“Hi there. Sorry about that,” I said cheerfully, apologizing for “running into” her, when I’d actually tailed her from the moment she left her house.

She blinked at me, dazed, before shaking her head and smiling back. I took satisfaction in the way her pale cheeks flushed pink. I needed to get close to her somehow, and I needed it to happen quickly, so it was useful that she was taking note of me.

“Uh, that’s fine,” she said. “I should have watched where I was going.”

Her gaze slid from me to the club entrance, and she eyed the bouncers wearily. I let a smirk cross my face while she wasn’t looking. I was lucky she was out alone tonight, so I had the chance to act as her shining knight.

“Would you like an escort?” I offered, holding out my hand. “I’m Alan.”

Her eyes came back on me, trying to read me. Not that she would see anything behind my careful mask. She considered me for a moment, then raised her hand and slid it into mine. I let her see my satisfaction as I tugged her closer.

“I’m Arielle,” she said finally. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alan.”

I slung my arm across her shoulders. She didn’t resist. If anything, she leaned closer to me.

“Trust me, Arielle,” I murmured as I led us forward. “The pleasure is all mine.”

Arielle Dubois, daughter of Baron Jean-Luc Dubois, a rich bastard too paranoid for my own good. I’d been on him for a while, and my objective required a lot of help and a very high chance of getting caught. Not that I planned on letting myself get caught.

I knew a lot about the discontented Arielle, because my brother, Leonard, had been catfishing her to gather information. I had been hanging around her house for a while now, hoping for the night she’d feel the need to sneak out.

It wasn’t an easy task, I knew. Her father was too controlling; the girl barely left her home. On the occasions that she did, she never went alone. The few friends she had, she rarely met face to face. I couldn’t say I knew how she felt, but I could almost feel sorry for her.

The only way to get to her was through her social media, and Leonard worked it perfectly. Pretending to be a fellow college-age girl named Erin, my brother learned about her bad habits, like sneaking out to go clubbing and gambling.

I considered myself lucky to have caught her tonight. I had waited long enough, and I was about ready to just give breaking in the “fortress” a try. Of course, Leonard and I had looked into every avenue into the place, and it wasn’t exactly easy to break in. As expected of a man who had the most expensive jewels to his name stored in that house.

My brother had correctly deduced that Arielle was the weak link in the Dubois home’s security. We could use her to achieve our goals and circumvent the risk of breaking into the house directly.

We paused at the entrance to the club. The bouncers eyed us both, and I rolled my eyes. The club was technically twenty-one and up, but some nights they let you in as long as you were above eighteen. You did get carded when ordering drinks if you didn’t look old enough, though.

“She’s with me,” I said distinctly. I didn’t reach for any ID, but I sure as hell didn’t look like some minor, either.

One of the bouncers nodded us through, and we walked past. There was a short, dark hallway that opened up to a large, spacious room. I didn’t particularly enjoy clubs—too many people, overly loud music, and blindingly bright lights—but they were definitely useful on certain occasions.

“Would you like a drink?” I offered, putting my lips to her ear.

She blushed again and shouted back, “Sure!”

I slid my arm from her shoulders, down her back, and wrapped it around her waist to pull her even closer. Our hips bumped as we walked through the crowded room, heading for the bar. Lucky for me, with most of the attention on the dance floor, there was plenty of space for the two of us to sit and have some privacy. I led her to a pair of chairs near the edge of the bar and had her take the seat against the wall so I could cage her in. It wasn’t subtle, but she didn’t seem to mind.

I raised my hand to wave the bartender over.

“What’ll you have?” I asked Arielle, trying to sound nonchalant She was an intelligent young woman, no matter how naïve and sheltered she seemed; if I let myself grow careless, she’d catch something.

“Whatever you’re having is fine.”

“Are you old enough to drink alcohol?” I knew she wasn’t, but she didn’t need to know that.

She looked at me coyly, a small smile curving her lips. “What do you think?”

My eyebrows shot up. Before I could answer her, the bartender was in front of us.

“What can I get you guys?”

I pursed my lips before putting in the order for a cocktail with low alcohol. The last thing I wanted was to get her drunk. It’d be bad if she got so inebriated that she’d have trouble getting home on her own. Though she’d probably drunk before on her little trips. As far as Leonard’s information went, the only thing she hadn’t tried was drugs.

