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From across the pasture, our guest gingerly exits Aunt Lucy’s house before rounding the porch to shake out her yoga mat. She’s too far away to make out much more than her killer figure and her hair sloppily piled atop her head, but that doesn’t stop me from staring.
She faces the rising sun as she rolls through a few simple stretches, completely unaware of my perusal. And like muscle memory, my tongue glides across my lower lip, searching for Heather’s unique taste.
“Guess who I bumped into at Pearl Beach yesterday?”
Pen leans both elbows on the porch railing, pursing her lips at the woman in question. “No way. She said she was sick. I’ve got the texts to prove it.”
Heather reaches her arms up toward the sky before slowly bending into downward dog.
“Interesting.” Something I’ve found myself saying a lot when it comes to this cryptic woman.
“Did she tell you what she was doing there?” Pen asks.
Dragging my gaze from Heather’s perky ass, I turn to my cousin. “She said she was getting a dress for a date with Ernesto.”
“What? No.” Pen’s mouth gapes. “She can’t date that stupid asshole.”
“Apparently, she’ll do whatever she wants.”
She tightens the collar of her obnoxious fur-lined robe. “I suppose he is the hottest bachelor in Augustine.”
My lips thin as I snag her mug and take a much needed swig. “Ernesto isn’tthat good-looking. And he’s a player who’ll sleep with her once and never think about her again.”
Pen snatches the cup from my hand. “You’re not wrong there, but give the girl a break. You’ve seen how uptight she is. Maybe she needs a good roll in the sheets to loosen up.”
The very idea of Heather sleeping with Ernesto makes my blood boil.
When she dragged my mouth to her lush lips, my brain pumped the brakes so hard, I couldn’t make up from down. I was so thrown by the taste of her that I admitted I’ve secretly wanted it before knowing how much I truly did.
She claims it was a cover to distract the paparazzi. But I’ve experienced scripted, lifeless kisses before, and the passionate frenzy of the one she planted on me yesterday was far from it.
Pen nudges my shoulder. “What do you care about Heather anyway, Mr. Bad Boy?”
Surprisingly, I care a fucking lot.
Call it a hunch, or that viperous personality, but Heather doesn’t strike me as the type to go on dates with random men. And there’s still the question of why she’d followed me to Pearl Beach to start with.
I push off the railing. “Think I’m going to take a trip into town. You need anything before I go?”
Penelope’s dark-red lips twist. “Don’t go meddling in Heather’s business, Marcus.”
“I’m notmeddling.” I toss the word back at her, earning a glare. “I’m keeping us safe.”
“Safe from what? Heather wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“You trust people too easily.” At her snort, I flick my gaze toward Heather’s porch. “There’s more to her story than she’s letting on, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”
* * *
“Marcus!” two of my favorite girls squeal with crinkling brown eyes and light brown dimpled cheeks. They assail my sides with an enormous double hug as I stretch my arms above my head for the orange flowers tangled in a mass of vines.
“Trouble One,” I say to the younger sister, Sariah, who bounces excitedly when I place the flower behind her ear. “And Trouble Two.” Her older sister, Theresa, gifts me with a big toothy grin.
“We’re so happy to see you!” Sariah beams. “Did you bring us any presents?”
“As a matter of fact, I did.” I remove two wooden figurines, no bigger than the center of their palms, from my pocket. “A unicorn for Theresa, and a dolphin for Sariah.”
Their piercing shrieks turn the heads of the locals.
