16
Tripp wrapped an arm around Lexi as they started their walk back. He kept an eye out for his earlier visitors, too, wondering if they’d dare make a more public appearance. The square across from the hotel bustled with activity. Musicians, artisans and performers set up their stages, arranged instruments and chatted with passersby. If he didn’t already want to get out of Savannah, he might have suggested they stroll through and enjoy it together.
“Wait.” Lexi spun away from him as they approached the front doors of the hotel, but she hung on to his hand. “Do you have the pendant?”
He pulled it from his pocket, held it in his palm. “The chain must’ve broken. I told you it protected against evil.” Tripp tried for light in the hopes she’d laugh.
Lexi gave him an ‘are you crazy’ look instead, complete with a roll of her eyes. “You said ‘witches’, and that’s a superstition. I want to get a new chain.”
“Now?”
“Yes. Don’t they say onward and upward or some such nonsense when a traumatic event occurs?”
“I guess.” He leaned toward her, snatched a quick kiss. “But aren’t you taking this awfully … well?”
Lexi gave him a swift shake of her head. “Onward and upward.”
Tripp eyed her for an extra second before deciding not to press the issue. “Is there a jeweler around here?”
“Yes. Sliver, one of the shops I passed. They might be closed now.” Lexi led him back through the park. At the shop, she jiggled the handle but it didn’t open. “Guess we’re too late.”
At a shadow shifting in the rear of the store, Tripp knocked on the outer glass.
A woman, in what he would call a scrap of material shaped like a dress, trotted to the door and opened it but didn’t invite them in. “I’m sorry, but we’ve closed for the day.”
Tripp slid his Visa from his wallet. “A thousand dollars for fifteen minutes.”
The woman’s eyes widened as the slight up-curve of her lips suggested Tripp’s wish would be her pleasure to grant. “Come on in.”
“What’re you doing?” Lexi tugged at his shirt. “I just need a replacement chain. It shouldn’t be more than fifteen bucks.”
He followed the clerk into the store, dragging Lexi along with him.
“What can I help you with?” Her voice held an intense sensuality.
He dug back in his pocket. “Ah, I just need a chain for—” The sapphire rested in his hand again.
“Oh, how lovely! You’ll want platinum for this piece.” She moved through the showroom to a glass case.
“I want one with an unbreakable clasp,” Tripp said.
“Eighteen inches? To fit just … here?” Her fingertips slid along her own sternum.
“Sure.” Lexi stood at the counter, her hands on the glass.
Throughout the room, wedding bands mingled with an eclectic array of other jewelry.
“Can I borrow a loupe?” Lexi asked.
The woman brought out the chain, threaded the jewel through it and handed it to Lexi along with the miniature magnifier. “There’s a great mirror in the corner, with lots of light.” She pointed to a vanity with soft white lighting strategically placed in such a way Tripp expected every customer would look fantastic in whatever piece they’d chosen to model.
As Lexi walked toward the mirror, the woman behind the counter turned her attention to Tripp. “You look like you might be a diamond …” Her voice came out a subtle purr. “… with a sapphire on platinum to match?”
“I wouldn’t call you much of a jeweler if I look like that description.”
She chuckled. “Cute. Very cute. I—just happen to get—” She tapped her temple. “—what people need the most, and sapphire … well, that suits her … and you.”
Tripp brought out his Visa again. “Charge twenty-five hundred to this card, and call me at this number when the design is done.”
She pocketed his information and swiped the card with a grin of success on her face.
“Tripp?” Lexi waved him over into the light.
He rested his hand on her lower back as she leaned forward with the small black eyepiece stuck to her face.
“Tell me what you see.” She straightened and handed him the loupe.
A moment later, he gave it back. “Wow.”
“My sentiments exactly.”
• • •
Tripp and Lexi walked through the lobby of the hotel, took the elevator to their room and keyed in. She fingered the jewel tight against her chest.
“How did our star end up engraved on the inside of this sapphire?” Lexi kicked off her shoes, dropping to the bed at the same time.
Tripp sat next to her. “I think we’ve got some questions to ask George and Marge, if we can ever find them again. Where did you say Robert learned about it?”
