Thief of Hearts

  “Stu,” I gasped. His dirty words made me blush and I glanced shyly at the door, worried Mum or Dad might overhear. The volume was loud on the TV though, so I knew it was unlikely.

  I cleared my throat. “Let’s, um, let’s get these dishes sorted and then we’ll talk, okay?”

  “Sure, Andrea, whatever you want,” Stu replied, dipping down to capture my lips in his. His kiss was brief and I turned back around to focus on the task, my lips tingling the entire time. When we were done we went and said goodbye to Mum and Dad, and I promised them I’d try to convince Alfie to come visit with me next time.

  As soon as we were outside Stu grabbed my hand, interlacing our fingers and leading me over to his Toyota. I had no choice but to follow.

  Sixteen

  “Let’s take my car. I’ll drive you back in a little bit.”

  “If you’re busy we can do this another time.”

  Stu’s grip tightened. “Nah, we’re good. I can multi-task.”

  He had me strapped into the passenger seat before I had the chance to ask, “Where exactly do you need to be?”

  Stu started the engine and pulled away from the kerb, his jaw firm. He actually seemed a little stressed. “I need to do some recon. This is the only time this week I know Renfield’s going to be out of his house.”

  “You’re taking me to scope out the house of the man you plan to steal from?” I exclaimed, not happy in the slightest. “Stu, let me out of this car right now. I’m not helping you break into someone’s home.”

  “Relax,” he urged, bringing his hand to rest on my thigh. “I’m not breaking in anywhere. I just need to get a feel for the place, see what I’m dealing with. And I want to do it while he’s out so there’s no chance of anyone spotting me. There’s no danger, Andrea. We won’t even be getting out of the car.”

  “How do you know he won’t be there?”

  “There’s some big charity hoopla going on tonight. The Duke told me about it. Said Renfield never misses an event.”

  “Oh,” I breathed, my nerves subsiding a little. If Stu said there was no danger, then I trusted him. In a way it was completely unearned, but it was just how I felt in the moment. I couldn’t explain it. “Well, where does he live anyway?”

  Stu shot me a grin. “Hampstead ‘I’m too rich for my own good’ Heath.”

  I laughed because it was true. I was pretty sure half the celebrities in London lived in Hampstead Heath. A little while later Stu parked his car down the street from a moderately sized Georgian house, though given the location it probably cost as much as a mansion anywhere else. He’d picked a spot shrouded by trees, to avoid security cameras capturing the licence plate on the car.

  Killing the engine, he turned to face me. “So, are we gonna talk this out, or what?”

  I shifted uncomfortably. “Don’t you have some scoping to do?”

  “The scoping can wait. I want to know what’s bothering you.”

  “I’m fine, honestly. I was just being weird earlier. If you knew me, you’d realise I’m prone to bouts of weirdness.”

  Stu squeezed my thigh, his voice warm yet commanding when he said my name. “Andrea.”

  He wasn’t buying my bullshit, I guess. I needed a new tactic. “So, the painting is right in there, huh? Feels weird that we’re so close yet so far.”

  “Luv, stop being an oddball and just talk to me,” Stu urged, his patience wearing thin.

  “I’m not being an oddball. I’m just marvelling at the fact that we’re mere yards away from countless stolen antiquities. I wonder if he has any Ancient Egyptian artefacts in there. I’ve always been fascinated by hieroglyphics.”

  “Right, that’s it,” said Stu, reaching over and unclipping my seatbelt. I yelped when he gripped me by the waist, lifted me up and placed me firmly on his lap. I scrambled to escape but it was no use. He was far stronger. The only exercise my muscles ever got was lifting coffee mugs and holding up paperbacks for prolonged periods as I read.

  Before I knew it he had me straddling him, his warm hands gripping each of my thighs to hold me in place. “Now, let’s talk,” he said, his tone commanding.

  I swallowed when his hands started moving slowly back and forth, caressing me. A tendril of desire coiled tight in my belly at the simple motion.

  “This isn’t the best position for a casual chat.”

