Sex and Key Lime Pie (6 page)

“All right. Let’s go. My friends are waiting.” They walked inside the opulent restaurant. A desk in front of the Captain’s Room held nametags for the alumni of the class of 1998. “You’re in. I’m off. Have fun.”

“Thanks, Cheyanne. Save a dance for me.”

“Forget it. You have two left feet.” She parted company at the entrance and made her way across the room to the table where her friends were already seated. Piped in music was barely audible above the din of voices that echoed with high-pitched shrills and phony interest. People who couldn’t stand each other while in school, embraced like long lost relatives.

Why did she want to do this?

After a jostling that left her feeling like she’d run an obstacle course, she reached the table. Liz and Isabelle, flanked by their husbands, had left a seat for her between them.

“What would you like to drink?” a waiter asked when she sat down.

“Club soda.” Cheyanne needed to be clear headed tonight. She would have the best time if it killed her. Just because Luc chose to spend his evening with Sue Ann draped around him like a shroud, didn’t mean the evening had to die for her. “Izzy, Lizzy. I need to talk to you in the ladies’ room for a minute.”

Tony glanced at his watch. “A new world record. Ten seconds for the first bathroom run.”

****

Luc felt like ditching his date and he hadn’t even walked into the building yet. He’d accepted in a moment of stupidity and he would pay for the remainder of the evening. He’d never met a woman who could talk so much. And her favorite subject was herself. He checked her neck for a set of gills, because she never came up for air.

She held onto his arm as if she guessed he wanted to make a fast escape. What had he been thinking when he accepted her invitation? Fact was, he hadn’t been thinking at all. He’d been reacting to goading from his cousin. He glanced once again at Sue Ann. Her artificially blonde hair and blue contact lenses made her look like a cheap imitation of Cheyanne, while James would be there with the real woman. He swallowed a grunt of disgust.

He stopped at the bar for a drink, feeling suddenly parched. He wanted gin but he ordered tonic water. Alcohol might make this evening easier to take, but sobriety would keep him out of trouble until he could make his exit.

“Oh, let’s sit with your sister,” Sue Ann drawled close to his ear.

“Why? You never liked her when she was in school with you.”

She would not have been caught dead hanging with the townies. Slumming for sex was one thing, but she had picked her friends by their upper class addresses.

“That’s not true.” She pressed against him, her breasts nearly popping out of plunging neckline of her red dress. “I adored your sister.”

Well, he would lay odds on the fact that Isabelle had no feelings of adoration for Sue Ann. As she made her way across the room like a B-52 zeroing in on its target, he could only wait for the explosion.

An explosion that never came. However, he would have preferred a scene to the surreal nightmare he stepped into. The men at the table looked distinctly uncomfortable. Hell, Sue Ann had hit on all of them at one time or another. The women, however, seemed oblivious to the discomfort and were having the time of their lives. He could only guess how much they’d had to drink. They whispered and giggled like they were still in school.

“You don’t mind if I join you, do you?” Sue Ann asked when no one acknowledged her presence. One thing he could say for her, she had no qualms about being where she wasn’t wanted.

“Of course not. You’re with my brother after all,” Isabelle said, with an innocent grin. The one time he wanted his sister to tell him to get lost she was the epitome of good manners.

His stare rested on Cheyanne to gauge her reaction. She looked more poised and beautiful than ever. Her hair swept up, showed off her long neck and delicate shoulders. Her black dress was daring yet elegant. Damn, she had class down to an art form. He had not been able to evict her from his thoughts since the barbeque. His work was suffering; his sleep was suffering. He had to get a grip before she became an obsession.

After some awkward hellos, he took the seat directly across the table from her. Their gazes locked. She smiled sweetly. To any onlooker, she appeared carefree, but her eyes only turned that deep shade of cobalt blue when hurt or angry. Or both. She obviously wasn’t with James, because his cousin sat one table over with his country club buddies, watching them with bitter amusement. In less than a minute Luc had managed to tick off both friends and family. Not bad for a day’s work.

Sue Ann flopped into a chair next to him with a huff. Her heavy perfume followed. “I heard you were here for a visit,” she muttered to Cheyanne.

“Good news travels fast.”

“When are you leaving?” Sue Ann didn’t bother sugar coating the words.

Cheyanne lifted her small shoulders in a shrug. “A week, a month, a year. I haven’t decided. It depends on how things go.”

Luc almost choked on his tonic water. A year? She couldn’t mean that.

“We’re trying to convince her to stay for good. Wouldn’t that be perfect, Luc?” Isabelle asked.

Just freaking perfect.

“I doubt boring little Mystic Cove could hold her interest after Europe,” Sue Ann groused.

“I don’t know.” Cheyanne brushed at the fringe of bangs on her forehead. Her pink lips curved upward in wry amusement. “Mystic Cove has a lot to offer.”

“Like what?”

“Industry is booming. A whole new class of suburban professionals has moved into the area. A woman with ambition could go far.”

Sue Ann cast a vicious glare. “Where would you live now that your mother has sold the house?”

“I heard a rumor that someone is building condominiums on the property. Maybe I’ll look into one of those when they’re ready. Until then I could rent. We’ll see how it goes.”

The waiters began to serve dinner, effectively ending the conversation. Luc was left to wonder if Cheyanne really considered a permanent return or if she wanted to get back at him. Her expression gave nothing away. Admittedly, showing up with a date for her reunion deserved payback. His cousin set him up good and it had been a long time since James got the better of Luc.

Damn, did everyone in town know his Achilles heel? At thirty-six he should be more mature, more intelligent. So why was he still behaving like the kid from the wrong side of town that wanted to hurt her because he couldn’t have her? He should just screw her and get it out of his system once and for all.

