The Bourbon Thief(59)

“You did tell me to leave you alone. You can’t complain when I do what you told me to do.”

“Goddammit, Tamara, you are driving me crazy.”

Tamara stood up and grabbed up her sundress, shook out the sand and shimmied into it.

“You were born crazy,” Tamara said as she yanked her dress into place. “I’m just driving you home.”

She closed the beach umbrella, picked it up and started walking away.

“A doctor’s bill,” Levi said. “That’s what came in the mail. A ten-dollar bill from Dr. Jefferson Goode for ‘Mrs. Shelby’s pelvic exam and birth control pills.’”

“I’ll pay the bill tomorrow,” she said, still walking.

Levi jogged across the beach to her.

“You weren’t planning on telling me you went on the pill?”

“No.”

“And might I ask why not?”

“You told me to—”

“Leave you alone, yes, I did. I shouldn’t have.”

“Well, you did. So I did. I keep the pills right by the horse statue in my room, which you’d know if you ever came into my bedroom, but since you don’t—” she paused and pushed her sunglasses back up on her head to meet him eye-to-eye “—you don’t.”

“I see how it is,” he said. They stood at the edge of the beach where it met the edge of the forest with nothing between the two but a line of tall beach grass that itched her legs.

“How is it?”

“You’re punishing me because I hurt your feelings.”

“I’m not doing anything except what you told me to do. And if it’s a punishment, maybe the fault is with your orders and not my actions. Did you ever think of that?”

“I thought of that.”

“So what do you want to do, then?”

“I want to make love to you. That’s what I want to do.”

Tamara only shrugged. “Whatever you want.”

She tried to step away from him, but Levi stopped her with a hand on her arm. He didn’t just stop her; he stopped her and pulled her back to him, taking the beach umbrella from her hands and tossing it on the ground. He kissed her hard then, hard enough to penetrate the wall of indifference she’d erected around herself the past three weeks. She’d needed that wall to do what she’d done. But it was done now, more or less. The date was set, the offer made and accepted. Just waiting on the paperwork for signing. Did she need the wall now? Did she want it? Yes and yes. But did she want Levi more?

Yes.

Levi had her by the hips and held her flush against him as he kissed her. Tamara had left her arms hanging limp at her sides, but now she lifted them and wrapped them around his shoulders. She opened her mouth to his and he slipped his tongue inside. Their hands roved frantically over each other’s bodies. She grasped the back of his strong neck to steady herself while he pulled one strap of her sundress down and took her breast in his hand. He pinched the nipple as he kissed her, rolled it and pinched it again. She gasped from the pleasure and pushed her hips into his, needing him there, right between her legs. He bent his head and took her breast into his mouth, sucking on her nipple as his fingers slid into her panties.

Tamara wrapped both arms around his head, dug her fingers into his hair to hold him to her breast. Levi pushed a finger inside her and she gasped.

“Take me home,” she whispered when what she wanted to say was Take me here.

Levi pulled away, but only to drag her toward the truck. He opened the passenger door for her and got in behind the wheel. As he drove, all Tamara could think was good thing this island had no speed limit or Levi would be arrested for breaking the hell out of it.

They reached the house in what she imagined was record time if anyone kept those sorts of records. Levi didn’t simply open her door; he nearly tore it off the hinges. He lifted her out of the truck and into his arms again.

“I can’t wait,” he said and started pushing her panties down her legs as he shoved her back against the side of the truck.

“Stop,” she said, yanking her hips away from him. “Stop now.”

“What?” he demanded, panting between parted lips.

She nodded at the house, where every light was on and someone moved behind the sheer white kitchen curtains.

“Someone’s here,” she said.

“Who the hell—”

“Momma.”





21

“No,” Levi said, embarrassed by the sudden rush of fear that one name inspired. He had no doubt in his mind Virginia Maddox wanted him dead for marrying her daughter. “Here?”

“Who else would it be?” she whispered.

“The judge swears she doesn’t know where we are.”

Levi started to walk around the house, but Tamara clung to his hand and wouldn’t let him go.

“I’ll go check,” he said. “You stay.”

“Be careful,” she said, finally releasing his hand.

Quietly he picked his way over twigs and gravel as he walked around the house to the back door. He saw no vehicles parked anywhere. Whoever it was had apparently walked or been dropped off. Who? Why? Tamara had told him the island itself was about six miles across, several hundred acres of forest and swamp. A squatter could easily live on the island for months without either of them knowing, which was why every single day that Tamara left for the beach, Levi waited twenty minutes before walking down there to check on her without her knowing. He’d just started feeling safe and comfortable in this house on this island. Now, who the hell had broken into their home?