Operation Bayou Angel

by Margaret Kay

  Bobby opened the folder. The first page listed his counselling session times. “Three sessions a day? Are you kidding me?”

  “Hey, you’re the dumb-shit that got yourself arrested,” Sherman reminded him. “They’ve got my boss’ number. If there are any problems, they’ll call him if they can’t get a hold of me. Don’t embarrass me, Bobby.”

  Brielle embraced Bobby. “Just go with the flow. Please, promise me you’ll behave and stay out of trouble.”

  Bobby kissed the top of her head. “I’m going to behave. I promise you.”

  Sherman locked eyes with Bobby. “Call or text me if you need anything and I’ll have someone from the office bring it to you if I’m away. I’ll talk to you soon. Enjoy your vacay.”

  Bobby forced a smile. He watched Brian and Brielle leave with the manager. He stared at the closed door for quite a while after they left. Then he sat down on the bed. It was very comfortable. He flipped through the packet. He’d have to play along until hopefully Brian could spring him.

  Brielle had tears in her eyes when they exited the building and the cool Chicago October night air smacked her face. She shivered against the brisk breeze. She felt Brian wrap his arm around her. He pulled her into his body as they walked to the SUV. He opened her door and closed it after she climbed in.

  “He’s going to be okay. You saw that place, it’s nicer than most hotels.”

  Brielle glanced out her side window and tried to calm her emotions. She wasn’t one who cried often or easily. “I know.”

  “Hopefully he’ll swim, use the gym, get into shape. The food they serve is healthy, cooked by a top chef. If he has to stay the full thirty days, you may not even recognize him when he walks out of there.”

  “Promise me you’ll try to get him out sooner,” Brielle pled, her eyes still gazing out of the side window.

  Sherman reached over and took hold of her hand. “Once this is over, if I can, I promise you I will.”

  She turned her head, so she viewed the side of Brian’s face. There was ample lighting from all the streetlights to see his attractive features. She studied his profile. He and Bobby shared many physical characteristics, a strong jawline, the same hair color. They even had the same nose.

  But their personalities were worlds apart. Bobby was fun to be around, loyal, and would do anything for anyone, like get arrested to provide a cover. She loved Bobby like a brother. She had spent so many years hating Brian for what he did to her sister. This Brian and that person were two different people though. This Brian was strong and capable. She felt she could trust him. That was hard for her to reconcile.

  “Thank you.”

  Sherman’s eyes flickered to her. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. It was just hard to leave Bobby, knowing he’s only there because he helped me.” She felt Brian squeeze her hand and only then realized he still held it.

  “He wanted to, and I know he doesn’t regret it for one second. Bobby will be fine.”

  Sherman drove to his condo. He parked in the driveway in front of his two-car garage. He led her to the front door and unlocked it with his code. Once inside, he disarmed the alarm. He turned the light on to reveal the small main room.

  Brielle glanced around. The kitchen, eating area and a small living room area were in the main room. Through the doors at the rear of the room she saw a bathroom and doorway into the bedroom. A third door was on the wall that butted up against the garage. The walls were beige, the furniture brown. She judged the living space to be smaller than the garage, but it was bigger than her apartment.

  “This is nice,” she said, still glancing around.

  She noticed a grouping of pictures on the top of a table up against the wall between the doors to the bedroom and bathroom. A cross hung above them, the only thing on any of the walls. She crossed the room and studied the eight pictures in frames, his family. She recognized his mother and father. There was even a picture of him and Bobby as children taken in front of their childhood home.

  “Do you have a washer and dryer I can use? I’m out of clean clothes.”

  “Yeah, in the bathroom. I need to wash a few things too. We can throw our stuff in together and do one big load.”

  Brielle chuckled that sultry laugh of hers in response, bringing a smile to Sherman’s face. He really liked her raspy voice and how her laugh sounded. He liked a lot of things about her. “What, is that too intimate for you? Letting our underclothing comingle and rub against each other?”

  She laughed again. “Yeah, it’s just weird and yes, there is something intimate about it.”

  “As we tend the load, I promise I won’t try to picture you in your panties, a sight that I’m sure I’d enjoy very much.”

  “Stop,” she reprimanded him, but the smile on her face was anything but harsh.

  Sherman laughed harder. “Let me get you something to put on so you can wash what you’re wearing too.”

  She followed him into the bedroom. His bed was queen-sized, the comforter white, his furniture black. He set his backpack on the bed and pulled his dirty clothes out. He disappeared into the closet for a second then returned carrying a laundry basket full of wadded up clothes, and a long-sleeved Henley shirt draped over his arm. It was dark blue.

  He handed the shirt her way. She held it up in front of herself. It was long and hung halfway down her thighs. “Thank you. This will work.”

  “Let me know if you want a pair of pants and I’ll find something that will fit you.”

  She glanced at his hips. She doubted he’d have anything. Her hips and butt were a lot wider than his.

