Key West (13 page)

“My little sister has the look of a satisfied woman,” she said, getting closer. “I never saw her look that way. Your brother Frank spread himself too thin to have enough left over for her. Not that she could ever be his type. Chris Talon’s got to have plenty of what she needs. Whew. What a body. Now that’s the stuff of this girl’s wet dreams.”

She had always thought her crudeness was a turn-on. He’d never bothered to set her straight because he’d learned to shut out the sound of her mouth. There were other things guaranteed to make that easy.

“Are we likely to have a visit from your shrink friend?”

 “Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “We have to talk.”

Not before he got what he wanted at the moment. “It’s been a long time for you and me, Billy.”

She spared him a long stare from her very dark eyes. “Business first, brother dear.”

“I’m not your brother.”

She stopped dancing. “Let’s sit down.”

“Let’s not.”

“Οh, Romano, don’t be so predictable. We don’t have time for any of that now.”

He was going to establish that he was in charge. “I’ll decide what we have time for.”

“Don’t try that approach with me,” Billy said. “We both know I don’t take orders—from anyone.”

That was the Billy he knew so well. He didn’t like it, but this wasn’t the moment to fight with her. “Let’s get back to business,” he said. “Unless we’re a whole lot luckier than I believe we are, there will be difficulties ahead for us. Your tattooed hunk may have a lot of influence over Sonnie. If that is so, the picture will change. She will be a problem to control.”

Billy put her hands on her hips. “If Talon becomes a nuisance, well—he can’t be allowed to become a nuisance, can he?”

She had always had the ability to cool his blood. Billy Keith lacked the one thing that separated a human being from the rest of the animal kingdom: she had no conscience. A good reason for him to control her at all costs.

“Can we?” she repeated.

“I am not concerned about keeping a badly dressed, uneducated moron in check, Billy. You may leave that to me.”

She took a breath deep enough to make it impossible not to watch her breasts. “Υou and I will work together now,” she said. “We will keep each other informed of everything, no matter how small. All we need is proof of Frank’s death, and you become his heir. At least in all practical respects.

“How naughty of Frank to talk Sonnie into putting her money into his estate, and then to make it your job to administer everything if he died before her. My parents will be beside themselves when they find out.” She shook a finger at him. “But don’t forget that you must look after her. Frank stipulated that, didn’t he?”

These were facts that were supposed to be known only to Frank and himself. Sonnie had been young, stupidly in love, and easily controlled after her marriage. She’d been persuaded to agree to what Frank described as a special trust.

“Romano?” Billy said. “What are you thinking?”

“That you are better informed than I realized.”

She laughed. “Frank enjoyed telling me about it. We enjoyed a lot of things. Poor Sonnie. She isn’t strong—in mind or body. When she has to be committed, you will become her guardian, and you will be even freer with her assets. Won’t that be nice?”

She left him speechless. He had his own plans, but they weren’t nearly as developed as hers.

“Won’t that be
nice?”
Billy said again, taking another eye-catching breath. “Or perhaps I should say that it will be adequate until something even more permanent can be arranged. Come, we’ll sit down and go over things more thoroughly.”

The excitement she made him feel wasn’t going away. “I’m going to love going over things with you, Billy. But first I shall love seeing you. Take off your dress.”

She scowled. “We’ve already decided on business first.”

“Fucking first,” he said, keeping his voice even. “I have missed you. I will think so much better after we really say hello.”

The anger remained on her face, but she stepped close enough for him to see the deep cleavage inside the zippered bodice of the dress.

First he undid her belt and let it fall. Next he unzipped her bodice as slowly as the pulsing in his penis would allow. Billy’s clothes were made to apply rather than wear. Not a wrinkle showed anywhere.

When he reached for her, she batted his hands away and opened the dress herself. His jaws locked; so did his thighs. It was his turn to take deep breaths.

Billy prided herself on not owning many bras. She peeled the bodice aside until it framed the most amazing breasts he’d had the good fortune to enjoy. He didn’t care how much she’d paid for them.

She wouldn’t let him touch her. “Take off your clothes,” she told him.

Ah, yes, how could he forget that she liked to play her little game of watching him strip before she took everything off?

