Scarlet Nights (27 page)

When he turned his back to her she came up on her elbows. “You aren’t leaving, are you?”

Turning, he smiled at her. “I was thinking of filling your tub with hot, soapy water and a generous dose of Scarlet Nights. Suit you?”

“Oh, yes,” Sara said. She lay back on the bed and listened to the water running and thought—She sat up. This was her wedding night, and the last thing she wanted to do was
think
.

She went to the bathroom and saw a naked Mike standing by the tub. His body was so beautiful that she just stood there and stared at him. She slowly looked from his toes, to his stomach, to his neck, to his lips. And when she got through she saw great evidence that he was ready for her again.

“What do you look like under all those clothes?” he asked in a voice that was little more than a growl.

“The best you’ve ever seen,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah? Well, let’s see.”

When she stood near him, he sat on the edge of the tub and slowly, expertly, began to undress her. He unsnapped the garters and
with kisses began to unroll her stockings. When he got to her foot, he lifted it, put it on his thigh, and massaged it. His hand went up her leg, and after a few caresses in the center, his hand moved to her other leg and removed that stocking.

She started to turn around so he could reach the back clasps of her corset but he pulled her onto his lap and entered her. Sara wanted to move her hips, but he held her down as his hands reached around the back of her, and in seconds the corset was on the floor.

He kissed her, still not letting her move her hips, while his hands caressed the sides of her breasts, his thumbs moving inward to stroke her nipples.

By the time he released her so she could move up and down, she was groaning. She put one foot in the tub with its warm water, the other on the floor. Again Mike’s strong hands cupped her bottom as he helped her with her movements.

When she was near to peaking, he pulled her up, never breaking contact, and lay her down on the rug on the bathroom floor.

His thrusts were hard and fast, and went deep, deep within her. This time, she felt his climax as strong as her own.

Minutes later, they were in the tub together. Mike’s back was against the far end, and Sara was leaning against him. She kept glancing at her ring and looking at what she could see of Mike. Two weeks ago all she’d known of him was that he was Tess’s “mysterious brother.” When she’d first seen him, he’d been coming up through her bedroom floor, and she’d been terrified.

Now she was married to this man. There’d been no mention of love, and if it hadn’t been for her, she wouldn’t even have had a wedding night.

What she wanted now was a honeymoon.

“Are you looking forward to going home for a week?”

Mike was soaping Sara’s arms. He’d already poured perfume into her freshly washed hair and the scent was intoxicating. “No,” he said absently.

“But you must want to see your friends.”

“Yeah, I guess. Gym buddies and guys on the force.”

“What about other people you don’t work with? Just friend friends?”

Mike chuckled. “My life isn’t like yours. I go away on undercover assignments that last for years. I’ve worked in LA twice and once in Iowa and—”

“Iowa?” She turned to look at him. “Surely they don’t have crime in
Iowa
!”

Mike laughed at her joke. “Evil is everywhere, even in sweet little Edilean, Virginia.”

Relaxing, she leaned back against him. “No friends, no place to live. It doesn’t sound like a true home.”

Mike kissed her earlobe. “I make do with eighty-degree winters and palm trees blowing in the breeze.”

“And nightclubs with gorgeous Cuban girls?”

Mike nuzzled her neck. “I never noticed them.”

“Mike, I was thinking. Maybe—”

“No.”

“No to what?”

“No, you can’t go with me to Fort Lauderdale.”

“I didn’t ask you if I could, but now that you mention it …”

“I have to work. I’ll be at the office at seven and won’t leave until ten at night. You don’t realize how big this case is. The Feds are—”

“Did you tell them to get dogs for Mr. Lang?”

“Yes. I’ll probably bring them back with me. They’re Airedales.”

“So you found a breeder?”

“It’s Florida, so of course we found a breeder.”

“Did I ever tell you I’ve never been to Florida? Joce grew up in Boca Raton and she’s told me wonderful things about the place.”

