“Cyd,” Imani said. “Before I go, Lex, Mya and I have a message for you.”
“Oh, really,” Cyd said as she looked over at Shawn again with a look of innocence.
She wouldn’t be looking at me like that if she knew how badly it made me want her, he thought.
“And what might that be?” Cyd continued.
“Daman mentioned that you’d be somewhere for a week, so if you can go grocery shopping, make sure you buy a few cans of pineapples to stock in the cabinet. Fresh pineapples are better, but I’m not sure where you are and what you have access to.”
“Why would I need a bunch of pineapples?” Cyd asked in confusion. Shawn knew exactly what Imani was talking about. Pineapples were his favorite fruit and he’d read more than a few articles about its benefits.
“Pineapples are known to make the female juices taste better,” Shawn responded to her question. “The more you eat, the better you taste.” He was well aware of the double meaning in his statement and his eyes landed on hers as she looked at him with awe.
“Seriously,” Cyd replied in a soft, yet disbelieving, voice. “How do you know that?”
“I happen to love pineapples,” Shawn answered matter-of-factly. He purposely licked his lips as he overly enunciated the last words of his next statement. “I even heard that using the fruit while making love makes for a very delicious kind of sex.” His eyes darted between the road and Cydney, mesmerized by the desire building in her eyes.
“Okay,” Imani said, interrupting the silence and sexual tension in the car. “Now I feel like I’m violating a special moment between you two, so I’ll let you both go. Cyd, I love you! Shawn, make sure you let my sister call and check in!”
“I love you, too,” Cydney said, her eyes still glued to Shawn.
“Will do,” Shawn replied before disconnecting the call and turning toward Cydney again. The road demanded that he focus, so he had no choice but to retreat from her gaze. He picked up his water bottle to take a sip, grateful that he’d chosen to bring the cool liquid with him on the short trip to his neighbors’ home. His body needed a dose of coolness to bring back down his suddenly hot temperature.
“I wonder what I taste like....” Cydney stated in a come-hither kind of voice that caused him to almost spit out the water in his mouth. “Guess I need to invest in some pineapples.”
Once again, his eyes darted between her and the road, the road losing the concentration battle. “From what I remember, you already taste sweet,” he said, barely finding his voice after her surprise statement.
“But your tongue hasn’t really dived into me yet,” Cydney replied as she smacked her lips to get her point across. Why the heck was she saying this stuff now and not when they were back at the cabin?
“Cydney,” he said in a ragged voice when he reached his neighbors’ house and parked the car in their dirt driveway. “You decide to flirt now...after you ignored me most of yesterday?”
Instead of answering his question, she tilted her head to the side and gave him her million-dollar smile. He was sure that smile had brought many men to their knees in surrender, so he might as well just give up now and add his name to her list of captives.
“If this is payback for me being hot and cold with you during the appreciation tour, then I apologize. I was just trying to do my job.”
She didn’t say anything and her smile turned to an expression of temptation, slowly drawing him in. She deliberately stuck out her tongue and then bit her bottom lip as she placed her hand lightly on his thigh. Don’t do that. He needed her not to touch him right now. They had a brunch to attend and being excited at brunch with neighbors he hadn’t seen in a few months was a very bad idea. Luckily, she removed her hand after a couple strokes up and down his thigh.
Shawn had an acute ability to read between the lines, but he wasn’t seeing any lines between him and Cydney.... Only an open field to play a passionate game of touch football. She had to know what she was doing to him, but she made the act of seduction look effortless.
She blew out a deep, long sigh before he heard the word pineapples slip through her lips. She leaned in closer to his ear and flicked the lobe with her tongue before opening the passenger door and hopping out of the car. By the time Shawn had gotten out of the car, Cydney was already on his neighbors’ front porch, waiting for him to join her.
Her sister should have never mentioned pineapples. Now she had ammo to use against him, and there was no doubt in his mind that she would use this knowledge to her advantage. Hell, she’d already started using the information against him. When he got out of the car, he looked toward the sky and held out his hands in surrender.
