Miracle On 5th Avenue

by Sarah Morgan

  She wanted to live.

  With a huge effort she tried to head-butt him, but he took evasive action. She heard the rasp of his breath, caught a glimpse of jet-black hair and fierce, smoldering eyes, and then there was a hammering on the door, and shouts from the police.

  Relief weakened her limbs.

  They must have traced the call.

  She sent silent thanks and heard her attacker curse softly moments before the police burst into the apartment, followed by Albert.

  There were no words for how much Eva loved Albert at that moment.

  “NYPD, freeze!”

  The apartment was flooded with lights and the man crushing her finally relieved her of his weight.

  Sucking air into her starving lungs, Eva screwed up her eyes against the lights and felt the man wrench the hat off her head. Her hair, released from the confines of wool and warmth, unraveled itself and tumbled over her shoulders.

  For a brief moment her gaze collided with his and she saw shock and disbelief.

  “You’re a woman.”

  He had a deep, sexy voice. Sexy voice, sexy body— shame about his criminal lifestyle.

  “I am. Or at least, I was. Right now I’m not sure I’m alive.” Eva lay there, stunned, gingerly testing the various parts of her body to check they were still attached. The man sprang to his feet in a lithe, fluid movement and she saw the expression on the police officer’s face change.

  “Lucas?” There was shock on his face. “We had no idea you were here. We had a call from an unknown female, reporting an intruder.”

  Lucas? Her attacker was Lucas Blade? He wasn’t a criminal, he was the owner of the apartment!

  She took her first good look at him and realized that he did look familiar. She’d seen his face on book covers. And it was a memorable face. She studied the slash of his cheekbones and the bold sweep of his nose. His hair and his eyes were dark. He looked as good as he smelled, and as for his body—she didn’t need to study the width of his shoulders or the power of those muscles to know how strong he was. She’d been pinned to the ground under the solid weight of him, so she already knew all there was to know about that. Remembering triggered a fluttery feeling in her tummy.

  What was wrong with her?

  This man had half killed her and she was having sexy thoughts.

  Which was yet more evidence that she’d gone far too long without sex. She was definitely going to fix that this Christmas.

  In the meantime, she dragged her gaze away from the magnetic pull of his and tried to be practical.

  What was he doing in the apartment? He wasn’t supposed to be home.

  “She’s the intruder.” Lucas’s expression was grim and Eva realized that everyone was glaring at her. Everyone except Albert, who looked as confused as she felt.

  “I’m not an intruder. I was told the apartment was empty.” The injustice of it stung. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

  “And how would you know that? You research which apartments are empty at Christmas?” He might be sexy, but he didn’t give away smiles lightly.

  Eva wondered how she’d suddenly turned into the bad guy. “Of course not. I was asked to do this.”

  “You had an accomplice?”

  “If I was an intruder, would I have dialed 911?”

  “Why not? Once you realized there was someone home, it would have been the perfect way of appearing innocent.”

  “I am innocent.” Eva looked at him in disbelief. “Your mind is a strange, twisted thing.” She glanced at the police officer for support, but found none.

  “On your feet.” The officer’s tone was cold and brusque and Eva eased her bruised, crushed body into a sitting position.

  “That’s easier said than done. I have at least four hundred broken bones.”

  Lucas reached down and hauled her upright. “The human body does not have four hundred bones.”

  “It does when most of them have snapped in half.” His strength shouldn’t have surprised her given that he’d already crushed her to the ground under his body. “Why is everyone glaring at me? Instead of interrogating me about breaking and entering, they should be arresting you for assault. What are you doing here, anyway? You’re supposed to be in Vermont, not skulking here.”

  “I own the apartment. A person can’t ‘skulk’ in their own apartment.” His brows came together in a fierce frown. “How did you know I was supposed to be in Vermont?”

  “Your grandmother told me.” Eva tested her ankle gingerly. “And you were definitely skulking. Creeping around in the dark.”