  He dumped the basket of clothes onto the bed. “Put what you need washed in first, then I’ll add to it to make a full load.”

  “Do you have a blow dryer? I’d like to shower and wash my hair.” She unloaded all her dirty clothes into the basket, self-conscious of her underclothing. Even though she dressed mostly in jeans and girly t-shirts, her panties and bras were lacy or satiny in bright colors. They made her feel good, feminine, desirable. Kind of a joke, she thought, given that she hadn’t had a boyfriend, let alone a date in over a year.

  Sherman thought about it as he gazed at her underclothing in the basket. Yeah, he could totally envision Brielle’s curvy figure in the sexy items in front of him. He shook his head. “Sorry, no, I don’t have one, probably don’t have a good enough shampoo and conditioner for you either.”

  This was the perfect opportunity for Brielle to ask him the question she had been dying too, without coming out and asking him directly. “Doesn’t your girlfriend keep that kind of stuff here?”

  Sherman froze. No, not only did he not have a girlfriend, he never had women at his place. He had two women he dialed up for casual sex when he had the need, but he never had them here. He went to their places so he could control when the encounter was over by leaving. He rarely stayed the night with either of them. He thought for a long second about that. Brielle would sleep with him, snuggled against him in his bed all night. Well, damn.

  “I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m away for work most of the time so one really doesn’t fit into my life.”

  “Doesn’t Gary have the same schedule as you? He has a fiancé. It looks like it can work.”

  Sherman nodded his head. “It can, when the people and the timing is right. A few of the guys are married and have a kid. It’s rough though, a lot of time away and a lot on the wife to take care of.”

  “I’m sure if they love each other enough it’s worth it to them,” Brielle said. “Anyway, I’m not sure what I’m going to do without a blow dryer. My hair is so thick that it will still be damp in the morning.”

  Sherman thought about that for a second. “We have to go to HQ first thing tomorrow to meet with my boss and the rest of the team. There is an apartment that our office manager keeps stocked. I know there is good shampoo and conditioner there as well as a blow dryer. Let me text her and make sure no one is using it. We could go early, and you can catch your shower t
here.”

  “That would be great, thanks,” Brielle said.

  He typed out a message to Angel. Then he carried the basket of clothes to the bathroom while Brielle changed into his shirt and her last pair of clean panties from her backpack behind the closed bedroom door. He threw the clothes into the washer and waited for Brielle to bring the clothes she was wearing to be washed.

  Brielle slid on the long shirt, wrestling with it to pull it over her hips. She looked down, and then over her shoulder at her butt. Great, it hugged her like a pair of leggings, which she never wore because she hated the look on her. She had her father’s build. Her sister, Dahlia, had been blessed to have inherited her mother’s slender frame. She wished in that moment that she had too.

  She carried her clothes into the bathroom. She was greeted by Brian’s gaze obviously wandering over her body. She noticed he had a small smile on his lips. “Stop. And my eyes are up here.” She pointed to them with her left hand. Her right held her clothes.

  Sherman chuckled. “Momma, no red-blooded American man would be able to keep his eyes off your curves. I’m sorry for being a pig and letting my appreciation of you be so noticeable.”

  “Yeah, because it would be better if you were sneakier,” she said with a laugh. “That really is not okay, you know.”

  “I do think you have been hanging out with too many gay men, because every straight guy would surely be checking you out like I just did.”

  She pushed her clothes into the washer. “I seriously doubt that.” Her voice was a bit more bitter sounding than she had intended.

  Sherman didn’t like the tone of her voice or what he realized was the fact that she had, on several occasions, disagreed with him on how fine she looked. And he didn’t think that it was because she was offended by his comments. Brielle doubted his sincerity, didn’t see herself as attractive. Bobby’s statement about her last two boyfriends cheating on her came back to him. He was sure that kind of thing would hit a woman’s ego hard. It made him angry that she doubted her attractiveness because of the two weasels who had cheated on her.

  He took hold of her by the shoulders and spun her to face him. He gazed intently into her eyes as he spoke. “Let’s get one thing straight. You, Brielle Jarboe, are a fine-looking woman. I am very attracted to you. It is going to be very hard for me to lay in my bed with you tonight and just hold you, nothing else. And, the only reason I will just hold you and not try to talk you into making love with me is because I respect you. You behaved recklessly by breaking into that plant, but it took courage. I read several of your blog posts, and you are a good writer. You called the Mayor of Galliano out, the Sheriff out, and raised questions about that BioDynamix facility, holding nothing back. That too took courage and I respect courage.”

  Brielle was surprised by Brian’s words. She stared into his eyes, only noticing now how the brown depths sparkled with life. He had sincere eyes, comforting eyes. “You really read a few of my blog posts?” She asked after a lengthy silence.

  Sherman nodded his head yes. “They were good.”