“No, you can’t go,” Mike repeated. “When I get back I need to let everyone in this town know that we’re married. Luke said there are games at the fair, so I’ll need to win them. That’ll draw lots of attention to us. Then—”

“Ha!” Sara wasn’t happy about being left behind. “The Fraziers always win the games. There’s the cable toss, where you have to throw a telephone pole. I’ve seen Ariel’s oldest brother, Colin, lift the front end of a pickup truck.”

“Yeah? So where does he work out?”

“I don’t know. Gyms have never been of interest to me.”

Mike held up her arm, which was slim but had no discernible muscle. “I can see that.”

“Are you saying that I’m—”

Mike kissed her to silence, his hand on her breast.

Sara leaned back against him.

“Are there any contests for skills of agility?” he asked.

“Like the rope jumping?” She was teasing him.

“I can do that,” Mike said.

“You’re outclassed there too. Anna Aldredge, Kim’s little sister, will win that. She placed third in the national championships.”

“Does she need a partner?”

“She’s twelve and a brat.”

“I like bratty females.”

“I need time to tell you about all the events so maybe I should—”

“No,” Mike said yet again.

“What if Greg shows up here while you’re gone?”

“He can’t, because he’s under lock and key, and his cell mate is an FBI agent. Vandlo will be let out this coming weekend and we’re
sure he’ll run here to Edilean—straight to you. By the time he gets here, everyone will know who I am, thanks to the games. I think we should wait until Vandlo is here to announce the marriage. How do you feel about kissing in public?”

“With whom?”

Mike was nuzzling the back of her neck. “Who do you want to kiss?”

Turning, she put her arms around his neck. “Mike, we’re married but we hardly know each other. I’d like to see where you’ve spent most of your life and to meet your friends.”

“And to go to the gym with me?”

She was kissing his eyelids, her breasts just touching his chest. “Luke said you do squats with so many forty-five-pound plates that the bar bends. Is that true?”

“I guess so. I never thought about it. I’ll start you on just a couple of light plates and—”

Sara didn’t want to argue but she was
not
going to lift weights. She moved her hand under the water to between his legs. “Remember when I said I was teachable?”

He didn’t smile but the dimple appeared in his cheek. “I’m willing to learn whatever you’re teaching.”

She was kissing him while her hand fondled him below. “I’ll do my best.”

She heard the tub begin to drain. Mike had released the valve with his foot.

“I’m up for it,” he said.

“I can see that you are.”

He put his arm around her waist, and when he stood up he lifted her with him. “You won’t win at the cable toss,” she said, but Mike just grunted as he stepped out of the tub.

He carried her, both of them wet and dripping, to the bedroom. “I am your pupil,” Mike said, and Sara smiled.

An hour later, Sara had been Mike’s student. As they were falling asleep in each other’s arms, Mike said softly, “Sara, I just remembered that I didn’t use birth control. It was all unexpected and I forgot. I’m sorry.”

Sara snuggled closer to him. “That’s all right. I forgot too, and besides, it’s the wrong time of the month.”

They were both lying.

20

W
HEN SARA AWOKE
the next day, it was nearly 11
A.M
. and Mike was gone. It was her guess that he’d waited for her to doze off then left. Which meant that he was driving with no sleep.

“And I let him go,” Sara said aloud. Her first day of marriage and she’d already failed as a wife. If anything happened to Mike on the drive, especially if he fell asleep at the wheel, it would be her fault. “I should have let him sleep last night. It’s what he wanted to do. What he
needed
.”

She put her hands behind her head, stared at the ceiling, and thought about her wedding night. She wasn’t ready to make such a revelation to Mike, but he was far and away the best lover she’d ever had. Not that she was especially experienced—she and Brian had bought a book so they could learn things—but Greg had been. Now Sara saw that for all the sex she and Greg—Stefan—had had, it lacked the cuddling, the snuggling, the lying in the bathtub wrapped in each other’s arms and talking.

Sara looked about the room. As always, Mike had picked up his clothes, and now there was no sign that he’d been there. If she weren’t wearing her new wedding band she would have thought the whole thing was a dream.

But as she began to remember the reason behind the wedding, she grew agitated. Dear, lovable Brian, as unaggressive a human as ever existed, had been murdered because of something to do with Sara.

