Chapter Forty-Eight

“Looks like they haven’t set up camp here yet,” Tim said as he pulled into his driveway, turned off the ignition, and pulled up the hand brake.

Angelique breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. “Merci au bon Dieu for small favors.”

They’d taken a side trip to Jeff’s place to fetch Chester. Fortunately, Jeff had managed to grab the dog and take him home while she and Tim hid away from the paparazzi. Beth also had the foresight to pick up Angelique’s bag.

“Come in with me?” Tim unlatched his seat belt.

“Yes.” Her heart beat a little bit faster.

He carried her to his front door since she still didn’t have any shoes on. After setting her down to open the door, he picked her up again and carried her inside. “Let’s go to the beach.”

She nodded. He took her to the beach and set her down on the cool sand.

“I’d seen you before, during Jeff and Beth’s wedding reception at the Yacht Club. You were walking on the beach. I thought you were an angel sent to tempt me with your hair tangling in the breeze, with the amazingness of your body.” He reached out and tucked an errant blonde curl behind her ear. “Then I got home and you were here, right next door. I didn’t think. I just started taking pictures. I never intended to do it more than the once, but I couldn’t stop. I know it was wrong,” he shook his head, “so wrong, but you gave me back something more essential to me than breathing. Please forgive me.”

Angelique searched his face trying to see the truth. She wanted to believe, she wanted to forgive and fall into his arms. But there was one more thing she had to see. “Can I see the pictures?”

“Are you sure you want to see them?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll bring them down.”

She sat and stared out at the foaming waves while she waited for Tim to come back. The bubbling surf imitated the churning going on in her stomach.

She continued to sit on his beach stairs.

He told her the pictures he’d taken were beautiful. That he saw something she didn’t see.

How she hoped he was right.

He dropped and sat on the steps next to her. “Here. If you don’t like them, I’ll burn them and destroy every trace they ever existed. I’ll never take another photograph in my life.”

Her hands trembled as she took the book.

“Do you want me to open it for you?”

“No.” She shook her head. This, she had to do for herself. She lifted the cover.

And didn’t believe what she saw.

Yes, the pictures were of her, but only because she remembered the events he’d caught. The woman was someone she had never met.

That woman smiled freely, laughed without reservation, danced with abandon along the waves. She twirled and spun. She knelt beside a child and watched a crab or some such on a sand bar at low tide.

None of the pictures showed a damaged woman with a scar. They showed a woman with a lot of life to give and to live.

They showed the love the man held for the woman he was taking the pictures of.

Tears welled in her eyes as she turned to look at him. “I don’t know who this person is.”

He smiled a smile so gentle and with so much love. “She’s you. The woman I love. The woman I respect. The woman I can’t live without.”

“I will disappoint you. I always disappoint people in the end.”

“You will never disappoint me.” He stood and helped her up. “You can’t.”

He swung her into his arms, carried her inside, and up the stairs to his bedroom, where he laid her on his bed like she was made of spun sugar and twice as sweet and fragile. “I love you.”

“I love you.” Oh, her heart was so full it broke in two to hold all the love she had for him.

They made love, all soft kisses and gentle touches, poignant and full of promises. Every whisper, every caress was a benediction. Then, in the aftermath, they fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms, bones melted together in peaceful, sated happiness.

****

Angelique awoke to the sound of her phone blowing up. She leaned over the side of the bed feeling around for her purse. Fumbling, she located it and slid her cell on.

“Angelique! Finally! What’s going on there?” Lucien demanded.

“Um,” She shook her head. She was still sleepy and in a love coma. “You woke me up.”

“I bet. Go online and check out TMZ then call me back. Immediately.” Plbbbbt, he was gone.

She frowned.

“What is it?” Tim’s voice was lower and gruffer than usual due to the early hour.

“Lucien called. He wants me to go online and check out TMZ.”

“Let me get my laptop.”

He did and they fired it up.

“Oh. My. God.” Angelique pressed her fingers against her mouth. “All those scumballs are camped outside the Red Club waiting for us to come out.”

“No wonder Lucien got a little bit bent.” Tim chuckled.

She swatted his arm.

“Ow!”

“This isn’t funny! It isn’t funny at all!” She all but cried it.

“I’ve got an idea. We’re going to give those bottom feeders a story they won’t forget.” He hopped out of bed. “Call your brother; tell him we’ve got everything under control. In fact, tell him to stay tuned to the live feed.” He squinted at her. “You do still trust me to take care of you?”

“From Lucien?” Angelique knew better. “I imagine he’s already on his way here to rescue me from whips and chains in a dungeon.”

“Just call him and tell him to stay put. I’ve got it all under control.”

