Eine reizende Diebin (German Edition)

weren’t after her. By now, of course, Marcus would have called the police, but chances were that she’d be gone by the time they were on her heels.
    After delivering the armband to her buyer, she would be done. Why wait until she was thirty to retire? Now was as good a time as any. She already had enough money to last her a lifetime if she was frugal, and had recently scoped out a new place to live—outside the UK. Everything was ready.
    Olivia switched on the TV to see what the local news had to report. There was a possibility they already had a sketch of her face. If she knew what it looked like, she could come up with a disguise, which looked as different from the sketch as possible.
    Turning up the volume on the TV, she went to the bookshelf and reached for her textbook on Roman art. She had to refresh her mind about the exact legend tied to the vestal armband. Maybe it would explain how to open the darn clasp.
    As she flicked through the pages looking for the correct section, her mind wandered back to Marcus. It had been a while since she’d been with a sexy guy like him. Jeez, who was she kidding? How about never?
    Sure, she’d been out with interesting and handsome men and had sex with some of them, but all those men paled in comparison to him. Her skin tingled just thinking of his touch, and her stomach twisted into little knots as she relived his passionate kisses.
    She didn’t even dare think of him being inside her, or . . .  There it was: hot flash! Great. Excellent. Stupid.
    Get over it!
    Marcus was just some bloke she’d had sex with, nothing else. He wasn’t her first one-night stand, and he wouldn’t be her last.
    She read and re-read the section about the vestal armband—how it was given to one of the Vestal Virgins at the end of her service of thirty years. She was still a beautiful woman then, even at age forty, and the man who’d given it to her had been in love with her for twenty years.
    So that his love would be returned, he used magic on the armband. The spell ensured that the man who placed the armband on the woman would be loved by her, just as he loved her. The legend also claimed that once locked around the woman’s arm, the man who placed it there was the only one who could take it off.
    Rats!
    It was impossible, of course. Magic didn’t exist, and there had to be a perfectly good explanation why the thing wouldn’t open. Maybe it was broken.
    The good thing was she knew somebody who could get any lock open: her cousin Ray. Luckily, he’d been released from prison three weeks ago.
    She dialed his mobile phone and heard his gruff voice respond instantly.
    “Hey, Oli.”
    “Ray, I was wondering whether you’d like to come over for a cup of tea?” It was their personal code for telling the other one something was wrong.
    “Sure. Earl Grey or English Breakfast?”
    “Earl Grey.” It meant she needed him right away.
    “See you.”
    She knew he was out on parole, but she needed him, and they had always looked out for each other and saved each others’ hides numerous times. Now was his time to help her out of a jam.
     

9
    (Home) (to Chapter 9 in German)
     
    Ray brought his entire toolkit and went to work as soon as he saw the predicament Olivia was in.
    “Piece of cake,” he claimed.
    Half an hour later, the clasp had still not yielded to any of his attempts to open it.
    “Don’t worry, Oli, we’ll get it off.” His voice sounded less assured than it had when he’d started the job.
    Olivia gave him a hopeful look. If he couldn’t get the armband to open, nobody could. She knew he was the best. And she wanted it off sooner rather than later.
    With every hour that went by, more and more thoughts invaded her mind about going back to Marcus, back to his bed. It was ludicrous, of course. She wouldn’t go back to the man she’d stolen a priceless artifact from. What was she, suicidal? Or just plain stupid?
    He’d call the police on her and have her locked up, no matter what he’d promised her the night before. Strange as it was though, the news had not reported the theft yet.
    His promise that he wouldn’t involve the police was probably rubbish. Unfortunately, even this knowledge didn’t make it any easier to banish the thoughts of returning to him to the back of her mind, where they’d hopefully rot and die a quiet death.
    The longing she felt for his touch seemed to become unbearable, and she knew she’d never felt anything like it, for any