Cajun Magic 01 - Voodoo on the Bayou (15 page)

Armed with a long strip of cotton material, she wrapped the makeshift bandage over his shoulder and under his arm.

When she circled around the back of his shoulder, her breasts pressed firmly to his chest and her hair brushed against his cheek. He inhaled her fragrant floral scent. Blood pumped through his veins to the rhythm of Voodoo drums.

He must not be that badly injured if he couldn’t keep his mind—and hands—off her.

Once she’d knotted the strip over the wound, she started to straighten. He caught her bare back with his good hand and pulled her tight against his chest. “
Mon Dieu
, you drive me wild, woman.”

She made a half-hearted attempt at pushing against him. “Craig, you’re in no shape to do anything.”

“Then I’ll bleed to death a happy man.” He closed his mouth over hers, his tongue pushing past her teeth to deepen the kiss.

The silky lace of her bra tugged at the hairs on his chest. He found the back clasp and worked the hooks free. With slow deliberate movements, he slid his fingers under the strap and slid it from one shoulder, then the next, so her breasts were freed.

With a groan, he tried to bend to take a rosy tip into his mouth, but pain shot through his shoulder. “Ow!”

She backed away in alarm. “We can’t do this. You’ll—”

“The hell we can’t.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her over to sit in his lap, bringing her breasts to within lip range. “Mmm.” He kissed a peaked aureole. “Better.”

Her fingers laced through his hair and pressed him closer. “I didn’t think you found me attractive,” she said between several breathy gasps.

He stopped short of sucking her breast full into his mouth and lifted his head. “Come again?”

Cheeks aflame, she muttered “Nothing,” and tugged his head downward.

“Not find you attractive?” He leaned away and glanced down at her body. Her thigh was pressed hard against his crotch, the warmth of her fueling deeper fires within him. “Are you out of your mind? What’s not to love?”

Whoa
.

Had he really spoken the “L” word? Did she notice? He stole a glance at her face.

Her brows had furrowed. Not a good sign.

How could he gracefully take it back?

Did he really want to?

“Then, why did you leave before morning?”

Oh hell. She’d blamed herself for his ducking out. He desperately wanted to tell her he’d been with her all day, but he couldn’t. She’d think he was a lunatic. He thought quickly. “What would Miz Mozelle say if she saw me sneaking out of your house early in the morning with no clothes on?”

“I don’t care what Miz Mozelle says. I do, however, care what you think.” She looked away, biting her lip. “I think.”

His heart warmed. “Well, I care what Miz Mozelle thinks. She can be—” he searched for the right word “—well…determined when she thinks you’re doing wrong.”

Elaine smiled and traced a finger across his lower lip. “And you’ve had occasion where she thought you were in the wrong?”

“Once or twice.” With a swift move, he snagged her finger with his teeth and sucked it into his mouth.

“Can’t be all bad. You survived. Therefore, I’ll take my chances.” she plucked her finger from his lips and leaned down to press a kiss to his temple. Then she guided his mouth back to her breast.

With a hum of relief and pleasure, he pulled her nipple between his teeth and flicked his tongue over the puckered tip. She tasted so damn good.

Thank goodness she hadn’t probed further into his “L” word slip. Unsure how he really felt, he didn’t want to discuss it.

He moved to the other breast to devote as much attention as he had to the first. He’d just kissed it when Elaine twitched.

Then she jerked her head and twitched again. “Um, Craig?”

“Yeah,
cher
,” he answered, his focus on the luscious mound in front of him.

“I think the mosquitoes found me.”

…

Later that night—
much
later—Craig slipped into his jeans and bent to kiss Elaine. He paused when the dim glow of the half-moon shone through the cottage window onto her slumbering face. The bluish light caressed her pale cheeks and an errant curl lay across her jaw and lips.

He smoothed his thumb across her cheek. She turned her face into his hand and moaned softly. A fraction of the sound she’d emitted a few short hours before. She stretched her arm across the bed, the sheet shifting to reveal a full, creamy breast.

His groin tightened and he reached for the zip on his jeans. He wanted to rejoin her in the bed for a few more minutes of bliss in her arms and between her silky thighs.

The clock in the living room chimed the hour. Six o’clock. If he didn’t hurry, the sun would rise and he’d be nothing more than a frog to this woman. Sweeping low, he pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss and, at the last moment, tasted the tip of her breast. With a final glance, he slipped out the back door and stole silently through the pre-dawn shadows.