  “You were the one creeping around in the dark.”

  “I was admiring the snow. I’m a romantic. As far as I know, that isn’t a crime.”

  “We’ll be the judge of that.” The officer stepped forward. “We’ll take her down to the precinct, Lucas.”

  “Wait—” Lucas barely moved his hand but it was enough to stop the man in his tracks. “Did you say my grandmother told you I was in Vermont?”

  “That’s right, Mr. Blade,” Albert intervened. “This is Eva, and she’s here at the request of your grandmother. I verified it myself. None of us knew you were in residence.” There was a faint hint of reproach in his voice. Lucas ignored it.

  “You know my grandmother?” he asked Eva.

  “I do. She employed me.”

  “To do what, exactly?” His eyes darkened. It was like looking at a threatening sky before a very, very bad storm.

  His grandmother had told her many things about her grandson Lucas. She’d mentioned that he was an expert skier, that he had once spent a year living in a cabin in the Arctic, that he was fluent in French, Italian and Russian, was skilled in at least four different forms of martial arts and that he never showed anyone his books until they were finished.

  She’d failed to mention that he could be intimidating.

  “She employed me to prepare your apartment for Christmas.”

  “And?”

  “And what? That’s it. What other reason could there have been?” She saw the sardonic gleam in his eyes. “Are you suggesting I broke in here so that I could meet you?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “Women do that?” Outrage mingled with fascination. Even she couldn’t imagine ever going to those lengths to find a man. “How exactly does that work? Once they get inside they leap on you and pin you down?”

  “You tell me.” He folded his arms and looked at her expectantly. “What plan did you cook up with my grandmother?”

  She laughed and then realized he wasn’t joking.

  “I’m good in the kitchen, but even I’ve never managed to ‘cook up’ a romance. I wonder what the recipe would be? One cup of hope mixed with a pinch of delusion?” She tilted her head to one side. “Not that I’m not one of those women who thinks a guy has to make the first move or anything, but I’ve never gone as far as breaking into a man’s apartment to get their attention. Do I look desperate, Mr. Blade?” In fact she was pretty desperate, but he had no way of knowing that unless he searched her purse and found her single lonely condom. She had hoped to give it a spectacular end to its so far uneventful life, but that was looking increasingly unlikely.

  “Desperate wears many faces.”

  “If I were to break into a man’s apartment with the intention of seducing him, do you really think I’d do it while wearing snow boots and a chunky sweater? I’m starting to understand why you need such a large apartment even though there’s only one of you. Your ego must take up a lot of space and need its own bathroom, but I forgive you for your arrogance because you’re rich and good-looking so you’re probably telling the truth about your past experience. However, the flaw in your reasoning is that you were supposed to be in Vermont.”

  His gaze held hers. “I’m not in Vermont.”

  “I know that now. I have bruises to prove it.”

  The police officer didn’t smile. “Do you believe that story, Lucas?”

  “Un
fortunately, yes. It sounds exactly the sort of thing my grandmother would arrange.” He swore softly, his fluency earning him a look of respect from the hardened New York cop.

  “How do you want us to handle this?”

  “I don’t. I’m grateful for your speedy response, but I’ll take it from here. And if you could forget you ever saw me here, I’d be grateful for that, too.” He spoke with the quiet authority of someone who was rarely questioned and Eva watched in fascination as they all melted away.

  All except Albert, who stood as solid as a tree trunk in the doorway.

  Lucas looked at him expectantly. “Thank you for your concern, but I’ve got this.”

  “My concern is for Miss Eva.” Albert stood his ground and looked at Eva. “Perhaps you’d better come with me.”

  She was touched. “I’ll be fine, Albert, but thank you. I may be a little vertically challenged, but I’m deadly when I’m cornered. You don’t need to worry about me.”

  “If you change your mind, I’m on until midnight.” He glared at Lucas, his expression suggesting that he’d be keeping an eye on the situation. “I’ll check in with you before I leave.”

