A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(101)

“Every chance I get.”

She moaned, having had no clue how hungry she’d been. “I don’t think you understand what carbs do to my ass.”

“Nothing I wouldn’t like to do to it, I assure you.”

A sharp tingle jolted through her, and she had to stop and count the days since her last visit from Shark Week, because what in the actual fuck? Was she ovulating? She was currently in the throes of drooling over not one, not two, but three men. It was very unlike her.

It had to be Levi’s fault. Every time he looked at her, every time he got near, she felt like her girly bits had started their own reality TV show called Hormones Gone Wild.

“Do you mind?” the trooper said, pointing toward the vending area.

“Not at all. We’ll hold down the fort.”

“Thanks. Be back in ten.”

Sun took another bite, then balanced her coffee cup with her sandwich and massaged her neck with her free hand.

“I can do that for you,” Deleon said, though how he knew what she was doing mystified her. He had yet to open his eyes.

“Have at it.”

A calculating grin slid across his face. “Not here.”

She lifted a brow in question. As though he could sense her inquiry, he gestured toward an empty room.

She scoffed, shook her head, then took a page out of his playbook. She leaned her head against the wall behind them and closed her eyes.

But all she could see was that man. That infuriatingly exquisite man she’d loved for as long as she could remember. The way he carried Sybil through the snow. The way she’d clung to him.

And he’d let her. Cradled her. Whispered words of encouragement into her ear every few yards.

The clang of metal crashing onto the floor startled her out of her thoughts. “What was that?”

When she didn’t receive an answer, she turned to Deleon, but he was gone.

“Marshal?” she called into the empty hall. “Hello?”

Another sound whirled her around. It came from one of the empty rooms. She put her sandwich and coffee on the chair Deleon had vacated and walked toward the noise, placing one foot carefully in front of the other. The lights flickered, enveloping her in absolute darkness for a few seconds at a time.

Not creepy at all.

She called out. “Are you okay in there?”

When she still didn’t get an answer, she drew her duty weapon and held it down and to the side with both hands.

“Marshal? If that’s you, respond if you can.”

Could the kidnapper have come after Sybil? A hundred scenarios flashed in her mind. None of them good.

OD’ing on adrenaline, she eased closer and closer to the door. “This is Sheriff Sunshine Vicram. I have my weapon drawn. I am giving you one final warning to identify yourself.”

She heard rustling and the sound of paper ripping when she inched the door open, only to find Levi Ravinder sitting on the hospital bed, shirtless with his shoulders hunched, trying to wrap his ribs with a blood-soaked bandage.

“Levi?” She holstered her weapon and hurried over to him. “What happened?”

He glanced at her from over his shoulder, and the glare he gave her should have sent her up in flames. “Don’t you remember?”

What the hell? Blood leached through the bandages from three distinct wounds at an alarming rate. She covered them and applied pressure, but it only seeped through her fingers.

“I’ll—I’ll get a doctor.”

He caught her wrist to stop her. “It’s too late.”

“What?” She didn’t understand.

The lights flickered again. When they came back on, his entire demeanor had changed. He seemed lost. Mesmerized. Quite possibly drunk, though she didn’t smell alcohol. He let his gaze wander the length of her.

“Levi, you’re hurt.” She looked down, but the bandages were gone. In their stead was the wide chest and rock-hard abs she’d dreamed of more times than she could count. “I—I don’t understand.”

He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her closer. “You have to remember to understand,” he said.

Her gaze wandered past the expanse of his chest to the fullness of his mouth. The very one that sent tiny quakes shooting through her body like a freak electrical storm every time he was near.

He bent his head and pressed his lips to hers, parting them with his tongue to explore her more fully.

She sank against him. Wrapped her arms around his neck. Let her head fall back when he seared her throat with kisses.

When he pulled her onto the bed, she tried to protest. Not very hard, but still.

“Wait,” she said, panting into his hair. “We can’t do this here.”

He lifted her shirt and trailed scalding kisses over her midsection, before saying, “Where should we go?”

The heat of his mouth was something she never wanted to lose. “Never mind. Here’s good. Should we close the door?” She tried to raise onto her elbows, but he pushed her back down and spread her knees with his shoulders.

“Hush. I’m concentrating.”

The sound of his voice created a warmth that rushed through her veins and pooled in her abdomen. And while she should have been wondering what happened to her pants, she was instead marveling at the sensations rocketing through her.