“What is it that Greg wants?” Sara half shouted as she got out of bed and began to dress. “What does Stefan Vandlo want from me?” She was sure that if she knew, and if Greg walked in the door right now, whatever it was, she’d gladly, freely
give
it to him.

But then what? Would Greg take what Sara gave him and leave town with his murderous mother? Would Mike then return to Fort Lauderdale to his job? Would she receive divorce papers a few weeks later? Maybe when he retired he’d come back to Edilean because of his sister and the farm he now owned. But he wouldn’t return for Sara.

She reminded herself that when he’d told her she had to marry him, it had been with the understanding that after the case was done, they’d separate.

“Married and divorced,” she whispered, and tears came to her eyes.

Her cell phone on the bedside table started buzzing. It was a text from Joce.

YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT SHAMUS DREW ON THE CARDS. LUKE MADE PANCAKES. WANT TO COME OVER?

Sara pulled on one of her oldest dresses—no need to bother with her appearance if Mike wasn’t there—stuck her feet into flip-flops and went next door.

“You look happy and miserable,” Joce said. “How can that be?”

“Easy. Marry one day, smile. Get left behind the next, frown. So where are the cards?”

Joce hesitated. “I think you need to sit down.”

“What did Shamus do now?” Last year he’d seen a high school girl crying, and when he asked her what was wrong, she’d told him about a teacher who’d demanded kisses for good grades. That night Shamus and his brothers broke into the school and Shamus painted a twelve-foot-tall picture of the teacher—naked—running after some frightened girls. There’d been a lot of turmoil, but in the end the teacher was fired, the Fraziers gave a six-figure donation to the school, and Shamus painted a respectable mural on the gym wall. Since then he’d been the hero of every girl in the school.

Sara sat on the end of the bed and Joce handed her a stack of tarot cards. The backs were beautiful, with one of Luke’s weedlike plants that he loved so much on a cream background.

She turned them over and gasped at the first card. It was the Gypsy King, and it was a portrait of Shamus’s father. His mother was the Queen.

Sara looked at Joce.

“Go on,” Joce said. “Look at the rest of them.”

Sara fanned through them, and everyone in Edilean whose family had been there for generations, plus some new people, was on the cards. When she came to the Lovers, there she and Mike were.

And everything that anyone had ever heard about gypsies was there too. Shamus had used photos Joce had downloaded off the Internet to put all the people in the garb of gypsies. There were round-roofed caravans, voluptuous women with gold coin earrings, and men with clay pipes holding on to beautiful horses.

The Hanged One was Greg, hanging upside down, his single gold earring dangling. “This is …” She looked at Joce. “I don’t
know if this is good or bad. Mike will either love these or throw them on a fire.”

“I saved these for last.” Joce handed her a stack of fourteen cards.

On the Cards of Coins, Shamus had drawn the faces of women—all middle-aged—who came to the dress shop. Since he often spent afternoons sitting in the town square drawing, he’d seen them all. On each card was a wheel with spokes leading outward to the face of a woman, the number depending on the card. The Nine of Coins had the pictures of nine women.

In the center of each wheel was Greg’s face—and Shamus had distorted it on each one so he looked greedy, angry, menacing. The portraits ran the gamut of the emotions of evil.

“It looks like Shamus heard us talking,” Sara said.

“You think?”

Sara shook her head. “This isn’t good.” Her mother was on the Card of Judgment, her father on the Hermit. “Who is this woman on the Devil Card?”

“Luke’s mother said it was Mike’s grandmother.”

Sara’s head came up. “Do you know what the big mystery is about that woman?”

“Don’t get me started. I’ve tried everything to find out that story, but no one will tell me. I can’t finish my book about Miss Edi until I know what happened, but I can’t get it out of anyone. Maybe Mike would …”

“You mean the Mike who spent the night making fabulous love to me—at my request—then ran off this morning? Some bride
I
am.”

Joce was silent as she gathered the cards. “I think Mike really and truly
needs
to see these cards.” She was looking hard at Sara.

“We could scan them into a computer and e-mail the whole deck to him.”

“That’s not the same as holding them in his hands, is it? And who’s going to tell him who each person is?”

Sara was puzzled. “We could write notes on all of them.”