By the time he arrived at the stairs, Willie and Jessie Johnson had already answered the door. “Shawn,” Mama Jessie yelled as she ran up to him to give him a hug. “Hey MJ,” Shawn said as he returned her embrace. When he was a child, unlike most three-year-olds, Shawn knew that Willie and Jessie Johnson weren’t his parents. Even at a young age he’d had a keen sense of awareness. So instead of calling them Mom and Dad, Shawn referred to them as Mama Jessie and Papa Willie. “Cydney Rayne, this is Mama Jessie and Papa Willie, or MJ and PW as I affectionately call them.”
“Nice to meet you both,” she said as she gave each of them a hug.
“Oh, she’s a beauty,” Mama Jessie said as she took Cydney’s hands and led her into their house.
Papa Willie slapped him on his back as they followed the women into the house. “You did good.”
“Thanks, PW,” Shawn replied. “But we’re just friends.” Cydney overheard his reply and tucked some fallen hair behind her ear before turning to give him a quick smile. She looked sexy.
“Shawn,” Papa Willie said when they’d fully entered the home. Only then did Shawn notice he was still fixated on Cydney.
“Yes,” Shawn said at Papa Willie’s successful attempt to get his attention. Papa Willie looked from Shawn to Cydney once more before giving Shawn a slight nod of disbelief.
“Whatever you say, son,” Papa Willie said before closing the door and leading Shawn to the dining room.
* * *
After brunch and a quick run to a nearby hardware store, Shawn returned to the Johnsons’ home and went straight to the den to call Agent Wolfe, who wasted no time informing him that Jim hadn’t budged and wasn’t talking.
“The FBI has ways of making criminals talk, and Jim doesn’t strike me as the type who can withstand any rough handling.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Agent Wolfe agreed. “As far as the other men, we’re trying not to bring the media into this. One of the men who was trying to kidnap Ms. Rayne was Bob Noland, CEO of one of the largest fast-food chains in Illinois.”
“I knew he looked familiar,” Shawn interjected.
“Our assumption is that they hadn’t expected to get their hands dirty and tried to take matters into their own hands when they noticed Cydney had escaped,” Agent Wolfe continued. “He called his lawyer and some people in the media are beginning to get suspicious since we postponed the rest of the Peter Vallant Company appreciation tour, so we may only be able to keep this under wraps for a few more days. One thing’s for sure—you need to keep Ms. Rayne safe until we find out more. Is your cabin stocked with supplies just in case?”
Agent Wolfe wasn’t talking about normal supplies, but rather equipment that would help them in case they were attacked or felt threatened. The FBI had trained him well so he was ready for any situation. “Yes, I’m prepared.”
“Good, I’ll keep you updated. Oh, and, Shawn,” Agent Wolfe continued, “other agents were questioning why you didn’t bring Ms. Rayne to an FBI secure location so she could be placed in witness protection. I vouched for you, but you’d better not disappoint me.”
“I assure you, sir, she will be safe here.”
Agent Wolfe
was the only one in the agency who knew where they were and Shawn wanted to keep it that way.
“I’m confident that you will, but I’m not stupid. You’re an excellent agent and you’re always on high alert. Don’t let your relationship with this woman cloud your judgment.”
Shawn knew that Agent Wolfe would eventually bring up the obvious. Though he hadn’t really known he was going to take Cydney to the cabin until she’d fallen asleep and he felt himself turn the car in the opposite direction.
Shawn ended his call with Agent Wolfe and walked into the living room just as Mama Jessie was taking out old photo albums that contained photos of Shawn and the rest of his family. Shawn knew Cydney would have questions for him once she noticed he was in the photo albums a lot.
“Did you use to spend every summer here?” Cydney asked as she studied each page.
“Yes, something like that,” Shawn replied as he adjusted himself on the sofa. Cydney flipped through a few more pages, glancing at him in between pages.
