Jesus Christ, I could not believe my luck. I came up here to plot out my con in peace, and the daughter of the very woman I’m trying to get close to starts chatting me up. Funny how things work out.

She looked as star-struck as she had before, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. Truthfully, I probably looked a little star-struck to her, too. She was smoking hot, and when I’d almost bumped into her earlier that day, I’d never have guessed she was any relation to that old crow. I’d read up about her, but there had been no pictures, no physical descriptions. Almost as if Momma Beck was trying to protect her little girl from predators.

It seemed to me that the only predator baby Beck had to worry about was her own flesh and blood, and well…myself, of course.

I had to acknowledge how well it could work out for the con if I were to get close to this cute little lady. I couldn’t press the issue about her mother any further, though, at least not then. She looked utterly broken by what I could only assume had been some fallout. She asked me to talk about myself, and talking was something that Paul Drake could certainly pull off. He was especially happy to do so when it came to pretty girls with sad, brown eyes.

“You wanna know about little old me? Hell, there ain’t a whole lot to tell, sweetheart. I’m just a circus performer who managed to land a gig on this ritzy cruise. Have you looked into the entertainment? I can guarantee that you won’t be disappointed, sweet stuff. It’s that real classy type of circus act, the sort with all kinds of acrobatics and such. We’re supposed to get painted up in body paint, the whole nine yards.”

Pausing, I noticed the enraptured look on her face.

I quirked my lips into a smile, sitting up and swinging my legs off the side of my chair. Her eyes widened, and I tried to make it clear that I was no danger to her. At least, not for the time being.

“What’s your name, doll? Here I am talking it up, and I don’t know what to call you.”

I grinned, reaching out to rest a hand on her knee. She stiffened, and I thought to draw my hand away, but then she rested her hand on top of my own. Her skin was warm and soft, not all callused and dry like my own.

“I’m Elizabeth. Everyone calls me Ella, though.”

She smiled, looking coy. Aw, hell, this girl was too much for her own good. I wanted to spit some line about calling her mine, but I figured that would be too much, too fast.

“All right, Miss Ella. Lovely name, I gotta say. It sounds like something you’d read in some fantasy book. Much better than Paul Drake.”

I grinned at her again. She giggled softly, brushing her thumb along my knuckles. I pretended to be oblivious to her little touches, but Christ was she setting something inside me on fire.

“Oh, I don’t know. Paul Drake sounds like a detective to me, or some gritty cop. Ella just sounds like the snooty debutante in a Victorian novel.”

She grinned back at me, and I had to swallow a bark of laughter. Me? A cop? Maybe in another lifetime. Perhaps in another life, our stories would intertwine past this cruise. At that moment, though, I had to focus on the job at hand. This girl was precious, a real diamond in the rough. As much as I wanted to use her, I was more inclined to treat her like that Victorian debutante she had jokingly claimed to be.

Call me a sucker.

I shifted my hand in her grip to properly interlace our fingers, and drew her hand towards my lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. She blushed prettily, and I had to swallow a very un-masculine sigh.

“My, my. Mr. Drake, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to sweep me off my feet,” she teased.

I grinned toothily, relieved to see that she had cheered up, at least a little bit.

“Well, you’d have to be standing for that, sweets,” I quipped, and she laughed airily before lurching to her feet.

She swayed from side to side, offering me a cute little smile. You could hear the music from the party on the lower deck, and in spite of myself, I found myself wanting to dance with her. A girl that pretty had no right to be on a ship like this, not when I had a job to execute. But the job could wait till morning, couldn’t it?

“Dance with me, and sweep me off my feet properly, then, detective,” she requested playfully, continuing to sway from side to side.

In spite of the business suit she was dressed up in, I found myself picturing every soft curve of her body beneath her clothes. Unable to help myself, a smile spread across my face as I rose out of my chair. I bowed formally, feeling pretty stupid and underdressed for the occasion. Then again, it wasn’t as much an occasion as it was a moment. Our moment.

God, just a few minutes of talking to this princess, and I was already turning into a sap.

“I feel like I should be wearing a suit and tie,” I said, standing upright and drawing her in.

I rested a hand on the crescent of her hip, and she leaned her head against my shoulder, breathing a happy little sigh. It may have been pretty damn stupid, but it made me proud to be the one to cause that little bit of contentment. For a minute, I felt all the more determined to screw over this little bird’s crow of a mother.