  “You’re really kind.”

  The door to the apartment closed.

  “You’re deadly when you’re cornered?” His dark drawl held a hint of humor. “Forgive me if I find that hard to believe.”

  “Don’t underestimate me, Mr. Blade. When I attack, you won’t see it coming. One minute you’ll be minding your own business, the next you’ll be on your back, helpless.”

  “Like I was a few moments ago?”

  She ignored his sarcasm. “That was different. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here. I wasn’t ready. Next time I’ll be ready.”

  “Next time?”

  “Next time you leap on me and try to imprint me into your floor. It was like the Hollywood Walk of Fame only you were using my whole body, not just my hand. Your floor probably looks like a crime scene with the outline of my body right there.”

  Lucas studied her for a moment. “You seem to have a close relationship with the doorman of my building. Have you known him long?”

  “About ten minutes.”

  “Ten minutes and the guy is willing to defend you to the death? Do you have that effect on all men?”

  “Never the right men. Never the young, hot, eligible ones.” She changed the subject. “Why did the police not make an arrest?”

  “According to you, you weren’t committing a crime.”

  “I was talking about you. They should have cautioned you. You flattened me and scared the life out of me.” She remembered the way his body had felt against hers. She could still feel the hard pressure of his thigh, the warmth of his breath on her cheek and the heaviness.

  Her gaze met his. The way he was looking at her made her think he was remembering that moment, too.

  “You were creeping around my apartment. And if I’d wanted to kill you, you’d be dead by now.”

  “Is that supposed to be a comfort?” She rubbed her bruised ribs, reminding herself that however her imagination played with the facts, it hadn’t been a romantic encounter. Lucas Blade was looking at her with a hint of steel in his gaze. There was something about him that didn’t seem quite safe. “Do you assault everyone who enters you’re apartment?”

  “Only those who enter uninvited.”

  “I was invited! As you would have found out if you’d bothered to ask. And I would have thought a man with your expertise in crime would have been able to tell the difference between an innocent woman and a criminal.”

  He gave her a speculative look. “Criminals aren’t always so easy to identify. They don’t come with a twirling moustache and a label. You think you can recognize a bad guy just by looking at them?”

  “I’m pretty good at identifying ‘loser guy,’ and I definitely know ‘hot guy,’ so I’m confident ‘bad guy’ wouldn’t slide under my radar.”

  “No?” He stepped closer to her. “The ‘bad guys’ live among us, blending in. Often it’s the person you’d least suspect. The cabdriver, the lawyer,” he paused before saying, “the doorman.”

  Was he intentionally trying to scare her? “Your doorman, Albert, happens to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met so if you’re trying to persuade me he has a criminal past I’m not going to believe you. In my experience most people are pretty decent.”

  “You don’t watch the news?”

  “The news presents only the bad side of humanity, Mr. Blade, and it does it on a global scale. It doesn’t report the millions of small, unreported acts of kindness that take place on a daily basis in communities. People help old ladies across the street, they bring their neighbors tea when they’re sick. You don’t hear about it because good news isn’t entertainment, even though it’s those deeds that hold society together. Bad news is a commodity and the media trade in that.”

  “You really believe that?”

  “Yes, and I don’t intend to apologize for preferring to focus on the positive. I’m a glass half-full sort of person. That’s not a crime. You see the bad in people, but I see the good. And I do believe there is good in most people.”

  “We only ever see what a person chooses to show. You don’t know what they might be hiding under the surface.” His voice was deep, his dark eyes mesmerizing. “Maybe when that kind man has helped the little old lady across the street he goes home and searches indecent images on a laptop he keeps hidden under his bed. And the kind person who takes their neighbor tea might be an arsonist or a dangerous psychopath and his, or her, intention is to get a closer look at how and where their neighbor lives to assess access points and vulnerabilities. You never know, just by looking, what a person is hiding.”

