and divorced twice.”
“Ouch.” Jet snapped her fingers. “It’s coming to me now. Did your grandmother live in that blue cottage on Adele Avenue and drive a yellow Continental?”
“That’s the one. Impressive memory.”
“We all knew her as the crazy cat lady.” Jet clamped a hand over her mouth. She really needed to get a mouth filter one day. She quickly grabbed a bunch of scattered invoices and stuffed them into a folder. Normally, it took a lot to fluster her, but something about Landry Fields kept her off-kilter.
A warm, large hand lay over her right arm, near the elbow. “It’s okay.”
The touch, combined with his low, husky voice, made Jet quiver even more than she had at the library. Her eyes slowly traveled up his forearm, across lean muscle and a coating of light hair that was so...damned...sexy. How could a man’s arm be sexy, for Poseidon’s sake? She met his eyes—so blue, so deep. As deep as the ocean she swam on summer nights. Landry leaned closer and Jet shut her eyes, wanting nothing more than to smell his clean scent and feel his lips on hers.
The bells above the door jangled and a cool draft lifted the hairs at the back of her neck.
“Well, shit,” Landry muttered. “It’s Perry the Pirate.”
“Huh?” Jet abruptly opened her eyes and blinked. She’d been so totally wrapped in Landry’s spell that the worldly intrusion caught her off guard. In a nanosecond, Landry’s eyes returned to their previous remote chill. She stepped back and faced Perry.
He sauntered in, smiling easily, dressed in a white shirt and white jeans, just as he had the day she first met him at Harbor Bay. The Greek-god look, she’d laughingly dubbed it. Only now it looked more like a poor imitation of Don Johnson in an old rerun of Miami Vice. And since everything Perry did was calculated for effect, Jet wondered at the significance of his attire. His dark hair was artfully, yet casually, combed back and he sported a day’s growth of hair on his chin and jaw.
“That your BMW parked out front?” he asked Landry.
“It is,” Landry said stiffly, not returning the breezy smile.
“Classy car. A little conservative for my taste, though. I drive a red Mustang.”
Yeah, a rented one. The flashy clothes and cars gave a false impression of wealth, and Perry was dead broke. Or so he claimed.
“Sporty car. But a bit too lame on the engineering for my taste,” Landry remarked drily.
Perry pulled Jet to his side in a propriety gesture that made her want to give him a good kick in the shins. His Aqua de Sexy cologne did nothing for her after being so close to Landry minutes earlier. Everything about Perry now struck her as synthetic and fake.
It could never work between them again after all that had happened and the years apart. Still, letting go was like a little death. For too long, she’d clung to the hope they could be a real, loving couple, and dreams like that didn’t die easily.
“Perry, this is Landry Fields, the IRS auditor that I spoke with yesterday.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Perry Hammonds.”
Perry held out a hand, and for a moment Jet wasn’t sure Landry was going to shake it.
But Landry played the gentleman. “I know the name. You were once in business with Miss Bosarge.” Landry withdrew his hand. “Until you were sent to prison,” he added.
Perry’s smile flattened. “How nice of you to bring that up.”
“I believe in laying out all the facts.”
“Spoken like a typical accountant,” Perry observed. “Bet you’re a blast at parties.”
Landry crossed his arms. “Yep, we nerdy types also believe in having plans. What’s your game plan? Must be hard finding employment with a felony record.”
Perry shrugged. “Something will come up. It always does. Besides, I’m doing my best to talk my girl into going back into business with me.”
His girl? Jet stepped away from Perry’s overly tight hold.
Landry swept his hand over the room. “Looks to me like she’s got other ideas for earning an income. Guess Miss Bosarge could always hire you temporarily to help with shipments and inventory as her supplies arrive.”
Jet almost snorted. Perry work as a lowly stock boy? Not happening.
“I have a higher standard than that,” Perry scoffed.
The air between the two men crackled with animosity, all pretense of politeness worn thin. Time to break it up. Jet headed to the door, motioning to Landry. “I’ll have that paperwork for you no later than tomorrow,” she promised. Of course, she had access to the papers. The problem was that most of them were bogus.
Landry followed her while Perry leaned an elbow on the front counter and watched them.
At the door, he handed her a card with his phone number. “My teenage brother is staying with me a few days. A temp job would give him something to do while I’m at work. Think about it and give me a call later if you’d like to meet him.”
Suddenly, Landry bent down and whispered in her ear, “Don’t do it. Don’t go back into business with that guy. You’re better than that.”
Jet gasped at the feel of his hot breath at her ear, the touch of his cheek as he temporarily pressed against her neck. Even with the protective scarf to hide the gill markings, the silky material only served to make the contact more provocative.
Landry pulled away, his blue eyes inches from her own, intense and full of warning. Without waiting for an answer, he abruptly exited.
“Looks to me like that IRS dude is interested in more than your tax returns,” Perry drawled after Landry shut the door. “What gives?”
“None of your business,” she snapped. “Why did you come by?” She sat on a bar stool next to Perry and rubbed her temples.
Perry smoothed back her hair behind one ear and ran a finger along the marking. “Let him get too close and he’ll wonder about this.”
Jet slapped his hand away, hard enough that Perry winced slightly. “That your way of saying I should stick with you since you know my deep, dark secret?”
“It should weigh in my favor that I know all about you and it doesn’t bother me.”
“Of course it doesn’t. If I weren’t a mermaid, you’d still be collecting penny-ante treasure crumbs all by your lonesome.”
“That’s not true. I want us back together,” he said huskily. “The way it used to be in the beginning. Remember?” He leaned in and softly kissed her lips. “I remember. And while I was in that stinking prison I thought about you every single night.”
It wasn’t true. He’d never written or called. And when he got out, he took plenty of time getting back to the bayou. He nuzzled the tender flesh
