A faint blush on Joy’s silken skin spoke volumes of her interest. I made a mental note to proceed cautiously. Her eyes drifted towards the purse laying on the ground and I bent to retrieve it. Maybe it was because she was a woman with a mind to tame me or maybe it just was the awareness that my heart felt strangely lighter, but I decided to take up the challenge of wooing her no matter what the reason.

She walked towards the parked cars and I followed. Leaning up against the side of a shiny new black Rolls Royce, Joy’s alabaster fingers reached into her purse and retrieved a cellular phone. “My brother’s inside. I’m just going to let him know where I am. He’s such a worrier.” The faint sound of the text being sent prompted her to put the phone away. She held the purse behind her. The change in position of her arms straightened her back and lifted her breasts. My first thought was that she was a military brat, too. The itching of my palms to cup those breasts removed anything other than basic cerebral function in me. It was with torturous restraint that I kept a proper distance between us.

An irresistible ‘come hither’ look, shook my resolve. My hand slipped in between hers and the small of her back. I crushed her between me and the car and found her lips as wanton and plump as a ripe passion fruit. My other hand cupped the back of her neck, careful not to disturb her hair. The kiss was meant to be chaste, but one taste of those lips made me a greedy thief. With great delight and more than a little fascination, I slipped my knee in between her legs and felt her moan into my mouth. It was as perfect a moment as could be had in a lifetime. A sound like fireworks came from the direction of the mansion and it took me a moment to realize that it was not in celebration of our first sacred moment together.

A piercing scream broke the sanctity of our soul’s dual confession. The sound of music coming from the party was suddenly replaced with a noisy ruckus inside the mansion. My eyes opened in the nick of time to see Adriana slip something into Joy’s purse and past us. Another set of popping sounds flew after her. Realizing what it was, I shoved Joy down to the ground and covered her with my body. “Stay down. Don’t make a sound.”

With my heart beating in my ears like a hammer on an anvil, I crouched down and scuttled after Adriana. A sound like popcorn popping loudly came from inside the Waveny Mansion as I reached out for her. As I dragged her down to the ground, Adriana reached up her dress and pulled out a 9mm handgun and squeezed off two rounds. Shit! I pushed her head down lower. “Son of a bitch!” she yelled, and I saw the blood leaking out of a graze on her right side. “I was going to wear this dress again. Shit!” she yelled, and climbed over me to fire another round. “He’s down. I got him,” she said with a triumphant grin and stood back up.

She reached a hand down to me. Just as I reached out to take it and breathed a quick sigh of relief, Adriana toppled over me and landed with a thud on the ground. Blood quickly spilled out of her head. “Adriana!” I cried, seeing the bullet hole between her eyes. She was gone and there was nothing I could do. I grabbed the 9mm out of her hand and scrambled towards Joy.

I motioned with my hand for her to stay down and be quiet. Footsteps sounded on the patio and a large man in a black tux with a red cummerbund and tie called out, “She’s over there by the Audi.” As he neared her body, my heart sank. I had kissed those lips and entertained notions of a future with her. Even though we weren’t together, the pain of Adriana’s loss cut into me like a hot knife. Slowly, I got into position to fire off a shot at him. Another set of footsteps stopped me. “Does she have it?” a slender man with crooked glasses asked as he approached him.

“No, it’s not here. Go one by one and search the guests. She must have handed it off. Don’t let anyone leave,” the bigger guy said.

“I’m not cleaning this up. This was your mistake, in the first place. You’re dealing with…” the slender man he fell forwards to the floor and twitched for a moment as his blood spilled out around him.

“Hot tempered little prick. That’ll be the last time you threaten to snitch on me,” the large man gloated over the fallen body of his associate.

TBC next week….