Tempt Me (9 page)

Ive shook her head. “Uh-huh, keep it up, Angelique, and maybe, eventually, I’ll believe you. The way you could eventually believe Kelly doesn’t like to sing and I can resist a shoe sale.”

“No spilling any secrets without me.” Kelly handed Ive a frozen margarita and sat back down, rubbing her hands together in delight. “Has she decided to take that job and move back in with us yet? Because we would be willing to sacrifice the extra bathroom space in a heartbeat. Or does this have to do with the mysterious man thing? There’s so much to talk about. It’s been so long since we’ve had an in-person gossip session.”

Angelique made a face. “It’s been a few months. Besides, I tell you everything. I could be killed by the magical voodoo police for all the beans I’ve spilled.”

Kelly’s eyebrows rose and she gasped. “They have voodoo police?”

Ive and Angelique looked at each other and burst out laughing. Kelly threw a napkin at them. “Well, how am I supposed to know? I’m a Yankee. We don’t have magic up North. Better pizza, yes, but no magic.”

Ive thickened her usually hidden Cajun accent and patted Kelly’s hand. “Dere, dere,
cher
. We gunna get you fixed up wid a nice Nawlins prince. He gunna sex the Yank right outta you, yeah, you right.”

“Stop; I can’t breathe.” Angelique was laughing so hard at Ive’s words and Kelly’s hopeful expression that tears were spilling down her cheeks.

Ive chuckled. “I’ll only stop if you tell us about your man. The one you are so carefully
not
talking about.”

The only problem with friends like these was they knew you too well. But wasn’t that why she’d suggested they get together when they told her they were coming to New Orleans for the weekend? She needed to talk to someone. Trouble was, in this town, everyone she knew was related to her by blood, marriage, or circumstance. And none of them wanted to hear about her Gabriel fixation.

Her friends had gone through a few margaritas by the time she finished telling them about the last two weeks. And they were looking at her like she’d grown a second head.

Kelly’s brow was furrowed when she finally spoke. “I don’t know, Angelique, hon. He sounds like he needs a giant baseball bat to the head to me.
I
may gravitate toward commitment-phobes, but you’ve never had to chase a man in your life. Is he blind?”

Angelique placed her elbow on the table, chin in her hand, and sighed. “It is new territory, I’ll admit. But not unheard of. Besides, there’s something about him.”

“He’s about trouble, and we all need a bit of trouble in our lives every once in a while.” Ive gave her an understanding hug. “We trust your instincts, hon. But if he hurts you, we’ll revisit that baseball bat idea. I know a place in the bayou where his body will never be found.”

Angelique smiled gratefully. “I love you guys.”

Kelly sniffed. “We know you do. Now, I refuse to have another drink unless you join us, lightweight. You don’t want to be a bad hostess in your own city, do you?”

Angelique banged the tabletop. “Absolutely not. Margaritas all ’round.”

Ive shook her head. “No. I’m afraid we’re well past our margarita moment. For what we have planned? We need something a little stronger. And you need something a lot stronger.”

“What do you mean, what you have planned?”

“Never you mind. Just do exactly what we say, and no one gets hurt.” The look in Ive’s eyes was familiar. Too familiar.

Angelique chuckled. “I love it when you get all bossy, Dr. Ive. But whenever you make plans, we usually end up regretting it in the morning.”

“That’s pre-Dr. Ive to you.” Kelly pointed at her with the miniature parasol that had been perched in her large, salt-rimmed glass. “And we never have regrets. It’s a rule.”

Oh yeah. She could tell. She was going to regret this.

 

 

HOW COULD A PERSON WHISPER AND YELL AT THE SAME
time? Gabriel sat up in the guest bedroom he’d been borrowing from Bethany and BD for the past week, and listened as the voices filtered in through his open window.

“Tell the driver to wait for us, Ive.”

“Be quiet, Kelly. Do you want the neighbors to call the magical voodoo police?”

A burst of rich laughter jerked him to his feet. He hadn’t recognized the voices, but he knew that laugh.

Angelique was here?

He kept the light off and walked to the window, glancing down at the driveway below. What in God’s name was she up to?

