“Funny you should mention that.” Stefan spoke with his mouth full of meat bright as rubies. “There was a crate of Wehrmacht ammunition that turned up in a partisan bunker we raided yesterday.”

“You see? It’s hard enough trying to stretch our resources for our own forces without these idiot Resistance fighters picking off our transports.” God, she hoped he couldn’t hear her heart knocking against her ribs right now.

“Very few people are privy to those transport movements,” Stefan said. “And you are one of them.”

Evangeline bit back her first instinct—to deny it. Instead she rolled her eyes, like this was a fight they’d had many times. “You said yourself I’m too smart to play such a stupid game. Would I really let a Gestapo officer court me if I had something to hide?”

“Remind me,” Stefan said, “how we met again, ma chèrie.” He smiled, a scrap of flesh stuck around his left canine.

“You were in my office, questioning all our employees.” Looking for the person who’d given away troop positions for a secret convoy that the Brits promptly blew to bits. “I was one of the last you called for questioning.” I’d gotten sloppy. Stupid. I’d been everything Simone thought I was, and worse. I couldn’t even do the right thing properly. “After you asked me about my daily routine, places I frequented, friends I kept, you asked me if I was seeing any fellows.” Easy enough to say no to that.

His lips spread, slick with champagne, though she didn’t dare believe the test was over. “I liked your demeanor. Your unwillingness to back down.”

“I don’t like having my work disrupted, that’s all.” Too late she thought to add, “And you are a rather fetching fellow, aren’t you, mein Herr?”

God, her hubris. Thinking she could play a Gestapo interrogator for a fool. He’d offered her very little in the way of solid intelligence, anyhow—only the vaguest hints that she could send out, half of them likely to be traps. But men like him didn’t know how to be denied.

“And you,” he purred, “are a divine prize, indeed.”

Her stomach curdled as she smiled at him. She’d strung him along this far. Meals, strolls through the Tuileries, nights at the opera watching that insufferable Götterdämmerung. But he was circling her closer and closer, and the closer he got, the more perilous everything became.

“It would be a dreadful shame if you got too clever for your own good.”

Evangeline could practically feel Simone glowering at her when she answered, “I’m clever enough to know my place.”