“Since I’ve been pregnant, my breasts have grown. A lot. Sheesh. I can hardly keep them in my bra.” Her white shirt was mostly open and the curves of her breasts were very much in evidence. “Wyatt and I are partners, Bellisia, just different from you and Zeke, but I like the way Wyatt is with me.”
“I love the way Trap is with me,” Cayenne said. She reached toward the eaves, shot silk from her hands and wove a swing. She was fast at it. She sat in it where the slight breeze could fan her body. “I sometimes do things to get into trouble just for the fun of it.”
Bellisia was really frowning now. “Get into trouble?” she repeated.
Zara fanned herself to keep the others from seeing the color creeping up her neck to her face. She wasn’t about to say that she was certain she would prefer the relationship Trap and Cayenne had to any other that she knew of. She loved the way Trap looked at Cayenne. Since she’d been around them, there had been several times when he very abruptly would just turn to his wife, swing her over his shoulder and carry her out of a room. She wanted Gino to want her like, that and so far he’d seemed to be exactly that way. She didn’t mind in the least pleasing him. In fact, she hated disappointing him. She wanted to know more about Cayenne’s relationship.
Cayenne nodded, making little circles with her foot. “Yep. In trouble. He spanks me.” She grinned at Bellisia. “It hurts so good.”
“Are you kidding me?” Bellisia demanded.
“Nope, it’s fun and it’s hot. I especially love it when he tells me to do things.”
“His voice,” Zara said, startling herself that it came out of her mouth. “Well, Gino has this voice sometimes.”
Cayenne grinned at her. “I know all about the voice. I should have realized Gino and Trap were friends for a reason.”
“You two are hopeless,” Bellisia said, shaking her head. “How are we going to cool Zara down? I think she needs to be sprayed with the hose too, because she’s very red right now.”
“She can’t help thinking about Gino,” Pepper teased. “It’s a good thing Nonny went to bed or she’d be asking when you two are going to get married. She practically aimed a shotgun at Wyatt and told him he had to marry me.”
“Well, you did have three children together,” Cayenne pointed out. She hopped off the silk swing. “Come on, Bellisia, you’re strong. We can make a seat and carry her to the edge of the porch. You can spray her with the hose there.”
“You are not going to carry me,” Zara said decisively. “I can walk a couple of steps. I ran to the pier.”
“I saw Gino’s face afterward,” Cayenne said holding out her hands to Bellisia so they could form a seat with their arms. “You do it again and he’s going to put you right over his knee. Course, you’ll probably like it. I always do.”
“Oh. My. God,” Bellisia said, rolling her eyes. “You are insane. All three of you. I wouldn’t want Gino to smack you on the butt, Zara, so sit your ass down and let us carry you.”
Zara couldn’t help laughing. “I wish Shylah was here as well. She’d love this.”
“I’d like to see some man try to smack her on the butt. She’d have them on the ground with a knife to their throat in ten seconds.”
“She’d be too late,” Cayenne pointed out, while Zara circled her neck with her arm. “Ten seconds with these men is far too long.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Don’t knock it until you try it,” Cayenne said.
The two women carefully deposited Zara on the middle step. Bellisia grabbed the hose and began spraying her. The water was cold and it felt refreshing in the sultry heat of the night. She sank back on her elbows. “This is heaven. Keep spraying, Bellisa.”
Cayenne climbed back in her silken swing, and Pepper joined Zara on the middle stair so she could have the water running over her as well.
“Has Gino … you know,” Bellisia asked. “And not with spankings.”
Pepper burst out laughing. “You know? Is that how we say it? Has he touched you yet?”
“Yep,” Zara admitted.
“It was a lot more than touching,” Bellisia said.
“Details, woman,” Pepper coaxed.
“He kissed me. A lot. And it was hot. That’s a detail.” She wasn’t about to share anything else they’d done. It was hers. Gino was hers. “He did say I was his woman. That I belonged to him.”
Bellisia groaned and made a show of gagging. “You don’t belong to him. You aren’t his sex kitten.”
“I’m Trap’s sex kitten,” Cayenne said smugly.
Zara nearly fell off the stair laughing when Bellisia turned the hose on her. “I think your entire relationship is based on sex, Cayenne.”
“Isn’t everyone’s?”
“You are so full of it,” Bellisia said.
Pepper shook out her blouse and rebuttoned it to the pearl button just under her breasts. “She never says a word unless she’s talking about that man of hers.”
“What else is there to talk about?” Cayenne turned upside down and crawled down the long ribbon of silk. “You should see what I can do to him hanging like this.”
“I am going to learn the moment I have this baby,” Pepper decided. “I think your silks are the coolest thing in the world. And it’s beautiful to watch you. I can imagine how much Trap loves that when you entertain him.”
Cayenne flashed her a smile, did a slow somersault and planted her feet on the stair beside Zara. “Anyone want lemonade? Nonny made her fresh strawberry lemonade and it’s fabulous. I tried it when she was making it. Best yet.”
Immediately the other three nodded. Bellisia turned off the hose. “I’ll help you carry the glasses out.”
“I’m using the tall ones and filling them with ice,” Cayenne said.
The two women hurried into the house. Two minutes later, Pepper glanced back at the house when sounds came from the interior. “Is that the girls? They better not have gotten out of bed. I swear, Zara, they’re little escape artists. You know those dog crates? Why can’t we put our children in them when they go to bed? It’s the only way to ensure we get any time off at all.” She was up and running into the house, laughing as she went.
Zara leaned back on the stairs on her elbows again and looked up at the night sky. Somewhere, Gino was out there. She sent up a little prayer that he was all right. Something rustled in the dry leaves at the corner of the house. She turned her head and saw a man standing there. He was in the shadows of the house, but she could just make him out. He held a finger to his lips and motioned her to come to him.
She shook her head, sitting up straight, glancing back toward the door.
“Zara, you know me. I’ll kill every one of those women if you don’t do what I say. Get over here.”
She shook her head again. A darker shadow moved close to her, near the hose Bellisia hadn’t wound back up. The long rubber tubing lay on the ground right next to the house. She looked at the man standing so close to her. He was grinning, staring at her shirt, the one that was practically transparent. She made no move to cover up. The loop slid over his head, the strands of silk so delicate he didn’t feel them until they pulled tight.
Ezekiel came out of the shadows. “Seriously? What kind of soldiers watch a group of women spraying themselves with water in enemy territory and not figure out that they’re keeping eyes on them? I bet my wife twenty bucks it wouldn’t work and I lost.”
The first soldier had eyes on the second one as he dangled off the ground, kicking and swinging macabrely in the night. He looked around at the five GhostWalkers surrounding them and then back to Zara.
“You bitch. Whitney’s done with your disobedience. He wants you dead. Orders are to bring your head back to him. Sooner or later, someone’s going to get you.”
“Maybe,” Ezekiel said. “But it won’t be you. You were too busy looking at the show to figure out we spotted you the minute you entered our territory. It was only a matter of time before you got complacent enough to come look at the peep show.”
“Just do it.”
Ezekiel obliged, and killed him.
17