Cajun Magic 01 - Voodoo on the Bayou (18 page)

He crushed her to his chest.
God, she smelled good
. Their bodies fit perfectly together on the dance floor just as they had in bed. Their moves were smooth and natural, a form of foreplay, igniting longing for a more intimate setting. “Why didn’t you want to go out on the bayou tonight?” Craig whispered against her ear.

“Mmm… This is much better than swamp water and mosquitoes.” She snuggled closer to him.

“
Ca c’est bon
.” He shifted his knee between hers, and pressed his thigh against her pelvis. “I like the dress. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“Me too,” he replied. “And here I thought this evening was going to be an incredible bore.”

“And now?”

“I’m completely enchanted.”

“Big words for a fish boy,” she said against his shirt. Her warm breath heated his chest.

“Us fish boys have hidden talents that would amaze the untrained skeptic.”

She lifted her face to him, the short curling strands of her new hairdo caressing her forehead and cheeks. “Or perhaps you fish boys aren’t revealing the whole truth.”

He frowned down at her. “What do you mean?” Did she know about his condition?

She stopped dancing. “I know your secret, Craig Thibodeaux.”

His heart hammered in his chest. “But how?”

If she knew about the spell, she’d be disqualified to help cure him from Madame LeBieu’s trickery. An empty, sick feeling spread through his chest and into his gut. Would he lose the chance to make Elaine love him?

Did he want her to love him?

A sweaty, meaty hand clamped onto his shoulder, pulling him away from her. “What the hell.” Craig spun to face his attacker.

A man as broad and solid as a hundred-year-old cypress frowned down at him. Craig didn’t consider himself short at six-foot-two, yet this guy towered over him in height and circumference. As with all bullies of gargantuan proportions, Craig followed the rule: never show fear. “Beat it, Gator.”

Gator frowned down at him and shot an accusing glance at Elaine. “She said her feet hurt, otherwise, she’d be dancin’ wit’ me.”

“Your feet are much bigger than hers. You’ve probably been stepping on them,” Craig said, in a calm, matter-of-fact tone. With Gator, one had to approach subjects with caution, show him who was boss while remaining calm, and hope you didn’t hit on a sore spot.

He was about to congratulate himself on his politically correct form of handling an explosive situation, when Gator’s frown deepened. “Are you makin’ fun of my big feet?

Damn, he’d done it now. He’d stepped smack-dab in the middle of Gator’s sore spot. “No, Gator, I would never make fun of a man’s feet.”

“Are you sure you weren’t makin’ fun of my feet? It sure sounded like you were makin’ fun.”

“No, no, Gator. You have terrific feet.”

“You think I have big feet. I don’t think I like you, Craig Thibodeaux. I think I’m gonna smash your face.”

Craig’s heartbeat ratcheted up a notch. Surely the big oaf wouldn’t take a swing? Not in a public place.

He was wrong.

A gigantic, meaty fist came out of nowhere and clipped him on the chin, knocking him halfway across the dance floor and flat on his back.

Stars swam before his eyes in bright white, red, and gold. And that was while they were closed. When he opened them, Gator was headed his way.

Elaine yelled and leaped onto the big brute’s back, pummeling him with her fists.

Gator’s thunderous expression was enough to make a grown man cringe. Craig didn’t think even Gator would kick a man while he was down, but Elaine obviously did.

She rode piggyback, with her dress crawling up her thighs revealing way more than she’d want to know. Her screams intensified and she yelled every curse word in the dictionary and some he wasn’t sure but thought might be in Latin.

The picture was priceless. He could already see tomorrow’s headline: Scientist Gone Mad on the Back of Giant Ape. A chuckle rose up his chest and escaped in a rush. One chuckle led to another and soon his sides were splitting and tears poured from the corners of his eyes.

Gator, with Elaine still on his back, stopped in front of Craig and stared down, confusion written into the frown between his eyes. “You still laughing at my feet, Craig?”

With a quick swipe at his eyes, Craig stood and looked up at Gator. “No, not at all.”

“I didn’t mean to hit you so hard.” He waved his hands. “Darn hands. Momma says I don’t know my own strength. Guess she’s right.”

