Thief of Mine (11 page)

“What’s wrong?” Kit didn’t expect an answer to that question
as he suspected Stella didn’t give them easily. He could wait.

“Nothing.” Everything, she added to herself.

“Did you get any sleep?”

After driving Kit and herself into a frenzy earlier, Stella
had staggered off to bed to leave him to his emails. She was so tired she had
collapsed onto her bed without changing. When she woke up three hours later she
woke up gasping for air. She had had the worst dream. It was soul shaking and
ghastly and not something she ever imagined she would dream about anyone, let
alone Kit Kincaid. From what little she had seen of the marriages around her,
she could understand why the divorce rate was high. Her friends seemed trapped
and totally incompatible and she never wanted to be in that position. She woke
up sweating and clutching her pillow. In her dream she had married Kit. It had
been this nice, sweet, romantic ceremony with Stella all dressed in white and
Kit looking all proud and happy. Stella shivered as she thought about it. She
was not one of those girly girls who dreamed stuff like this. The obvious explanation
had to be that she had just come from Simone’s wedding, hence the reason she
had been dreaming about marrying Kit. She could also throw in some Freudian
thing to do with penises and that would explain the reason for this dream about
marrying the thief.

“I slept fine.” Stella stated simply. There was no need for
Kit to know about one dumb dream. Time to move on. Back to whatever plan she
was onto now. What was it Plan E or F? Whatever. “What does one wear on this
type of mission to the museum? Black?” Until this moment, she had all but
forgotten the reason Kit was there. But she had been through a lot and it was
understandable how she lost the plot for a moment.

“Yeah with a ski mask and a striped pullover.” Kit looked at
her Stella, her eyes open wide at her words. “I’m kidding Stella. We just dress
casually.”

Casual? That seemed to be a letdown for Stella.

“In the movies…”

“Since when is real life a movie, princess?”

“Since you landed into mine.” Her life was bill-paying
boring until he rocked her tidy little world.

Kit smiled at her confession and leaned into her.

“Shook it up pretty badly huh?”

“Real bad.” Stella looked at the delicious lips so close to
hers. Do not be kissing the thief, Stella warned herself mentally. Kissing led
to doing other things with him and while they were good what future did she
have with this thief of hers? Not that he was hers except for this moment. “So
casual clothes?”

“Yeah we want to fit in.”

Stella couldn’t imagine Kit not standing out in a crowd. He
was just someone you would naturally look at. Or was that only if you were
female and hormonally charged?

“Are you going home to the bat cave to change clothes?” Kit
was till in the same black trousers and white shirt he had worn at the wedding.

“Have you got any men’s clothes here?”

“No.” Did he think she was a cross dresser?

“Good to know.” Kit grinned as Stella blushed at his words.
How was that possible after some of the things she had done to him and
together? But it was also sweet and loveable. “We’ll swing by the Chermside
shopping centre on the way and buy some clothes for me.”

Chermside was a huge shopping centre that was normally
frantically busy. If they got there early enough then they could get in and out
without getting caught up in the madness. One madness at time was enough for
Stella.

“Okay so we go to the museum and do what?”

“I return the real one and leave their fake so they know
they have the real one back.”

“And you can sell the two fakes you have.”

“Exactly.”

Stella wasn’t surprised at his confirmation. The man ran a
business. He had money to make.

“Don’t you feel bad about flogging fakes?” She did not want
to take the moral high ground but she still had to ask.

“No, because people always want stuff they can’t have. They
don’t need to know they’re fakes. If they get what they think they need to make
them happy then that’s good. I, in turn, am happy to make a profit and the
world still continues to turn without anyone getting hurt.”

“And you live to ‘acquire ‘stuff another day.” Stella did
not add, “followed with walking out of my life and me putting on ten pounds
trying to forget you”. She didn’t want to sound pathetic. She was borderline
desperate and possibly needy but not pathetic. There was a slim degree of
difference. Besides, she was sure it was the sex that made her needy. She would
get over that in time. Three years from now she wouldn’t remember Kit. Okay
maybe five and a half years from now…

“What?” Kit knew there was so much going on that Stella
chose not to say.

