Blue Steal

  Blue Steal

  Marnie St Clair

  www.escapepublishing.com.au

  Blue Steal

  Marnie St Clair

  A witty, sexy and suspenseful story about a stolen necklace, a doomed hotel, and two people determined to get their hands on the jewels—at any cost.

  Selina Migliore is smart and streetwise—with an ill sister and an elderly grandmother relying on her, she has to be. When fate hands her a chance to change her life, she’s determined to seize it. All she has to do is retrieve a long-lost sapphire necklace before the Empire Hotel is blown to smithereens. Nothing’s going to get in her way…

  …except Jack Tierney, PI, who’s also on the hunt for the stolen jewellery. Jack is amused by his clashes with the pushy brunette, but as he continues to bump into Selina at strange times and in odd places, he starts to question who she is and what she’s doing at the Empire.

  The pressure cooker really heats up when a new player enters the scene and it becomes apparent that Jack’s not the only one keeping an eye on Selina…

  About the Author

  Marnie grew up in country NSW but now lives in a lovely leafy suburb of Melbourne with her weather man husband and two gorgeous daughters. Apart from a deep and abiding love of all things romance, she has a wide array of unusual and embarrassing passions including playing Bridge, growing succulents, visiting deserts and getting down on the Zumba floor. No points for guessing which the embarrassing one is.

  Acknowledgements

  My sincere thanks to Kate C, Kate J, the lovely Elise K. Ackers, the ever helpful Kajal and everyone else at Escape.

  Dreamwrights, thank you so much for your continued enthusiasm and support.

  Maddie Sharp—keep rocking that fedora!

  For my mum

  Contents

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Bestselling Titles by Escape Publishing…

  Chapter 1

  Dirty blond and dangerous.

  Those were the first words that came to Selina as she shot a well-practiced smile at the man holding the door for her. Sexy-as-hell was a close second.

  She swept past him, close enough to see the flicker of interest in his winter-blue eyes, close enough to feel the heat coming off him, and then she was inside. Back at the Empire for the first time in over a decade. Her hotel, if nonna’s stories were to be believed. Her inheritance.

  Taking a moment to drink in the peeling rose-pink paint, the cracks in the ornate plasterwork, the worn burgundy and mustard carpets, she wondered if it had looked this bad last time she was here. She couldn’t remember thinking so. The Empire was slated for demolition next week and frankly, the wrecking ball was the only thing it was good for.

  Some inheritance.

  Still, she wasn’t here to admire the view. Somewhere in this hotel was the answer to all her problems. All she had to do was find it.

  Selina headed towards the queue at reception, pulling her small red suitcase behind her. A neat but flustered-looking brunette manned the desk—Hailey, according to her name badge. She looked about thirteen, and the hospitality industry training wheels clearly hadn’t come off yet. Progress with the customer in front of Selina was snail-pace slow.

  Patience wasn’t Selina’s strong suit at the best of times, and today … Her foot itched to tap.

  Someone moved into place behind her. The guy who’d held the door for her—it must be, because she fancied she could feel that heat again. It spread across the back of her neck, down her spine and pooled. She smiled wryly, a little flummoxed. Hot and flushed? Really?

  Interest from guys she was used to—responding herself she wasn’t.

  And it wasn’t something she had time for right now.

  Selina drew her case in tighter, caught Hailey’s eye and glanced down at her watch pointedly. When that had no effect, she gave up fighting the foot-tapping urge.

  Shouldn’t the hotel have more staff on? With only a week till the final curtain fell, reputation for service was obviously no longer a consideration.

  The muffled sounds of Michael Bublé’s “Sway” reached her ears. Her phone. Right when she’d almost made it to the desk. Extracting it from her handbag, she saw it was nonna. Which meant she had to answer.

  Goodness knows how long this would take. In another moment of sizzling eye contact, she signalled to Dirty Blond and Dangerous to take her place and shifted out of line.