A taxi idled at the curb while three women weaved giddily up the walk. Angelique was in the middle, shaking her head as the other two dragged her closer to the house.

“They’re asleep. The lights are out. You won’t see anything anyway.”

One of the other women tugged on her arm. “You enjoyed the lap dance, didn’t you? That was for you. This hunt is for us.”

Gabriel’s lips quirked. They were drunk. He’d been in that state often enough to recognize the signs. It also sounded like they’d been having a wild night. And if he was reading the situation correctly, Angelique’s friends weren’t quite ready for it to be over.

He grabbed a pair of well-worn jeans lying on the end of the bed, quickly sliding into them as he headed down the stairs before the women woke the rest of the house.

He didn’t want to admit he was in a rush to see her.

He’d been here a week now, lying low until his cuts and bruises faded, fantasizing about Angelique, and learning what he could from BD.

The man was a welcoming host, and a great talker, but getting him to say anything about the things he’d seen as a Loa was a herculean task that Gabriel had yet to manage.

All BD would say was that his memory wasn’t what it used to be. Or that the Loa were called the Mysteries for a reason. He did think more would come to him, especially if Gabriel could tell him, specifically, what he was looking for. Then he’d smile, letting Gabriel know without words that it would take information to get any in return.

Gabriel wasn’t sure he could tell him anything if he wanted to. Not anything he would believe, anyway. He hardly remembered what had happened himself. His one witness, Emmanuel, had been noticeably absent the last few days, so there was no one around to fill in the blanks.

Bethany had been harder to avoid. That woman was brilliant and abnormally tenacious. Despite his silence on the subject, and her obvious curiosity, she’d kept his family at bay and treated him as a welcome guest. It was easy to see why his sister was so fond of her.

How she would react to this strange, late-night intrusion wasn’t clear. Gabriel, however, couldn’t be more fascinated.

He opened up the side door and leaned against the frame, waiting to be noticed.

Angelique had grabbed the collar of the taller girl’s blouse, unintentionally causing her to choke. “Kelly, please. I told you in confidence. I’ll get you an autographed picture, I promise. I’ll buy you those matching tutus we passed in the shop. Anything. Ive, tell her to be reasonable.”

The woman named Kelly turned, laughing even as she pried Angelique’s fingers off her shirt. “Relax, Ang. We aren’t going to kidnap him or anything. And stop tempting me with tutus. Think about how brilliant this is—we could charge people. Why not? They have haunted tours and vampire tours . . . We could do
this
.”

He’d been enjoying the show, but he couldn’t resist interjecting a note of reason. He didn’t think Bethany or BD would appreciate becoming a stop on the tourist route. “By
this
, do you mean trespass on private property in the middle of the night and look in other people’s windows?”

Three surprised shrieks had him wincing, coming closer, and raising his hands apologetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The smaller one, Ive, recovered first. “Are you him? Angelique, what were you talking about? He’s
not
too pretty at all. More the rough and dangerous type. He looks like he just came out on the winning end of a boxing match . . . or a highly physical session in the bedroom.
Bebe
, he’s absolutely perfect.”

“You forgot to mention he’s practically naked, Ive. Jackpot!”

He caught Angelique’s horrified gaze and started to laugh. He wasn’t sure how she did it, but she continuously took him by surprise. After their last encounter, he hadn’t thought anything could embarrass the bold, fearless beauty. Her blush was disarming. Enchanting. And funny as hell.

She covered her face with her hands and peered through her fingers. “Gabriel? What are you doing here?”

He crossed his arms. “Me? I’m an invited guest. What are you doing here? And who do you have with you?”

“Wait—this isn’t Bone Daddy?
This
is Gabriel?
The
Gabriel?”

He could feel his smile growing. He couldn’t help it. “
The
Gabriel? Well, I’m the only one I know. Why? Has she been talking about me?”

“Has she been talking about yo—”

He watched as Ive whipped Kelly around and stopped her midsentence. “Kel? Remember those discussions we’ve had about over-sharing?”

“Of course I do.”

