Bingo. He’s arrogant enough to fall for it. Don’t oversell, keep it simple.
“Uh-huh. I want something to read. I’m kinda bored.” She was repeating herself. Could she sound any more vapid?
He looked around as though he was about to do something illegal and didn’t want to get caught. “All right.” He smiled at her. If Luke had ignored the way she looked in a short red dress, this... punk made up for it in spades. He was practically drooling.
Yeah, buddy boy, think what you want. If you think you’re going to touch me, I’m going to kick your ass first. Then, when this is all over, I’m going to come back and do it again just to keep you from ever getting ideas.
She swallowed hard. The things she did for love.
“Thank you!” she said, as chipper as she could, and even flounced a little for good measure as she followed him down the stairs.
Dani walked into the library and made a big show of turning around, looking at the vast array of books as if she’d never seen it before. In truth, this had always been her favorite part of the house, largely because her father never darkened that particular doorway. Dani wasn’t convinced her old man could read. It was uncharitable, but if he hadn’t stolen the money and run she wouldn’t be in this position.
On the other hand, it wasn’t he who’d decided that the mansion needed a library. That was strictly her mother’s work. Every time she walked into the room, she felt her mother there with her. The jewel-tone accents gave the room her warmth, the whimsical additions her humor. She breathed in the scent of old books, one hand on a globe that lacked any countries at all, save the ones you could draw yourself with chalk. Dani closed her eyes, allowing herself the luxury of feeling her mother’s presence.
“Having trouble finding one?”
She turned and stared at the guard. He stood leaning against the closed door, openly eyeing the boss’ niece with such a smug look of superiority that it was all she could do to not put the granite paperweight on the desk to good and creative use. Her fingers twitched toward the object. Instead, she sent the globe spinning as though she hadn’t a care in the world.
Idiot. As if she couldn’t get him in a great deal of trouble with Uncle Benny. He had to know it, but he was too arrogant to care.
I’d ask you to pick one for me, but I don’t think we have Curious George here. “I guess maybe a book wasn’t really what I was looking for—deep down, I mean.” She lowered her head and traced a circle with the toe of her shoe. She looked up without moving her head, letting her eyes peek up at him from under her hair. “I’m engaged,” she said, and licked her lips. “and my finance... fee...”
“Fiancé?”
“Yep!” She lifted her head and smiled as vacuously as possible. “Yeah, that’s him. He’s here in the house, but I never get to see him!” She stomped her foot just a little. “He’s gonna be my husband and I miss him!” She walked up to the man, boldly, letting her hips sway a little extra with each step and almost twisting her ankle on the damned shoes. She put her hand on his chest. The guard flinched a bit. Dani realized he thought she was going for his shoulder holster.
Idiot. Like I need a gun to take care of someone like you. What the hell am I doing?
She traced her fingers down his chest and tugged gently on his tie, hating the very feel of him underneath her fingertips. “Do you think you can get me in to... see... him?” She moistened her lips and looked up into the young man’s face coquettishly. Or something like that. At this point she was vamping straight out of old movies, thankful she’d spent some time watching Bette Davis and Marilyn Monroe on late night cable TV.
He took a deep breath. Dani thanked the gods that she’d put on the lavender perfume. That’s right, she’d hypnotize the boy with her charm. He licked his lips. It was all she could do to not back away. She took her hand away, looking down and feigning defeat. Unfortunately, her eyes hit his crotch and she noticed that her act had a physical effect on the man, despite his hesitation. Ewwwww...
Get me to see Luke soon; I’m making myself queasy here!
“Well...” The man looked aside. Again, who the hell was he looking at? The boy had to look around him in an empty room for permission to break the rules. Dani bit her lip hard to keep herself from laying him out cold. This was infuriating. This was humiliating. This was... for David. For David, she would do this. And for Luke. Yeah. Him, too.
“I’ll see what I can do...” he said, and walked back to the door. Dani sent a thought to her mother, asking her to watch out for her daughter, and followed. For a moment, she forgot to hold her eyes wide and her eyebrows high in the middle. A passing glance at a mirror in the hallway showed a smart, calculating woman. Watch yourself, girl. Thankfully she corrected her expression before the man turned around.
He motioned her to silence and pointed down the hallway, gesturing for her to remain where she was. The idiot was going to leave her unattended. Of course, she wasn’t going to run, at least not in those heels, but he had no way of knowing that. She smiled as widely and as vacantly as she could and turned a leg to pivot the foot. She tried to look as innocent and child-like as possible. He gave her another appreciative leer and headed down the hall to the man standing in front of a door.
They spoke a bit, rapidly, and the other guard shrugged and walked off. Her young man signaled for her to wait and when the other was gone, he signaled her to hurry. “I told him that I was assigned here, and he was to take your room,” the man whispered to her. “I said you were already asleep, so we have some time.”
“Thank you!” Dani chirruped and stood on her toes to kiss the man’s cheek. He got in a grope of her ass. Her right fist came back out of instinct, but she hit the doorknob and grabbed it, passing it off as being anxious to see her finance... finesse... damn, now he had her doing it for real.
She opened the door and slipped into the room, swearing that if she lived through this she was going to hunt down that particular guard and break his hand finger by finger, and then dance on his face with the stiletto heels that were currently tearing into her instep.