The room at the back of the bait shop felt even smaller and more confined than he remembered, the single bed a far cry from the comfort of Elaine’s. Strange. He’d never been concerned over his sleeping arrangements before.

Pink and orange fingers of light shot through the dense undergrowth of trees as the sun crested the horizon.

His vision blurred and he dropped to the floor. His transformation had begun.

Another day and he was no closer to breaking the spell.

Chapter Fifteen

The lingering scent of Craig’s aftershave assailed Elaine’s senses, lifting her from her dreams. Mmm. She smiled and sat up, letting the sheet fall to her waist. The cool morning air soothed her skin, tender from hours of lovemaking.

Craig Thibodeaux was fast becoming a very addictive stimulant. Although she somehow knew he’d be gone, she couldn’t help scanning the room, just in case. Disappointment tainted the sunshine streaming into her window, but she hugged the night’s passions close, recalling in vivid detail—

A knock sounded at the front door, jarring her from the memory. Who the heck would be at her door at— Good grief. A glance at the clock revealed she’d slept past noon. Not in the mood for guests, she flopped back down and buried her face deep in the pillow, pushing the sides up to cover her ears.

The knocking grew louder.

So much for basking in the morning afterglow.

With an impatient jerk, she tossed the sheets aside and swung her legs to the floor.

Persistent pounding reverberated through the house and her head. She had no choice but to slip into slacks and a T-shirt. By the fifth round of pounding, she catapulted from mild annoyance to outright anger. She grasped the door handle and yanked it open. “Where’s the fire—” The last word trailed off when her gaze collided with a Cajun siren standing with a hand on her hip.

The female was every woman’s nightmare. Creamy mocha-colored skin radiated youth and vitality. Midnight black hair fell in loose waves down to the middle of her back. A petite body sported perfectly proportioned breasts, a tiny waist, and a smoothly rounded bottom.

The young woman wore a black leather mini-skirt with silver chains looped low on the front and a black tube top barely covering her perky, braless boobs.

“Hi, I’m Lisa. Got any coffee?” She pushed past Elaine and entered the cottage.

What was it with these people barging into her personal space? “Excuse me? Do I know you?” Elaine didn’t bother disguising her irritation.

“No, we haven’t met.” Lisa’s gaze panned the room and then returned to her. “I just wanted to come over and meet the competition.”

Elaine’s thoughts tumbled like a loose shoe in a clothes dryer. “Competition for what?” She could picture a contestant runway at a Bayou beauty queen contest. She had better odds of winning an alligator toss or swamp vine swinging contest against this woman.

Lisa turned in the middle of the living room and regarded her. “Competition for Craig Thibodeaux, of course.”

Elaine’s heart plummeted to her empty stomach. She knew Craig was not a one-woman man. But to have one of his other conquests barge boldly into her house, especially after last night, smacked her in the gut.

Lisa and her perfect everything served as a grim reminder of the impermanence of Elaine’s hold on Craig. How could she compete with Miss Cajun Swamp Princess, whose face and body could launch a thousand ships? Elaine glanced down at her own wrinkled clothes, disguising any feminine curves beneath. Her body would only sink those ships.

Coffee. She needed coffee
. She stumbled for the kitchen.

The sex kitten moved around the room lightly touching books and equipment. “Are you from N’Awlins, too?”

“Yes.” Elaine concentrated on scooping coffee grounds into the filter.

“That’s where I’m going as soon as I can shake this place,” Lisa said, her tone more of a spoiled teenager than an adult.

“What about Craig? Aren’t you going to hang around and see who he chooses?” Must be lack of caffeine. Had she really asked another woman, a complete stranger, that question?

“Craig Thibodeaux?” Lisa’s dark brows crinkled. “No use waiting around for him,
cher
. He doesn’t believe in commitment.”

The Cajun beauty’s matter-of-fact statement reinforced Elaine’s observations of the day before. But hearing someone else voicing the truth aloud made her stomach clench.

“I’ve known Craig for years,” Lisa continued. “He likes playing the field. If you know what’s good for you, you won’t let yourself fall in love with the bastard.”

“He’s not a bastard.” Despite Craig’s disappearing act, Elaine didn’t believe he deserved Lisa’s name-calling. “And I have no intention of falling for him. But even if I did, it’s none of your business.”

The black-haired woman lifted a shoulder. “Did he tell you we went out?”

Elaine’s heart bottomed out in her shoes. The man knew how to pick them.

“No?
Tsk, tsk
. He’s such a naughty boy.” The way Lisa said “naughty boy” made him sound like a sex offender.

