Venice Heat (5 page)

“All this time,” Shae muttered as she tucked the photo away. “If it wasn’t a bear, what was it?”

She looked up at him as she closed her purse, but Eiji had started walking again. She caught up with him and touched his arm. “Eiji, what did it?”

“I don’t know.” His gaze had gone cold and his bearing stiff.

“Don’t know or won’t say!”

“It is not for me to solve this case, but for your policemen. If they did not see the evidence at the crime scene that I quickly saw from a photograph, I don’t know how you will get justice.”

Her mouth fell open, and she put her hands on her hips. “Are you serious? You’re going to go all high and mighty, like we don’t know what we’re doing over here? This is my mother we’re talking about, not some stranger. I know you didn’t know her, but she was everything to us.
Everything!
”

Tears flooded Shae’s eyes, but she blinked them away. More formed until she couldn’t see. She found herself in Eiji’s arms, crushed to his chest with his arms like steel bands around her waist.

“
Gomen
,” he whispered in her ear. “I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

As far as Shae was concerned, the date was ruined. She dismissed Eiji, telling him she needed to be alone, and she continued down the street toward the boardwalk. Daring a look over her shoulder, she saw him standing there watching her but not following. Even while he had pissed her off and made her cry, which she hated doing in front of others, an urge to go back to him rose inside her. She resisted it, calling him an arrogant dick to keep her feet moving in the opposite direction.

Once she reached the long strip that bordered the ocean, she walked along it, taking in the sights. Early in the day, there weren’t as many people crowding the walk, but a few meandered along. A sectioned-off area had been set up as an outdoor gym complete with weights and other exercise equipment. She paused to watch a couple of muscle heads working their biceps and then realized she recognized one. He had been with Darryl the night before, and she remembered thinking he liked to impress his friends too much. He’d shown off coming at Eiji. She suppressed a laugh recalling it. Bet he didn’t expect Eiji to deflect his punch with such ease.

Rather than stand around risking Travon noticing her, she moved on. Impulse led her to keep Darryl stewing for a couple days. The city was big enough for her to find plenty of action without him or Eiji.

She found breakfast when her appetite demanded it and spent the day shopping. Later, when the sun went down, she left the house in a minidress designed to hug her curves and show off more cleavage than was decent. In spiky heels, she slipped into the taxi she had called and instructed the driver to take her to a hot area for clubs. He drove a good five miles at least, and then Shae spotted a place she thought looked interesting.

“Stop here, please.”

Traffic forced him to go to the end of the street before he found an opening to let her out. She paid the driver and left the taxi to walk back. Music spilled out onto the street from various spots, and she knew often a club would feature a live band. Lines formed, and people milled along the sidewalks.

“Hey, pretty lady,” someone called. From the corner of her eye, the man standing in front of one establishment spoke to her. She raised a brow and eyed him before letting her gaze to the people entering. She didn’t spot any women, and the men seemed too excited to get inside.

“Um, yeah, I don’t think that’s my kind of place,” she informed the bouncer.

He gestured for her to come over. “Beautiful women are always wanted, right? You’re beautiful. Come on. Have a little fun.”

“What the hell.” She stepped into the dark interior and was blasted with music. A woman strolled by dressed in a white top that looked like it had been ripped apart to just a strip of material covering her breasts. The shorts—or maybe they were panties from the look of them—didn’t cover the lower half of her ass cheeks. Shae scanned the room and discovered quite a few women with their men at the tables. When she stepped forward, a small crowd of people crossed her path, and one of the men holding a bottle of champagne caught her eye. His eyes widened with interest, and he smiled.

“Care to join me and my friends?” He wasn’t half bad looking.

“Where are you going?”

“Private party.” He winked and jerked his head toward a set of doors to her right. “I’m Jeff, by the way.”

“Why not? I’m Shae.”

She linked arms with him and joined the procession. The room turned out to be quite large, with several couches. A few dancers were already present, and Jeff’s female friends kicked off their shoes and began gyrating with each other and a couple of the men also there. Shae watched Jeff pour her a glass of champagne and thanked him. She took a sip and began swaying her hips as well. An hour or so later, she’d ordered a mojito and a couple shots and had kicked her heels off as well.

