Bound by Moonlight Read Free Page B

talk to her.”
    He stopped. “Do you agree with her?”
    Cee Cee laughed. “I hate to think I’d agree with Crawford on whether it’s night or day.”
    His unblinking gaze wouldn’t let her off the hook.
    “Oh, for fu— Do we have to do this now?”
    “Is it the timing or the topic you find so objectionable?”
    She put a hand on one hip. “What I find objectionable is the fact that you haven’t told me how you like my shoes.”
    He continued to glare at her.
    Come on, Savoie. You know you want to look.
    He held for another admirable moment. Then he glanced down, checking out the navy blue heels barely held in place by a serpentine twist of shantung winding over the top of her foot. She smiled to herself as a low growl vibrated from him.
    “Like them?” She pivoted her foot on the pointed toe to show off all the views.
    He took a harsh breath. “I’m going to suck on your toes after I take them off you.”
    “Good. Then that’s money well spent.”
    Max shook off his lustful fascination and regarded her once again with that insistent silence, waiting for his answer.
    She sighed. “Okay. Do I think Jimmy used you? Yes. You know it’s one of the things I hated most about him. Do I think he loved you and cared for you and raised you like a father would? Yes, damn him, he did. So I have to be grateful to him for that, which annoys me to no end. But whatchu gonna do?”
    He put his arms around her. “I’m sorry,
cher
. I didn’t mean to spoil our evening by being disagreeable.”He sighed heavily. “We don’t belong here with them. Maybe we should just go home.”
    She shook her head. “Screw them, Max. We’re here for Father Furness and St. Bart’s and all those kids he’s helping. So let’s go spend an obscene amount of Jimmy’s ill-gotten gains on something that will do some good. Besides, you promised there’d be dancing. Don’t you want the chance to grope me in front of all these repressed, upscale folks?”
    She felt the slow curve of his smile against her temple. Laughing, he curled an arm about her shoulders.
    There was a time when she would have thrown off that possessive gesture as too personal for a public venue. But tonight was all about him.
    Low, bluesy music from the far side of the Square reached them over the sound of the crowd. Piquant smells from the food booths tantalized upon the spring air. They wandered from booth to booth, awareness of one another sizzling like the fryers serving up catfish and hush puppies. It was nice—that simmering sense of belonging to each other, of comfortable closeness and anticipation for two people who had never belonged anywhere.
    Max stopped at one of the tables. He turned to her, his expression somber as he lifted a creamy string of pearls. “I’d like to see you in these.”
    “And probably nothing else,” she teased.
    He didn’t smile. His mood was strange as he laid the long rope about her neck, looping it a second time to admire the way the pearls glowed against her skin. “Would you wear them for me?”
    She touched them tentatively. An extravagantgift from someone who rarely gave them. Unless she counted her car and the treasured flowers reduced to petals kept in a bowl at their bedside. He wasn’t a creature of impulse, which made her wonder about the significance of the perfect beads.
    “They’re beautiful. Thank you.”
    He counted out an alarming stack of bills to the woman behind the cash box, then took Cee Cee’s hand to lead her along the crowded street. He didn’t look around, his focus set grimly on his purpose: to be seen.
    Where he walked, attention followed, forcing him to take a narrow road of behavior and consequence.
    He controlled an empire built on a foundation of crime and violence. He ruled a hidden clan of creatures like him, who existed in secret behind a veil of superstition and danger. And balancing those obligations was his absolute devotion to the one person who could tear down both worlds: Charlotte.