“Nothing.” Stella tried to look blank and in control.

“Uh-huh.” Kit didn’t believe that for a second. “You can
talk to me about stuff you’re feeling.”

Great sex and a man who wanted to listen to her? The dream
of every woman. Naturally the gods sent her the one man she was fairly sure could
not have. Maybe she should have gone to church and prayed more often. All her
good intentions always came too late.

“I’m not feeling anything.” Stella was trying to pretend she
was at work and in her usual numbed stated of automated office worker.

“Right.” Kit was a liar, and he knew another liar when he
heard one. Stella Rowallan was fibbing big time.

Stella knew it was time to gird her loins and get back on
track.

“Where are the idols?” She remembered seeing the duffel bag
in the car last night but not after that.

Kit produced the bag. He had left it on her sofa. It seemed
weird to have something so precious in her home dumped on her sofa among the
general chaos of her existence. Stella opened the bag and pulled them out. She
looked critically at the idol and the fakes. They all looked the same to her.
Three carved women with big hips and boobs.

“How do you know which is which they look alike to me.”

“Like people, there is always a subtle different between
what is real and false. This one is almost too perfect.” Kit held one in his
hands and watched as Stella compared it to the original.

“Who makes the fakes?” She could see what Kit meant. The
original had a simple beauty of its own. The perfect fake was just that—too
perfect.

“I have a team of people who do it.”

“Go team.”

“But like everything, princess, you can always tell if
something is real and true, be it fake idol or hidden feelings. The truth
always comes out.” Kit looked at Stella significantly. He had fallen in love
with her. It was just the way it was. And he was pretty sure, after all that
had happened, that the feeling was mutual, but that Stella was not admitting it
yet.

Okay then, this was getting a little too close to the bone,
thought Stella.

“So I’m thinking jeans and a shirt would be good for the
museum.” She still wasn’t sure why was she going with Kit. There was an answer
but it was complicated and she wasn’t in the best frame of mind to handle
complicated. Better just to go with the flow and see what happened.

* * * * *

“My lady, we found the woman.” The man reported on his
mobile phone to his leader. They had gone back to the wedding after questioning
a drunken guest as to the identity of the woman. “Her name is Stella Rowallan
and she lives in Wilston.”

Camille smiled as she listened to this information. She was
pleased that she had a name to go with the face and body.

“Is Kit Kincaid with her?” That would be the telling thing
as, to her knowledge of the man, Kit never stayed overnight with any sexual
conquest.

“Kincaid is with her,” the man confirmed. “We’ll get the
idol back now.”

“No wait. I want to see what Kit has planned.” Who was he
selling the idol to? And for how much? Although she wanted to hold onto the
idol for personal reasons, she would settle for a huge sum of money and the
knowledge that she had thwarted him.

“He’s leaving the house with the woman.”

“Follow him, and don’t attack until I say.”

“Yes my lady.”

Oh yeah, the woman was important to Kit. That was extremely
useful information to Camille. Kit Kincaid had never had a weakness before.

Chapter Eight

“What do I do?” Stella asked as she stood in the foyer of
the Queensland Museum at Southbank on the Brisbane River. It was cool and
stately and housed artworks from landscapes to sculpture to dinosaurs and
traveling exhibitions like the Beldarq one that was missing the true idol.

It was quiet. Not many people were around. But that wasn’t
surprising as it was early Sunday morning. Most people were smart enough to
sleep in. Of course they did not need to sneak idols back into display cases.

Kit surveyed his surroundings. Posters were up announcing
the Beldarq exhibit but no one seemed to be drifting over to the rooms that
housed it so that was a bonus for them.

“Just act naturally.” Kit held Stella’s hand in his and the
duffel bag in the other.

Stella could not remember the last time she had ever had the
opportunity to hold someone’s hand. It was sweet and natural and holding hands
with this thief made her feel strangely safe.