Shawn ignored the look that Papa Willie and Mama Jessie gave him as Cyd went through pictures of him with their two sons. They could obviously tell he hadn’t told her his situation based on the way she was reviewing the pictures. But he didn’t see any reason to tell her just yet. I’ll just tell her when we get back to the cabin, he thought as he started a conversation with Papa Willie to get the attention off him.
“Aw, this baby is so adorable,” Cydney gleefully exclaimed. “Who is the little cutie? Is this Shawn?”
Shawn, who had been engrossed in a conversation with Papa Willie, suddenly whipped his head toward the photo album. He walked over to the album to get a closer look at the picture. That is me.... He hadn’t seen a baby picture of himself in years and he honestly didn’t know how he felt about seeing the picture.
“Is that you?” Cydney asked again when no one responded.
Instead of answering her, Shawn looked from Papa Willie to Mama Jessie. “How long have you guys had this picture?”
Mama Jessie got up and began stroking his back. “Willie took this picture a year after you were born, so we’ve had it ever since then.”
Mama Jessie walked over to her husband and leaned into him as they watched Shawn’s reaction to the picture. Shawn picked up the album and ran his fingers over the picture, feeling so disconnected to the people in it. He might as well be staring at strangers...himself included.
Cydney rose from her seat and placed her hand over his arm. “I’m sorry if I said anything wrong.”
Shawn looked up from the picture and over at Cydney. “It’s me and my parents,” he whispered, surprised and angry that he’d almost forgotten how they looked. Cydney’s eyes studied his face in confusion and concern. She had no idea how monumental this moment was for him, yet she was still trying to find a way to comfort him. In that moment, his breathing quickened for two reasons. One, he hadn’t seen pictures of his family in over fifteen years and two, he’d never felt comfort from anyone the way he was receiving relief from Cydney.
“They died when I was three,” Shawn said, a little above a whisper this time. He left out the part about how they died and luckily Cydney didn’t ask him any questions. “They were both only children so I didn’t have any living relatives. Papa Willie and Mama Jessie raised me like their own son and although they were great godparents and guardians, I was a very angry teenager. I got into more fights than anyone else in my school and in a rampage one day, I ran to the woods with a suitcase of family pictures and burned everything.” Shawn waited for Cydney to stare at him in disbelief or shock, but she didn’t. Instead, she just listened and continued rubbing his arm.
“Papa Willie eventually found me, but it was too late—I’d burned everything that was left of them. It took a day or so, but I eventually realized what I’d done.” Shawn looked back down at the picture of him and his parents again. “I’d decided that from that point on I would stop thinking ‘why me’ and reacting out of anger and instead I would focus on being a better person...a better man. When I turned twenty-one, I bought my first property...the cabin we are staying at.”
Shawn looked at Papa Willie and Mama Jessie before turning back to Cydney. “They both really helped me mold myself into a better man.”
Mama Jessie dabbed a few tears. “His mom and I were best friends, and I love Shawn like one of my own,” Mama Jessie said to Cyd. “And your parents would be so proud of you,” she said as she looked at Shawn.
“I agree, they would. You turned out to be a remarkable man,” Papa Willie said with a smile as he held his wife.
Years ago, Shawn had chosen to join the FBI to make the world a better place and to better himself in the process. He was far from perfect, and some people from his past never failed to remind him that he used to be a bad boy without a care about anything or anyone. But that was the old Shawn. The new Shawn had spent the better part of his life striving to be the best he could be. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever be the type of man that left a legacy, but he planned to succeed at everything in life. Succeed...or die trying.
Chapter 14
As Cyd watched Shawn stare intensely at the picture, her heart ached for him. He never told me about his parents. She wished she’d known before she asked who was in the picture. Although he wasn’t moving away from her touch, she felt his body tense under her hand.
“I’ll be back,” he said suddenly as he placed the album on the coffee table and began making his way to the front door.
