AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When she had everything together, she heard the water shut off. A few moments later he came out wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. She looked away. Just not quick enough. Something burned in his gaze. Desire?
She felt her cheeks flush at the heat of his gaze and turned away for fear he might see the same in her eyes. She caught her reflection again in the antique mirror hanging on the living room wall and saw that she looked…happy. Or at least excited. Both were dangerous.
Suddenly Landry appeared in the mirror as he stepped up behind her. He slipped his arm around her neck from behind. She froze. His hand hovered for a moment then touched the collar of her shirt as he moved closer until his body was warm against hers. She felt his breath on her neck, the soft touch of his lips making the tiny hairs lift and her skin ripple with gooseflesh.
She held her breath as he straightened her collar, his fingers brushing over the skin below her collarbone.
“There,” he said meeting her gaze in the mirror. “That looks better.”
He held her gaze for a moment longer then returned to the bedroom and without closing the door, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and his deck shoes. “Ready?”
She felt bereft at the loss of his touch. She dropped her gaze, not wanting him to see what he was doing to her but afraid he knew only too well. Why hadn’t she fessed up to her lack of sexual experience? It was certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Was she afraid he would take advantage of it? Or because from the way he’d acted she feared he wouldn’t?
* * *
“SO YOU’RE BLOSSOM,” Landry said a few minutes later when they joined the other residents down by the pool where Odell had pulled up several tables and some chairs and had a grill going. Loud obnoxious music blared from Blossom’s room across the pool.
Blossom gave Landry a bored look from eyes rimmed in charcoal. She appeared drugged as she slouched in one of the lawn chairs and pouted behind a wall of kinky dyed-black hair. She wore the same black outfit she had on earlier. Willa wondered if everything the girl owned was black.
“Her agent forced her to come here for some down-time,” Henri said, and chuckled as she lifted her glass of wine in a toast. “There are worse places to be. I’ve just never found them.” She laughed and downed her wine.
Odell reached for the wine bottle and quickly refilled her glass, then turned to offer some to Willa and Landry.
“You wouldn’t have a beer, would you?” Landry asked.
“In the cooler,” Henri said. “I always like to be prepared. Bloody Marys in the morning.”
Landry popped the top on a beer and offered it to Willa. She shook her head and held up her drink of preference. “I brought bottled water, thanks.”
“Bottled water,” Landry said. “That’s my girl.”
She ignored him and took a sip of her water to cool herself down. What was Landry up to? She was having trouble believing this was about finding whoever had shot at her earlier today. She suspected there was a whole lot more to it.
“This is really nice of you,” Landry said as Odell cooked the steaks. “We hate to eat all your food.”
“I have the supply boat coming back tomorrow. This island might be isolated, but there isn’t any reason not to be civilized,” he said, and looked over at Willa.
Henri finished off the wine and went to get another bottle, weaving as she walked back to her apartment. Blossom continued to sulk in her lawn chair.
Willa tried to imagine which of the three could shoot at her, let alone put a huge rattlesnake in her bathtub.
“She’s getting over a broken heart,” Odell said, watching Henri stumble into her apartment.
“Willie tells me you’re writing a book,” Landry said, sipping at his beer and watching Odell cook the steaks.
“Did she?” Odell looked over at her. “I’m still at that stage where I’m not completely sure what I want to write about.”
“I thought you were doing it on this place,” Landry said. “Cape Diablo and the Villa Santiago. It’s definitely creepy enough. So what is your theory?”
“My theory?” Odell asked.
“On what happened to Andres and…” Landry looked to Willa.
“Medina,” she provided.
“Medina and the other two kids?”
Odell looked uncomfortable as he glanced at Willa. “I think they were murdered here, their bodies disposed of on the property.”
