“You know what I mean,” she said, tipping the glass at her lips. She swallowed, then added, “He wants to be part of the old gang again, and he plans on buying his way back in by gift wrapping them your business.”

  “I get all of that,” he said, a frown lining his handsome face, “but why you?”

  “That’s not insulting at all,” she said from behind her glass.

  “You know what I mean. You guys didn’t exactly hang out growing up.”

  She thought back to the good old days. “I guess I became bitter after she stole my bike right in front of me.”

  “I can’t imagine why.”

  Sun bounced back. “Anyway, like I said, I was surprised, too, but she’d heard I was a detective, and it wasn’t like she could go to Redding.”

  “So you thought you’d get another notch in your belt with a big arrest by getting her to spy for you?”

  “Really?” she asked, appalled. “Do I strike you as a notch-in-the-belt kind of girl?” When he didn’t answer, she elaborated. “Levi, I didn’t even have jurisdiction. We were trying to get enough evidence to go to the feds. To turn it all over to them. I would’ve taken none of the credit. That’s not why I was helping her.” When he shook his head as though he didn’t believe her, she asked, “What do you think happens to Hailey and Jimmy should Clay succeed?”

  He met her gaze. “They’ll be very well taken care of.”

  “Really? Are you sure?”

  “Very.”

  “Ah,” she said, unconvinced. She took another sip, then asked, “Will that be before or after Clay pushes them out of the business and probably that rustic mansion you’ve built?”

  “You don’t understand. I have a contingency plan in place.”

  “What kind of contingency plan?”

  He nodded toward the burgundy folder on the coffee table, the one she had thought was Auri’s. With curiosity piqued, she put her wineglass on the table and grabbed the folder.

  “Read it,” he said when she hesitated.

  She opened it to the first page of many, read for a few seconds, then stilled. After a long moment of contemplation, she said, “I don’t understand.” She looked back at him. “You left a third of the business to Hailey, a third to Auri, and a third to me? Is that what you’ve been doing the last couple of days?”

  “Look at the date.”

  “Wait,” she said, tears stinging the backs of her eyes as reality sank in, “this is dated twelve years ago.”

  He took another draft of coffee.

  She continued reading the minute details of Levant Arun Ravinder’s last will and testament. “You’ve known Auri was yours for twelve years?”

  “No,” he said, picking at invisible lint on his jeans. “But I’ve known for a long time now.”

  “If you didn’t know then, why would you leave us … Wait.” Emotions Sun never knew existed rushed through her like a hurricane. Elation, betrayal, and everything in between. She settled for the moment on betrayal, because it seemed to be the easiest. The most salient. “You let me believe I was…” She stopped, not quite able to get the word out.

  “What?” he asked, a challenge glittering in his eyes.

  She swallowed hard and said, “Violated.”

  “Hold on.” He sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You seem to forget, you were the one going around saying you got married and your husband tragically died in Afghanistan.”

  “I never said that.”

  “Yeah, well, your parents did and you never set the record straight. After all, they had to explain away the pregnancy somehow.”

  “They didn’t do it for me,” she said, her defenses rising. “They did it because of my abductor. They didn’t want him thinking Auri was his. They had no idea he was already dead. And they did it for Auri. They didn’t want her growing up thinking she was the product of a rape.”

  “And yet, how do you think I met her?”

  That shut her up. The truth of his statement hit her square in the solar plexus. He’d met Auri when she was seconds away from taking her own life. He’d saved her just like he’d saved Sun. She owed him everything. Absolutely everything. She dropped her gaze and said softly, “I know how you met her, Levi, and I am forever grateful.”

  “Either way, since it was my uncle who took you, Auri would’ve been family no matter how you look at it. The fact that copper hair doesn’t exactly run in the Ravinder family was a pretty big clue that he wasn’t the dad, however.”

  Sun had heard the rumor that Harlan Ravinder wasn’t Levi’s real father. That his mother had had an affair with a biracial man from the Mescalero Apache Reservation and he was the result. That she had died because of it at his father’s hands, but that could never be proven.

  “We hooked up a week before your abduction,” he continued. “Auri was born nine months later. You do the math.”

  A sharp pain dug into her heart like a serrated dagger, and she fought to fill her lungs with air. How could he keep her in the dark about something like this for so long? “Levi, we honestly believed Auri was a result of that horrible week. Whereas, you’ve known for years and you never told me.”

  “Like you’ve ever confided in me. Like you’ve ever trusted me. And the icing on the cake? You don’t even remember our one night together.” He turned away from her, but before he did, Sun didn’t miss the emotion shimmering between his lashes. The wetness gathering there. “A night, I might add, I’ve never forgotten, no matter how hard I’ve tried.”

  He stood and walked back to the coffeepot to pour another cup as Sun sat stewing in a sea of heartache. For years, she believed the spotty remnants of that night to be a figment of her vivid imagination. She’d wanted it to be true so badly. She’d loved him for so long. To find out it was all real, that she and Levi had really hooked up when she was seventeen, barely a week before her abduction, was almost more surreal than the abduction itself.