When the meal ended, all three women on the opposite side of the table stood.

“Bathroom,” Isabelle rubbed her round stomach. “Telephone,” Elisabeth said.

Cheyanne didn’t even try to make a polite excuse. “I need air. It’s stuffy in here.”

Luc had to remain in the company of two of his pissed off friends, listening to a bimbo’s view of the world. He couldn’t even enjoy the way his cousin sat one table away, spying on them with all the discretion of Inspector Clouseau. He might as well cut his losses and get out of there before he ruined the evening for everyone.

****

Cheyanne walked along the wharf with Elisabeth and Isabelle at her side. The view was as spectacular as she remembered. She didn’t realize how much she missed this place until now. The beauty, the calm, and the sheer comfort in something constant and unchanged.

Sailboats with their tall masts rocked in rhythmic waves. White foam lapped the rock jetty. The lights from the yacht club reflected on the dark ocean surface. She longed to dive in headfirst and allow the cold, salt water to envelop her and numb the sorrow from her body.

The evening had not turned out as she’d hoped. While she hadn’t expected to garner an overwhelming reception from many people, she hadn’t expected to be used as a pawn between the two men who had once been a part of her life. Especially Luc, who had been the center of her world.

Why wasn’t she immune yet? Why did she still care?

Because you have a son with him, and you foolishly dream that someday he’ll want to be a father.

Sam wanted so much to meet his father. How could she chance that Luc wouldn’t break his son’s heart the way he had broken hers?

The reunion broke up around midnight. Before returning home, Cheyanne took a ride along the coast. She loved to drive the empty roads at night and take in the star-filled sky. The solitude allowed her to unwind. Luc had never joined the rest of his friends on the wharf. She should have been pleased, but instead she’d spent the time imagining him alone with Sue Ann, while she lived up to her reputation. Damn, she hated the jealous feeling gnawing in the pit of her stomach. After a half hour of aimless driving, she returned to the house in the Heights. Disappointment washed over her and she realized that she had wanted to see a truck in her driveway.

Had she really hoped he would show up tonight? Yes, because it would have meant he wasn’t with Sue Ann.

She needed to get his private life off her mind. Thankfully, she would be visiting her son this weekend at camp. Out of sight would mean out of mind. Or so she hoped.

Inside, she poured a glass of wine and left it on the desk in her bedroom while she went to rinse the salt and sand from her body. With a towel wrapped around her, she returned to the darkened room. The decor had not been changed since she left nine years ago. The white eyelet canopy bed reminded her of something that belonged in a Barbie Dream House. Pretty, feminine, but not at all a reflection of her personality. In the dark she couldn’t see the pink floral wallpaper and rose-colored rug but knew that hadn’t changed either.

She reached for her wine and went to take a sip. The glass was empty. She ran her hand along the desk but found no moisture.

Her stomach knotted. Was someone in the house with her? She edged toward the bed where she had left her purse and fumbled for her cell phone. Before she could punch in 911, a scraping sound came from behind her. Without thinking, she broke the glass against the wall and held the jagged edge in front of her.

“Who’s there?” she growled out. With only the bathroom light behind her, she couldn’t make out more than a shadow near the door.

Light flooded the room. She blinked until her eyes adjusted. “Who do you think?” Luc leaned against the wall with the wine bottle in his hand.

“Luc?” she mouthed the word, but nothing came out.

“You were expecting someone else?”

She slumped over a chair and tried to catch a normal breath before she hyperventilated. The lousy rot. Did he get off on scaring the hell out of her? “That’s the third time you’ve done this to me.”

“Then you should have expected me by now.” His unrepentant and amused attitude made her blood boil.

“You jackass. What if I had slit your throat in a panic?”

He chuckled. “You used to talk a lot more ladylike.”

“You used to be a lot more gentlemanly, but I guess things change.” She knelt down on the carpet and picked up the pieces of glass, carefully placing them in a waste paper basket. “How did you get in?”

“You left the door unlocked.”

She shook her head at his sheer audacity. “So you took it as an invitation?”

“Of course. You even poured me a glass of wine.”

“The wine was for me, you conceited oaf.” As she came to her feet, she tightened her towel and gripped the edge with her fingers. “What are you doing here? Sue Ann refuse to put out for the first time in her life?”

“Jealous?” He walked toward her.

She backed away until she came up against the wall. “I couldn’t care less who you’re sleeping with these days.” She tried to sound bored, but it was hard to pull off any kind of unaffected attitude while he stood so close and she was wearing only a towel.

“I didn’t have sex with her.”

“I said I didn’t care.” Oh, but she did. His words brought a feeling of relief. Worse, he knew it.

“Right. That’s why you disappeared after dinner and hung out at the wharf all night. Because you didn’t care.”

She frowned. “Was that your point in bringing her to the reunion—to see if you could hurt me?”

He didn’t deny or confirm her question. Instead, he stared at her, his dark eyes appraising her. The intensity of his gaze held her mesmerized. He was still so beautiful, so dangerous, that the very sight of him made her adrenalin flow. And she knew from the past how easily she became addicted to an adrenalin rush.

“We’re too old to be playing games and we have too much bad history to be friends. So, cut to the chase. What are you doing here?”

He arched his eyebrow. “What do you think?”

“You want me to get out of Dodge before sundown. This town isn’t big enough for the both of us,” she said in her best imitation of John Wayne. “No.”

“Then what do you want?”

“You’re right. We’re too old to play games so why waste any more time? It isn’t bad history, but unfinished business between us.”

She recognized that look in his eye. She’d seen it a hundred times before. Raw hunger and pure sexual need. It had been a long time since she’d been wanted in that way. Nine years, to be exact. Was it enough to risk her emotions on?