  “Nothing casual about us. Now talk.”

  “I told you, I’m embarrassed,” I said, eyes downcast.

  “Because of what we did at the college.”

  I shook my head. “Not just that.”

  “Then what?”

  “The message,” I mumbled shyly.

  Stu let out a breath and lifted a hand to snag my chin. He pulled me forward and pressed a soft kiss on my lips. “Now why the fuck would you be embarrassed about that? Never be embarrassed about telling your man how you feel, Andrea. I fucking love that shit.”

  I gaped at him, his words making my chest ache.

  Your man.

  “What?”

  “I said,” he enunciated, “I fucking love that shit. I love that you have feelings for me. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is? I have to sit feet away from you every day, listen to you speak, witness you be patient and caring to every single person in that class, even though if you ask me, there are some who don’t deserve it. Every day you’re deeper under my skin, and I have no clue how deep I am under yours.”

  His thumb came up to brush my lips, and I trembled at both his touch and his declaration. “You’re under my skin, Stu. I think you have been since the first day you stepped foot in my class.”

  He stared up at me, his thumb still whispering back and forth over my lips, his other hand inching closer and closer to my inner thigh. His features were softer now, almost like my words were a relief to hear.

  “Can I tell you something?” he asked, his voice low. I nodded and his thumb briefly skimmed the inside of my mouth. I wanted to sigh, because it made me think of other acts, things I wanted to do to him.

  “When I got out my brothers took me to a strip club. In the past I would’ve been over the fucking moon,” he admitted and I smiled a little. “But that night I felt so numb. Everything about the place depressed me. I felt like I was broken, that there must’ve been something about my experience in prison that killed that part of me. Aside from being with my family and the need to take care of them, everything else seemed empty. I was determined to get this job done for the Duke so I could finally be free of my past and just focus on what mattered. But women? Yeah, I could take or leave them.”

  “It’s no surprise that prison changed you,” I whispered. “I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like.”

  “It was shit, but I’m used to shit,” said Stu. “It wasn’t the harshness; I could deal with that. In fact, being behind bars is probably more real than life outside. We’re stripped down to our baser natures—dog eat dog. It’s a lot more honest that the shifty bullshit that goes on in the outside world, people hiding behind their money, behind computers, behind the façade of decency. I hated everyone, hated the cowardice.

  “The thing about having experienced prison is that you come out and you start thinking everyone else should have to experience it, too, and not because they need to be punished, but because they’re all so soft it’s scary. If society ever broke down they’d be the first ones to go. But then, I walked into your class, totally focused and prepared to use you, and you changed my mind.”

  “How?” I whispered, my eyes flickering back and forth between his. I got the feeling Stu wasn’t ever this open, not even with his brothers. He was always so self-contained that I didn’t think being vulnerable before someone else would even be on his radar.

  “You made me realise that softness is necessary. That we need both. People who are kind and who help others are needed, but so are people who are hard, toughened by experience. If everyone was like me, the world would be a shitty place. We’d all just be starting fights and
kicking the crap out of one another. People like you give people like me a soft place to fall. Otherwise we’d just be cold and hard. That’s how I was before I met you.”

  My heart clenched, the honesty and emotion in his words hitting me right in the chest.

  Leaning forward, I kissed him, because I couldn’t find the right thing to say.

  “Nobody’s ever seen me like you do,” Stu went on, whispering now. “Not even my brothers.”

  “You see me, too,” I replied, my voice shaky. “Like no one else does. What you just said means everything.”

  We stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment, my need for him building by the second. The front seat of his car was too small a space to contain us and I felt just about ready to burst.

  Stu shifted his body, reaching down and pulling his phone from his pocket. The movement caused a friction between us that made my breath whoosh out. He smirked knowingly and swiped his thumb across the screen. A second later he held it up to me.

  “Here.”

  I took the phone and glanced down, seeing our conversation from earlier, only this time there was a response to my question.

  Stu Cross: Yeah. 2 many feelings, luv.