Elaine stopped pummeling and slid from Gator’s back, her skirt riding up to reveal lacy white bikini underwear. She rushed to his side. “Are you okay, Craig?”

Craig’s laughter ceased as a red-hot surge rifled through his veins to his groin. “I was until I saw that sexy-as-hell lingerie you’re wearing.”

Elaine’s face suffused with color all the way out to her ears. She stood and tugged frantically at the hem of her dress, cursing in a most unladylike fashion. “That’s what I get for worrying about you, Craig Thibodeaux. I’m leaving.” She spun on her spike heels and took off across the dance floor pushing against anyone standing between her and the door.

Craig shot to his feet and lit out after her. No way in hell was he going to let her get away without exploring those white lacy panties a bit further.

Chapter Seventeen

The jerk
.

Here Elaine had been upset by Gator’s punch and all Craig could do was point out her exposure in front of God and everybody else at the Raccoon Saloon. Well, she could do without his type. She shoved past the same men who’d whistled earlier and shot quelling looks at them when they dared to make crude comments.

Just as she reached the door, Josie caught up with her. The blonde hugged her and smiled. “Congratulations, Elaine. You graduate with honors.”

She frowned. “What?” Then she looked back.

Damn
. Craig was threading his way through the crowd, gaining ground. If she didn’t hurry, he’d catch her before she could make good her escape.

“Hold up, Elaine!” Craig called out.

Panic seized her and she ducked out the door into the night air. Once outside, she realized her mistake. She hadn’t brought her car and she didn’t have a ride home. Her heels teetered on the gravel in the parking lot and she winced.
Wonderful.
She’d succeeded in cutting off her nose to spite her face.

She turned to go back in and round up Mozelle and Josie, when Craig burst through the door.

“Thank God, I caught you,” he said, reaching for her hands.

She pulled away. “You didn’t catch me. I don’t have a car here. I was on my way back in to get Josie.”

“If you want to go home, I can take you,” he offered.

“I don’t trust you to get me there.” Why did he have to look so damn delicious all in black?

His smile curved the corners of his mouth and his eyes sparkled in the few lights shining over the parking lot. “If you can trust me to take you out on the water, you can trust me to get you home.”

“I believe I’d be in over my head if I trusted you again.”

His face darkened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I know your secret.”

His body stiffened. “What are you talking about?”

She flung her hand in the air. “You’re not a fish boy. You’re an attorney.”

Craig inhaled deeply and let the breath out, his body relaxing. “Ah. Is that all?”

“You mean there’s more?”

“No, of course not,” he replied a little too quickly.

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know what to believe.”

“I’m an attorney.” He plucked at a leaf stuck to her dress. “So, what’s my occupation got to do with us?”

She batted his hand away. “Trust. Don’t you get it? I can’t trust you to tell me the truth, and I can’t trust myself when I’m with you.” She clapped her hand over her mouth, feeling her eyes grow round with her slip of the tongue.

Craig’s gaze softened, and he closed the gap between them.

All the fight leached out of her body. She didn’t put up an iota of resistance when he pulled her into his arms. “Problem is, I can’t trust myself when I’m with you, either. For some reason, I can’t keep my hands off you.” He leaned closer, his mouth hovering over hers. “Nor my lips.”

When he still hovered, she reached up behind his neck. “Then kiss me, damn it.” She tugged him closer until their mouths touched, and she fell deeper and deeper into an abyss of mindless sensuality.

Her hands roamed over his shoulders and down the front of his shirt, ripping through buttons with a frantic urgency borne of her completely natural chemical reaction. That’s all it was. Chemicals.

Yeah, right.

He captured her hands and pulled them away from his skin. “Let’s get out of here.”

Her glazed eyes cleared and she glanced around the parking lot. Every nerve ending screamed for more of him. If she didn’t get him naked in the next five minutes, she’d explode. “Do you have a car?”

“Yes. Thank goodness I insisted on driving separately.” He fished around in his pocket and pulled out his keys. With a quick kiss, he pulled her to him and steered her toward a midnight black sports car. Once inside, he started the engine and shifted into reverse. “Where to?”

Feeling a little racy and altogether more uninhibited than she’d felt in her entire life, she answered, “Where did you go to make out as a teenager?”

“Huh?” He stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.