He got rid of his shirt and his belt and started to unzip his pants. Billy stopped him. “ I’d like a little attention first. Do you know another woman as big as I am who doesn’t need a bra?”

“I do not. You are fabulous.”

“Rub them with the hair on your chest. I like that.”

He couldn’t stifle a groan, but he managed to do as she asked without ejaculating in his pants. He rubbed her, and she rubbed him. No hands, just large, hard nipples and jutting flesh against a chest he was glad he kept perfectly defined. She dipped, raked herself over his ribs, then went to her knees and licked his belly.

“Billy.” He moaned. “You’re killing me.”

She unzipped his pants and dropped them around his ankles. Then she stood and stripped off her lace-topped stockings and black thong panties. She’d always been able to surprise him—or shock him. A foot strategically placed behind his heels knocked him off balance, and, with his pants around his ankles, he couldn’t recover. He landed on his back on the bed, his feet still on the floor and his knees bent at the edge of the mattress.

Billy straddled his thighs, then leaned over to fill his mouth with first one, then the other of her breasts. The instant he tried to clasp her to him, she pushed away, produced a condom from a pocket, and slipped it on him.

The hem of her skirt was stiff and she used it to play. Back and forth she swept the glazed cotton, repeatedly flirting with the head of his penis until his hips came off the bed with every pass.

“Billy,” he pleaded.

She smiled at him, showing all of her sharp little teeth. “Okay, lover. This is for you.”

She raised her skirts to show him her small, rounded belly and the triangle of black hair between her legs. She reached down to separate herself. He could see how ready she was without even touching her.

“For you,” she said in a singsong voice, and impaled herself on him. The lady was strong. Her breasts bounced, once, twice, as she rose and fell on him; then he turned his head aside, incapable of stopping himself from pouring forth.

“Too damn fast, damn you,” he said through his teeth. She’d already come to rest on him, shuddering with her own release. She opened her mouth to breathe deeply and tossed her hair back. Α moment more and she left him.

“Billy, wait. I’ll be ready again.”

She zipped up her dress. “I won’t. Looks like you’ve been hoarding, love. Better get that off before you make a mess. I promised I’d meet Jim now. We’ll talk later.”

Ten

She was a married woman. On her wedding day she’d taken vows she’d never intended to break.

And she hadn’t broken her vows.

Cleaning the house, cutting bunch after bunch of flowers to fill vases for every room, keeping the washer and dryer rumbling away all day—no matter how tired she tried to make herself, how she concentrated on simple tasks, Sonnie couldn’t keep her mind focused on anything but Chris Talon.

Would she sleep with him if he wanted her?

He didn’t want her. He’d put on that crazy act in front of Billy and her friend that morning; then, once they had gone, he’d drunk coffee, eaten some of the food she’d prepared, and left.

She was back in Key West because the conviction that someone had tried to kill her here kept growing stronger.

What kind of person sent a woman who’d suffered as she had a box of calla lilies with a card to remind her of her child’s death, and a not-so-subtle suggestion that she ought to join that child? Someone who wanted her to run away? Someone who didn’t want her in Key West? Someone who wanted her dead?

She already knew the answers to her questions.

A gardenia floated in a crystal bowl on the wide parlor windowsill. Sonnie flipped a forefinger through the water to make the bloom spin.

Billy told Romano to come here. Billy, who was their father’s daughter by his first wife, had always overshadowed Sonnie, but she’d been kind, too. When Sonnie was hospitalized, Billy frequently slept in the room with her. Yes, Sonnie loved her sister and she wasn’t proud of the way she’d treated her that morning.

The phone rang. Sonnie lifted it from the desk and put the receiver to her ear while she returned to the sunlight by the window. “Hello.”

“Sonnie?” Chris had just enough of South Carolina in his voice to make him easy to recognize. “That you, Sonnie?”

Not that she wouldn’t recognize his voice anyway. “It’s me,” she said.

“You’re not much like your sister.”

Hours had passed since he’d left. “You just realized that.” Billy was gorgeous.

“No, ma’am. Noticed it right away. Forgot to mention it, that’s all. Do you two get along?”