She sighed. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Oh yeah,” he assured her. “Just trust me.”

“Well, from your mouth to God’s ears.”

“You just watch me, Sparky. Just watch me.”

****

Angelique recognized the road out of town heading to the Red Club. Really, who knew that the small, roll-up-the-sidewalks-at-nine-o’clock Lobster Cove would have such a thing.

Not that she was a prude. There was a BDSM club on every corner in New Orleans. She might have even gone to one a time or two, not that she’d ever admit, publically, to it.

A girl had to have a few secrets, right?

Tim pulled his Mercedes up to a curb about two blocks away from the club. “Let’s walk.”

“Walk?”

“Yeah, you know that thing you do when you put one foot in front of the other in order to get from place to place?”

“Don’t be an idiot.”

“Can’t help it. It’s my parents’ cross to bear.” He chuckled and made her ache to kick him in the shins. “I want them to see us coming from a place that is not the club. A place where we couldn’t have snuck out the back door or in the laundry bins, whatever. They’re going to see we were never there. Here’s the thing.” He looked a little unsure of himself. “I do want you on board with this.”

“Ooooo-kay.” She really didn’t like the sound of this.

“It’s going to mean facing the press. They’re going to take our picture.”

“They are?”

“I’m counting on it.” He practically rubbed his hands in glee. “As long as you’re okay with it. It’ll be good, I promise. Do you trust me?”

She remembered his pictures of her. “I trust you.”

He laughed. “Then stick with me, Sparky.”

“Why do they think we’re hiding out in there? Like I’ve got nothing against the Red Club, but why do they think we’re there?”

“I’ve got my theory about that, too.” He grabbed her hand. “C’mon.”

Well, it wasn’t like he was giving her a choice about it.

He slowed their pace down to a stroll as they reached the phalanx of photographers. “Looking for someone? Or maybe two someones?” he called out.

Just like in a cartoon, all heads turned with an audible snap to look at them. It took the sharks a beat, but they recovered fast and started shooting.

She noticed several townspeople on the edges of the crowd: Betts Quinn and Birdie McCorkle from The Sea Crest Inn, Katelyn Sullivan from Mariner’s Fish Fry, the ladies from the Venus Gallery, David Hu from Murphy’s Bar, Melanie Owens from Sang Freud, and Sal from Lobster Lanes. Last, but not least, Jessie Michaels and Caleb Drake stepped out of the front doors of the Red Club, which Jessie owned and where Caleb was the dungeon master.

She was pretty sure the rest of the greater Lobster Cove community had gathered around. You had to love a small town.

Tim grinned like the very devil. “I’m glad you’re all here,” he gestured to the crowd of photographers. “Even you.”

Every single photographer put his camera up over his right eye and placed his finger on the click button.

Tim held up his hand. “Not so fast. No pictures unless it’s okay with my lady.” He turned and studied her face. “Are you okay with this?”

What? Hadn’t he already asked her that? “Okay with what?”

“Okay with getting your picture taken. With me right next to you. Because unless you’re totally good with it, no picture.”

He had this odd, hopeful gleam in his eye.

“I…I told you I was.” She felt a little lightheaded.

“I won’t let them hurt you.”

She looked around at all the people on the street in front of the Red Club. Everyone grinned at her expectantly, like their next breaths depended on her decision. She sighed. “I know.”

He closed his eyes for a brief second then took her hand and brushed his lips over her fingers. The cameras whirred as he dropped to one knee in front of her, his hand still holding onto hers. “Angelique Durand, I love you with my whole heart and soul. I don’t deserve you, but I promise you to do my damndest to make you happy for the rest of your life if you’ll marry me.” Pulling a ring box out of his pants pocket, he opened it and held it up for her to see.

Angelique felt tears running down her face as she gazed at one of the biggest diamonds she’d ever seen. Her breath caught in her throat, and she had to swallow around the lump it made.

Marry Tim? She looked down at his hopeful face and felt the last piece of her heart click into place; a piece she hadn’t even known she missed, making it whole.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Oh yes.”

He closed his eyes and swayed like he couldn’t count on his legs keeping him from falling over. “You’re sure?”

“Absolutely. I’ve never been more sure of anything else in my life.”

The crowd went crazy, clapping, whooping,

He slipped the diamond on her finger, stood, and kissed the bejeezus out of her. After coming up for air, he rested his forehead on hers. He swallowed hard. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure about anything else in my entire life.”

“Thank God,” he murmured. “I can’t even begin to imagine my life without you in it.”

“Thank God you won’t have to.” She looked at all the people standing around and doing the heavy looking on. “Can we go home now? It’s a little crowded around here.”

“You got it, Sparky. Let’s go.