“I’ve never made out in a car before.”

His jaw dropped. “Never?”

“Nope.”

“Well then, sweetheart, you’re in for a real treat. I promise this night will be unforgettable.”

“I’m counting on it.” She was more than determined to show him she could be every bit as aggressive and lustful as he was. My, what a new “do” and a racy dress could do for a woman…

Or was it the hot Cajun in the next seat stirring her blood to boiling?

…

Craig screeched the car to a halt at the edge of a moonlit lagoon. The half-moon kissed the water with diamonds, a perfect setting to initiate Elaine in the art of car bouncing.

When he shut off the engine, the silence in the interior of the car was only broken by the sound of their breathing—very rapid breathing. He looked around at the cramped interior of the sports car and cursed his poor choice of vehicles. Whatever happened to backseats? A seventies-model Cadillac with a roomy back seat would be handy about now.

His gaze shifted to Elaine.

Her hand reached down to unclip her seat belt.

Oh boy
.

The simple motion caused his heart to rev into overdrive. He fumbled for the side levers and slid the seat all the way back, providing a pretty decent amount of space between him and the steering wheel. But would it be enough?

Out of her seat belt, Elaine smiled over at him and shifted in her seat until the hem of her dress rode up, exposing the white lacy panties he’d glimpsed earlier.

He reached across the console to touch her thigh.

Her hand stilled his before he could slide it up her leg to the center of that tempting triangle of material.

“Not yet. I’m experimenting.” Her hand slid inside her white panties and proceeded to stroke the very place Craig longed to be.

He swallowed hard.

Suddenly, his jeans were entirely too tight with the strain of his arousal pulsing a tattoo against his zipper. He groaned and looked away, unable to bear another moment of her teasing. “You’re killing me, woman.”

“Then my experiment is a success.”

Craig glanced over at her.

She slid the white panties down her legs and kicked them off her ankles. With a wicked smile, she climbed over the console and planted a knee on either side of his thighs facing him. She leaned forward and levered the seat into a full reclining position before she turned her attention to his zipper.

Was this the shy scientist he’d met only a few short days ago? The one who stumbled over her words as well as her feet? If so,
laissez les bon temps rouler!
Let the good times roll!

…

Perhaps it was the wine, perhaps swamp gases. If Elaine were honest with herself, she’d admit she’d sprung free of her inhibitions and was riding a wild hair to the finish line. Damn the microscope and full speed ahead!

With her hands on the metal button holding the waistband of Craig’s trousers together, she paused.

“
Mon cher
, don’t stop now,” he begged.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She slipped the button through the hole and paused again holding his zipper. “You’re sure this road is deserted?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good.” She drove the zipper downward until his erection sprang forward against black briefs, creating a tent. “My, aren’t we excited?”

“More than you could ever imagine.”

Elaine’s blood burned through her veins. She felt capable of conquering the world or, more difficult, her deepest fears—her fear of water, of not fitting in, and most of all, rejection. Tonight, she was on top of the world, and on top of the sexiest Cajun this side of the Mississippi. Now, to show him she had what it took to keep a man’s attention.

Excitement churned in her belly, spreading fingers of desire ever downward to pool at her core hovering over his thighs. With her dress hiked up to her hips, she gave him a moonlit view of what she had to offer, and the thought made her even hotter than before.

She leaned back and rubbed her sweet spot against the rough fabric of his black denim-clad thighs. Flames of pleasure leapt through her.

He grasped her buttocks and kneaded the flesh. “I want to be inside you,” he said through clenched teeth.

“And so you will,” she promised. She leaned forward and ran her hands up the inside of his shirt, threading through the hairs on his chest, tweaking the hard male nipples. With eager fingers, she pulled his shirt from the waistband of his jeans and unbuttoned the last of the remaining buttons. Pushing the garment over his shoulders, she paused. “Does it still hurt?” She eased forward and pressed her lips to the jagged line where the bullet had skinned his shoulder.

“No.” His strong hand circled her hip to the front to cup the juncture of her thighs, a finger sliding easily into her warmth. “God, you’re so wet.” His other hand traveled up her side to fit over her breast. Looping a finger into the stretch fabric of her dress, he pulled it down until the strapless bra was the only thing between her and the night air.

