Penny watched in horror, unable to move quickly enough, as the figurine tumbled to the hardwood floor. Its based shattered and the noise was unnaturally loud. Penny jumped and cursed.
Of all the stupid…. She shook her head, adrenaline zipping through her body once again, banishing the almost calm of just moments ago. Her mouth was dry, her heart racing. She moved as quickly and silently as possible across the room. She would go into the corridor, down the staff staircase and back out the door. She was okay, she told herself. No one was home. Nobody was in the house to hear the tinkle of the breaking glass. The security people were three floors below her. She was okay.
And then the door to the safe room opened.
Chapter Four
By the light from the hallway Sebastian could see a shadow moving across the parquet floor of the safe room. He sucked in a shocked breath and felt his body flood with adrenaline. Someone was in his house! Though he’d heard the noises he could barely comprehend it. No one had ever so much as breached his garden wall before. It was impossible to. CCTV surrounded the house. The walls were fitted with trip wires, the doors with silent alarms, hell everything was locked up as tight as it was possible. It had to be. Sebastian did not like being surrounded by security people, or staff at all for that matter, but he knew his home was an obvious target and so he’d done whatever he could to deal with any potential problems.
How had the thief gotten in? How?
He pushed the door open to its widest arc, flooding the room with light, and growled. “What the fuck are you doing in my home?” He wasn’t quite sure why he asked the question because it was obvious, but ask it he did. “What have you taken?” he demanded.
The shadow did not answer his question, hardly a surprise. It halted behind a large dresser, shaded so that Sebastian could see nothing but a lean outline. For moments their breathing was the only sound in the room, and then without warning the thief sprang at him. Shock did not hold Sebastian still for long. He ran forward, meeting the thief in the middle of the room. They collided and Sebastian felt the breath leave his body as a foot impacted with the hard muscles of his stomach. He spluttered but reached out just in time to grab a hold of the thief’s arm. Its other arm came up and smacked him hard on the jaw. Sebastian reeled, adrenaline flooding him again. The bastard. He smacked the thief back, triumph singing through him when the thief crumpled to the floor.
“You dare to break into my home?” he roared. He pulled the thief up, intending to give him another smack, enough to knock him out until he could call his security—something he should have already done he conceded. “To steal from me?”
A soft moan sounded and Sebastian paused. It couldn’t be…. He gripped the upper arms of the thief and dragged him up towards the hallway, shocked to realize his hands went all the way around, his fingers meeting on the other side. The thief’s body was limp, allowing Sebastian to move him with hardly any effort at all. At the entrance to the door Sebastian lifted the thief upright, shock fizzling through his gut. The moan, the trimness of the thief’s body…. Not he. She.
Because held in front of him, another moan escaping her, Sebastian could make out a figure that would stiffen any man’s cock. A magnificent pair of tits outlined under the black of her bodysuit, hips flaring outwards from a tiny waist…. He shook his head, unable to grasp what his eyes were telling him. “You’re a fucking woman!”
The thief went completely limp in his arms, her head lolling forward, and though he knew he shouldn’t, Sebastian felt guilt well up in him. To hit a woman? It went against every belief his parents had ever instilled in him. And he’d punched her with all the force he could muster. No wonder she was limp. No doubt he’d broken a jaw or something. Panic slithered through him, combined with the shock, outrage, and the adrenaline of mere seconds ago. For a moment he was lost, unsure what to do.
She moaned again.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, then shook himself inwardly. For fucks sake she was a thief! She’d been stealing from him. Had she been a man he wouldn’t have cared, but because she was female he felt bad about subduing her. “I’m sorry,” he repeated again, giving her a little shake, hoping to wake her up. “But you shouldn’t have—”
His words were cut short when a knee hit directly between his legs. Sebastian turned slightly, deflecting the worst of it, but still it was enough. He lost his grip on her arms, stumbled, and allowed her enough room to pull herself free. “You fucking bitch.”
“Language, sweetie,” the woman said, the soft moans no more, and then she was gone, out the door, racing along the hallway that ran the length of his home.