “why am I holding you steady on a damn thin ledge while we break into
the second floor?”

The lock clicked and Kelly lifted the frame of the window
and froze, listening intently. Unlike normal at this stage in a heist, her
senses weren’t fully jacked-up. She had attempted that earlier while at the
main security box and had nearly been blinded by an overwhelming lust right
there where she stood. Matt’s nearness, his very presence beside her while her
senses were heightened had almost sent her over the edge.

She had come excruciatingly close to climax without him even
touching her.

Now she heightened her senses just enough to do what she
needed to do. She had no idea whether she would become used to Matt’s presence
near her or whether the strength of her feelings would fade with time, but for
right now she knew that unless she wanted a screaming orgasm in the middle of a
job, she wouldn’t be opening her senses to their fullest potential unless she
absolutely had to.

Matt remained silent while she listened to make certain they
had not been discovered and that no one else was in Merrick’s study. Even
though usually she would have waited a couple of minutes to be certain, Matt
was holding the majority of her weight on the ledge. Besides, with two of them
she didn’t want to press their luck.

“Okay,” she said after a full minute, “we’re going in this
way because we don’t have an invitation downstairs and the whole idea is for us
to get in, find what we’re after and get back out again with no one the wiser.
Climbing in the second-floor window is the perfect way to achieve these
objectives.”

Matt heaved a sigh as she crawled through the window and
held it open for him to follow. In his dark navy-blue suit and red tie, he
looked dashing enough to lick, she thought. The potent heat in his deep-blue
eyes also showed his appreciation for her red dress.

The purchase of the flirty little number had been all Liv’s
idea. They had seen it one afternoon in the store window and her friend had
insisted the dress had her name scrawled all over it. It had a jagged hemline
that flirted around her knees and a couple of discreet slits that showed her
legs to the upper thigh when she moved in certain ways.

The bodice molded her torso and cupped her breasts to
display them prominently. The slinky red material glittered in the light with a
million sequins and sexy little spaghetti straps crossed over her body to hold
the bodice in place and reveal a back so low that it dipped to her waist.

The dress oozed sex and sin and Kelly hadn’t been able to
work up the courage to wear it until tonight. When she had walked out with her
black beaded purse and two backpacks of gear, Matt had almost swallowed his
tongue as she turned in a coquettish little circle to flare the skirt of the
dress out and flash her thighs. He had growled low in his throat and wrapped
his hands around her waist, drawn her in and kissed the ever-loving hell out of
her.

As they had driven to his place to drop off her packs, then
to Merrick’s, his hands had toyed with her thighs and stroked her. It was no
wonder she was worked up enough that jacking open her senses had her
practically coming in her non-existent panties. Since she had forgone the lacy
scrap of underwear, she had pondered whether it was a good thing that Matt had
kept his hands on her thighs and not dared to venture any higher. She had a
feeling that, had he realized she wore nothing at all beneath the dress,
neither of them would have made it here to Merrick’s this evening.

Matt crawled through the window after her and checked that
the pane was wedged open for now. He sighed and flexed his arms and legs,
shaking them, presumably to get the small muscle cramps out of them. Tearing
her gaze away from him, she turned her back to him and looked around the study
to check everything was exactly as Liv had described it to her earlier. With a
careful breath, she opened her senses, then jacked them up.

She could feel Matt standing behind her. His essence called
out to her like the most tempting of invitations. It was as if he were sin,
chocolate and adrenaline, all molded into one six-foot-tall bundle of sweetness
just ready and begging to be pounced upon.

It took a concentrated effort of will, but she ignored the
way he beckoned to her without even knowing it. Instead she focused on the
atmosphere around them and tried to read and assess the energies and essences
around them instead.

Usually she could do this blindfolded, but with Matt
standing there as such a temptation it took her a moment to get her mind on
track and off how much she adored him. Finally, the smaller things came into
clear focus for her and she could get back on track. Music filled the air from
the party downstairs. Chatter and the noise of a dozen or more conversations
filtered into her consciousness.

There were no alarming tones or high-pitched voices
screaming or speaking about anything amiss. The buzz of the security system on
the air came from the floor above them, not here and not the more insistent
tone when an alarm had been tripped. She kept her senses focused for a minute more
to be certain she had not misread any of the signs or signals, then closed down
her senses to their lowest level.

She was still open to the room around her but she did not
have to exert much will anymore to keep herself under control. She took in once
again the masculine room around her and studied Mr. Merrick’s office.

“We haven’t disturbed anything,” she said. “No alarms, no
one saw anything, the party is completely unaware downstairs.”

As she turned around in a full circle on the spot, Kelly
glanced at Matt and found him staring at her. She paused and tilted her head.
“What?” she asked, uncertain of his look.

“You really are talented at this,” he complimented her. She
grinned and practically bounced in place.