Kit spied one guard only as they made their way into the Beldarq
exhibit. He looked over at the glass case which contained the replacement idol.
He could see why it had been easy for Camille to break in and snatch the idol.
The security upgrade of the building had not extended to this particular room.
Kit estimated it would take him only a minute or so to break the combination on
the laser lock.

“The guard looks half asleep.” In fact he looked like he
wanted to be anywhere else but on the job. “You were right,”

Kit grinned down at her in a know-it-all way.

“I’m right about a lot of things, princess.”

“And you’re a smart ass, lover boy.”

“So are you but that’s why we’re so good together.”

“Whatever.” What Kit was true but love was not necessarily a
permanent thing Stella could count on. She knew that the only person she could
count on was herself. She looked around the exhibit. Only one bored guard and
them. Beldarq clearly wasn’t big on the museum tour. But then who the hell had
heard of some small town thousands of miles across the ocean from them? Stella only
knew it existed because a thief had told her about it. How weird was that? “Why
is there only one guard? Is that normal?”

“It’s probably because they know the real idol is not in its
case so they’re not worried about people nicking it.”

That made sense, well as much as sense as anything else did
at that moment.

“So what now? What cunning plan does the master ‘Acquirer’
have to make the switch? Are you going to flood the room with smoke, set off
the fire alarm or hang suspended from the ceiling to replace the idol without
anyone seeing you?”

“I want you to attract the guard’s attention.” Kit could see
this was not what Stella expected. It was good to see that she had a fertile imagination.
That was always useful in more creative and stimulating ventures. “Chat to him.
You’re a beautiful woman.” He heard the beautiful woman snort out loud
skeptically. “You are beautiful. Have you never been told that?” He watched as
Stella shook her head. It appalled Kit to think that no one, male or female had
told her that. Were they blind or just stupid? “You are the most stunning woman
I have ever met.”

Okay, flattery was good so Stella was now inclined to go
ahead with whatever method Kit suggested.

“Then what?”

“I’ll put the real idol back.”

It all seemed a little too simple to Stella.

“What if I can’t hold his attention?”

“You will.”

It was okay for Kit to be so confident. He had done this
before. This was Stella’s first attempt at what was technically law breaking.
Was it breaking the law to return something? It seemed a grey area to her.

“But what if I can’t?”

“Take your top off.”

“What,” Stella hissed as quietly as she could under the
circumstances.

“Show him your breasts. They would stop me in my tracks.”

“That’s disgusting.” How could Kit supposedly love her and say
that?

Kit knew what she was thinking. He had no intention of any
other man touching Stella.

“It’s a last resort.” She was obviously pissed off at him. “I’m
not going to let anyone touch you but me.” Stella was looking slightly
mollified at his words. “But don’t you think it’s exciting for someone to look
at you, want you and know they can never have you?” Kit saw a sudden look of
interest spark in Stella’s eyes.

Since Kit put it like that she could do it if she had to.
She’d never thought about driving some man to distraction by such a simple
action. It might be fun.

“I want you to know I don’t just show anyone my breasts to
anyone.” Stella moved closed to him and poked him the chest with her finger. “You
are damn lucky you saw them, let alone tasted them.” Even as she said the
words, Stella remembered the feel of Kit’s mouth on her breast and she felt the
sudden response of heat between her legs. She bit her lip. Now was not the time
to be thinking those thoughts.

“I know and I’m grateful, princess.” Kit was amused and
aroused that Stella was getting turned on by the situation.

“I won’t be doing the breast thing unless it’s a dire
emergency.”

“That’s all I expect. Go over and chat to him.”

“About what?” How did she keep that man dressed in blue
interested long enough for Kit to do his thing?

“How do you normally chat up men?”

“I don’t.”

“Another first together.”

“Shut up, Stella hissed as she stalked over to guard
thinking of inane chatter to distract the man. “Hi, can you help me…” and the
flow of words just blithered out.