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man.
    Taking in the rest of the club, he twirled her around. There were a couple of bouncers near an entrance at the back. His first instinct was to hit the bar and get an invite, but the woman in his arms made him want to hold off a few minutes more.
    It’s her favorite song after all. The fact that her fingers played a seductive rhythm on his neck had nothing to do with it.
    When it ended, he took her hand and pushed through to the crowded bar. As he waited for the bartender to get their drinks, he listened to other patrons. One guy was talking about winning at the wheel. That meant a roulette table. They were on the right track.
    Careful how he worded it, he spoke to the bartender in stilted Thai. He wanted the man to think he was a tourist who recently learned the language. Jackson asked if he knew of a place where a man could find a solid card game. Then he handed him a hundred-dollar tip. The other man pointed toward the back. “Tell them Kwan sent you.”
    “Okay.” He pulled Mariska away from the crowd. “We’re going in, but there are some ground rules. Stay close and at the first hint of trouble we are out of there.”
    As hard as he tried, it was tough to think of Mariska as a business partner. He had an overwhelming need to protect her. So much so that he considered scrapping their plan and taking her back to the hotel. He could handle this part of the job on his own.
    “Jackson, I’m not an idiot.” Mariska’s frustration could be heard in her tone. “Trust me when I tell you that at the first sign of trouble I’ll be booking it like nobody’s business. Please don’t even go there.”
    He glanced up to see the bartender watching them. To keep the man from getting suspicious he leaned down and captured Mariska’s lips. There was a tiny “oh,” from her but she didn’t fight him. Her arms snuck up around his neck as he further explored her mouth. She was sweet with a slight tang of the lime from her drink. More intoxicating than any alcohol he could have imagined.
    Jackson lost himself in her. His brain shut down and his body responded to her in ways he hadn’t allowed himself in years.
    This woman could be the death of me. The thought helped Jackson to finally pull himself away from her, but it wasn’t easy. “Ready?”

5
     
    J ACKSON HAD KISSED HER. Gawd, that was amazing even for a fake kiss. Mariska’s stomach was full of butterflies and even her eyes had lost focus for a second.
    She glanced at the door where two bodyguards stood, and worried about what Jackson had said to her about surprises that might be behind the curtain. So far there’d been no snakes. Thank God. She’d been so embarrassed when she brought that up in the car, but snakes were definitely a deal-breaker for her.
    “What exactly are you expecting to find back there?” Mariska asked the question to give herself time to check her knees and make sure they worked. She knew Jackson had only kissed her because he’d caught someone watching them. It was too sudden for anything else.
    While she didn’t want to admit it, the kiss had been one of the best she’d ever experienced. It would have been nice if it’d been real. Her body already craved his touch. Maybe when they finished this case she could convince him to go with her to the beach resort where she planned to vacation for a couple of weeks.
    The very idea of asking a man to spend two weeksholed up in a beach villa. Please. What a—God, I’m going to do it. If we make it out alive from this place, I’m going to ask him to go with me. If he says no, I’ll live.
    She would never let on, but he’d absolutely scared the crap out of her with his worry about what was behind the curtain. Pretending she was worldly hadn’t been easy in that moment.
    More than anything she wanted to take his hand and run out the front entrance and to the safety of the town car. She didn’t need to find Gladstone that bad. Then all she had to do was convince Jackson to run away to