  “The fact that the pregnancy wasn’t terminated,” he said from the kitchen, “was nothing short of a miracle. Don’t they automatically give the morning-after pill in rape cases?”

  She stood and used the pretense of refreshing her glass to shorten the orbital distance between them. “They do. Maybe they realized I wasn’t raped and didn’t worry about it? I have no clue.”

  He replaced the carafe and said softly, “Either way, look what we have because of it.” He glanced over his shoulder at a picture Sun had of Auri on their mantel. “What the world has.”

  What the world has. He actually said what the world has. What an incredible thing to say. To feel. He was clearly as proud of their daughter as she was.

  She decided to switch to coffee instead and got a cup out of the cupboard, mostly because it brought her even closer to him. “All of that aside, I still don’t quite understand your reaction when I told you Auri was yours.”

  He took a second to study her mouth before turning and walking back to the chair. His absence left a cavernous schism between them once again. “How would you know what my reaction was? You took off twelve seconds later.”

  “I got called in,” she said, doctoring her coffee, then taking her place on the couch again. “Big difference. Then you steal a cruiser—Quincy’s, no less—and disappear like you always do? What the hell?”

  “I disappear like I always do?” He sat his cup on the coffee table and scrubbed his face before asking, “Who ran away the minute she graduated high school?”

  The barrage of memories from that precarious time stung. She’d been going through a lot, and she’d done it all with a newborn in her arms. If not for the careful ministrations of her parents and teachers, she might not have even graduated high school. She didn’t know who’d abducted her. She didn’t know if he’d take another stab at it, and she couldn’t breathe as a result. “That’s not fair.”

  “Who stayed gone for fifteen years?” he said, unmoved.

  Growing resentful, she answered just as coldly, “I was busy.”

  He picked up his cup again, sat back, and eyed her from behind it a very long moment before saying, “If I disappear like I always do, it’s because I learned from the best.”

  He was hurt. He was still hurting, but it was hardly her fault. “Levi, I was … I thought I’d been violated.” She scooted closer to him to make sure he was listening. To make sure he understood. “You will never know that feeling. Ever. I thought I had a child because of that violation. I just needed … a change, I guess. I don’t know. I was suffocating, not knowing who took me. Who hurt me. And yet believing he was still out there. I didn’t remember anything from that night, from the night the two of you fought, until the other day.”

  He rubbed a finger across his lips in thought.

  “Levi, bottom line is, you almost died saving me, and I didn’t even know it.”

  All the emotion swelling inside Sun seemed to sweep into him as well. As though stunned speechless, he released a quick breath and averted his shimmering gaze. Then he frowned as her words sank in. “I get that you remembered a lot from that night, but how do you know I almost died?”

  “Wynn,” she said, but he frowned as though thinking back.

  He shook his head. “How could Wynn possibly know that? I’ve never told anyone.”

  “He said you were delirious when he took you to the hospital and on painkillers for days afterward. You must’ve told him then that we hooked up, too, because when I talked to him in Arizona, he told me you knew about Auri. About the fact that she’s yours. How would he know that you’d figured out she’s yours if you’ve never talked to him about her?”

  “I can’t imagine. I’ve never…” He stopped and closed his eyes as realization dawned. “That man is too smart for his own good.”

  “It must run in the family after all. What do you mean?”

  He laughed softly as he thought back. “He came to town one summer a few years ago and saw me buy Auri an ice cream cone.” He looked at her, an astonished smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “He asked me about her in passing, but I played it off. Said she was your kid and that your husband had died in Afghanistan. I didn’t realize I’d told him about us. About that night.”

  “He put two and two together, figured out she was yours, and that you knew,” Sun said, almost as astonished as Levi was himself. “And yet, I never figured out either one of those facts.” And now here they were, in this ridiculous predicament. She scoffed aloud at her own ineptitude, then glanced at the folder. “I don’t expect anything from you, Levi. Especially not this.” She pointed at the will with her chin. “I would never. I’m just … I’m thankful to you for being in Auri’s life. You didn’t have to be.”

  Without looking at her, he said softly, “It’s an easy place to be.”

  She studied him a moment, knowing words could never convey the depths of her gratitude. “Either way, thank you.”

  A dismissive frown flashed across his face. He stood and walked to the window to look out into the blackness of night, his wide shoulders stiff and unyielding, and that insecure girl from high school came rushing back, knocking her breath away.

  When he spoke, he did it so softly, Sun had to strain to hear him. “We can’t tell her.”

  She stood and stepped closer. “What do you mean? We can’t tell who?”

  “Auri,” he said over his shoulder. “We can’t tell her the truth.”

  Sun’s mind raced with why that might be, but nothing stood out. “Why can’t we tell her?”

  “It’s like you said. I’ve known for a long time, and I’ve never told her. Either of you. What if she can’t forgive me? What if she hates me because of it? Or hates the thought of me being her father. Or just hates me altogether?”