“Shawn,” Mama Jessie said as she took the picture of Shawn and his parents out of the photo album and walked over to where he was standing. “We want you to have this.” She handed him the picture, but he didn’t reach out for it.
“Take it,” Mama Jessie said, placing the picture in his hand. Shawn gripped the photo and enveloped Mama Jessie in his arms. Cyd gave Shawn a smile when he looked at her over Mama Jessie’s shoulders. When they detached, Shawn left out the front door, obviously craving fresh air. Cyd walked over to the living room window to see if he was going anywhere. She assumed he would go for a walk or get into the car and take a ride. Instead, he paced back and forth on the dirt driveway, looking at the ground and kicking small rocks that were barely visible. Goodness, that must be a terrible feeling, Cyd thought to herself. She didn’t even want to think about losing her parents. I wonder how they died? She was afraid to ask him when he had told her that they’d passed away, but she was so curious.
“He really likes you, you know,” Mama Jessie said, interrupting her thoughts.
“Honey, stop,” Papa Willie said playfully to his wife. Cyd turned around when she heard movement behind her. Mama Jessie came to stand beside her at the window.
“You like him, too,” Mama Jessie said a little lower so her husband couldn’t hear. Cydney didn’t say anything. She really had no idea how to respond to Mama Jessie’s comment.
“So, Cydney, let me ask you something,” Mama Jessie stated. “How does Shawn seem to you right now? Outside kicking dirt and looking overwhelmed by his past. He’s grown a lot since his rebellious teenage days, but—”
“I used to be rebellious, too, so that doesn’t bother me,” Cydney interrupted, although she hadn’t meant to.
“What I’m saying is that right now, he doesn’t look like the successful and confident man he has grown to be. Going down memory lane is reverting him back to those teenage years and provoking those feelings he used to have when he believed it was him against the world.”
“Part of him still feels that way,” Papa Willie added, proving he could still hear them talking. “Sorry, honey, you never could whisper.”
Mama Jessie gave her husband a forgiving smile before turning her attention back to Cyd. “So what do you think he needs right now?”
Cyd tilted her head to the side and observed Shawn a little more closely. Every now and then, he woul
d look back to the house as if he was waiting for something...or someone. He looked so defeated and all Cyd wanted to do was make him feel better, like he was king of the world—her world.
She shook her head slightly to clear her mind before answering. “He looks like he needs comfort or something to get his mind off the past that is clearly haunting him right now.”
“Bingo! Told you she was a smart girl,” Mama Jessie said with a laugh as she turned to her husband, then back to Cyd. “So why are you still in here with us?”
Cyd looked at Mama Jessie to respond but couldn’t think of anything to say. Is she suggesting what I think she’s suggesting?
“Go ahead,” Mama Jessie said while she led Cyd toward the front door, with Papa Willie right behind them. “He needs comforting, and you want to comfort him, so you’re wasting time being in here with us.”
When Mama Jessie opened the door, she called Shawn to the door and gave them both hugs goodbye. Cyd expected Shawn to ask why they were leaving, but he didn’t say anything. He actually looked relieved, although he hadn’t said anything since she’d stepped out of the house. When he started up the car, they waved goodbye and began their short journey to the cabin. During the entire two miles, Shawn didn’t say anything to her. She couldn’t even tell how he was feeling. Was he mentally exhausted? Angry? Sad?
When they reached the cabin, Shawn got out of the car, promptly took some bags out of the trunk and went over to open the passenger door for Cyd. It was dark outside now, but she noticed him study their surroundings outside before he opened the cabin door. She waited until the door was fully closed, the alarm was turned off and a couple lamps were turned on before she said anything to him.
“Shawn, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said as he kicked off his gym shoes and dropped the bags on the floor near the door. “Just hungry as hell.”
“Okay, no problem. I can fix you something to eat,” she responded, kicking off her shoes, as well. “We haven’t had dinner yet. What do you want to eat?”
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