“He said his wife bought it at an estate sale.” Lexi stood again, paced to the balcony. “Is this all worth it? I mean, every step of our journey has resulted in some sort of … issue. Like I expected it would. Either you or me—” She paced back to the bed. “If this is what our life will be like, is it worth going forward with this relationship? Really?”
He took her hand in his. “I don’t think we simple humans are meant to ask those questions and have an answer, Lexi. Remember at the house, Marge asked me if I trust you? Well, I do. This feels right to me, problems or not.”
“And I want to trust you,” Lexi said with a twitch of her lips. “I really do. But—”
Tripp’s head cocked to the side as if waiting for a verbal or physical blow.
“I’m going to take a quick shower. Then I’d like to get dinner and end the day on a much brighter note.”
He gave her one nod.
Without another glance in his direction, she headed to the bathroom.
• • •
Tripp moved to the balcony, dropped onto one of the rockers and let the breeze cool him. With his phone in hand, he pressed 4 to call Ian.
“Everything okay?” Ian asked as soon as the line connected.
“You don’t say ‘hello’ anymore?” Tripp chuckled.
“Not to you. How’s she holding up?”
He flicked a bug from his jeans. “After the crying jag at the toy shop, the hour long interview with the Detective, and the refused hospital visit, she’s recovered and raring to go, apparently. I don’t get it. I figured she’d want out of here right away.”
“That’s a woman thing.”
“I guess. Actually, remember the pendant I had you research?”
“Of course. That’s where all this started.”
“Exactly. I need more intel on it.”
“I’m on it.” Ian’s tone turned excited, and Tripp imagined he scrubbed his hands together like a mad scientist. “I take it you haven’t gotten a hold of our data yet?”
“I’ll grab it after dinner. There’s one more thing I need, too.”
“For you? I will do … almost anything.” Ian’s sarcastic laughter filled the earpiece.
“I had a little run-in with Sloan’s information gatherers. Remember the painting he had us remove from the archives?”
“You mean the one we switched at New York’s Museum of Art? The deal was one of our best paying gigs. He had documentation, everything said it was his. It was a no-brainer, an easy job.”
“Easy to you, my friend. You stayed in the car the whole time.” Tripp ran a hand over his head. “Anyway, he’s going to take some action on it if I don’t marry Jill.”
“Son of a bitch! How can he prove we had anything to do with that?”
“My sentiments exactly—and does it matter how? He’s got the resources to make it
look
like I took it. And since he has it in his possession—oh, I can see the press on that one. He’ll return it, claim he’d bought a duplicate for his home. After a quick audit, we’ll find out it was real, and he’ll point back to me since we’re known for stuff like this.”
“Shit.”
“Another word I agree with. I don’t know what his plans are, how he expects to do any of it exactly, but we’ve got to counterbalance it. We need to get one painting back and replace it with the fake. We need to—”
“Return it to the Museum,” Ian said. “Or, you’re stuck marryin’ the witch.”
“It’s my choice, or so he apparently said. His daughter, or my reputation and possible jail time.”
“Lexi know about this?”
Tripp shook his head despite Ian’s phone-only presence. “No. Thought I’d tell her, but I’ve changed my mind. This is something you and I will deal with.”
The sound of spray against walls in the bathroom ceased.
“Gotta go. Call me when you find something.”
“Will do. Enjoy Savannah. Oh, and don’t forget to get the papers, too.”
• • •
Lexi stepped out, covered only in a towel she’d tucked into a knot at her breasts. Leaving her curls to drip dry, she walked back into the room to grab clean clothes.
Tripp stood at the edge of the balcony doors, his jeans low slung at his hips, the top button undone and his feet bare.
The muscles of his bare chest contracted. His biceps alone, so round and smooth, stirred desire in her. She wanted to run her hand along them, hold on to him and never let go.
“Nice dress.”
“Very funny.”
He walked back in as the breeze blew the sounds of the square’s nightlife up to them along with the smell of roasted corn and grilled steak. Her stomach grumbled as he hooked a finger in the top of her towel, pulling her in for a wet kiss.
“Are you hungry?” She wiggled out of his hold and over to her suitcase.
“I am, but come look at this.” He dragged her to the balcony’s edge in nothing but her towel.
