Temptation Island (25 page)

Yeah, she got her meaning all right.  And the only woman that was going to be walking funny from Marek was her.  Starting tonight.

Before she could reply to Shaunda’s outrageous remark Maria breezed into the room with a bouquet of fresh flowers in her hand.  Sending Shaunda a good glare Carm pushed out of the chair and crossed the room to Maria.

“Ah, there you are
mi ami
.  I have been trying to phone Marek all morning but no one has been answering.”

Carm replied as she took in the somber state of Maria’s clothing, “Marek is down on St. Kitts today.  Is there a message you would like me to pass on to him?”

Maria nodded, the silver dangles in her ears jingling.  She looped her arm through Carm’s and led them out the door to the front porch.  Carm tossed one last glare Shaunda’s direction for good measure and stepped onto the shaded porch.

Maria turned to Carm and said, her voice touched with sorrow, “Tell Marek that Big Bubba passed away this morning.  I just heard the news while I was at Sunny Caribee picking up some spices.  He didn’t pull through the heart attack.  Tell Marek for me will you?  He’s been playing in that band of his there almost every Friday for as long as I can remember.”

Carm squeezed Maria’s hand and nodded, “I will.”  But her mind was still reeling from the shock of learning she was still a virgin.  Maria’s message barely registered.

Suddenly Maria put a hand to Carm’s brow and stated, “Ami, you don’t look so good.  Go back to Marek’s and get some rest.”

Good idea
.  Carm said her goodbye, promised to relay the message, climbed behind the wheel of Marek’s jeep and head back home.  She completely forgot to swing into the police station and file a report on her stolen passport.  Her mind was on much more important things.  Like her intact virginity.

Marek stared out the window of Landon’s helicopter to the aqua water below.  An ache in his lower back forced him to shift positions and he stretched his long, dirt covered legs in front of him and sighed.  It had been a long, frustrating day.

All day he’d questioned his employees, searched the fields, hiked into the jungle, and worked with his crop.  All day he’d kept busy as two men and all he’d been able to think about was the way Carmen had arched her neck in her sleep, reaching out for him.

He couldn’t escape her.  And he tried.  He tackled his work with singleminded determination, hoping to force her from his thoughts.  But it hadn’t worked. 

There was even a point during the day when he’d been so disgusted with himself he threw down his gloves and stalked off into the trees to cool down.  It was the moment when he’d been down on his hands and knees in the damp soil working organic fertilizer into the base of one of his plants and he realized he was comparing the blue of her eyes to the sky overhead.

That had been the last straw.  He’d dropped everything and walked away.  It was just sick the way he obsessed over her.  Every thought lately was filled with her, every breath he took he breathed her scent.  Even when she wasn’t there.  He’d memorized it, that intoxicating mix of vanilla and coconut with a hint of spice.

The one good discovery of the day had come then, however.  He’d stalked far away from the rest of his crew to the spot where he and Carmen had stood when she’d asked him about the flower.  Standing in that same spot he noticed the plant had disappeared.  That in and of itself wasn’t odd—his crew pulled the annoying plants out all the time—but the fact that it past the edge of the carefully tilled fields by the trees and it had been pulled was.

He’d walked over then and parted the tall grass and saw the footprints.  Marek had followed them through the thick jungle down the mountain to a clearing.  The grass there had been mashed flat and tire tracks led out through the trees to the dirt road farther down. 

Standing in the clearing Marek noticed one of the plants that looked like a poppy laying limp on the ground.  Marek picked it up and studied it.  A full pod at the top had split open and a milky substance oozed from the crack.

Experiencing an odd sense of déjà vu Marek gathered a bit of the liquid and rubbed it between his fingers.  It was tacky to the touch.  Just like heroin was in its raw form.

Everything had fallen into place for him then.  Why Carmen had been threatened and why he’d been attacked.  The drug Euphoria 9 was being grown in his coffee fields.  His fields were the home to the most saught after drug on the black market.

And he’d been ripping the plants out to make way for his beans.

Marek turned in his seat and looked over at Landon calm and collected at the controls.  “I need to tell the authorities when we land.  I spent a good portion of the afternoon down at the station in Basseterre giving them what information I have about what’s going on up on Mt. Liamuiga.  Mon, it pisses me off that my fields are being used for the cultivating of drugs.”

Landon glanced over at Marek, his black headphones making his blond hair lay flat over his forehead.  “You can’t blame yourself for that, Bro.  How were you to know?  Hell, I’ve been up to your fields many times and have never looked twice at those flowers.  Is kind of ironic though, isn’t it?  You used to grow pot and now you’re growing this.”

A snort escaped Marek at that. 
Oui
, he did have a pot plant or two when he was a kid.  Until his mother had discovered it wasn’t some sort of bamboo plant like he’d told her it was.  She’d believed him for the longest time too.  Man she was gullible about some things.

No doubt about it he’d been a wild kid.  Made a pretty decent profit for a time selling the stuff to the tourists too.

Marek shook his head at his youthful stupidity.  Thank God those days were long gone.  The best thing that had ever happened to him was getting caught by that detective.  Being sent to the states had given him a second chance at life—one with a future. 

After a while he’d been smart enough to realize it.

Landon broke his train of thought when he asked, “What are you going to tell Carm?”

Marek shrugged and settled back against the seat.  “The truth.  I’m not going to lie to her, mon.  Besides I gave the police on St. Kitts enough evidence to go on and they’ve already been nosing around up there.  Apparently someone saw a yacht anchored in an undesignated location loading boxes of cargo a few weeks ago and told the police about it.  They’re just about to go after them.”

