Passion and Pearls (The pearl series)

by Marie, Dani

  Passion and Pearls

  By

  Dani Marie

  Cover Design by Blue Moose Design Services

  Copyright @ 2012 by DaniMarie All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Acknowledgements

  This book is dedicated to my Mom.

  She has been my biggest supporter, encouraged me when I was ready to give up and reads every word with enthusiasm and love.

  Thank you... I love you morthr than above the sky!

  Passion and Pearls

  By Dani Marie

  Chapter 1

  Her mind was reeling, she was still worried about how wrong things had gone this week. She’d have to move, that was the only answer. Then she’d have to be even more careful her secret didn’t get out. She lay down, bone tired and emotionally drained. Sleep didn’t come right away but once it did, the dream slid into her subconscious.

  “Passion and pearls, Darl’n, that’s what I’ll give you. Passion and Pearls.”

  His voice was oh so sexy, with a slow deep draw. Not really an accent just a strong steady way of whispering into her mind. Her body trembled even in sleep.

  “Time to come find me,” his husky whisper told her as he dissipated from her dream.

  She woke with a start, her heart beating fast and her body tingling with a need she hadn‘t felt in a very long time. Guess things were going to get interesting she thought as she wandered to the kitchen to get some much needed coffee. All she knew was that it was time to move on and start over. This time though she was excited about meeting her dream man with the sexy voice.

  ‘Yep, this could be interesting,’ Aqua said to herself.

  Aqua was such a strange color, not really green and not really blue. Aqua often wondered why her parents would name her that. They seemed like such normal parents although maybe her idea of normal wasn’t as accurate as she’d like to believe. How does one convince themselves, not to mention a whole town, that you’re normal with a name like Aqua? To make matters worse, having bright red, long curly hair just put the icing on the cake as far as Aqua was concerned. She was going to give it her best shot though because it was too late now to back out, she had signed the lease on the space for her new store. Colville Office Supply and Photography was now her new business. What a nice normal name for a business in a nice normal place owned by a nice normal woman. Aqua smiled at just how odd it seemed in itself to be trying to seem normal.

  Aqua had to remember it was pronounced call-ville because three people had already politely corrected her about that. One person even told her it was pronounced ‘call’ as in call girl. These folk had quite a sense of humor and that was another reason Aqua had decided this was the right place to start over. She was just glad to be starting over and this time she’d be more careful that her secret wouldn’t come out like it had in the small town she grew up in. It hadn’t been a bad little place, but the people were pretty old fashioned at best and once her family‘s “secret” got out and became the fodder for the grape vine, folks started treating them differently.

  As a child she was lonely, other children’s parents even told them not to play with her. As an adult, seeing a woman scold her child for talking to her was heart breaking. Aqua swiped at a single tear and reminded herself that she was starting over and she’d make sure this time it was different, she’d be different. As she walked around the empty space, she took pride in knowing this was hers. She was confident she could make this a really wonderful office supply store and do some photography on the side, which was her most cherished hobby. She knew this was exactly what she was destined to be doing. She had already set up an account with distributors and was ready to place the first orders as soon as the renovations were completed and the shelving was done.

  The building was a bit run down but that wouldn’t matter once she put some TLC into it. New windows, new flooring, redoing the walls, ceilings and lighting were going to make all the difference in the world to this old building. Besides, it was perfect for what she wanted since it had a small apartment upstairs that was to be her new home. She’d been in the building a few times now and felt comfortable in it. Aqua did a little twirl and laughed out loud. She’s done it, she had started over and she could tell that things were going to be wonderful here.

  Colville was a beautiful town in Washington State with around 5000 mostly friendly folks living normal and seemingly relatively happy lives. Everyone seemed friendly, anyway they smiled when Aqua had been there before to scope the place out. The police officers even waved to her, a complete stranger. The woman at the grocery store had invited her, a perfect stranger, to the town picnic. That’s what she needed, just a little bit of acceptance from the people around her. It’s a bit soon for the picnic she thought to herself, even though she was curious about what the town picnic would be like. She really just wanted to spend a few hours deep cleaning the apartment so that by one when the moving van got here she’d be ready to have her mother’s antique furniture brought up. She loved living amongst the old items, they gave her such a sense of belonging in a way no fancy new furniture could. Her mother had passed away when she was just 19, so at 25 keeping her Mom’s items close to her made her being gone not seem quite so permanent. She could pretend she could walk in one day and see Mom sitting on the settee. Then again on occasion that had happened. Nevertheless, that was another story altogether.