Jeff clung as she worked her way around the room, meeting new people, laughing and dancing with a few of the girls. The music blasted nonstop, and she didn’t sit down once. When she raised an arm and wiggled her hips while sipping her drink, another girl copied her. Jeff shoveled chocolate truffle bread pudding into his mouth and sidled up behind her. His jerky movements made her wonder if he was drunk or spastic. She didn’t know what had happened to the champagne bottle.

Her host’s enthusiasm to drag more and more people into his party had the room jam-packed, but when Shae looked out over the crowd, she thought she saw Darryl. She blinked and checked again, and he wasn’t there. Well, the place wasn’t that big, so if he was around, she would have spotted him. West Los Angeles was a huge city, and she didn’t believe she’d stumble onto him so easily miles from the house she’d rented.

At one thirty, Shae stumbled from the bar with Jeff staggering after her. He grabbed her shoulder and bumped into her on his own unsteady feet. “So your place or mine?”

She shifted her shoulders so his hand would fall away. “Thanks, Jeff. It was fun. Maybe I’ll see you around again while I’m here.”

He stuck his bottom lip out, looking like an idiot. She was even less inclined to encourage the man. “Aw, don’t be that way. I thought we had chemistry. Didn’t you feel it? We could finish the night with a different kind of fun.”

“Yeah, no.” She rolled her eyes. “Good night.”

Before she could walk away, he grabbed her arm and squeezed. “I bought all your drinks.”

She let her gaze drop from his face to his hand. “
Thanks
.”

“You owe me something.”

“I will give you three seconds.”

From nowhere, Eiji stood between them with a hand jacking up Jeff by the collar. Shae squeaked and darted forward to tug on his arm.

“Whoa, Eiji, dial it down. What are you doing here?”

He spared her a glance and glared at Jeff. “He will not take no for an answer. I will show him.”

“I can take care of myself, but thanks. Let him go.”

Jeff flopped around hanging from Eiji’s hold, and even though Eiji pissed her off for acting like her protector, she had to admire his strength. Jeff was no little man. He had Eiji by an inch or two and probably by a good fifty pounds. Still Eiji raised him to his toes. The muscles in her landlord’s biceps bulged with the effort and strained against the material of his T-shirt.
He’s wearing a T-shirt?
Somehow she believed it was in her honor.

A small crowd had gathered around him, and Jeff’s drunken friends shouted comments. Shae peered up and down the street for the cops. They would be there soon, no doubt. She tugged at Eiji’s arm. “Let him go before you get arrested.”

As if those were the magic words, Eiji let go and stepped back. Jeff almost crumpled to the ground until two of his friends stepped up to catch him beneath both arms. “Your loss,” he mumbled to Shae, and they dragged him off.

Shae glared at Eiji and spun away toward the street. She spotted a taxi and stepped out to wave him down. He glided on past, the backseat already occupied. She swore and waved for another, but it seemed everyone and his brother had left the clubs at the same time. She started walking, and Eiji caught up.

“I have my car. I will take you home.”

She rolled her eyes at him.

“You will not find a taxi now.”

“Fine! Take me home.”

She walked beside him in silence, and when she couldn’t bear to take another step, they turned a corner and came upon the Jeep. A sigh of relief escaped her as she slipped into the passenger seat and removed her heels. With the top open, the warm night air blew her short curls around her head and sobered her up some. She rubbed her feet, moaning. Across from her, Eiji alternated between clenching his fist and rubbing a hand over his taut thigh. She tried not to notice, but couldn’t help wondering what was on his mind.

A short while later, he drew up in front of the house, and she got out barefoot. “Thanks.”

“Shae.”

Despite herself, she liked how he pronounced her name. It was all kinds of wrong, but she didn’t care. “What?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“Okay, okay. Good night.” She turned to go, but he caught her hand and gave a small tug that spun her around to face him.

“I want to see you again.”

“No.”

