The Penance of Black Betty by Kelli Maine Read Free Book Online Page A

remember him.
                  A wave crashed against the beach sending the surf rushing toward her. When the water hit, she stumbled and fell in the sand. The undertow pulled her toward the water. Alistair grasped her arm and fell beside her, laughing. As the water rushed out and they lay side by side in the surf, a flash of an image came to her mind.
                  “Why would I be picturing candy bar wrappers?” she asked him. “Snickers.”
                  He sat up, abruptly. “You remember that?”
                  “I remember Snickers bar wrappers in the sand. Is that important?”
                  He grinned, a wide, beaming grin. “The wrappers themselves aren’t important, but the remembering is. The last time we were here, I stocked the place with Snickers, your favorite. You brought them down here with you and ate them sitting in the surf.”
                  “Snickers are my favorite, but I’m not allowed--” She clamped my mouth shut. Trent didn’t want a fat woman. If he caught her with sweets, well…it was bad.
                  Alistair must’ve known what she was going to say. “You can have all the Snickers you want, Bethany. A thousand a day if that makes you happy.”
                  She couldn’t help but laugh. “A thousand a day will make me sick.”
                  He laid back down beside her. The water rushed up and almost covered their bodies, then ran back to the ocean, stealing sand from underneath them. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you remembered something,” he said.
                  “What if it’s all I remember?”
                  He took her hand and threaded his fingers between hers. “It won’t be.”
                  She hoped she wouldn’t disappoint him. He was so wonderful, so thoughtful and kind. She wanted to give him something in return. Not as payment. She’d learned that lesson on the plane, but just for them…something solid and real to pin their hopes on that she could be the woman he knew again, even if she didn’t have any idea who that person was.
                  Slowly, she rolled to her side and waited for him to turn his head and look at her. He did and his adoring expression made her breath rush out of her. Placing a hand on his cheek, she eased toward him and touched his lips with her own, testing. He barely moved. She pressed her lips to his more firmly and closed her eyes. His hand came up, fingers tangling in her hair as he kissed her back.
                  Heat flared low in her belly. She knew him. On the most basic, primal level, she knew Alistair Ingram. With their lips and bodies pressed together here on the sand in Cozumel, there was no doubt that she’d been with him like this before.
                  The more the kiss deepened, the more familiar he felt. Somehow, this was the answer to everything. “Take me inside,” she whispered, short of breath and dizzy with lust.
                  “Inside?” He was so uncertain, like he was afraid he’d scare her.
                  “This—this closeness between us—is making me remember. Well, not exactly remember, but--”
                  He slammed his lips back into hers and lifted her up as he stood, the possibility of memories a strong incentive to carry her across the sand and into the cabana. “Tell me if you want me to stop. I don’t want you to think you have to do this. Any time, if it gets to be too much--”
                  It was her turn to shut him up with her mouth pressed firmly against his, her hands on the back of his head, holding him against her, her tongue delving between his warm, wet lips. She couldn’t get over how this man—a virtual stranger to her—felt like a live-wire link to her present life. Part of