The bartender went away, and a plan formed in my mind.

My job was to befriend and then seduce Arielle Dubois, gain her trust, and gain access to her home, where I would work with my brother’s remote support to steal the Heart of Mary, a big-ass piece of jewelry with an equally big price tag. The guy we were stealing it for would ruin us if we failed, so I had to play this right. Though it shouldn’t be too hard. Arielle wasn’t bad to look at. Maybe I’d even manage to have a bit of fun.

“Here you go,” the bartender said, setting down our drinks.

“Keep the change.” I slid over a few bills. It was better to pay for everything upfront and slip out when I needed to.

He nodded, taking the cash. “Let me know if you need anything else,” he said and walked away.

Alone again, I turned back to Arielle. She already had her drink in hand, and I watched as she brought the glass to her lips, taking a delicate sip. She made a surprised sound as her eyebrows shot up.

“It’s sweet,” she said, awe mixing with delight in her voice.

“Would you prefer a beer?”

She shook her head and took another, longer sip, then smiled at me. “No, this is great. Although I do have to wonder why you’d buy me a drink.” Her eyes wandered over to where bodies writhed on the dance floor. “Or keep me company at all when you don’t even know me. I’m sure you could find someone more to your tastes out there.”

“Do I need to know you first, though? We could always work our way up to it.” A slow smile grew on my face at her skeptical look. “What if I said I would prefer your company over everyone else in this room?”

She didn’t look like she believed me. Understandable. From what I knew, she only went out with her friends, and guys rarely hit on her. She was dressed a lot more casually than most women in the club, but the outfit suited her perfectly.

I grinned at her as I turned on my charm. Flirting was something I’d perfected. Most women had a weakness. I just needed to find hers.

“Be honest with me,” I said, taking a sip of my drink. “Is there someone else you’d rather be with right now? Tell me who and I’ll call them over for you.”

Her lips pursed. “I don’t know anyone in here. I didn’t get a chance to talk to my friends and ask them to come. So I guess I’m stuck with you for the night.”

I grinned at her. “Lucky me, then?”

“If you say so,” she said flippantly.

In spite of her attitude, she opened up quickly. I dragged her off to dance for a little while, before I led her to a table and got her talking. It was almost too easy, and I could see just how much this girl was starved for attention and affection. It wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out she was a virgin. As good as Leonard was at getting info, he couldn’t be sure about that detail. A part of me really wished it was true, though. But I didn’t look at that part of me too closely.

“Why am I the only one chatting here?” she suddenly complained. “I feel like we’re only talking about me.”

I looked at her slight frown, and the stubborn set of her lips, and wanted to sigh. Instead, I hummed and gave her another smile.

“I don’t mind hearing about you, though,” I said honestly. “You obviously have a lot you need to get off your chest. I’m the only one here with you, so why not?”

All of that was true. Unlike her, I didn’t have the best life growing up. I understood what she meant about her father locking her up and taking away her freedom, but there was a part of me that felt she didn’t know just how lucky she was, compared to what a lot of people got in their lives. I wouldn’t mind the stifling environment, but both my brother and I sure would have appreciated the carefree ride. We might as well have come from different worlds.

I grew up into a combination con artist, entry man and jewel thief, and I even dragged my brother into the life, the two of us working together to relieve rich men of their baubles. Recently, I’d been “hired” by a man named Gamble—really, blackmailed—to steal the famous ruby, the Heart of Mary, from Baron Dubois.

There were pros and cons to the whole thing. One pro, I got to go to Monte Carlo. I wasn’t in the mood to have fun, but I could still appreciate the beautiful sights. The second and only other good thing was sitting beside me. The cons far outweighed the pros, and if I’d had the choice, I would have been on the other side of the planet.

“Are you sure you don’t mind, though?” she asked, eyeing me critically. “Most guys don’t like listening to women vent, and you don’t even know me.”

“Oh, that’s so rude, though,” I teased. “I’ve known you for… longer than an hour. I know you don’t have that many friends, you’re having problems with your dad, you have no siblings and the rest of your family is scattered.”

