Scarlet Fever - Hill Country 2 (18 page)

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“I want to make love to you, Cecile.”
 
Bobby caught her hand, pulling her toward the bed.

Cecile looked at the broad shoulders and perfect abs of the young Adonis that lay across her quilt.
 
“I want to.
 
I really do.
 
Actually, I’m shivering just thinking about what you might look like under those jeans, but I can’t.”

“Why?”
 
Bobby rose from the bed and slowly began to stalk her.
 
“I’ve been hard for you for two days, lady.
 
I don’t think I can wait any longer.”
 
She backed up as far as she could go, until she was leaning against the wall.

“You’re very aggressive.”
 
She smiled, nervously.
 
“I like that.”
 
She did; it made her forget that he was seven years younger than she was.
 
He arrived at her feet.
 
His broad, well-developed chest was close enough than her aroused nipples almost brushed against him.
 

“I know what I want; and I go after it.”
 
He bracketed her with his arms, leaning in, perilously close to her lips.
 
“And I want you, Cecile.
 
In my bed.
 
Now.”

“I was in first grade when you were born,” she muttered weakly.

“So?
 
I think I‘ve caught up with you, darling.”
 
He inhaled her scent, his lips making a foray down the soft skin of her neck.

“I was in college when you were in Junior High.”
 
Her voice was even weaker, the argument not even standing up in her own mind.
 
Not anymore.
 
This youngest Stewart brother was sexy as hell.
 

“You are the cutest, sweetest, softest, sexiest woman that I know.
 
I’m going to kiss you now, if you’re through worrying about our school days.”
 
Cecile opened her mouth to say something else, but she couldn’t think of anything to say.
 
Her eyes were focused on his full, chiseled mouth; the lower lip a little fuller than the top lip.
 
There was a cleft in his chin and a dimple to the right of his mouth.
 
Bobby took advantage of Cecile’s parted lips.
 
He covered her mouth with his, letting his tongue tease hers into submission.

“That’s right, doll.
 
Kiss me.
 
Kiss me, hard.”
 
With a whimper, Cecile surrendered.
 
She pushed off the wall and into his arms, her hands cupping his head.
 
He cupped her butt and picked her up, her legs parted and made them at home around his waist.
 
“Oh, yeah.
 
I can feel how hot you are, right through your jeans.”
 
His words excited her so, that she pressed herself against him.

“Oh, Bobby,” she moaned.
 
“I need you.”

“You got me, baby.
 
All night long.”

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Six days before the wedding . . . . .

Scarlet taught them all how to play marbles.
 
Not the ‘get down and shoot marbles out of a circle’ type game, but the board game that was played with a deck of cards on a specially designed game board.
 
It was a vicious game, and Scarlet was good at it.
 
She explained the rules of the game; how you could help your partner or take out your enemy.
 
Partnering with Alex, he saw a side of her that he had not known existed.
 
She was ruthless.
 
Except with him.
 
She played hard and laughed harder.
 
He was totally fascinated by the sheer joy she pulled from every moment.

She took him ghost hunting.
 
They had to use his camera, but he had a blast.
 
They waited until almost midnight before heading to the old country cemetery just down the road.
 
The graveyard was enclosed by a hurricane fence and the gate creaked ominously as they opened it.
 
He couldn’t help but smile as she addressed the occupants and asked their permission to come in and visit.
 
“I have a theory, you know.”

“You do?
 
Tell me about it.”
 
He didn’t know whether he wanted to hear this or not.

“I’ve seen many things through the lens of my camera.
 
Everything from full body apparitions to clouds of ectoplasm, but the most common form that I see is a ball of energy.
 
They come in every color in the rainbow and every size imaginable.
 
One minute you’ll be alone and the next you’ll be surrounded by a million of these orbs.
 
They seemed to respond to my voice.”
 
As she talked, she turned on the camera and began to take pictures.
 
Leaning over, she showed him what she had captured on the digital image.
 
Alex caught his breath.
 
He didn’t know what he had expected, but it wasn’t this.
 
There were beautiful balls of light in the photographs.
 
They were not clear or white, but a shimmering opalescent color that contained every hue of the rainbow.

“They’re beautiful.”
 
He kept his voice low, out of respect, he guessed.

“Back to my theory.
 
I think that this may be the form in which the soul travels.
 
In my studies, I’ve discovered that reported sightings of ghosts normally occur in places that the person visited in real life.
 
They are never seen where they have never been.”
 
Alex looked at her, trying to understand what she was getting at.

“Now, that I’ve been here, with you – I can come back.”
 
