Page 116 of Over Her Dead Body

Inside, I lock the door. André watches me test it.

“Expecting someone?”

“No.”

I put the key card on the desk and turn toward him. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“You’re right. There are better things to do.”

“Show me.”

He does.

There is nothing familiar about the way he kisses me. Nothing I have spent ten years remembering. His hands settle at my waist, then slide up my back until he finds the fastening of my dress.

He stops.

I reach behind myself and undo it.

The dress slips from my shoulders. I step out of it and work his shirt open.

He looks at me as though this is the best thing that has happened to him all day.

It might be the best thing that has happened to me all week.

I walk him backward toward the bed.

For once, a man goes exactly where I intend.

Later, he lies beside me with one hand resting on my hip. My knee aches. My palms sting. The rest of me has considerably fewer complaints.

“Your profile was right about the conversation,” I say.

He laughs.

I reach for my phone and set the alarm.

Tomorrow, I will be professional again.

When I turn over, he’s asleep.

CHAPTER 44

EMMA

When I wake, the bedside lamp is on and André is sitting upright with both hands raised.

For a second, I think this is something we should have discussed earlier.

Then I see the gun.

The man holding it stands at the foot of the bed. Another is beside me.

“Get up,” he says.

André looks at me.

“You said you were widowed.”