The other woman stared at her in meaningful silence until Kelly grasped her meaning. “Oh. Oh, damn.” She turned to Angelique. “I’m sorry. I’m horrible. I shouldn’t do shots. Get me away from the umbrella drinks and all I do is talk and talk and talk. Do you think that was why the stripper asked if I wanted to be gagged? I thought he was just being kinky.”

Gabriel snorted, deciding it was time to get the conversation back on track. “The taxi driver is looking impatient, and he’s probably charging you a fortune.” He smirked. “He might even be calling the voodoo police. If you’d like, I could give you three a ride home.”

Of course, he’d have to swipe Bethany’s keys, but he’d deal with the fallout later. He just wanted to spend more time with Angelique, though he didn’t want to think about why right now.

“No, no. We have to go. Come on, girls. I think we’ve made enough regrets for the night. For the year.” Angelique swayed on her feet as she spoke, and he came closer, ready to catch her.

Her friends weren’t faring much better. And they had horrible poker faces. The blonde nudged the woman beside her. “Look,
we
have to take the taxi back to the hotel. We’re exhausted. But Angelique doesn’t have a way home. You could take her, Gabriel. Just you two. Together. Alone in her apartment. Without us.”

Did one of them just wink at him?

Angelique groaned and dropped her chin to her chest, her long curls spilling over her shoulders and hiding her face. “When the world stops spinning I am going to get you both back, you know.”

They walked down the drive, leaving Angelique behind, and giggling like a pair of teenagers. “We know,” one of them singsonged. “But it will be worth it. We’ll call you tomorrow.”

Gabriel watched the taxi drive away, hoping the driver knew where he was going, because he was close to certain neither of the women would.

After a few minutes of silence he started to worry she had fallen asleep standing up. “Angelique?”

“I was hoping you were a tequila-induced hallucination,” she muttered.

He thought about Emmanuel. “I’ve been there before. Unfortunately for you, I’m real.”

She sighed. “I figured.” Her hands came up to push her hair back, revealing a rueful expression. “My old roommates. They’re harmless. Usually. I should never have told them about BD.”

“Why did you?”

She huffed. “We tell each other everything. It’s a girlfriend rule.”

He narrowed his gaze. “Everything? Is that why I’m
the
Gabriel?”

Angelique lifted her chin, one high-pitched hiccup the only sign that she was impaired. “Yes, I’ll admit to that. You are
the
Gabriel. But you don’t know if you’re
the
Gabriel, my mysteriously sexy dream lover, or
the
Gabriel, my friend’s irritating brother who is absolutely no fun at dinner parties.”

He just stared at her, and after a minute or two, she began to smile. A minute more and a chuckle escaped from between her lips. She held out her arms helplessly. “There’s no way to get out of this with dignity. And I’m too tipsy to try. I just hope we didn’t wake Bethany up. She’s been really nice to me.”

He reached out and took her hand, drawing her closer to the door. “Me, too. But we would have known by now. Trust me. Come inside. I’ll get dressed; then I can drive you home.”

She didn’t argue, and he was grateful. Just her hand in his, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to let her go. The same intensity. The same need as before.

He opened the door and stepped aside to let her walk in ahead of him. It was an old-school habit with benefits. He closed his eyes as that lush body slid against him, her soft, sweet-smelling hair brushed over his bare chest.

She walked through the darkened kitchen to the small breakfast table. The outside light came through the window and it seemed to be shining on her.

Poetry again. He was in sorry shape. It was obvious his resistance when it came to Angelique Rousseau was nonexistent. Hadn’t he told himself a thousand times this week to stay away from her? Now she was here, she needed a ride home, and all he could think about was bending her over that table and lifting her skirt to reveal the biteable ass beneath. She’d make those sounds he loved as he spread her legs. And then he’d take her. The way he had every night in his mind.

“I’ve been having the craziest dreams about you lately.”

Angelique’s voice was hushed in the darkness, but it jolted him out of his fantasy. He moved closer. “What was I doing?”

She turned around to face him, her hand going up to her temple as she swayed. “Oops, I think I turned too fast.”

Hell, he’d forgotten. “You’ve been drinking.”

She huffed out a laugh. “Without a doubt.”

He took a step closer. “I’m supposed to be a gentleman.”