  The simple answer made my chest ache. I felt so raw and exposed, yet relieved and overjoyed at the same time. Slipping the phone back to him, I pressed my lips to his, kissing him with a renewed hunger. This situation was far from perfect, but it was real.

  Stu Cross made me feel alive. So much so that it took him coming into my life to make me realise I hadn’t been living. I’d been imprisoned in the past, hiding behind a future that was lost to me.

  The kiss grew hungrier, our lips seeking, tongues colliding. Then a loud noise made me jump back and bang my head on the roof of the car. Stu chuckled and pulled me to him, rubbing the top of my head as I grimaced. The noise had been two cats having a fight, hissing and mewling at one another behind the trees.

  “Come here,” Stu murmured, pulling me back to him and pressing his mouth to my temple. We stayed like that for a few minutes, quiet. Stu ran his hands up and down my back, dipping lower and lower each time. It was odd, but I felt at peace. Here we were, more or less on a stakeout. It was the least likely place to feel comforted, but he just made me feel safe.

  I could tell he was still alert, still watching the house even as he held me. I wondered what he saw, if there was anything that suggested this job wasn’t worth taking the risk. In my heart of hearts, I really wished for him to back out, to tell the Duke he couldn’t be blackmailed. But I knew he wouldn’t. There were more people at stake here than just us. And for better or worse, we were in this together now.

  “I won’t be in class on Wednesday,” said Stu, breaking me from my thoughts.

  I pulled back to look at him. “Why not?”

  “Got a meeting with Renfield at his place,” he answered, nodding to the house. “I’ll have to convince him I’m the real deal.”

  I frowned, not liking the sound of that. “On your own?”

  He nodded, his expression deceptively blank. I’d come to recognise it as a sign he was uneasy.

  Stu stroked a hand down my hair. “No other choice, Andrea.”

  I studied him a moment, taking in his features and feeling a sudden burst of protectiveness. “I’ll come with you,” I blurted.

  Now Stu was the one frowning. “You will not.”

  I stroked his dark hair away from his forehead. “I’m not letting you go alone.”

  “Oh yes, you are. And anyway, he’s only expecting me. If I show up with some bird on my arm it’s only going to look suspicious.”

  “Hey,” I said, suppressing a smile, “I’d prefer it if you didn’t refer to me as ‘some bird’, thank you very much.”

  Stu gave me a sexy smirk. “Yeah, you’re right. You’re too classy for that.”

  “My point exactly. My fine breeding will see you well when you meet with Renfield. I’ll bring an air of sophistication to the dealings,” I said, only half joking.

  He studied me now, and I could tell he was considering it. “You know what, you’ve actually got a point there.”

  “So you’ll let me come?” I asked, hopeful. I knew it wasn’t a good idea putting myself in harm’s way, but I cared too much for Stu now. I needed to be there to make sure nothing bad happened. Just because this Renfield lived in a fancy house in a wealthy neighbourhood, didn’t make him a good person. And I couldn’t help hearing Stu’s earlier words. People like you give people like me a soft place to fall. Otherwise we’d just be cold and hard. I wanted to be his soft place, his safe place, more than I wanted anything else.

  Amid all my attempts to the contrary, my heart had latched on to Stu and I cared about him too much to let him go it alone.

  He let out a long, exasperated sigh. “Yeah, Andrea, even though I know I’m probably going to regret it, you can come.”

  Seventeen

  “So, remind me again. Where exactly did Jamie get these clothes?” I asked Alfie as I studied myself in the mirror. I wore a tight black pencil skirt and a white blouse, courtesy of Jamie, oddly enough. I hadn’t found anything suitable in my wardrobe to wear to the meeting with Renfield.

  “He dressed up as Dita Von Tease for Halloween last year,” Alfie explained, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

  “What?” I chuckled. “How did I not know about this?”

  “You were visiting your parents.”

  “And what about the wig? Doesn’t Dita Von Tease have black hair?”

  “Oh yeah, the wig was from the year beforehand,” Alfie informed me casually. “Sandra Dee.”

