Breathing hard and on her knees, she glared up at him. “Why did you get in front of me like that? You caused this.”
He didn’t wait on her to hand him the camera; he reached down and pulled it from around her neck. “You were taking unauthorized pictures. I know your type. These are for money.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Oh yeah, right. I don’t know how you’re getting home tonight but you’re not taking this camera with you.”
A golf cart filled with two very broad-shouldered and completely stereotypical bodyguards raced across the grass and came to a stop. Both of them barreled out of the golf cart. “You have trouble, Mr. Tanner?” one of them asked.
The other one hurried to the water’s edge near the woman. “Nobody else is in there, are they?”
“No.” Her voice cracked.
“I believe it’s just her, from what she says.” He felt guilty that he hadn’t asked that question. But the woman had been at the dance; surely, she hadn’t left anyone in the car waiting on her. Still, he felt a niggling of guilt for not having asked the question. Or having looked inside for someone else.
“So, what’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“This is a wedding crasher. I don’t know how she got in. But I do know how she’s getting out. Please take her away and either call a taxi or take her wherever she needs to go. Just get her out of here.”
He held the camera up and then, giving her one last glare and being hit equally hard with a glare from those beautiful eyes of hers, he turned with the camera in his hand and strode across the grass, back toward the wedding. He’d had it with people invading his and his family’s privacy.
Chapter Two
Rita walked into her hotel room, wet, filthy, and feeling very grungy after her disastrous encounter with Levi at the Tanner wedding. She felt the slimy sense of what she had done, and she wanted to cry. Instead, she locked the door, walked into the tiny bathroom, and turned on the hot water. She pulled the memory card from her bra and stared at it. She felt nauseous looking at it. Unsure what to do with it, she went to the bedroom and slipped the small black card beneath the mattress. She had until eleven to get the pictures into her contact at the tabloid.
She was selling someone’s private moments to a tabloid.
Feeling like a slime ball, she stripped off her soaked clothes and let them fall to the ground. She had time for a shower, desperately needed a shower.
Time to think about this.
She stared at herself in the mirror. This was a disaster. But she needed the money these photos would bring. Shaking her head, she climbed into the shower and tried to wash away the dirty feelings assaulting her.
She could not let this opportunity pass her by.
The steaming hot water hit her, and she closed her eyes and let it wash over her. She stood there for a long time, just letting the hot water wash away how dirty she felt.
She’d had to talk herself into going through with this in the first place. And it had been hard to convince her to go against everything she believed in and invade someone’s privacy. She told herself she had to do it, but it made her skin crawl. And obviously she was bad at it.
Not the actual picture taking—she had some fantastic pictures on the memory card. Pictures she knew were going to be wonderful. She knew how to take photos, just not how to not have a guilty conscience and feel like scum selling them.
She stayed in the shower for a long time, trying to talk herself into uploading the pictures and sending them into her contact. Finally, she climbed from the steaming shower, feeling a bit calmer but not any more content about her situation. But she had to get out of the shower at some point. She wrapped a towel around her torso, tucked it in at the top, then grabbed another one and rubbed her thick, tangled hair until it wasn’t dripping.
A loud pounding on her door made her jump. Her heart kicked into a violent hammering in her chest as she peeked around the door of the bathroom.
Thankfully, she had used the deadbolt and the chain. She jumped as the pounding continued. Her heart jumped in her chest with each beat of the fist upon her door.
“I know you’re in there. Open this door or I will call the police.”
Levi. She closed her eyes, immediately recognizing the sound of Levi Tanner’s voice.
His furious voice.
She swallowed hard and glanced at the bed where the memory card was hidden under the edge of the mattress. Inhaling a slow breath to attempt to steady her stomach, she crossed to the door, suddenly irritated at this cowboy who refused to leave her alone.
She yanked open the door. Levi stood there, his beautiful eyes hot with anger. She glared up at the tall, lean, dangerous man. He was a billionaire and she just needed a little bit of money. But she was doing a job; it wasn’t as if she had stolen something…well, technically, she had stolen the photos of Cole and Tulip because she had been a wedding crasher, not invited to their special event.
Still, he needed to back off. “Would you stop banging on my door and go away? First, though, give me back my camera, please.” Why had she said please?
He looked startled and only when his gaze slid down her body did she realize she was wearing just a towel. Instantly, her hand grasped the top edge to make sure it didn’t come open.
His gaze shot back to meet hers. “I’m not going to give you back your camera. You are going to give me the memory card that went in that camera. That was a private wedding. It’s not for wedding crashers to come in, snap photos, and then sell them for money. You people are sleazy and I’m sick of it. My brother and his bride just went through days and days of being hounded by you people, so the last thing they need is you putting pictures of them in the tabloids. And I guarantee you that’s where your pictures are going to be in the morning. Aren’t they?”
Her stomach dropped to the floor like a ten-ton rock. He had figured it out.
She tried not to look guilty, but at five-four, dark-headed, sweet-faced—at least, that’s what she had always been told—and with big, sympathetic eyes, she probably looked guiltier than sin.
His eyes narrowed and she glared at him as guilt throbbed through her like an open wound. “The memory card belongs to me.” Don’t tell him. Don’t give it to him. You need it.
“Oh, you’ll give it to me. May I remind you that the Tanners retain some of the best lawyers in the country. Lawyers who will be making your life very hard if you don’t give me that memory card now. As a matter of fact, my top man is already preparing the documents that will be on their way here soon, Rita Snow.”
Her mouth dropped open. “How do you know my name?”
“I’m from here—I have friends at the front desk. If that’s your real name…it sounds fake.”
“Maybe I need to get my own lawyer about the front desk. They aren’t supposed to give out names.”
“Oh, they didn’t. They were in the back room while I looked on the computer screen.”
She was so out of her league. “Yeah, right, probably after they opened up the account and then went in the back to give you time to look at the screen.” She knew how that worked. She had seen it in the movies a lot. She shivered as a chill hit her. Even though it was a warm night, standing in front of her door with nothing but a towel on, a boatload of guilt wrapped around her like an ice pack. “I need you to leave. Please move your hand so I can close my door.”