Luring Levi (Tarnished Saints Series Book 2) (16 page)

He took a step toward her, but they were both tangled in their own clothes and ended up stumbling. He grabbed her and fell back
ward on the bed. Her body slipped down his and her face was just inches from him. She couldn’t help herself. She wanted to taste him the way he’d done to her. She took him into her mouth and heard him moan in ecstasy once again.

“You keep that up and I’m never going to have a chance to show you what I wanted to do with the lemons.”

He picked her up under the arms and stripped off the rest of her clothes. Then he kicked off his jeans and straddled her over his lap, her legs spread open and waiting for him in eager invitation.

He reached over and picked up the plastic cup, dumping the leftover ice cubes as well as the lemon rinds
onto the bed. Then he took one hollowed out side of the lemon in each hand and placed them directly over her nipples. He twisted them against her and she squirmed atop him from the intimacy of it all.

Then he threw them to the ground and replaced
them with two ice cubes, causing a delicious shiver to run through her body. Then the warmth of his mouth where the ice had been, left her as nothing more than putty in his hands. She cried forth a soft whimper as he tasted the tartness right off her body.

“Now that’s one hell of a lemonade
,” he said. “And I see we’re both puckering up from it.”

She arched her back, holding on to his shoulders
, her legs opening wider, her body ready to receive him.

And then he reached around and grabbed her buttocks in his hands and settled her atop him, sliding in to her slowly. They fell back on the bed and rolled around during the course of making love, both of them getting the chance to be the aggressor. And when she could hold back her cries of passion no longer, she let out a scream of del
ight, and he released a low moan of his own as he joined her in feeling satisfied and sated.

She fell back into his arms and he cradled her gently as they lie together on the bed.

“That was wonderful,” she told him.

“I agree. You are the best candy I’ve ever tasted.”

“It was lemons, not candy, you goof.”

“Oh no, it was Candy all right.”

They laughed and held each other, and it felt so right that she never wanted it to end. But she needed to tell him about the kids. Since they were both in the best of moods, she figured this was the perfect time.

“Levi?
I need to tell you that . . .”

The doorknob rattled just then, as if someone was trying to come into the room. Then there was
banging at the door that caused them both to be startled. Levi sat up, with her in his arms.

“Who the hell is it?” he growled.

“Uncle Levi, can I come in and jump on the bed now?”

“It’s Eli,” she whispered.

“Damn, not now,” he said. “Come back later, Eli.”

“It’s been an hour,” came the voice of Zeke next.

“We’re finished painting and the boys wanted to know if I could take them to the fair now,” said Dan.

“What the hell is this?” he grumbled. “Half the neighborhood is outside the damned door. Can’t a man get a break?”

Can’t she get a break was more like it. Every time she tried to tell him about the kids, something or someone interrupted and she was getting tired of it already.

“Here,” she said, handing him a box of tissues she’d put there for him at the bottom of the nightstand. “Let’s quickly get cleaned up and dressed. You did promise them,” she reminded him.

“I know you’re right. I just didn’t want this to end.”

Neither did she. And she hoped that when she finally had the chance to tell him the truth, that wouldn’t end it either. She liked having Levi in her life and she only wished her children could have a father. Their father. The father they deserved and the man who she knew
would love them and protect them as well.

“All right, boys, come on in,” he said after they’d cleaned up and dressed. He unlatched the door and pulled it open. Like a bullet being shot from a gun, the boys ran into the room, Eli going directly to the bed and jumping atop it so high Levi thought he’d hit his head on the ceiling.

“I want to jump on the bed too,” said Josh.

“Me too,” said Jake. And before he knew it they were all atop the bed.

“It’s wet with ice cubes,” said Jake.

“Yeah, I spilled my lemonade,” Levi said looking over and smiling at Candace.

“Can I have the money for the rabbit now?” asked Zeke.

“Here you go, son,” he said, taking the twenty and handing it to Zeke. Levi noticed the strange look on Candace’s face when he’d called Zeke son. “And here’s the vouchers,” he said, handing them to Dan. This should not only get you boys into the fair but get you free food and rides as well. I had to pull some strings to get so many so don’t lose them.”

“Thanks,” said Dan. “My friends are waiting downstairs.”

“Come on, boys, before you get hurt.” Sam walked over and started to collect the boys from the bed, doting over them as always.

They were making their way out the door when little Eli came over to him. He didn’t talk much but when he did, what came out of his mouth was usually shocking. Just like now.

“Thanks, Uncle Levi,” he said. “You are a great dad.”

“Silly,” said Levi ruffling his hair. “I’m not a dad, just an uncle. And if your dad finds out I let you jump on the bed
, he’ll kill me.”

“But you are a dad,” he said.

“No, I’m not,” he told him.

“Then why did I hear Candace and
Angel saying that you were Vance and Valentine’s dad?” he asked.

“What?” His eyes shot over to Candace and she had that look of fear on her face like she
had at the top of the Ferris wheel. She wasn’t saying anything to deny it, and all of a sudden it dawned on him what she’d been trying to tell him for the past few days.

“Come on,” said Sam, reaching out to take Eli’s hand. “We’d better get going.”

They all left the room and Levi closed the door, slowly turning to face Candace.

“Why the he
ll didn’t you tell me?” he snapped.

Candace had never felt as guilty in her life than she did at this moment. The hurt in Levi’s eyes made her realize that she had inadvertently done to him exactly what Thomas had warned her not to do.

