Celeste Bradley - [The Liar's Club 02] by The Impostor Page A

you in the dark?
    Clara sighed. “Oh. That Monty.” She was becoming as silly as Beatrice, drat it. All atwitter over a man.
    Worse. All atwitter over a thief.
    Clara bit her lip and forced herself to concentrate on her task. Now was no time to be thinking about the heat of his hands over hers, or the way she’d felt when his arms were around her as he had demonstrated the picks. Or the touch of his slightly rough fingertip on her mouth, and how her body had responded, warming and aching between her—
    The lock tumbled, something clicked, and the door of the safe box opened into her hands. She’d done it!
    Clara’s fingers twitched with curiosity, but with ruthless self-control she quickly closed the door and worked the lock back into action with her makeshift picks. She wasn’t here to snoop into the Trapps’ business, but to practice what Monty had shown her last night.
    Now, again.
    But the picks felt like pikes in her clumsy fingers and no matter how she concentrated, nothing she did seemed to work. How had Monty held this pick, and how had he moved that one? She ought to have paid better attention, but he’d been scrambling her thoughts with his large hard body pressing to her back. She’d felt the heatcoming from him through the fabric of her gown, felt it sink into her and warm her from a certain spot within. He was a big man, bigger than Bentley. She wondered if his size corresponded—
    The lock went
snick
. Clara blinked as the door popped open. She’d done it again, but she’d been so busy thinking of a certain masked thief and his certain parts that she didn’t even remember doing it. …
    Aha
? She grinned and shut the door, working the picks to lock it once more. Then she purposely concentrated on nothing but the dark need in Monty’s touch when she’d turned in his arms to face him. With sudden intensity, she wished she’d kissed him. Kissed him and wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body close enough to feel his bulging—
    Click
. Clara pulled her thoughts from the fascinating contents of Monty’s trousers with difficulty, then smiled as the door released once more. It seemed that all she needed to do was think terrible, scandalous thoughts about Monty and nothing would be safe from her picks.
    She’d just jimmied the lock tight again when she heard the knob of the study door rattle. Quickly, she stood and straightened her skirts. By the time the door opened and Kitty entered, Clara was serenely examining a shelf of books, her head angled to read the titles.
    “Oh, there you are. Auntie. Mama said she’s ready to go shopping if you are.”
    “Oh … yes, shopping.” Drat. It was her own fault. She’d committed to purchasing a new gown yesterday. And she did need something appropriately featherheaded to impress Sir Impostor with her inanity. She turned a smile on Kitty. “I shall be ready as soon as I’ve fetched my bonnet and spencer.”
    Kitty smiled back as if surprised that Clara was actuallygoing through with the outing. “Wonderful! I shall fetch Mama and Bitty at once.”
    A quarter of an hour later, Clara stood outside the front door of the Trapp house tugging on her gloves. Inside, Beatrice was still haranguing the twins into preparing themselves for a day of shopping.
    Clara had come outside to take a moment away from the hullabaloo and because she’d noticed that most of Wadsworth’s servants were out front unloading a delivery cart.
    It wasn’t nosy to take a moment of air when one’s neighbor happened to be receiving something, she told herself primly. Besides, she’d seen Rose out there with the others and wanted to give her the signal to trade places with her again tonight.
    Mr. Wadsworth certainly ate well, she noticed, as yet another bushel basket of greens was unloaded. A string of plucked birds came next, then a large wooden trough of organs.
    The scent of the tripe wafted to Clara and she wrinkled her nose.
Ick
. Perhaps she didn’t want to sneak