Free Deception of the Heart by Ellen Wolf Page A

was certainly more than he had bargained for. Sophia wasn’t faring any better. She liked Melanie. The girl was honest, she fumed. Her only fault was being caught in the midst of the drama she had no idea even existed.
    He needed another quarter of an hour to calm them down, after which he talked to the other agents supervising the house. He wondered briefly what Pete would say if he knew the maid, the cook, the gardener, and the chauffeur were all on the agency’s payroll. Would he dislike them more or less? He had overheard him talking to Melanie about the Spitieris’ indulgent lifestyle last night.
    Jon was done just in time to see Pete’s shiny, red rental convertible arrive, the glossy hood and open top conjuring images of fun and vacation. In his white linen shirt and beige pants, Pete Brunner looked perfectly at ease, his laid-back looks at odds with his hidden sinister agenda. He walked toward the staircase with his laptop in a soft brown leather bag slung casually across his shoulder, laughing loudly as he talked with Melanie.
    And that was when he saw her properly for the first time on that brilliant, sunny morning. She hadn’t noticed him yet. She was too preoccupied with Pete, which was probably a good thing given the way she affected his senses. He couldn’t look away. His greedy gaze went over her slim silhouette in the simple turquoise dress that matched the hairband holding back her long, dark hair. He watched the sun pick up the reddish highlights in her otherwise thick, silky chocolate colored waves. It tumbled to her shoulders, drawing his eyes to the fragile beauty of her collarbones and the surprisingly shapely bust accentuated by her slender waist. She made him think of his time in Egypt, where he worked on an assignment years ago. On a rare day off, he and his friends went on a trip to the Valley of the Kings. He recalled the pictures carved on the walls of the ancient temples of slender princesses holding up offerings to the Amon Ra in a ceremony from thousands of years ago. Melanie looked just like them, her delicate, almost ethereal, beauty at odds with her alleged crimes.
    He stepped back from the open window before she could see him. He just needed a second to collect his thoughts, and he waited for the familiar sense of being in charge to set in. After all those years of working in the agency, being in charge usually came to him naturally. He had learned to impose iron self-control over his emotions, separating his private life from his job with an efficiency that would have made a surgeon proud.
    ‘ Are you sure about that?’ A snippet of conversation wafted his way, and a friendly smile found its way to his face almost instantly. His autopilot was on again. Who he really was couldn’t be undermined by the prettiest face and the softest smile.
    ‘Sure I am. Just go and have some fun. I need to make sure that our Mr. Handsome isn’t in the way, all right?’ Obviously Pete didn’t think anyone would be eavesdropping on their conversation. His lowered guard surprised Jon a little.
    ‘Don’t call him that. He seems like a really nice person .’ Melanie sounded flustered by his remark. Still, it didn’t stop her from agreeing to whatever Pete wanted. ‘I will do my best, but I can’t promise to keep him away for too long. Anyway, I honestly don’t see why are you so adamant about it, Pete. I don’t think it really matters.’
    ‘I happen to disagree,’ came the crisp answer, and Jon imagined the other man’s lips tightening in disapproval. ‘We’ve been over this before, haven’t we?’
    They were at the door, and the conversation was over for now.
    Jon stayed at the window, giving himself a minute to go over what he had just learn ed from their chat. So Melanie was on a mission to keep him out of the picture. He fought the sense of disappointment that refused to go away. He would just have to see how far she was willing to go to achieve that. He walked to the hallway where