  Aqua had on cut off shorts and a t-shirt that read “Why lie, the truth is usually stranger than fiction anyway.” She was down on her hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor when she heard the banging on the door below. She looked at her watch and groaned; an hour early didn’t help her schedule but oh well what could she do? She dropped the brush into the soapy water splashing and ran down the stairway to open the door. The movers were there and ready to start. She propped open the door and mentioned that she wasn’t quite done with the kitchen so if they could do that room last that would be just dandy. They grinned, indicated that wasn’t a problem, and headed back to the truck. Aqua ran back upstairs and with a great flourish finished up the kitchen. It didn’t take much to clean a small space at least, she thought. Then she headed into the other rooms to direct the movers and generally be less help than she thought she was. But it didn’t take long to get the boxes and old heavy furniture into the apartment. She looked around in dismay once the movers left, wondering what she was going to do. There was hardly any room to walk through the place. Obviously she had miss judged the space a bit. But she really had trimmed her belongings down to her bare minimum so she had a problem. She looked around and groaned, now what?

  The only thing she could think of was that she would have to incorporate two of the three offices upstairs. She could make due with just one and use the additional space to make her living quarters larger. Well, she’d just have to adapt until she could get that done along with the myriad of other projects she had going on. She just couldn’t quite shake the feeling that everything was ok now and that she could relax. She’d never really had that feeling before and wasn’t sure she could trust it. Maybe she just wanted it too much.

  Aqua got her cell phone and called Darrell the contractor and he agreed to meet her first thing in the morning to go over her new ideas for the upper floor. Darrell was a grumpy old man but was fair and did quality work, anyway that’s what the realtor had said, and Aqua knew when she met him that he’d do a good job for her. She had decided that she really wanted a much larger living r
oom and needed more space in the kitchen, so she drew out ideas on paper for hours. She finally came up with a plan that seemed wonderful, open and even had a window looking out onto the store floor. This would be one way glass and would at least give her a feeling of open space.

  Her colors were all on the purple side, she just couldn’t help herself. It was her favorite color, the dark tones were her absolute favorites and she was using them as the accents so as not to make the area seem too small. She even threw in a very neutral kitchen with light yellows that seemed to go well with the purples of the rest of the apartment. She decided it was time to call it a day and headed downstairs to double check that all the doors were locked and secure for the night. Again, she felt that sense of pride as she walked down and into the open area that would soon be the store. She could picture the shelving and walls full of wonderful items. She could even see the display of furniture that she’d have. She smiled to herself and chuckled because she’d seen that space so many times before that now it was like an old friend to her. Darrell of course had offered some other ideas on the space planning but Aqua had balked without explaining why. That was her secret and he’d just have to believe that she knew what she was doing.

  To some it would have seemed a bit eerie to be there in the dark, in a big empty building but there was only a feeling of great things to come for Aqua. She knew she was safe and knew this was home. As she walked to the back of the building she turned on the flashlight as it got darker the farther from the windows she got. She was right at the back making sure the dead bolt was locked on the back door when there was a rattle at the front of the store. Aqua stiffened her fingers still on the lock of the back door. She couldn’t help it, her heart started racing. She couldn’t think what to do, her intuition told her everything was ok but her heart wanted her to run. She listened harder and then she heard it for sure, footsteps. That was it, she unlocked the door flung it open and began running. She wasn’t sure where to but just out. Then she heard the back door slam open again and she ran harder. Aqua wasn’t overly athletic but was quick when she needed to be. She kept thinking to herself, just keep running you’re not in danger. She knew she’d know it if she was but now it was time for self-preservation.

  As scared as she was, things were racing through her mind like how did someone else have a key or did they jimmy the lock. The locks were fairly new according to the realtor. Then her heart raced again because all of a sudden she could feel the breath of someone behind her and so she veered to the right into the park before realizing her mistake. Lights, why didn’t she run to the lights then it hit her or should she say, he hit her. She knew it was a man just by the strength he had as he grabbed her and they landed on the ground. It occurred to her that considering what happened she wasn’t hurt but he had let out an oomph when they landed. She felt tight arms around her and realized she was on top of someone who had no intentions of letting go.

  Aqua began to fight, kicking and struggling with all her might, mostly to no avail although it gave her great satisfaction when she’d hear him suck in his breath a bit or groan. Then he moved suddenly and it was her groaning as he had rolled them over and his entire weight was on top of her. With hardly any breath, at all she yelled. “I have AIDS.”

  He held her still, breathing hard and when he was a bit less frustrated with this damn spitfire of a woman finally said. “Lady, I don’t care what you have, you’re under arrest!”

  That threw Aqua completely. “What did you say?” she muttered still feeling the weight of this gulloot on top of her.

  “I said you’re under arrest, now hold still cause I’m still a bit miffed at having to chase you all over town.” Then he reached behind him, pulled out a little box, and barked orders into it. Aqua realized this was a police radio of some sort and sighed again. That made him chuckle, “That’s right lady, your caught” he told her. She didn’t say anything else mostly because she was trying to breath and figure out what she could have done that would send a police officer (anyway she hoped he really was an officer) running after her that way.

  About two minutes later the place got busy, she was lifted up by the officer as if she weighed nothing and stood upright. Unfortunately, for Aqua she was also immediately handcuffed and shuffled into a squad car before she could ask any questions.