Even the bra was too much. She wanted to be naked, with him inside her.
Now
. She reached behind her back and unclasped the bra, her breasts springing free from the tight confines.

“Glorious,” he breathed, wrapping his fingers around her. He massaged first one breast, then the other, pinching the nipples into hardened peaks, until she cried out.

She leaned forward and rubbed her breasts against the mat of hair on his chest, reveling in the coarseness against her tender skin. He was a big, strong man, she was a soft-skinned woman. Such was the way of nature, and nature had outdone itself in Craig.

His erection pressed against her belly, an insistent reminder of his growing need and her burgeoning desire. With smooth precision, she eased her way down his chest to his slim waist. Trailing kisses and tongue flicks all the way to the waistband of his briefs, she gloried in every touch and taste along the way. With a nudge, she parted his legs and slid between his thighs until her knees touched the floorboard. Only then did she unwrap the package. First, she ran her hands up from his balls over the hard shaft beneath the cotton. The heat there warmed her fingers. Then, she grasped the elastic and eased the briefs downward over him until his member was completely exposed.

“Ah geez, Elaine,” his fingers dug into her shoulders. “Come up here.”

“Uh-uh,” she said, her gaze completely focused on his magnificent manhood. “I’ve only just begun.”

Craig moaned in anticipation, and lay back, tucking his hands up behind his head. “I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

“You bet your BVDs.” Her voice was low and husky, her own desire spinning out of control. “You’ll be singing with the angels before I’m done.”

“
Mon Dieu
.” Craig said to the ceiling of the car and growled low when her hands wrapped around him.

With sure strokes, she massaged his length, up and down. She moved forward and pressed her breasts around him; his hips rose and fell as he slid his shaft between her cleavage.

She hovered over the velvety tip and slid her tongue around the curved edge.

He tensed, his shaft quivering and incredibly hard. “I need to be inside you now, Elaine. I can’t take any more of this.”

“What about protection?”

“In my wallet, in my back pocket.”

They both fumbled for the wallet, rifling through until they found the little foil packet. When Craig went to open it, she held her hand out. “Let me.”

She rolled the condom down over him until it fit snuggly against the base.

As soon as it was in place, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up onto his chest. He nudged her thighs apart and brought her knees up on either side of him.

With her dress nothing more than a belt around her middle, she’d never felt more attractive or alluring. The humid night air kissed her breasts and the man beneath her followed suit.

She eased down over his shaft, her moist opening accepting him without hesitation.

He slid further inside until her buttocks rested against his thighs. He stopped. “Are you all right?”

“Oh,
yes
,” she breathed, the flood of sensations pulling her closer to the edge.

“Then let’s shake this buggy.” He lifted her hips, setting her in motion.

When she pushed upward, he withdrew. When she dropped back onto him, he met her with force enough to shimmy the little car. She rode him hard, meeting him thrust for thrust.

Craig clutched her thigh with one hand while the other probed to find her most sensitive zone.

Already aroused to the point of mindlessness, she toppled over the edge with one flick of Craig’s finger. Her body tensed and burst into a kaleidoscope of sensation, rocking her to the very core.

He thrust one last time and joined her orgasm with one of his own. He held her fully sheathing his member, his expression one of utter concentration. Inside her, he pulsed his release.

As one, they relaxed. She dragged in a deep breath and collapsed across his chest, reluctant to sever their connection. “Is it always this good in the front seat of a car?” She buried her face in the crook of his neck and tongued his earlobe.

His chest rose and fell in labored breaths, but he didn’t answer.

She leaned up on one elbow, peering into his shadowed face. “Did I do something wrong?” Her heart beat against her ribs as her fear of rejection crept up her chest.

Craig brows angled toward the bridge of his nose. “Don’t you have any clue what you do to me?”

She nibbled her lip. “Not really.” With a glance down his torso to where they connected, she smiled. “Beyond the obvious chemical reaction, I figure you’re used to this.” She didn’t dare delude herself into thinking she’d touched him on an emotional level.

With gentle hands, he reached up and turned her face toward his. “Don’t play this down. What we just shared not only rocked the car, it rattled me, too.”

She touched a finger to his lips. “Don’t.”

He frowned his confusion, kissing the end of her finger.