A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(85)

“Sweetheart, Levi found him. He’s amazing.”

“I know. He’s asleep, but you can go up.”

Sun took a step back. “Oh no, I couldn’t.”

Hailey pressed their luck further by grabbing her arm. “Don’t chicken out on me now.”

“Hailey, if someone sees you being nice to me, it could get back to your uncle Clay.”

“I know.”

“Is Jimmy okay?”

“Yes, thank God. Now go talk to my brother . . . bitch. But he’ll never tell you a thing.”

Sun realized someone must have walked up. She turned to see another of the Ravinder uncles, the one they were investigating, slink onto the porch. Clay stood behind her, looking her up and down.

Like most of the Ravinder clan, Clay looked like a six-foot man in a five-foot-six-inch body. They had a scrunched-up look to them with dishwater blond hair, thin mouths, and patchy stubble.

Sun knew Levi had a different father from his sister, but she was beginning to wonder if Hailey was a true Ravinder as well. Either the scrunched Ravinder look skipped the women in the family, or she was just as illegitimate as Levi. Neither of them had that je ne sais white supremacy that the rest of the clan enjoyed.

“You’d better git if you’re going before my uncle kicks your skinny ass off this land,” Hailey said.

“Thank you.” Sun walked past her and up the stairs.

“First door on your right.”

“Unless you want a real man,” Clay said, smacking his lips as he checked her out. “Then it’s downstairs. Second door on the left.”

She opened the first door on the right without even knocking. Levi could just get mad, but she was not about to endure Clay Ravinder’s ogles any longer than she had to.

With the curtains drawn and all the lights out, the room was completely dark. Of course it was dark. He’d been up for two days straight. He needed a nap.

She took her phone and turned on the flashlight, but made sure to angle the beam downward. Poor guy didn’t need to be blinded on top of everything else.

“Levi?” she whispered, tiptoeing into the room. She didn’t want to wake him, but if he just happened to be awake, she wanted to thank him.

Right? Wasn’t that what she wanted?

To be honest, she wasn’t sure how she felt about him saving her daughter’s life and not telling her. The state of her daughter’s well-being hung in the balance and he’d kept it to himself?

She heard soft breathing coming from deep inside the cavernous room and followed the sound. The whole area smelled like soap and sandalwood. He’d probably taken a steaming-hot shower to warm up after his ordeal, eaten, then gone straight to bed.

His bed. In his room. And she was in it. The closer she got, the faster her heart beat. He’d saved her daughter’s life, and she’d treated him like a leper?

Then again, she didn’t treat him any differently from how he’d treated her all these years. In fact, he was much worse. Like he’d had a vendetta. Like she’d wronged him in some way.

She thought back. Could he be angry with her about Auri? Maybe he’d thought she was somehow responsible for her daughter’s depression.

By the time she got to the bed, her heart was beating so fast she feared she was having another a panic attack. Levi was lying on a massive oak bed, a thick blanket covering his lower half. Nothing, absolutely nothing, covering his torso or the various appendages associated with his torso.

She focused the beam on the ground. The light radiating outside the stream helped her see just enough get closer to the bed without tripping on something, like the boots and pair of jeans that littered the ground. She stepped over them and took in the glorious image before her.

Except for the soft rise and fall of his lean stomach, he was a bronze statue. One her fingers ached to touch. How could they not?

A capable hand with long fingers rested on his side. A sinuous arm led up to powerful shoulders, a wide chest, a strong neck, a square jaw, and open eyes.

She started and jumped back. “What are you doing? Why are you awake?”

“Because I have an intruder.” His voice sounded thick and sleepy, and guilt washed over her.

“You most certainly do not. Your sister sent me up.”

“She has the strangest sense of humor.” He had an arm lying across his forehead. He lowered it to cover his eyes and said, “Get in bed with me.”

“What? No. I just . . . I wanted to thank you.”

“For what?”

She stepped closer, feeling a bit like a fair maiden stepping closer to a sleeping dragon. “For what you did seven years ago.”

“And what did I do seven years ago that would ingratiate the impenetrable Sunshine Vicram?”

“You saved my daughter’s life.” Despite all efforts to the contrary, her voice cracked with emotion.

He raised his arm and looked at her from beneath thick lashes. “She ratted me out?”

“Did you tell her not to?” she asked.

“Why would I do that?”

Frustrated, she sat on the edge of the bed. Even the thought of Auri contemplating suicide liquefied her legs. The knowledge that she was in so much pain, that she was in such a dark place, stole her breath away. “Did you know what she was planning?”

After a loud sigh, he turned onto his side to face her, then crooked an arm to use as a pillow. “Of course I did.”