  A smile curved Brielle’s lips. “Thank you.” She took her writing very seriously. She wanted so badly to get a job as a full-time journalist. It was her dream since college.

  Sherman placed a soft kiss on her forehead. He hadn’t been lying when he said it was going to be hard to lie in his bed holding her without making love to her. Even now, he was yearning to kiss her deeply, to caress over every wonderful curve on her body. His body was surging with the need to pull her frame up against his and feel the incredible sensation of her softness against every inch of him.

  Luckily, his phone vibrated on the bathroom counter, where he’d set it. He stepped back and grabbed it. It was a text back from Angel. It was okay to use the apartment on nine. He typed out a quick message of thanks. Then he stepped in front of the washer and turned it on. “That was Angel, we can use the apartment tomorrow morning.”

  “Who’s Angel?”

  “The office manager and wife of one of our guys. You’ll meet them tomorrow. We have an early meeting at the office and will fly back out, I assume by mid-morning. My boss is deploying a few more men to Port Fourchon with us to carry out the surveillance.”

  A chill gripped her. She shivered.

  “You cold?”

  “Yes,” she said with a small smile. She wouldn’t tell him it was not temperature related. The fact that his boss thought more men were needed in the bayou showed how seriously they were taking this. She had thought about it and realized that these people were professionals. If they thought there was something to worry about, it must be serious.

  “Let’s go to bed and snuggle under the covers. I’ll warm you up.”

  She followed him from the room. He pulled the covers back and motioned her to slide in first. She pulled the back of the shirt down over her butt as she climbed in. The sheets were cold. The chill that invaded her this time was temperature related.

  Sherman set his badge, gun, and phone onto the nightstand. He watched Brielle. She watched his every movement. Then he kicked his shoes off and dropped his jeans to the floor. Her eyes remained on him. Then he pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it beside his jeans. He flashed her a provocative smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t remove anything else.” He moved to slide into bed beside her.

  “You need to put something else on, sleeping pants, a t-shirt, anything. Besides, these sheets are cold.”

  “Nope,” he said with a grin as he covered himself with the bedcovers. “My bed and I’ll sleep how I’m comfortable. And we’ll warm those sheets up real fast.”

  He had a devilish smile on his face, Brielle noted. His cockiness and flirtiness should have pissed her off. It didn’t. If anything, it made him more attractive to her.

  He wrapped his arms around her and nestled in close. She laid reclined but propped up on her elbow. He pulled on her, causing her to roll into him. She readjusted her position so that her head was on his chest. She was distracted by his hand, resting on her hip.

  “Woah,” she said when his hand traveled over her hip and landed on her butt.

  “Damn, your ass is cold,” Sherman said.

  He rubbed his hand over her bottom, getting way too close to intimate parts. “Please stop that.”

  Sherman chuckled. “Brielle, this isn’t me trying anything, just trying to help warm you.” But he knew his words were lies. The sensation of running his hand over her panties, her nicely shaped ass cheeks below them, filled his thoughts with images that were very sexual.

  “Brian, please don’t,” she repeated. She was very aware of every inch of his skin that was in contact with hers. His legs were pressed to hers. His other arm was wrapped around her, below her shoulders, and he held her around her waist. Her cheek was pressed against his warm chest. She could hear his heart beating. And his pelvis was pressed to hers. She could feel his excitement growing against her.

  He rolled her to her back and hung his face over hers, being careful to keep his erect penis to the side of her, though he was sure she had already felt it. “Brielle, my apologies.” His voice was a whisper. “No woman should have to ask a man twice to stop. I’m trying to control myself. I did tell you I am attracted to you and I know I just acted on my feelings, against your wishes.” He smiled a guilty grin. “I really do like your butt though.”

  His words surprised her. Brian Sherman was a man of honor. If he had been before or not, was irrelevant. She knew she had previously judged him on the actions of a seventeen-year-old kid, not the man he was. “Thank you.” It was all that she could say out loud.

  “Goodnight,” he said softly. And then his lips brushed hers.

  They shared a lengthy kiss, without him ever parting her lips. Like before, she felt the warmth and the moisture from his mouth on his lips. She wanted to deepen the kiss, to take it to the next level, but she knew she didn’t want to do anything more with him and that would have signaled him that she did. She wasn’t a tease and trie
d hard to not send mixed messages.

  Sherman enjoyed that she kissed him back but was confused that she didn’t initiate more into the kiss. Women always did. Withholding his tongue always made them push theirs into his mouth. She was one tough cookie. From how she’d acted, he was sure she was as attracted to him as he was to her.

  When he pulled his lips away and opened his eyes, he gazed into her beautiful brown eyes that were dilated with desire. The expression on her face said she enjoyed the kiss and wanted more. He couldn’t figure her out. Was this more of her insecurity because her last two boyfriends cheated on her? Or was it her suspicion that he wouldn’t be faithful?