  ‘Hi nonna,’ she said, coming to a stop a short distance from the desk. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Selina, I forget. Is two yellow, one grey, or is one yellow, two grey?’

  She released the handle of her suitcase. Was she happy she’d had to leave her near-Alzheimic grandmother in charge of her sister’s medication? No, she wasn’t. But if her stay at the Empire ended the way she hoped, it’d be worth it. ‘Two yellow, one grey. Everything’s written down and stuck to the fridge. And Anna knows what meds she has to take anyway. You can check with her.’ After all, Anna was sixteen, not six. ‘Anything else?’ she asked, watching as Dirty Blond and Dangerous handed over his credit card to the madly blushing Hailey. No wonder the poor girl was in a tizz. Selina’s eyes flicked from the curling ends of his hair, past broad shoulders, down a lean, athletic physique clad in a really nice-fitting pair of jeans.

  Not your type.

  Her automatic response to unsuitable guys—and this guy was nothing if not unsuitable—but this time, something in her whimpered in protest.

  ‘Is same in the morning?’ Anxiety was thick and heavy in her grandmother’s voice.

  ‘No. No grey pills in the morning. Look, nonna, you don’t have to try to memorise it. It’s all written down and Anna knows,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing to worry about. Go and have a look on the fridge and you’ll see my notes.’

  She wasn’t sure blond was the right word to describe that hair. It wasn’t at all pale—more like rich, burnished gold.

  As if he sensed her eyes all over him, he turned and sent a white blaze of a smile in her direction. Just like that, her insides liquefied.

  So my type.

  Half-smiling, half-frowning, she turned away, towards the small desk set up at the far end of the lobby, almost swamped by a huge banner reading ‘Inaugural Conference on Antipodean Entomology and Climate Change’. A woman with frizzy silver-blonde hair and enormous Coke-bottle glasses was talking in fervent animation to the woman who’d been ahead of Selina in the queue.

  ‘Okay, okay,’ nonna said eventually. ‘I find it.’

  ‘Good. It’ll all be fine, nonna. Everything is written down. Check the notes and call me whenever you need. I’ll be home soon.’

  Within two days, if everything went to plan.

  Stuffing her phone back in her handbag, she turned around. Hot guy had finished, and the desk was free. Making her way back, she gave her name to Hailey.

  Hailey was not simpering and blushing anymore. She was tapping away furiously on her computer, eyes glued to the screen, and Selina knew—knew—she wasn’t going to like Hailey’s next words.

  ‘Um, Ms Migliore, there seems to be a problem.’

  Hmm. Selina tilted her head to the side and waited.

  ‘We hav
e a slight issue with room availability.’

  No way was this happening. It couldn’t. Not this time. ‘So you’re telling me you’ve overbooked,’ she said, injecting as much unimpressed and implacable as she could into her tone.

  Hailey glanced up from her screen, muddy-brown eyes huge. ‘We don’t … It’s not our policy …’ She gnawed at her lower lip. ‘There’ve been some other issues today.’

  ‘A room flooded?’ Oldest excuse in the book, and Selina wasn’t anyone’s fool.

  There was that blush again. Hailey looked mortified. ‘I can offer you a room in another hotel —’

  ‘That won’t work for me.’

  ‘It would be a significant upgrade. At no extra cost, of course. And we’ll organise transport over.’

  ‘Like I said, not an option.’

  ‘I can even throw in breakfast.’

  Selina shook her head.

  ‘A spa room?’

  She shook her head again, but added a sympathetic smile. She didn’t like to give a girl who looked like she was barely out of primary school a hard time, and the hotel’s booking policy was hardly Hailey’s fault, but Selina wasn’t budging. She couldn’t. Her future, and Anna’s, depended on her being at the Empire. ‘That won’t do. You’ll have to find something here.’

  Surely Hailey could work something out if she were sufficiently motivated. Surely that was the purpose of all that tapping.