  I sputtered a laugh of disbelief. How had I not realised that Jamie was so fond of dressing up as a woman? And there was me thinking he was eccentric for wearing a three-piece suit on a regular basis. I straightened out the blonde wig, then went to collect the blue contact lenses I’d picked up from a nearby pharmacy yesterday. Pulling my eyelids back, I quickly popped them in, having taken lessons on how to do it from the girl at the pharmacy. Can’t say I’d want to put contacts in every day. Once finished, I studied myself in the mirror. My transformation was complete.

  “You look weird,” said Alfie, taking in my altered appearance.

  “Weird good or weird bad?” I asked, anxiety kicking in. Why had I volunteered to do this again? Right. Because I was an idiot.

  “Weird good. The contacts and the wig look surprisingly natural, but I still think this is a terrible idea. If Renfield cottons on, then the entire plan goes out the window, and you can kiss goodbye to being debt free.”

  I’d told Alfie a bit of a white lie. He thought Stu needed me with him to pose as his business partner. That I didn’t have another choice. My cousin was still entirely oblivious to my newly developed feelings for my student. It only added an extra layer of anxiety to my already frazzled nerves. He was going to blow a gasket when he eventually found out.

  “What did you tell Jamie I needed the outfit for?” I asked, a little dismayed by the fact that everything fit me perfectly. Either I was big boned or Jamie had decidedly feminine measurements. I hoped for the latter.

  “I said you’d been invited to a fancy dress party for a work colleague’s birthday and wanted to go as Blondie. Don’t worry, he doesn’t suspect anything untoward. No offence, but we don’t exactly come across as hardened criminals.”

  Well, he was right there. I swiped on some red-tinted lip gloss just before there was a knock at the door. Sliding on my black heels, which I thankfully already owned and didn’t have to borrow from Jamie (a woman needs to keep some dignity), I went to answer the door. When I did my breath caught because Stu stood on the doorstep, looking like an Armani model. Just like me, he’d undergone a transformation in the hopes of not being recognised further down the line should the robbery go south.

  Stu wore a fitted navy blue suit, white shirt, a slim black tie and horn-rimmed glasses.

  Actually, I take back the Armani model comment. He
looked like a spy from the fifties, a very, very sexy spy.

  “Um,” I said, looking him over as I chewed on my lip, “come in.”

  “Andrea?” Stu asked, taking in the wig and the contacts, and well, the entire outfit really. “You look . . . you don’t look like you.”

  “That’s the intention.”

  “Is it weird that I’m a little bit turned on?” His grin was wicked.

  “Yes, very weird,” I said past a nervous chuckle as a flutter went through me.

  “Well, I am. I didn’t expect your disguise to be so . . . believable.”

  “Some of us decided to put more of an effort in than using the old Clark Kent trick,” I teased as he stepped inside the flat, his chest brushing mine in the narrow doorway. I glanced over his shoulder, surprised to see a silver BMW SUV parked outside.

  “Is that yours?” I asked, gaping at the car.

  “Nah, called in a favour from a friend. Need to return it by five. It’s just for appearance’s sake. Renfield will be expecting someone with money.”

  “Oh.”

  Stu smirked. “You like it?”

  “Um, yeah.”

  Now he winked. “If we have time later I’ll take you for a little spin.”

  My cheeks heated at the insinuation as I led him into the living room where Alfie waited.

  “Somebody scrubs up well,” he said, eyeing Stu, almost as surprised as I’d been. A brief thought struck me. Did Alfie find Stu attractive? I realised that even after all these years, I had no idea what his type was. Though in fairness, Stu Cross in a suit had to be everybody’s type.

  Okay, so maybe I was a tad biased.

  “Right so, let’s get this straight. You two get in and out quickly, no sticking around for a glass of five-hundred-pound Scotch after the meeting. In fact, don’t accept any alcohol whatsoever. I know how these types operate. They’ll be plying you with vodka, all the while there’s water in their glass, and you’re telling them all your secrets.”