  Eva stared at him, unsettled by the image of the world he’d painted. It was as if someone had sprayed ugly graffiti over her clean vision of life. “You may look good on the outside, Mr. Blade, but inside you need a makeover. You have a dark, cynical, twisted mind.”

  “Thank you.” The faintest of smiles touched the corners of his mouth. “The New York Times said the same thing when they reviewed my last book.”

  “I didn’t intend it as a compliment, but I can see that maybe you need to be like that to be successful. Your job is to explore the dark side of humanity and that has twisted your thinking. Most people are simply what they seem,” she said firmly. “Take me as an example. Take a good, hard look at me. And now tell me, do I look like a murderer?”

  Two

  A frog is always a frog, never a prince in disguise.

  —Frankie

  Do I look like a murderer?

  Lucas scanned her sweet, heart-shaped face. Her eyes were a dark blue and with those bouncing golden curls and the dimple in her cheek, she looked as harmless as a fluffy kitten.

  Nothing like a murderer.

  She’d be the warm, kindly nurse no one would ever imagine to be capable of killing her patients, or the sweet-natured kindergarten teacher whom people assumed would nurture the children in her care. She looked like the poster girl for health and vitality—she could advertise the juiciest orange juice, or the crunchiest salad.

  A woman with a face and body like hers could evade suspicion for months or years.

  His heart pounded and he felt the spark of creative energy that had eluded him for months flicker to life.

  She eyed him cautiously. “Why are you staring? What have I said? I can assure you I’m not a murderer and frankly I can’t imagine why you’d think it for a moment. I don’t even kill spiders. I carry them to the nearest safe place, although if I’m honest I do usually use a glass and a piece of cardboard because I don’t like the way their legs feel on my skin.”

  I don’t even kill spiders.

  And neither would his murderer.

  Just humans.

  “That’s it.” He didn’t even realize he’d spoken. Without thinking, he walked up to her and slid his fingers into her hair. Blond, silky, it flowed through his finger
s and framed her face with lustrous gold. Her hair alone would be enough to dazzle any man. Dazzle and distract him. He’d be dead before he knew what had happened.

  “That’s what?” She sounded exasperated. “Mr. Blade?”

  “You’re the one.”

  His mind, roused from its soporific state, was racing ahead so fast it took him a moment to realize he still had his fingers in her hair.

  How would it happen? How would she commit murder?

  Could her hair be a weapon? Or a motif? Something she left at the crime scene?

  No. She’d be caught within a week.

  Maybe she changed her hair each time she committed murder.

  Maybe she wore a wig.

  “Mr. Blade!” Huge blue eyes were fixed on his face. “What do you mean, ‘I’m the one’? I’ve never committed a crime in my life if that’s what you’re implying.”

  But she would. She would. “You’re perfect.”

  Her cheeks turned from whipped cream to fondant pink. “P-perfect?”

  She even blushed. A woman who could blush like that wouldn’t hurt a fly. Or would she? “Can you do that at will or is it just something that happens?”

  “What?”

  “Blushing.” He stroked his fingers across her smooth skin, exploring the silky texture. He wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to deconstruct her so that he could decide which traits to give to his character.

  “I tend to blush when a man I’ve only known for a few minutes tells me I’m perfect. You’re right that first impressions can be wrong. If you’d asked me ten minutes ago I wouldn’t have said you were the friendliest person I’d ever met, but now I can see you were just being defensive. And that’s understandable if women break into your apartment to meet you.”

  “What?” Her words finally penetrated his subconscious and his fantasy world melted away.

  He’d been thinking aloud and she’d misinterpreted his words.

  She thought he was interested in her.

  And why wouldn’t she? She was most men’s idea of a fantasy woman, all soft curves and blond hair with a mouth as pink and tempting as sugar icing. There had been a time when he would have been interested himself, but that time seemed like an age away.