  “Why would she hate you?”

  He laughed softly, the sound reverberating with bitterness. “I’m a Ravinder, Shine.”

  “Auri doesn’t think like that.”

  “This entire town thinks like that.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. His insecurity, his honesty and vulnerability, made Sun love him all the more. But she also realized how beaten down he must’ve been as a kid. The entire town practically worshiped him now. Did he really not understand that?

  “She’s all that matters,” he said softly. “I don’t want to disrupt her life any more than it already has been lately. And I don’t expect her to think of me as her father. I would never expect that much, but even telling her puts her in a position where she has to make an unfair decision. That’s why I think it would be better if this were just kept between the two of us.”

  “You mean easier.”

  “She’s been through enough lately.”

  “Levi.” She put her hand on his face and turned it toward her. “I think you are seriously underestimating our daughter. Yes, it will ultimately be her decision, but she has a right to know. And the longer we wait to tell her, the more hurt she’ll be.”

  He studied her, the sparkle in his eyes the most alluring thing she’d seen in decades. “So, we’re really doing this?”

  Though she kept her expression impassive, elation burst inside her mixed with a healthy dose of disbelief. “Well, maybe not tonight,” she said, teasing him. “But yes. Where Auri is concerned, we’re really doing this.”

  He bit down, his shapely jaw working under the strain, and closed what little distance still lay between them. “And you’re okay with it all? With me being in your lives?” He lowered his head and looked at her from underneath unfairly thick lashes, and added, “In your life?”

  The mere thought caused a warmth to spread in her chest and spill into other parts of her. “Levi, I’ve wanted you in my life for decades. But we can just be friends for now. Get to really know each other before making any decisions as far as our relationship goes.”

  He huffed out a quick sigh as though relieved, then wrapped a large hand around her throat and pulled her closer. “You want to be friends?”

  She swallowed hard at the intensity of his gaze. “Don’t you think we should be?”

  Leaning forward until his mouth was at her ear, he whispered, “I don’t need a friend, Shine. Not when all I can think about is fucking you every chance I get.”

  A sensual pressure rose low in her abdomen as he loomed over her, the expanse of his shoulders, the fullness of his mouth muddling her thoughts.

  “I have no intention of this thing between us being platonic.” He leaned back, his gaze easily penetrating the layers of armor she’d spent her entire life amassing. “Are you okay with that as well?”

  “Depends,” she said, a little too breathlessly. “Are you still mad?”

  He wet his bottom lip and narrowed his eyes on her as he considered his answer. “Do you want me to be?”

  A delicious heat coiled between her legs. “Maybe a little.”

  He lowered his head again and whispered magic words that liquefied the bones in her legs. “You have no idea what I’m capable of when I’m angry.”

  15

  If you don’t want to look pretty but want to look

  otherworldly and vaguely threatening, we can help!

  —SIGN AT SWIRLS-N-CURLS

  Sun had seen what the man was capable of when he wasn’t angry. She could only imagine what he was capable of when he was. The mere thought had molten lava pouring into her nether parts.

  His shimmering gaze dropped to her collar and lingered there a moment before he placed his hands on the top button to unfasten it.

  Ignoring the heat that exploded like a flash grenade inside her, she quirked a brow. “This is a bold move.”

  He parted the collar and continued to the next button. “Not really. If I’ve learned one thing from running my own business, it’s that the direct approach is always best.”

  “I like a man who’s direct,” she said, trembling as the backs of his fingers brushed across her skin. “Straightforward,” she added, pretending she wasn’t nervous in the least. “Ridiculously sexy.”

  “Ridiculously?” he asked, impressed. He moved to yet another button, his slightest touch leaving heat trails on her skin. “High praise coming from someone who’s hotter than the sun.”

  Before she could comment, he tugged the shirt up out of her pants, pulled the collar down over her shoulders, and tightened the whole thing around her upper arms, imprisoning her while simultaneously deepening her cleavage. And researchers say men can’t multitask. His gaze lingered on the valley between her breasts a long moment before he pulled her closer and put his mouth on hers.

  And Sun felt everything at once. She was the girl he kissed at the lake, his mouth tasting like caramel and moonshine. She was the senior when they made love in his truck, rain falling around them as he unbuttoned her jeans and pushed his hand between her legs. She was the victim he carried into the hospital after being stabbed himself, his arms the safest place she’d ever felt in her life. She was the newly elected sheriff standing in front of the station, seeing him, for the first time in years, across the street his mahogany hair disheveled as he tossed supplies into the back of his truck. And then he turned and their eyes met and all the feelings she’d bottled up for years rushed over her in one massive gust, leaving her fighting for air. For the strength not to run to him and throw her arms around his neck right then and there.

  She’d always lost all sense of decorum when he was nearby, and now was no exception. Arousal laced up her spine as his tongue dipped inside her mouth, hot and wet and demanding, and all she could think about was how she’d wanted him to be hers—really hers, body and soul—for longer than she could remember. How she’d wanted this for longer than she could remember.