She squinted against the glare through the swaying fan palm fronds. “Of course we get along.” Not that there hadn’t been some disagreements.

“Doesn’t always work out that way
.
But you trust her?” Sonnie turned her back to the window. “You’re making me feel strange. Of course I trust my sister.”

“It was nice having breakfast with you.”

“I’m glad.” She perched on the edge of the desk and swung a leg.

“Great coffee.”

He made her feel like a plain high schooler who just got noticed by the captain of the football team. “Thank you, Chris.”

“You look cute when you sleep.”

She almost dropped the base of the phone.

“Sonnie?”

“Thank you.”

His laughter made her smile. “Υοu’re welcome, ma’am. Just thought you might like to know that.”

“Well, it’s the kind of information that could come in useful one day.”

“Was it okay for me to interfere? Make sure your sister and her friend got out of Dodge?”

Trembling inside over a few trivial comments showed how lonely she must be. “Ι’m very grateful you did. But now I’ve got to speak with Billy and make sure she knows I wasn’t myself when she arrived.”

“You weren’t?”

What was she supposed to say?

“You mean because you were in those wonderful pajamas—did I tell you how much I like those pajamas—is that why? You were in your pajamas, and you knew she’d think I spent the night with you?”

“Something like that.”

“I did spend the night with you, Sonnie.”

The cool cotton dress she wore wasn’t cool enough. “Not technically.”

His laughter lasted longer this time. When he caught his breath, he said, “Technically, yes, we did spend the night together. And
technically
we slept together, too. What we didn’t do was...
know
each other, as it’s written somewhere. But you didn’t ask for all that explanation, did you? I’m sorry if you were uncomfortable because of anything I did.”

“Thank you for what you did—and said,” she told him hurriedly. “I’ve been pushing myself at you from the minute we were introduced. You’ve been very kind, and I know I’ve been a nuisance.”

When the silence went on and on and he still didn’t answer, she said, “I’m sorry about that.”

He paused a while longer before saying, “Is Jim Lesley a friend of yours?”

“He came with—oh, you mean did I meet him before. No.”

“And he’s nothing special to Billy, as far as you know?” She thought about that. “It’s hard to be sure. When you look like Billy, men hover. I wouldn’t expect her to be with him if he didn’t interest her.”

“There are a lot of ways to be interesting. You’ve given me the answers I expected. I asked a few questions about Jim Lesley.”

“Why?” She’d like to tell Chris that he interested her in lots of ways. “How would you find out anything about a man you saw for only a few minutes? You wouldn’t know where to start.”

He tutted. “With so much faith in me, you must have been desperate when you asked me to work for you. I’ve got to go, Sonnie. But Jim Lesley is Dr. James V. Lesley. He’s a psychiatrist and he runs an expensive, very
discreet
sanitarium. Sorry to rush. Maybe we’ll talk later.”

The line went dead—not that she could have formed a response.

She should see Billy. Now. Ask her what she thought she was doing.

Calling Billy at the club, accusing her of bringing a psychiatrist to evaluate her sister, would be a bad move. Sonnie replaced the phone on the desk. She was fine, and she’d prove it without confronting family members who only wished her well.

The recollection of Chris in the kitchen, dressed only in jeans slung low on his hips—and a tattoo—made her grin. Billy might well be wondering about her mousy younger sister, but what the hell?

Sonnie went into the hall and through the open front door. The gardenia bush was to the right, and she picked another flower, this one to thread behind her ear.

A flash of orange and lime green alerted her to the approach of Just Ena. Using the gap in the hibiscus hedge to get into Sonnie’s yard, the woman wiggled her fingers as she tripped forward in thongs that sported green rubber flowers.

“Hello, Ena,” Sonnie said. It was time to make very sure everyone knew how pleasant and ordinary she was. “How are you?”

“I’m just wonderful. It’s you I’m worried about. Now you just tell me to go away and mind my own business if you like, but I wouldn’t be a good neighbor if I didn’t make sure everything’s all right over here. I’ve been trying to decide what I should say to you for hours. Of course, your friend was here. Then the man and woman visited. But—”