“You don’t need a suit. I like being able to see your muscles,” Ella whispered naughtily, pressing her palm against one of my pecs.

I couldn’t help but laugh at what a little minx she was being, and I twirled her outward before drawing her in close once again.

“God, what would my mother think, seeing me dancing with one of the entertainers,” Ella murmured.

I rumbled a laugh, running a hand through her long chestnut curls. It was downright impressive how she managed to keep her hair so damn pretty after what had likely been a long night of fretting.

“She would hate it. But that’s all the more reason to do it, am I right?” I teased, my lips ghosting against her ear.

She giggled airily, falling silent for a moment. She seemed to be contemplating something, so I contented myself with simply holding her as we swayed side to side.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to go to a real circus. The sort with elephants and trapeze artists. Maybe a man who gets shot out of a canon,” she whispered.

I felt my heart skip a beat, and before I knew it, I was smiling like a madman.

It was a bad idea, and I knew it. If I showed her every trick I’d learned while on the road, there was a chance she and her mother could tie me to a specific show. My troupe had a certain way of doing things, a certain flair that other circuses seemed to lack. We were also one of the last traveling circuses in the States. We had never had anything as flashy as elephants or lions, but I liked to think we still put on a hell of a show.

I liked to think I could put on a hell of a show for this lovely little thing. I could blow her mind, show her things she’d likely never seen before. But it wasn’t as if a circus was something super exotic; I was sure she’d been to a dozen circuses and was just feeling a little nostalgic.

Nothing worth ruining the con over, nothing worth the risk of getting arrested.

“You mean, you wanna go back to the circus like when you were a kid? You know, it’s funny. Most kids wanted to run away to the circus, but…” I paused, cutting myself short.

“I’ve never been to a real circus,” she murmured, drawing away to glance at the stars. “I know that sounds horribly sheltered, and truthfully, I’m ashamed to admit how little I’ve experienced. Most of my childhood, I was following my mother around the world on business trips. I went to all sorts of fantastic places, but I never got to enjoy them.”

She paused, looking self-conscious.

My heart was pounding in my chest like the herd of elephants she’d never had the chance to see. With every passing minute, I found myself liking Ella Beck all the more.

“That’s a…shame,” I began, waging an internal war with myself.

It wasn’t worth the risk. Hell, Ella couldn’t let the old witch control her forever. She’d get her chance to see a real circus, maybe even with my troupe. It wasn’t worth risking my freedom to give this girl a moment of fun.

When I looked into her eyes, though, and saw just how deep the sadness within them was, I knew I had to do something.

My mind screamed that I was getting in too deep, but…well. What was a little reward with no risk?

“Listen, Ella, can you wait here for like…a few minutes? I need to grab something from my room, but I’ll be right back, yeah?”

She considered me with a fair bit of scrutiny. For a minute, I was scared she’d say she was just going to head back to her room for the evening. Much to my surprise, though, she settled in her seat by the pool, turning her gaze skyward.

“I’ll wait for you. It’s too beautiful of a night tonight to spend it alone,” she whispered.

Ella smiled, and I grinned back, resisting the desire to sweep her up in my arms and smother her with kisses. There was so much more I wanted to do than kiss her, but there were more pressing matters, like the glimmer of tears that still shone faintly in her eyes.

It was all I could do to take my eyes off of her; she looked so beautiful in the starlight. Like in one of those old movies with the star-crossed lovers.

“I won't make you wait long, sweets,” I told her, and she turned the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen upon me.

It felt like my heart would straight up explode out of my chest at any given moment, and it took every ounce of willpower to force myself away from the pool deck.

The party was still roaring below, but I had no desire to spend my time with a bunch of crotchety old businessmen. In the back of my mind, I wondered if Martha Beck was passed out on the deck somewhere, her flash drive free for the taking. I quickly dismissed the thought, however, and rushed in the direction of my room.

There was a possibility that I was blowing my only chance, but I was confident that there would be other chances to get closer to the old lady. The con was important, but it wouldn’t do to obsess over it. I had to keep it cool, easy, breezy. Old Martha Beck would still be there tomorrow.

Right now, my focus was her brown-eyed beauty of a daughter. Ella was waiting patiently for me on the upper deck, and I planned to give her the show of a lifetime.

I’d always been a sucker for a beautiful face.