Still. In Elaine’s case, he’d been anything but offensive. “Look, I don’t know why you came over here, nor do I care. But I certainly don’t want to hear any details about your relationship with Craig Thibodeaux. I’m not now, nor have I ever been, in love with him.”

Lisa’s mouth curled upward on the corners, but the semblance of a smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Oh, I’m not warning you or anything. I’m just saying it’ll be a waste of time. The man is a confirmed bachelor. Women are nothing more than playthings to him.”

She knew everything Lisa said was true, but on some deeper, more hopeful level, she’d ignored reason up until now, preferring to live in denial. And, although every logic cell in Elaine’s body screamed for her to hold her tongue, emotion won out. “Did you ever think that maybe he simply hasn’t found the right woman yet?”

Lisa’s eyes narrowed. Her gaze ran the length of Elaine’s body from the top of her frizzy brown hair to the tips of her polished toes. One of the Cajun woman’s plucked eyebrows winged upward. “And you think you got what it takes to capture that man’s attention.
Cher
, if I couldn’t keep him, what makes you think you can?” She jutted her breasts out just a little more as if to emphasize her point.

Then she tossed her glorious black mane over her shoulder and sauntered to the door. With her hand on the knob, she paused and glanced back. “Oh, I wouldn’t mention this conversation to Craig. He doesn’t like to talk about his old girlfriends with the girlfriend
du jour
.”

Lisa’s parting words left Elaine with a depressing image of thirty-two flavors of girls at an ice cream shop.

She stared at the door for several minutes after Lisa left. The magic of what she’d experienced with Craig the previous two nights now seemed…tawdry.

Lisa’s words echoed in her mind. If the dark-haired Cajun beauty couldn’t hold Craig’s attention, no way in hell could she. Yet, as much as she tried to tell herself it didn’t matter, she knew it really did. With Craig, she’d felt beautiful and accepted, not an awkward geek to be laughed about later.

“You’re not going to take any bunk from that bayou bimbo are you?” Mozelle Reneau stood framed in the screen door. “Mind if I come in?”

Elaine waved her hand. “Please, do.”

“That girl’s trouble.” Miz Mozelle turned to glare at Lisa climbing into a turquoise ’67 Mustang convertible. “I said the same to Craig less than a week ago. But would he listen? No siree. Went ahead and took her out, he did. What’s this world a-comin’ to? Young people disrespectin’ their elders.
Hrmph
.”

Sadly, Miz Mozelle’s words served only to confirm Lisa’s claim. Craig had gone out with the Cajun vixen less than a week ago. Had he taken her to bed, too?

The older woman stepped into the cottage. She peered closely at her before shaking her head. “You feelin’ okay?” Miz Mozelle placed the back of her hand against one of Elaine’s cheeks. “No fever, but you don’t look so good. What did Lisa say to you?”

She looked away, unwilling to share her disappointment with her kindly neighbor. “Nothing.”

“Nothing, ha.” Miz Mozelle walked closer and lifted her hands. “She said hurtful things, didn’t she?”

A traitorous tear sneaked out the corner of Elaine’s eye and trailed down her cheek. “I’m a geek. I’ll never attract a man.”

Mozelle looked scandalized. “No you’re not! You’re a very lovely and intelligent woman. Come here.” She pulled her into a hug.

It had been four years since Elaine’s parents passed away…four lonely years without someone to hug her and tell her everything would be all right. With Miz Mozelle’s arms wrapped around her, she let the floodgates open and cried her heart out. She cried for all the years of trying to fit in. She sobbed for the death of her parents when she’d only been twenty and in the middle of her graduate degree. She even shed a tear for Brian’s betrayal. But most of all she cried because she knew she didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in the bayou with Craig.

Miz Mozelle patted her back and whispered, “It’ll be all right,
cher
. It’ll be all right.”

When the storm passed, Elaine lifted her head and sniffed. “I’m pathetic. I shouldn’t feel so sorry for myself.”

“You got every right.” Mozelle grasped her by the shoulders. “But there’s no use wallowin’. Whatcha gonna do about it?”

“What can I do?” Elaine scrubbed a hand over her damp face.

“Fight for what you want.” The older woman let her go and planted her fists on her hips. “Iffn’ you want Craig Thibodeaux bad enough, ain’t he worth fightin’ for?”

“Craig?” Elaine blushed furiously. “Who said anything about Craig?”

“Girl, it’s written all over your face. You’re crazy about the boy.”