  “Take her to the station, I’ll be there soon to file the charges and book her,” Blu told one of the other officers. She was put into the back of the squad car and taken away from the scene. Blu finished his preliminary investigation and had a list of charges the woman would be prosecuted for.

  Blufford or Blu as most everyone called him was giving directions to the other officers to go check out the building and see if their fugitive had gotten away with anything when the Chief showed up. “What ya got?” he asked in his quiet authoritative way that always made Blu feel like he was the same rookie he had been 10 years ago.

  “Got some little gal breaking into the old Stanford building and she ran like the dickens. She was pretty feisty when I caught her,” he told the boss. Blu let him know that the woman was on her way to the jail to be booked and he was going to finish up the investigation on scene before going to the PD to interview her. The Chief chuckled a bit and asked for more details. Blu thought that was odd but told the Chief about seeing a light in the building and using his master keys to unlock the front door and how as soon as he got inside he heard noises in the back and then the door slam. He ran to investigate and saw the shadow of her rounding the corner of the building, so he chased her and finally caught her in the park.

  The Chief wasn’t chuckling now, but sighed and shook his head. Blu stopped talking and stared at the Chief, who he’d known all his life and had always looked up to. Finally he couldn’t stand it and blurted out. “OK what gives?”

  Charles, the Chief looked at him in that same quiet authoritative way and asked if he knew that the old Stanford building had been sold and that the new owner was planning on moving in yesterday? Blu said one of those bad words that don’t often come out of his mouth. Then without another word turned and took off running towards his car which was some ways from where he’d ended up. This gave him a minute to try and think of how he was going to get his ass out of the frying pan at this stage. He came up with no ideas in the time it took to get to his car, find his keys and get headed to the station. Once there he bolted up the stairs to the booking area and came to a dead stop. There she was, the woman he’d wrestled to the ground and she was laughing and playing with his niece Amanda. At four years old Amanda wasn’t sure of most people but she obviously though this woman was perfectly ok. Then he remembered what she’d said at the park about having AIDs and scooped Amanda up and away from the woman. With a stern warning he sent the little tike running to her mother down the hall with tears in her eyes.

  “What was that for?” Aqua asked, appalled at the way he’d treated the little girl. Amanda was so cute, open and friendly in a way that only the very young can be.

  “She knows better than to be in here or to talk to strangers” he muttered and motioned for Fred the officer that was in the process of booking Aqua to leave.

  “I’m not sure that’s wise,” Fred told Blu. Rules were that no officer was to be alone with a suspect especially a female one.

  “Just go!” Blu told him and Fred knew he was serious so he left, still muttering about rules and how it better not be his ass in the sling when this was done.

  Blu sighed and walked over to the desk the woman was sitting on, getting his first real look at the woman he’d caught. He already knew her build which made him wince as he remembered he knew that because he’d wrestled her to the ground and then sprawled on top of her to hold her down. He also knew she was feisty because of the way she fought him every step of the way. What he hadn’t seen was just how appealing she was. She wasn’t a classic beauty and he wouldn’t really call her cute but she certainly had some type of appeal that he wasn’t immune to. He noticed her feet were
tiny and that her shoes didn’t match her clothes but then again could dark purple slip on sneakers with yellow flowers match anything? Aqua did a polite cough and he looked up realizing he had been staring at her feet trying to figure out what to say.

  “I know, they really don’t match anything but they make me smile,” she said when she caught him staring at them.

  Blu grinned lopsidedly at her and gave a very male non-committal snort of sorts. Then he remembered his manners and walked the few steps it took to get to her with his hand out and began introducing himself. “Hello ma’am, my name is Bluford Winslow, I’m one of the Deputies here in Colville and I’m pretty damn sure I owe you a huge apology”. Aqua looked at him and it was apparent that this wasn’t easy for him. She’d already figured out what had happened and it truly made her laugh but, she didn’t think she’d let him off the hook too easily mostly because she was still a bit startled of his treatment toward his niece Amanda.

  “Well now Bluford” she started to say but he interrupted her.

  “Blu, as in the color, for short,” he muttered.

  Aqua couldn’t help it, she just started laughing. The more confused he looked, the harder she laughed. She must have needed to let off all that pent-up adrenaline, because she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

  It wasn’t too long before Blu was truly confused and at this point couldn’t make heads or tails of the few words she kept trying to say in between her sputtering laughs. Finally, he just sat down and watched her, it was really amazing to see someone or at least an adult laugh with so much enthusiasm and no inhibitions. It hit him that he’d like to make her laugh more. Aqua tried to control herself and wiped the tears from laughing from her eyes. The cuffs rattled as she did and Blu quickly undid them without saying anything. She looked at him, smiled and waited a little longer knowing the laughter wasn’t quite finished and if she tried to talk it would start all over again. He just continued to watch her. He could see the control slowing coming and in a way it made him sad and again that sense of wanting to make her laugh more hit him. When he thought she was at least somewhat able to respond he told her that he knew his name was unusual but that wasn’t the usual response he got. That made her smile since that side of it hadn’t even occurred to her.