“I wanted to,” she said. “I tried
, honest I did.”

“Well, I would have hoped
to hell that you would have tried a little harder. Or weren’t you going to tell me at all that I fathered two children?”

“I admit
at first I was a bit hesitant - with your background at all, but then I decided I was wrong about you and that you needed to know you were a father.”

“Really? Well you took your damned time doing it. I feel like a fool now being around Valentine and Vance and even playing with them and
not knowing they were mine. Do they know?”

“Not yet. I wanted to tell you first.”

“They’re six year olds, for crissake, Candace, and they never asked you about their father?”

She knew he was angry with her again as he was calling her Candace instead of Candy. “They asked,” she said, “once or twice. But when I told them their father was dead, they stopped asking.”

“Dead? Dead! How could you?” She watched him rake his hand through his hair and pace the room like a caged lion. “Did you ever once think that you were harming them by lying to them? They don’t deserve that kind of treatment and neither do I.”

She may have felt sorry for him at first, but now he only managed to stoke the embers of her anger.

“How can you say that, after you bedded me seven years ago as a one-night-stand and only to get a perfect rating on your food review?”

“That’s not true. I didn’t give a crap about the rating.”

“Oh really? Now that’s a bigger lie than anything. Everyone knows how much that restaurant and getting good ratings mattered to you.”

“All right, so you’re right. It did mean a lot to me but that’s not why I bedded you.”

“Well then what was the reason?” she asked. “After all, you’d only known me for one day at the time.”

She stormed over to the bed and sat down, pulling on her socks and shoes as she spoke.

“I don’t know,” he said, walking over to look out the window. “I guess . . . I guess I liked you because you were kind to me, and had a lot of the same interests. You had a passion for food as strong as mine and I guess that just kind of turned me on.”

“You were a womanizer then and you still are now, so just admit it.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh really? Then how come you are taking all your extra time to work for free for Margery and how come you chose
Mabel’s pickles to win the ‘best of show’ when we both know they are so bad you can’t even eat them?”

“That’s different,” he told her. “That has nothing to do with me being a womanizer.”

“You left me, and I had to raise those kids on my own,” she told him. “You have no idea how hard that was. It’s expensive, and my job doesn’t pay enough to cover all my bills. I not only lost my car but am three months behind on my rent.”

“I was in prison!” he shouted. “And for God’s sake I didn’t even know you were pregnant. Why didn’t you come to me and tell me?”

“I couldn’t. I didn’t know for three months. By that time you were convicted and already shipped off to prison. I wasn’t going to stroll in there and tell you the news when you were behind bars.”

“Why the hell not?” he asked
. “Instead, you denied me the chance of not only knowing I was a father but also seeing my kids grow up.”

“If you think I was going to be bringing kids to prison to see you, then you have another guess coming.”

“You disgust me!” He walked over to her and she stood. His face was now inches from hers. “Even if you did keep the fact from me for nearly seven years, you could have told me the day you stepped foot into Sweet Water and saw me. But instead, you let me play with the kids and cook for them like I was nothing to them at all. And the worst part of it is that you had the nerve to make love with me – twice, and never told me the truth. What the hell were you trying to do, Candace? Trying to get knocked up again so you could have a whole shitload of kids from my seed and never let me in on the little secret?”

She
reached out and slapped him across the face, not caring that she could see the hurt in his eyes. She had never heard such venomous words in her life. And hell if she was going to stand here and take all the blame when he was no prize himself.

“You disgust me!” she challenged him with her words. “Not only do you get yourself locked up for seven years but you never once thought about looking me up after that night. You are a drunkard and a low-life and can’t get anywhere on time or even take care of yourself, so how the hell would you ever be able to take care of kids?”

He opened his mouth to speak but she stopped him.

“I’m not done yet! You are so messed up in the head from what happened in the past that you can’t even get your life together
in the present. If it wasn’t for Thomas and Angel convincing the town to give you the job of mayor out of nothing more than pity, you’d still be hidden away in some hole somewhere just waiting to curl up and die.”

“What did you say?” he asked, and she knew by the look in his eye that she had hurt him by her words more than anyone ever could. It was one thing that she hadn’t told him about his kids, but she now felt bad for calling him a drunkard and a
low-life. And she felt even worse for telling him of Angel and Thomas’s part in him becoming mayor. Now she’d not only hurt him deeply, but betrayed the trust of her new friends as well.

“Nothing, Levi, just forget it.”

“So you knew they were making me mayor out of pity and you said nothing of it to me?”

“It doesn’t matter. Now can we just please start all over?”

“I don’t think so, sweetheart. Now get the hell out of here and far away from me. I have nothing else to say to you. Ever!”

He walked over and opened the door, not looking at her as she went to leave. She saw the muscle in his jaw twitching and she knew he was trying to hold back his anger rather
than to explode in front of her.

“Levi, I’m sorry,” she said, with tears in her eyes.

“Out!” he shouted. And as soon as her feet crossed the threshold the door was slamming behind her.

She stood there, tears streaming from her eyes, not at all sure what just happened. For some reason she hoped he would have been happy to know he was a father.
But now she was confused and she really didn’t know what to think.

She ran down the stairs
feeling like she needed to talk to someone, but Angel was gone until tomorrow and she didn’t know anyone else well enough to open up to them.

“Hey, missy, what’s the hurry?” asked Gus, counting money in his hand as a car slowly drove away. Then he noticed the tears in her eyes. “Hey, are you crying?”