  ‘It’s just that … With the conference and all, we’re totally booked.’ She gave Selina a tentative smile. ‘The other hotel is much nicer. I work there on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it’s a whole heap better than the Empire. Honest.’

  No doubt it was. That wasn’t the point. ‘Do you have a manager you can call?’

  Preferably a male one. If anything was going to sway the odds in Selina’s favour, that would.

  ‘No, it’s just me.’ Hailey looked at the screen again, no doubt eyeing the clock on the screen and counting down the minutes till her shift was over and this was all someone else’s problem.

  Sorry, Hailey. Ignoring Selina wasn’t going to make her disappear. Or have a change of heart. She’d stand here all night if she had to.

  She was about to insist again that Hailey think a bit harder about possible solutions when something in her peripheral vision tugged. Dirty Blond and Dangerous, emerging from a corridor leading off the lobby, soft carry-bag slung over a shoulder. Hmm. Maybe she didn’t have to stage a sit-down in the lobby. Maybe there was a better way to resolve this situation.

  She swivelled back to Hailey. ‘Did he get a room?’

  ‘I can’t divulge any information about other guests,’ Hailey replied rapidly, timid and twitchy as a rabbit sensing trouble.

  Guest. So that would be a yes. ‘One moment, Hailey.’

  Selina set off in a swift saunter. The carpet muffled her steps, which was a shame, because the staccato of high heels on a hard surface was undeniable in its impact. Still, there were other ways. Hips working overtime and a wide seductive smile on her lips, she entreated him to notice.

  He slowed. Stopped. Turned. Most men did.

  ‘Hello,’ she purred as she looked way, way up. Standing in front of him, he was taller than she’d first thought.

  ‘Hello.’ Low, soft, gritty voice, and a little frisson shivered up her spine. How’d he make a simple hello sound like dirty talk?

  ‘Selina,’ she said, extending a hand.

  ‘Jack.’

  His hand was large and warm, his grip firm. Electrical currents of awareness, the ones she never really believed existed, ran straight though her.

  For Pete’s sake. This was about her getting to him, not the other way around. She tugged her hand free. ‘Jack, we have a situation.’

  A hint of smile, an eyebrow raised. ‘I’m intrigued already.’

  She crossed her arms under her breasts, plumping them up. ‘The Empire is overbooked, but they’ve offered an upgrade in a much nicer hotel free of charge. They’ll even pay for a taxi over.’

  ‘Sounds like a good deal. You should take it.’

  Not exactly the response she was hoping for. ‘It’s a great deal. But unfortunately, not an option for me. I was hoping you might swap.’

  A flicker of something in his eyes, then it was gone. ‘You want me to shift hotels,’ he said, voice flat.

  She was good at reading people, but she couldn’t read him. She had no idea what he thought about her request. Was he offended she’d asked? Hoping she’d hit him up for another reason entirely? ‘It’s a spa room. With breakfast vouchers,’ she added brightly.

  His smile broadened, but it was all amusement and zero compliance. That was a no then. Damn, she’d been hoping he’d be leaping to exchange places with her. She’d just have to push harder. ‘The thing is, Jack, you kind of stole my room.’

  ‘I stole your room,’ he repeated. ‘How do you figure that?’

  ‘I was ahead of you in the line. Before my phone rang.’

  ‘Bella, if you want to get that technical, maybe we should backtrack to when I let you through the door first.’

  Bella? She didn’t bother pulling him up. Apart from the fact that he didn’t look like the repentant type, she needed him on-side. He still had the key to her room. ‘I can’t help but feel that a gentleman would offer to trade places.’ Low blow maybe, but an appeal to male pride usually got results.

  ‘Who said anything about me being a gentleman?’ That gritty voice was getting to her, sending delicious thrills licking up her spine. ‘In fact, two people, one room …’ His eyes were bright with charming, teasing laughter. ‘I’m open to sharing.’

  Just for a moment, she blanked. He was joking of course, it was just casual flirting, the kind she was used to dealing with on an all-too-frequent basis, so what was wrong with her? She was never the one blushing and stammering.