He closed his eyes as a wave of sorrow hit him.
 
She was talking about dying.
 

“So you think the soul of a person can return to every place that he has visited?”

“Yes, especially if the place is important to them or the people that live there are important to them.”
 
Unable to restrain himself, he carefully took the camera from her hands and sat in on a nearby bench.
 
Then, he picked her up and held her like he would never let her go.
   

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After they had returned from the cemetery, Alex had been subdued.
 
But Scarlet was having none of it.
 
She had given up all pretense of sleeping in her own room and had moved openly into Alex’s.
 
“I just need to hold you,” Alex had tried to force Scarlet to rest.
 

“No, baby,” she had practically begged.
 
“I only have a few more nights to spend in your arms.
 
I can’t afford to waste a moment.”
 
Her sweet pleas had melted his heart and his reservations.
 

“A lifetime, Scarlet.
 
We have a lifetime.”
 
He spoke the words prayerfully, as he joined their bodies in the age-old way of man and woman.
 
As she sighed her relief, she let his words sink in.
 
He was right.
 
They had a lifetime.
 
It was just a shame that it was limited to her few pitiful days.

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Five days before the wedding . . . . .

Alex’s birthday dawned bright and clear.
 
The sword had been delivered by Federal Express the afternoon before and Scarlet had to enlist Annalise’s help to hide it until Scarlet could wrap it.
 
Her sister had not fully understood how she could part with her most valuable possession.
 
The truth was, the sword didn’t come close to be her most valuable possession; Alex was.
 
Or rather the way she felt about him.
 
The love that she had for Alex was worth more to her than all the gold in the world.
 
Its value lay in its rarity, the surprise of it, and the unexpectedness.
 
She had never hoped or dreamed to find love in her short life, yet here it was.
 
Her treasure.
 

While Alex was gone to call on some clients, Scarlet made his birthday cake and wrapped the sword in one of the boxes that she had used to transport Annalise’s wedding gown.
 
That way, the identity of the present was securely hidden.
 
He would never guess what was in the box.
 
Lovingly, Scarlet iced the cake, and then wrapped the gift.
 
This would be the only birthday that she would share with him and she wanted him to remember it.
 
And remember her.
 
Scarlet had thought of that a few times; being remembered.
 
Before, her life remembrances had lain in the hands of her sister and the children with which she worked.
 
Now, she would live on in Alex’s memory.
 

The meeting was not going well.
 
Alex was giving LeBeau enough rope to hang himself with and the walk to the gallows was going to be a short one.
 
“So, tell me about the church mouse?”

“Scarlet was, how shall we say – unexpected.”
 
Alex was careful not to give away how he felt about her.
 
He was intending to let LeBeau have his say and then he would have his.

“Yeah, unexpectedly homely.”
 
Rick laughed, reaching in his pocket and making sure the digital recorder was turned on.

“I understand that you asked her to the prom?”
 
Alex had to hold on to the desk to keep from lunging at the puke.

“Now that was hilarious.
 
Who told you about that?
 
I played along with her for weeks, even held her hand a few times.
 
She planned and planned; the color of her dress, if I was going to buy her a corsage, where we would go to eat.
  
I think she made herself a dress and I was to wear a matching cummerbund.
 
My only regret was not getting to see her face when she finally realized that I had stood her up.
 
Classic, man.
 
And did they tell you what I did to her at Senior Trip?”

“No, tell me.”
 
Alex managed to say.

“We were scheduled to leave at eight that morning.
 
I had some of the guys tell her eight-thirty, just so she’d arrive as the bus was leaving.
 
She couldn’t run, you know.
 
It was priceless.”
 
Rick shook his head, as if the recollections were so good they were meant to be relished.

“Rick, I need to tell you something.”

“Yes, boss?”

“You’re fired.”
 
Sweet words.

“Why?”
 
Rick couldn’t believe it.

“To start with, you do a piss-poor job.
 
But I could have trained you, shaped you into a better employee.
 
What I can’t shape you into is a decent person.
 
Scarlet is the most wonderful woman on the face of the earth.
 
She is beautiful, kind, smart and I love her with all my heart.
 
I’m going to marry her at the first opportunity.
 
And the one thing I don’t need around is you.
 
You’ve caused her pain.
 
Needless, stupid pain.
 
And if I do anything in my life that is at all worthwhile, it will be to see that Scarlet never experiences the likes of you, or anyone like you, ever again.
 
Now, get the hell out of my office and off my property.
 
And I never want to see your ugly face again.”