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Harrison unlocked the door, and the scent of lavender and apples met Cass’s nose. “The chocolates are here,” he said.
The door slammed closed behind them, and Cass paused to remove her shoes. She’d changed out of her gown and into a party dress for dinner and dancing, and that had required heels. She’d had enough of them now, and she left them by the door and followed Harrison into the room.
He turned and held a bouquet of roses along with a box of plump, ripe strawberries. He indicated the table to his left. “They left hot fudge for dipping. It’s actually warm.” He grinned at her, and Cass returned the smile.
She moved into him and took the flowers from him. She set them down on the table next to the hot fudge. Her eyes drifted up to his as she took the fruit and put it back too. She then picked up the jar of hot fudge and started to stir it. “This looks good.”
“Yeah?” His voice came out as mostly air.
“Mm.” She looked up at him, dipped her fingertip in the hot fudge, and instead of licking it herself, she traced the chocolate along his lower lip. He held as still as a statue, save for his arms which came around her, bringing her flush against him.
She tilted her head back and met him as he crushed his mouth to hers. She licked the chocolate from that lower lip, and wow, she liked the way he tasted in her mouth. The zipper on her dress slid down, and Harrison broke the kiss somewhat violently and said, “I want to lick that from your whole body,” in a hoarse, husky, sexy voice.
“Okay,” she whispered, and Cass closed her eyes and kissed him again.
6
Lauren went into the master bedroom at Harrison’s house—her house for now—and put yet another box on her bed. Joy wasn’t here right now, and despite it being the middle of the day and hotter than Hades outside, Lauren had decided to haul boxes in and out of the house.
She didn’t want Joy to see how much stuff she was moving in anyway. She’d likely find out, and soon, because Lauren had never been a closed-door type of person. Joy would come in and out of her bedroom this summer, and it wouldn’t take her long to see that Lauren had a lot more than she’d had at Cass’s.
With the bed full, she started to unpack what she’d brought in. A minute or two later, a shrill alarm filled the air, and she spun back to the door. She hurried down the hall and around the corner into the living room. She’d left the front door open, and the security system didn’t like it.
She only had two strides left to reach the door when the alarm wailed. She very nearly went deaf, but she managed to get the door closed. That, however, didn’t appease the security system. A large panel sat at eye-level on the wall next to the door, and Lauren poked at it.
Harrison hadn’t given her any instructions for this, and the alarm was so loud and so annoying that her brain couldn’t form coherent thoughts.
“Hello, this is South Island Security,” a voice said over the alarm. “Are you in distress?”
“No!” she yelled. “I just left the front door open on accident!”
“We need your safe phrase,” the man said.
“Safe phrase?” The alarm continued to wail, and Lauren reached up and covered her ears.
“Do you know your safe phrase?”
“No!”
“I’m sending the police,” the man said.
“No!” Lauren said. The man did not come back onto the speaker, and Lauren couldn’t stay in the house while the alarm deafened her. She went out the front door, but the alarm outside there was almost as loud as inside.
She stood as far from the house as she could, wondering if she should walk down the lane to Cass’s house or just wait here. Would she get arrested? Could she call Cass and Harrison on their honeymoon?
Cass hadn’t given her a day-by-day itinerary, and she didn’t know where the two of them would be on their European honeymoon. She couldn’t just stand out here on the surface of the sun, wearing a pair of dirty cutoffs and a tank top that barely contained her chest.
Before she could decide what to do, police sirens added to the alarm filling the South Carolina sky. Even if she’d wanted to leave, she’d have to run now, and running indicated guilt. Didn’t it?
She stayed on the lawn, even waving as two police cars pulled into Harrison’s driveway. Wait.Herdriveway. She met the first man as he got out of the car. “Ma’am, back up, please.”
“I live here,” she said. “I’m renting the house from Harrison Tate. I just left the front door open.” She didn’t get any closer to the police officer, but she didn’t back up either.
Before she knew it, she stood in the gravel drive with four male police officers. They all looked at her, and one rested his hand on his hip—on perhaps a weapon? Lauren swallowed and faced them.
“I don’t know the safe phrase,” she said. “But I am renting this house from Harrison Tate. We got approval from the HOA and everything.”
Two of the officers exchanged a glance, and then all eyes moved to the SUV pulling into the driveway.