  Pulling herself together, she thought furiously of some way to get him to give up that room. ‘There’s one way to settle this,’ she declared, as if the issue really was contentious, as if she really did have some claim. ‘Shall we see who booked first?’

  Before he could say no, she turned and strutted back to Hailey, who, oddly enough, did not seem thrilled to see her back. She hadn’t been confident he would follow, but she could feel Jack behind her. ‘Hailey, would you do us a favour? Could you tell us whether Jack or I booked first?’

  ‘Um, I’m not supposed to—’

  ‘Divulge any details,’ Selina finished. ‘I know. But since we’re both standing here, and we’re both giving you the okay …’

  Hailey shifted her huge rabbit eyes to Jack, now at Selina’s side, who shrugged. She dropped her head and went back to work on her computer.

  ‘So, if I booked first, we agree the room is mine?’ Selina pressed. She’d only booked late last week, so her chances weren’t great, but at least this would keep him here in the lobby a little longer. So long as she could keep him here, she still had a shot. If he walked, that was it. She turned to face him, leaning sideways against the counter – an angle she knew emphasised the curve from her waist to her hip.

  His eyes took it all in, slowly, then returned to hers. ‘Not a chance.’

  She drew herself upright and frowned. ‘So why’d you come over here with me?’

  ‘What can I say? It’s been a slow week.’

  Great. Happy to be the entertainment. She swivelled back to Hailey.

  ‘You both booked on Thursday. Mr Tierney at 10.17 am, Ms Migliore at 12.27 pm.’ Hailey’s gaze shifted from one face to the other. ‘The other hotel is so much nicer. Honest. Plus there’s breakfast.’

  Jack smiled at Selina. ‘Sorry, bella. I booked first, I turned up first, and I’m holding the key. The room’s mine.’

  He sounded definite and she was running out of options. Was it time to scrape the bottom of the barrel and try an honest appeal? ‘Jack, I really need to be here. It’s important.’

  His gaze narrowed, amusement replaced with something harde
r, more assessing. ‘Sorry, can’t help you.’ He shifted his bag on his shoulder. ‘Good luck.’

  Jack was done, she could feel it.

  This couldn’t be it. It just couldn’t be. There was too much at stake.

  She scanned the room, praying for inspiration. At the far side of the lobby, the frizzy-haired woman was handing a green folder to a short, dark-skinned man.

  Bingo.

  She turned back to Hailey. ‘It’s really important that I stay here. I’m part of the conference, and conferences are all about networking. I can’t network from another hotel.’

  Selina had been sure Jack had been about to walk, but at that, he stopped.

  ‘You’re part of the conference?’ Hailey looked at the screen again, did some more tapping. ‘There’s no note here about you being part of the conference.’

  ‘I didn’t know I had to let you know.’

  ‘You didn’t. But we’re offering a discounted rate for attendees.’

  Wow. She might even get a discount.

  Selina waited with a mix of impatience and anxiety while Hailey got busy with her computer. Was Hailey just delaying the inevitable, gathering strength for when she had to attempt to get rid of Selina again? Or was the fact that Selina had claimed to be here for the conference going to make some kind of difference?

  What if it didn’t?

  She turned to Jack. ‘You’re not with the conference, right? Surely it doesn’t matter if you stay here or not,’ she said.

  ‘Nice try,’ he returned, with an ambiguous, knowing smile on his face that made her wonder what he was referring to—the fact that she’d just asked him to move again, or the fact that she’d instantaneously become a conference attendee.

  Disconcerted, she looked away. Why was he still hanging around anyway?

  There was no time to ask, because someone was approaching the desk, moving with a fast-paced, jaunty step and a wide smile on her face. The frizzy-haired woman from behind the little desk.

  Hailey’s fingers stilled and she smiled at the woman.

  ‘Just wanted to let you know we’re all done with registration. Thanks for sending everyone over,’ Coke-bottle glasses said.

 
-->