He kept her from leaving again. His gaze traveled her length, and she knew he saw how her nipples had hardened behind the thin dress, especially since she’d skipped wearing a bra. She licked her lips, trying to pull herself together. The effect Eiji had on her was the exact opposite to the one Jeff had evoked. Tempted to invite him in, she stood there fighting with her resolve. When she opened her mouth to answer, he dropped her hand and faced the car.

“What, you changed your mind?” Sarcasm dripped from her words, but he didn’t answer. He stared off down the street and seemed to sniff the air. Shae frowned at him. “Is someone out there?”

“No one important.”

She tried peering through the darkness, but saw nothing. Streetlights stood a couple houses down the block, but no one lurked in the dim illumination that she could see. Maybe he had better night vision than she had.

He focused on her.

She spun on her heel and headed up the steps. “I’ll call you.”

Eiji didn’t try to stop her again as she headed inside the house, and soon the sound of his engine turning over reached her room as she prepared for bed. Tonight, she didn’t want to just fall into bed with him, but the next time, all bets were off. He would be hers.

Chapter Four

Shae unfurled her blanket and laid it out carefully on the sand. She tossed her bag down and kicked the flip-flops she’d worn from her feet. Crouching, she dug through her bag for sun block and began rubbing some on her arms. Aware Eiji watched her, she pretended not to notice and continued with her task.

“Your skin is brown like chocolate,” he commented.

Shae laughed. He was no poet, that was for sure, but then she had to give the man a break, sure he had no need to practice being eloquent in her tongue. “Yeah, it is.”

“You don’t need to tan.”

“This isn’t tanning lotion, man. It’s sun block. Like you said, my skin is brown, and I love the tone of it. This little beauty”—she waved the tube—“is to keep it that way, so I’m not all crunchy by the time my vacation is over. Mind getting my back?”

She undid the tie on her beach cover-up and watched his gaze sharpen. The pink bikini had been a good choice being that it set off the undertones of her skin. From the look in Eiji’s eyes, he agreed. She let the material fall to the ground and turned, giving him a view of how little of her ass the bottoms covered.

“If you could help me down here too, that would be great. Thanks.” She pointed to her ass and thighs.

Eiji appeared behind her, less than an inch away, as if he’d teleported there. He squeezed her shoulders and growled in her ear. “You play a dangerous game, Shae.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” She blinked up at him over her shoulder.

He nabbed the tube from her fingers and began squeezing cream into his palm. Shae suppressed a laugh. She knew how to play a man, to give him a little to keep him yipping at her heels in hope of getting more, and then keeping him at a distance so she never had to sleep with him. Of course, that wasn’t the plan with Eiji. She fully intended to enjoy this sexy Asian to the hilt, but for now, she would not confirm it with him.

After he had done her bidding, Shae waited until he, too, rubbed sun block on his skin and was in the middle of it to tease him. “See you later, slowpoke. I’m going for a swim and to have some fun.” She pointed at a random group of men heading down the sand toward the water. “Oh, that group looks like they’re having a blast.”

She took off running, laughing at the grunt of annoyance behind her. If she thought she would get away or that Eiji would let her play with other men, she was sadly mistaken. He caught up to her in a heartbeat and swept her off her feet. Shae kicked and squealed, splashing water with her feet.

“Let go, let go,” she said, laughing. “You better not throw me in, Eiji, or else.”

The crazy man had the nerve to toss her in the air as if she weighed nothing, and her scream became real. She came down fast, but he caught her to his chest with ease. Soon they were engulfed in the water, and Eiji’s teasing turned gentle. He held her hand, and when they went so far out that the waves knocked her about, he stood as a buffer between her and the ocean. She drifted into his arms and pressed light fingertips to his shoulders. His warm skin, with rivulets of water dripping off of it, brought a burning desire to her entire being. The fact that, even in the chilly water, he grew thick and hard, his dick unyielding against her belly, did nothing to cool her down.

She forgot to play the game, getting lost in his eyes. Sometimes, she thought they were paler than usual and knew it wasn’t a typical trait for Asians. Maybe he was mixed. She didn’t care. His eyes were beautiful.

A cry nearby caught both of their attention. She turned to look and spotted a man drunk as hell trying toss young kids in the surf. “One more, one more,” he slurred to a boy of about ten. “Don’t be a wuss.”