Tortola came into view on the horizon, rising out of the water steep and tall, the spine of the island high in the sky.  Marek squinted his eyes against the glaring sun and added, “I’ll let the police here know and let them do their job.  In the meantime I’m not going to let Carm out of my sight.”

“Smart thinking.  I wouldn’t let her go anywhere without you until this is over.  The drug pirates will be feeling the heat pretty soon and might take it out on you, man.”

“I’ll be ready.”

Landon chuckled and replied, “I don’t doubt that for a minute, Bro.”

Marek scrubbed his hands down his face and grinned, “Damn straight.  Never underestimate a man who’s been on both sides of society, mon.”

Beef Island stretched out before them and Landon picked up his control and spoke into the microphone as he made his way toward the landing pad.  Marek watched the newly renovated airport grow closer and felt anticaption build.

He’d avoided thinking about Carm’s reaction to the things he’d left her but couldn’t help it now.  Impatience clawed at him, urging him to get to her. 

Marek pushed it aside as Landon settled them smoothly on the ground.  He had one more stop to make before he went home to her.

When they were settled in Landon’s white Ranger Marek drove them down to the police station and pulled into the parking lot.  He had some very interesting news to pass on.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The sun was hanging heavy on the horizon, only a few minutes away from setting when Landon dropped Marek off at his house.  All day he’d thought about Carm, wanted her, craved her.

And now Marek was going to have her.

He pushed open his front double door and stepped inside.  Taking a moment to kick of his mud-caked boots, Marek toed them off and looked around his house for Carmen.  Quiet enveloped him as he quickly rolled the cuffs of his old Levi’s up and slipped off his socks. 

After placing the socks inside his shoes Marek strode down the hall toward the kitchen.  Carmen wasn’t there. Frowning a bit Marek stopped in front of the stainless steel sink and washed his hands and strong, ropy forearms.  Just as he was drying his hands on a towel hanging on the handle of the stove he heard a muffled voice coming from the other side of the house.

Grabbing a large green apple on his way past the wooden fruit bowl on the counter Marek bit into it and slipped down the hall following the noise.  When he came to the French doors to his office he stopped and listened through the closed doors.

Laughter filtered through the glass and settled warm around his heart.  He heard Carm respond to something, her voice soft with affection.  Hearing her say her sister’s name Marek sighed and stepped away from the door.  He knew by the last phone call it could take awhile before she got off the phone. The woman sure liked to gab. 

He figured as he made his way upstairs to his room that if talking to her sister for three hours every day would make her happy then he’d gladly foot the bill.  He needed to hear her laugh, see her smile.  And if that’s what it took, then that’s fine with him.

Besides, he could definitely use a shower.  Sweat and dirt were two things he knew would keep Carm at arms length and Marek wanted her in his arms tonight.  They were going to finish what they’d started last night.

With his thoughts turned to getting Carm naked Marek stripped out of his dirt smeared clothes and strode to the bathroom.  Marek studied his face in the mirror as he pulled off the black band that had held his hair out of his face all day.  Landon was a smart man and wisely kept his mouth shut about it all day, although he saw his lips twitch a few times on the flight over.

With his hair free it fell in a riot of curls over his right eye and he shoved it back.  Glancing at his reflection for a moment Marek wondered what Carm saw when she looked at him.

Did she see a mixed race man with wild hair and green eyes?  An illigitmate son of a young, single mother and absent father?  Or did she see a man who had once been a troubled youth who’d overcome the obstacles to become a man of confidence and ability who made his way successfully in the world?

He knew she loved him, but didn’t know how she saw him.

Marek swore and turned to the shower.  He turned the nozzle and waited for the water to heat.  It was eating at him knowing he’d opened himself to Carm, left himself exposed and vulnerable.  He’d told her things about himself he never shared.  Ever.  This was the first time he’d let a woman into his life, into his past.  And it left him shaken and scared.

For the first time in his life he was vulnerable, open to hurt from a woman.  It had been a gamble leaving Carm those pictures and his biography, but he knew that if they were going to take the next steps he had to make the effort.

Didn’t mean he had to like it. 

Marek tested the water and found it hot so he climbed in and shut the glass door behind him.  Water poured down his chest and washed away the day’s sweat and grime.  Enjoying the rising steam he closed his eyes and let the heat seep into his pores, let it sooth his tense muscles.

Carmen wrapped his body in knots, made his muscles tense and his gut churn.  Something had to be done about it.  He had to have her tonight, had to release all the tension built up inside him before he exploded.

Water pounded and pulsed on his broad shoulders and slid down his back, past his narrow waist and over his steel of his ass to the floor.  Marek closed his eyes and tilted his head back until the water slicked his hair back away from his face.

Carmen had better be off the phone by the time he dried off and dressed or he was going to rip it from her hands.  He couldn’t wait any more to find out what she was thinking.  If she was happy about his gesture, or it had backfired on him an had her worrying over his juvenile antics. 
Merde,
he had been a stupid kid, that’s all.  He wasn’t proud of the things he’d done, but he’d done them.  That was fact.  Didn’t change who he was now.

He hoped Carm would see it that way.

Marek swore under his breath and turned toward the water.  She had him so churned up inside he was going crazy.  The hell of it was he didn’t know how to make it go away.  All he knew was that he had to touch her soon.

Steam rose all around him fogging the clear glass of the door and rolled over the top of the glass.  The hot water felt wonderful as it pounded against his sculpted chest.  Closing his eyes Marek ducked his head under the water and let it run over his head and down his face.  It massaged his scalp, pulsed along the back of his head.  Letting it pour over him and wash the stress away Marek leaned forward and placed his hands on the granite walls.