“Oh yeah,” she replied. Her tone held no conceit, just the
assurance that what she said was nothing more than the truth. “And I love it.
Can’t you feel it? The thrill of being somewhere you’re not supposed to be?
Adrenaline pumping through your body to keep you on your toes and your senses
sharp? It’s the best high ever invented.”

Matt crossed over to where she stood and wrapped an arm
around her. Kelly opened her senses up a few more notches and could feel every
inch where their bodies touched. It was as if he were filled with electricity
and generating a huge, powerful storm within her. She shuddered a little at the
nearly overwhelming pleasure. Her pussy grew damp and her nipples tightened,
peaked beneath the slinky fabric of her sexy dress.

“You’re so hot,” he muttered and kissed her passionately.

Kelly moaned and gave herself over to the kiss, fire
exploding along her body as she did so. Her hands wove through the silky
softness of Matt’s hair and she tugged his face even closer until she could eat
at his mouth. A part of her wanted to devour him whole, consume him and be
consumed in return. Their tongues tangled together, parrying and thrusting
against one another in a wet mimicry of sex. Kelly pressed her body against the
full length of Matt’s and they ground together until Matt pulled away a few
inches, seeming to struggle for breath.

“Circe be merciful,” he whispered. “Now I really do
understand. It’s like going on a mission but wicked and forbidden, just like
you said.”

Kelly panted and nodded her head, also finding it difficult
to get some air into her lungs.

“You should try jacking your senses up. If anything close to
what I felt happens to you…well, let’s just say I hope you can keep it in your
pants,” she teased. Matt cocked an eyebrow at her but as understanding dawned
he grinned.

“I definitely think we should save that for later—right now
we have a job to do,” he answered with a hint of regret. Kelly swallowed hard
and let her eyes flutter shut. For the first time since she had left her
previous heist she closed out everything else.

Kelly pushed everything that had occurred in the last couple
of days out of her mind. Part of her regretted having to shove her acute
awareness of Matt away into a corner of her brain and instead bring forth her
professional persona, but she realized it was necessary at such a critical time
as this.

Like a favorite pair of old jeans or a well-worn winter
sweater, Kelly’s magical talent leaped to the forefront of her mind and she
became one with the night.

Heightening her senses once again though not blowing herself
fully open just yet, she looked around the small office area and saw the
difference in the thick carpet over in a corner near the desk.

“Here.” She indicated it to Matt. “See how the carpet has
been cut and re-laid? It’s the same piece of carpet, so it’s nearly impossible
to see, but the weave has broken up around a square here.”

Matt whistled, clearly impressed by her catching it. “It’d
have taken me a while to spot that,” he complimented her, and Kelly nodded, her
mind occupied. Falling to her knees on the floor she scouted the area for traps
or wires, then ducking her head level with the floor itself she checked for any
sensors or other methods of security that might be concealed.

“I think we’re all right,” Kelly said as she dug a finger
under one corner of the carpet and lifted it a few inches so she could check
underneath. When she felt confident she would not trip anything, she tore the
entire section away from the floor and revealed the small safe beneath.

Kelly focused so she could hear the pattern of Matt’s
breathing behind her, the sounds of the party downstairs in the background but
still clear to her heightened senses. Kelly placed her ear over the locking
mechanism and listened as she spun the dial, the clicks like a secret language
to her. One she was determined to translate and crack.

Pulling a shortened lead pencil from her purse, she took
note of the numbers where the tumblers fitted and within a few minutes got the
sequence and had unlocked the safe. Shaking her hair out of her face, Kelly beamed
with pride as she glanced at the time.

“Not my best, but pretty good considering the distraction,”
she said as she cast a heated glance over her shoulder at Matt. He appeared
floored by her work and blew her a cheeky kiss.

“You make it look so easy, love,” he commented.

She shrugged. “It is easy,” she replied. “I’ve cracked
similar safes probably over a hundred times now. Like any puzzle, once you know
how to do it, as long as you keep in practice, it’s not especially difficult.”

Kelly opened the floor safe and rifled through it with
discreet but eager greed. Piles and piles of money were stacked, filling the
entirety of the safe. Right at the very back were a number of pieces of paper
in plastic folders. Deeds to the house, certificates and a pile of bearer
bonds.

Wrinkling her nose in abject disappointment, Kelly sat back
on her heels.

“There’s nothing but money and papers,” she complained. “No
drugs and no jewels, no special valuables at all.” Kelly had to swallow a
chuckle as Matt looked at her as if she were insane.

“There’d be over a hundred thousand dollars in bills here, a
couple of thousand in your hand and lap alone,” he commented.

She shrugged. “It’s just money,” she answered. “It’s not
pretty or sparkly—it’s just green paper. Doesn’t give me much of a thrill.”

“Piles of neatly bound hundred-dollar bills don’t give the
master thief a thrill,” he repeated as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just
said. “Some criminal you are.”