The sights and sounds of excited life raged. Lights strung across the tree branches added a twinkle effect topped only by the stars themselves. A mix of musical delights streamed through as dancers whooped in a square created by the people who stood around them.
“Looks like a party,” she said.
Tripp stood behind her, swept her hair to the side, and laid a line of kisses along her neck. Lexi tightened her hold on her towel. He swayed with her to the rhythm of the Jazz band.
The kisses didn’t stop as Lexi leaned her head back against his shoulder. “We should move this inside.”
“No.”
She spun, but he caught her before she could turn to him and pushed her back into place.
“Wait, what are you—” She groaned the rest of the question as his hands teased, slipping back and forth under the cover of the towel. “Tripp, this is not the—” She withheld the squeal as he toyed with her beneath the short white cotton.
“We could do it right here on the balcony, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure no one would notice.”
“Only ninety-nine?” She tried to turn again, but he held her in place.
The temptation to stand together in an open space in front of a potential audience forced her inner desire to explode into absolute need.
“This is very naughty, Tripp.”
“Well, if you don’t want to.” He removed his fingers.
She held on to the towel’s knot, shook her hair to let it fall all around her again. “Do you want to take that chance?”
“We only have one life, Lexi. Sometimes, the risk is worth the reward.”
Sometimes not, too.
Her neck grew warm with his kisses, cooled again as the breeze wafted over the spots moistened by her hair. Behind her, he made his readiness known, scooting her closer to the balcony’s rail with tiny presses against her uncovered butt.
She stiffened. “All the way out here?” A check of both sides showed no other hotel guests on their balconies.
“Yes. Right here in the open of the world. I’d say let it all hang out, but nothing is hanging right now.”
Lexi giggled, nearly losing her towel in the process.
His hands kept up a lazy perusal of her lower half. “I’m a multi-faceted man, Lexi.”
She breathed her agreement as Tripp nipped her neck. Her sigh could be none other than one of complete and absolute pleasure. “We better not get caught.”
The zip and slide of his jeans had her trembling. Lexi braced the rail with one hand, holding the towel with the other. A cool breeze coated her in a chill starting at her back as Tripp lifted the terrycloth above her hips and slid himself between her parted legs.
“I think you’re liking the perks of my gift, you know.”
“You mean something other than just your devious, mischief-filled nature?”
Lexi rocked her hips forward and backward. His touch sent bolts of heat down her body.
Tripp guided himself until he found the right spot, and a slight push merged him with Lexi as intimately as two could imagine. Her shudder produced his own.
He slid until he could go no farther.
Lexi shifted her legs, rising on her tiptoes and lowering again. Tripp laid a hand on her back, the other snuck under the towel, cupped her breast while she held the soft white material in place and tightened against him.
He slow-glided in and out as she shivered. To move in tandem might cause the balcony to creak or her to lose her balance, so Lexi forced herself as still as possible while Tripp battered her with sensation.
She wanted to cry out, to scream with the pleasure he brought to her, but she bit her lip instead. As he slid back and forth and his pace increased, she looked out into the crowd. No one so much as angled their head in Tripp and Lexi’s direction.
A small moan escaped, and Tripp’s thrusts grew more powerful.
Lexi cried out in a whisper for ‘more’ as he drove into her, pulled and squeezed as they took from each other. In the twinkle of light below, dancers spun, musicians played and Tripp and Lexi gave in to the music until their crescendo reached its finale.
• • •
Tripp leaned over her back. He drew her onto him once more as the last of the explosions within him subsided. He’d thought before, the woman into which he continued to add small thrusts held more power over him than any other. He still agreed with himself. As Lexi shifted upward, he slipped from within her, wrapped an arm around her waist and retraced their steps together back into the hotel room.
“You’re very inventive, Mr. Fox.” Her smile bloomed as she spun to face him.
He returned the grin, adding a soft kiss to her lips. “You’re very willing.”
“Trust me when I say this is not the usual me. Nothing has been normal for me since I went in search of this pendant.” She fingered the chain draping down her exposed chest.
As Lexi played with the jewel, the towel slipped from her finger tips. Tripp ran his thumbs across her nipples.