Elaine groaned in mortification. “Is it that obvious?”

“As plain as the nose on my face.” Mozelle looked down the length of her nose, then refocused on her. “Why do you think Lisa felt so threatened?”

“Lisa…threatened?” Elaine laughed. “No, no, you’ve got that backwards.”

Mozelle hrumphed. “Why would she come over here and feed you full of a bunch of hooey-balooey, if she didn’t feel threatened by you?”

“I don’t know. But she’s so much more beautiful than I am. How could Craig possibly be interested in me? She’s so stunning, voluptuous and perfect. I’m—” she took in her baggy T-shirt and frowned, “—just me, a scientist. I don’t even know how to act like a girl.”

“You don’t?” Mozelle snorted and glanced toward the bedroom. “I’m not blind. I saw Craig sneakin’ out of this house in the early morning hours on more than one occasion. If I’m not mistaken, he’s more than a little interested in you.”

“But not enough to hold his attention. I don’t have gorgeous hair like Lisa, and I don’t even know how to flirt.” Her shoulders slumped and she turned away.

“We can do something about the hair and I can help you with some tips on flirting.”

“I don’t know how.” Elaine’s chin lifted. “Once a geek, always a geek.”

Miz Mozelle rolled her eyes. “
Hrmph
. That’s no way to act.” She touched a finger to Elaine’s chin, lifting her face. “How did you get through all those degrees?”

“What’s my education got to do with this?” she asked.

“You didn’t succeed at all that schoolin’ by quittin’ when the going got tough, did you?”

“Of course not.”

“You persevered and tried harder, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but—”

Mozelle planted her hands on her hips. “No buts. You just have to set your mind on what you want and go after it. Iffn’ that’s Craig, you have to load your guns with the right ammunition.”

“Huh?” Elaine blinked. “I don’t understand.”

Mozelle rolled her eyes. “Get your pocketbook and keys. You’re drivin’.”

“Where are we going?” Elaine grabbed her purse and car keys.

“You’ll see.”

Like a lamb to the slaughter, Elaine allowed her neighbor to lead her out of the cottage and to her car. Once they were inside, she turned to ask, “Where to?”

“There’s a shop in Morgan City with just what we need.”

Not at all reassured by Miz Mozelle’s mysterious words, she pulled out of the driveway and set the car in motion. She had plenty to do with her experiments, but she knew if she stayed at the cottage, she wouldn’t be able to concentrate anyway. Definitely, a first. She had always prided herself on her ability to focus on work, no matter what.

The dense foliage of southern Louisiana flashed by in a blur of green. Miz Mozelle kept up a steady stream of chatter the entire way. About what, Elaine couldn’t begin to remember.

When they reached the edge of Morgan City, Mozelle pointed to a sign strangely fitting for the Atchafalaya basin. The background was a mixture of tiger stripes and jungle foliage with the words,
Shear Safari Beauty Salon
looped across in vines.

Elaine’s stomach knotted. Whenever she’d taken time to have her hair professionally styled, she’d felt even more inept. She’d walk away without a clue of how to recreate what the beautician had mastered. Within hours, her hair reverted back to the same unruly mop. “You have your hair done on safari?”

“No, but it’s about time I started. One of my dearest friends works here and she’s been after me for years to try something different.”

“And you’re going to do it on my account?” Elaine glanced at her with misgiving. “I don’t know if I want to carry that kind of responsibility.”

“Fooey. I’m responsible for my own actions, and I choose to change. What about you?”

The gauntlet had been tossed. Would she pick it up and rise to the challenge? Or would she wimp out and run back to the security of her microscope, as usual?

Craig’s blue eyes and the hard contours of his body seared through her memory. “It’s not just about hair. What could a man like him see in me?” They were from different worlds. How could he respect what she did, who she was, if even her former fiancé didn’t?

“
Cher
, if you can’t see your own value, how do you expect him to see it?” She smiled. “It’s not about the outside. But the outside can give you confidence, can reflect what’s on your inside.”

She’d never thought about her appearance like that before. It made sense, but…

“Still, I don’t know if I’m ready for a radical change.”

“Suit yourself. But me, I have a hair dye with my number on it. See you inside.” Miz Mozelle jumped out of the car and strode into the shop.

Which left Elaine sitting staring after her, feeling like the dingy cut loose from the ship.

What the heck. She was here, so she might as well get a trim. She got out of the car before she could change her mind, and shoved her keys into the bottom of her purse.