Free Bad Boy of New Orleans by Mallory Rush Page A

expression
     on his face. Her own face colored immediately.
    "I... I—" She felt foolish, caught like that.
    "Yes?"
    He raised a brow, throwing her balance off even more as he reached for the roller
     lying beside her. He leaned down close so that his arm brushed against her bare legs.
     Despite the shorts she wore, Micah felt next to naked from the contact.
    "I was just wondering about Europe."
    "What do you want to know?"
    Oh, nothing, she wanted to say. Just things like, who were you sleeping with there,
     what kind of life were you leading while I waited for you to come back?
    He stood upright again, brushing her leg once more as he did. He handed Micah the
     roller and motioned for her to do the honors. She tried to ignore the prickle of gooseflesh,
     and stepped onto the stool that put them at eye level, then began to roll the air
     bubbles out.
    "When were you there?" So much for the questions she really wanted to ask.
    "About two years after I left New Orleans."
    "For how long?"
    "Long enough." He pried up an edge of the paper and smoothed it out. "Go over that
     again."
    "How long is long enough?"
    "You don't give up easy, do you?"
    "Not when I want to weasel some information out of you, I don't." She laughed and
     went over the place he'd indicated. "Besides, you're so mysterious about it, you made
     me curious."
    "Did it ever occur to you maybe there's a reason for that?"
    "What, did you end up on the wrong side of a gun when a peasant farmer caught you
     with his daughter?"
    She meant for her words to come out lightly, a joke. But instead the words hung suspended
     and heavy. She looked straight ahead at the wall.
    Chance caught the hand she had clutched tight about the roller. Her movements had
     stilled, and slowly, steadily he began the up-and-down motions again. His chest was
     so close to her back, she could hear his breathing, feel the heat of their bodies
     mingling, though nothing touched but his hand at her wrist.
    "Is that what you think?" he said quietly, close to her ear.
    She shivered at the wisp of his breath fanning her neck. Her eyes shut, letting him
     lead her strokes, reveling in their closeness, the deep rumble of his voice.
    "There were others, I'm sure."
    "Naturally," he said.
    Don't think about it. Don't wonder if they were blond or dark or what secrets he'd
     shared with them.
    "So.. Europe must have been a cornucopia of pleasures."
    "Not exactly." He chuckled. "More like a three-year stint in the fine art of working
     my butt off. In France I tended grapes. Rome found me waiting tables. When I got tired
     of that, I laid bricks for a living in Germany. And when I got to Switzerland, well..."
    "Switzerland?" she prompted.
    "Switzerland," he sighed, '"is where I landed a job transporting cargo for a wealthy
     investor. He was going to teach me the ropes, how to get a business going, that kind
     of stuff. Hell, I thought I'd landed in a gold mine—found the ticket to success that
     had escaped me everywhere else I'd looked."
    Chance stopped working the roller, but he still kept hold of her wrist. Stroking the
     pulse beating faster now.
    "He taught me some things all right. Such as how to launder dirty money coming in
     from the States, how to set up scams and cover yourself so the authorities couldn't
     track you down. Wonderfully ethical business ventures like that."
    Micah swallowed hard. Chance's nearness was doing a number on her senses, even as
     his revelation was managing to unsettle her stomach.
    "Were you a quick study?" she asked hesitantly.
    "Oh, yeah. Real quick. I caught on fast enough to know that I was being set up to
     take a fall for the boss. Seems someone had caught whiff of stolen paintings being
     transported over the border. Funny how he trusted me, his newest employee, more than
     anyone else to take the next shipment. He assumed, of course, I hadn't figured out
     the truth."
    Micah turned quickly, nearly upsetting her balance, and Chance caught her to him.
     Their