She wrinkled her nose and laughed dryly. “Wow, I really have been talking too much.” She stopped and sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t complain. I mean, I know my dad cares about me. He does have a thoughtful and kind side to him—it’s why I don’t go against him much—but his controlling attitude has earned my resentment. Even so… maybe I should be more understanding?”

She didn’t sound like she believed or agreed with the words coming out of her mouth, but the look in her eyes was almost pleading for me to tell her something. It must have been the alcohol influence, or she just really didn’t have other people to talk to about this sort of thing. I could tell it bothered her deeply; the fact that she brought it up at all was a big clue.

“I think...” I started slowly. She wanted my opinion, and I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. I couldn’t even picture being in the situation she was. I’d always had my freedom, even when I was younger, and I could have appreciated someone being there for my brother and me. “Cut your dad some slack, but not too much. He really shouldn’t be locking you up, like you’re still a child. He won’t even let you go to college? That’s insane. Do your relatives not mind?”

She sighed. “Well, plenty of them do, but he’s pretty hardheaded and determined to do things the way he wants. He never listens. Like there was this one time…”

I let her keep chatting as she told me some more about her father.

From what I knew, Baron was a pompous, arrogant old-money jewel collector who spent too much of his inheritance on pleasures. Dubois was the whole package: a bit of a sexist dinosaur, just a touch creepy, and happy to exploit his kid. From what I knew, he’d been having her model his jewels for him from an uncomfortably young age. She had been frequently surrounded by a bunch of old bastards who probably had an eye for more than just the gems.

From Arielle’s perspective, he was a widower who deeply mourned his wife. He was a good father, caring, and always aware of his daughter’s needs and moods. If only he were less of a controlling bastard, let her have more freedom and stopped making choices for her, he would be the perfect dad.

“Can I get your number?” I asked when there was a lull in the conversation. “I don’t want to forget later, and I’d like to talk to you more after today.”

She looked suspicious, though the light flush growing on her cheeks made me think she appreciated the thought.

“Really? Even though I’ve only talked your ear off about my own shit?”

I chuckled at her confusion. “Yeah, Arielle. I’d like to talk to you about more than just your problems with your dad, maybe get to know more about you, if you know what I mean.”

I leaned a little closer as I said it, and was rewarded with her cheeks growing even darker in response. I smirked.

After taking a few moments to think about it, she pulled her phone from her pocket and handed it over to me. The phone I was using was something like a burner. I didn’t need to contact anyone besides my brother, and I had all other important numbers memorized, just in case. I changed phones a lot, and it would be the same with the one I had now, so I had no qualms adding the number to her contacts, then calling my number so I could save hers too.

“Now,” I said as I handed the phone back, “exactly why is your dad not letting you go to college? I’m pretty sure you can find some private ones with plenty of security.”

“I know, right?” she said with indignation. “It is absolutely unfair!”

She was off again, telling me more about her problems as she slowly became more comfortable around me. The cocktails probably helped, but I made sure to watch her intake. Even with the low alcohol content, she could get pretty tipsy, and she’d need to sneak back in on her own without getting caught. If she got careless, she wouldn’t be able to sneak out to meet me again. Of course, I had to convince her to do that first.

I listened carefully, filing away what I thought was useful.

“Would you excuse me for a moment?” I asked when there was a lull in the conversation. “I need to go to the bathroom real quick.”

“Sure,” she said, waving at me. “Hurry back.”

She picked up her glass for another sip, and I turned to walk away. I made my way to the bathroom, confirmed I was alone, and pulled out my phone to check in with Leonard. He picked up the call on the second ring.

“Hey, how’s it going out there?”

“Great. I just wanted to update you on the details.”

I went on to tell him everything, from our run-in outside the club, to the time we’d spent chatting, then the things we’d talked about.

Leonard whistled. “Damn. That girl is so innocent, isn’t she?”

“Her dad played a big role in it.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda sad. But moving on. You need to seal the deal tonight. We don’t need to drag this on too long, and it’ll be better if neither of you get attached.”

I almost scoffed at the idea of attachment, but my mind was replaying what he’d said. I knew what he meant by “seal the deal,” and it was a prospect that turned me on. I’d lucked out with someone young and beautiful on the job this time.