by Gynger Fyer
When she was gone, Angel hit him playfully on the shoulder.
“You did that on purpose,” she said sulkily.
“I don’t sneak around with my mate, ever. It’s best that you know that right now.”
“I’m not asking you to sneak around. I just like…discretion, that’s all.”
The color was back in her cheeks.
Jacques kissed her once more before turning her away from him and nudging her from behind his desk.
“Go and tell the crew to finish what they’re doing and knock off for the next two weeks. We’ll pay them for the entire time.”
Angel playfully saluted him with two fingers. “Aye, aye captain!” she teased before exiting the room. He watched the sway of her hips and the way her jeans creased under each butt cheek as she moved. He had to have her. Tonight, in his home, in his bed, he’d finally make love to her, and he wouldn’t stop until she begged him to.
Chapter Ten
“Ummm, okay let me try it, ahn-doo-wee. Spelled A-N-D-O-U-I-L-L-E.”
Angel cautiously pronounced the word for the spicy sausage used in many Cajun and Creole recipes. It sounded funny to her ears, but the taste was delicious. Jacques spoon fed her the last bit of gumbo as they sat on the tan leather couch in his living room. Their legs and feet were propped up on the matching footrest, allowing them to semi-recline.
After everyone left the Bayou Moon, Jacques took them back home to pack. A few hours later, they were on their way to his home.
“Good job, I’ll make you into a Cajun in no time.”
“Something tells me I’ll get as big as a house if I allow you to make me into a Cajun. Thanks but no thanks. My hips and thighs couldn’t take it.”
“Toothpicks are for hors d'oeuvres, do I look like the type of guy who likes tiny meals? Oh, nooo, cher. I like all of your curves just the way they are.”
As if to prove it, Jacques leaned in and gave her a long, lingering kiss that had her clinging to his wide shoulders. The skin on her lower back, which had already been tingling, began to tighten and she groaned.
No, no, no!!! Not now, she pleaded as her beast threatened to show. She’d been fine in New Orleans, but once outside the city, a switch flipped and all she wanted to do was get into the water, hunt, eat, mate, and sleep. Not necessarily in that order, either. Her gator, or did she call it a cow…nope, she hated being called a cow. Her gator was literally itching to get out, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could last.
“Come on, let’s go have some fun.”
Jacques kissed her firmly once more before moving the footrest and getting to his feet. He offered his hand to her. The contact was reassuring and her gator quieted. She had to admit, the thought of “having fun” with Jacques had been on her mind most of the day, especially since their little make out session in his office. Despite her name, Angel was no innocent. She was more than attracted to Jacques. Mate or no mate, he was a smart, handsome, financially stable man. That kind of combo could entice a nun.
She thought she could keep things less personal, more businesslike. After all, she’d be going back to Vegas in two months. The last thing she needed was to get emotionally involved. Yet here she was, day-by-day, being reeled in. All she wanted was one taste of him and then she’d be satisfied. It was pure textbook psychology. Why did people keep gambling at her casino despite the odds and the fact that they sometimes lost staggering sums at the turn of a dime? They did it because people inherently wanted what they couldn’t or didn’t have. That euphoria that was just beyond their reach. The machine always chimed for the person seated next to them. Surely they’d be next. For some it was the win, for some, the money. For her, it was sex with one of the hottest men she’d laid eyes on. His rugged good looks, wide shoulders, and intense stare were arousing, and she wanted to sample what it’d be like to have all of that male intensity focused on her, over her, in her. She’d tried to put him out of her reach, but her libido kept closing the distance. She was through trying. She’d decided if he was her mate, then she might as well take advantage of the title, if only for a little while.
Jacques led her through his home, which was remarkably well decorated for a bachelor. From the outside it looked like a huge cabin with multiple levels. They’d driven nearly three miles into the woods before the home had even come into view. The front was spacious and well landscaped; she could see walking trails and a pond on one side and behind it was a huge lake. If the outside was impressive, the inside was gorgeous. Wood-beamed high ceilings were the focal point of the living room, which had large, high windowpanes like a cathedral. Jacques led her out onto the huge balcony, which spanned the entire length of the backside of the house.
There was plenty of room to sit and watch the sun rise and set. It even had a fire pit in the center and a Jacuzzi big enough to seat ten people. Comfortable seating was scattered all around, yet he passed all of it by and went down two flights of stairs before turning and going to a door beneath the house.
“I thought we were going to your room.”
Jacques looked confused for a moment before smirking. He pulled her forward into his arms and kissed her. Angel’s arms circled his neck and she returned the kiss with abandon. She barely noticed Jacques backing her through the doorway. The sound of rushing water had her pulling away.
She looked in surprised delight at the huge underground aquarium in front of her. It was like a cave but one made by man. There was a large rectangular pool with lights underneath so she could see the bottom. Lily pads floated around the edges and in different spots within the pool, giving it a natural feel. It was like being outside, but it was clearly surrounded on all four sides by wooden log-like walls and a wooden floor. It reminded her of a massive sauna.
“Welcome to the grotto, cher.”
One moment Angel was standing and looking at the place in awe, the next she was on the floor looking up at Jacques. She felt dizzy, almost like she’d gotten in the backseat of a car that was pulling off fast.
Fuck! She’d shifted without warning again. She decided to sit back and let the thing take her where it wanted to go, much like being in a submarine.
“Oh, no you don’t. It’s time you learned to control your animal,” Jacques spoke while squatting next to her.
She could feel her gator rebel by snapping at him and hissing. Jacques smoothly placed his hands over her upper and lower jaw and looked directly into her eyes as her gator tried to break the hold. Try as she might, her jaw was locked shut and she was forced to look at him. His eyes changed as his gator peered back at her.
“The only way to control your gator is to be one with it. Don’t let it run the show. Right now I can feel you’re disconnected from it. I want you to meld with it, and then I want you to change back.”
Without the ability to speak, Angel spoke in her mind.
“Exactly how do I meld with it?”
“Feel what your gator feels; open up your mind and senses. Focus on how the floor feels beneath your claws, how your tail feels, or how long your jaw is. You’ll know when you’ve done it. It’ll feel as if I’m holding your mouth and not the gator. Go on, try it.”
“Okay, here goes…”
Angel started concentrating on the floor first. After a few minutes, she could feel her gator’s paw on the cool tiles and then her belly. She seemed to mentally and physically spread out and relax.
“Good girl, that’s it. Now, you should be one with your gator. I want you to move your tail.”
“Men! You guys always want to see a female’s rear end. Somethings never change,” Angel joked.
“Get used to it, cher. Whether I’m in human or gator form, I’m an ass man.”
“Hummff!”
Angel focused on moving her tail and felt the massive muscles constrict and move from side to side. It felt good. She giggled and kept going, moving her body with each sideways motion. Jacques released her mouth and let her wiggle around.
“Hey! This is fun, come
on, let’s go! I want to go swimming.”
Jacques stood and started taking his clothes off. Angel calmed down and stared in appreciation as he stripped to his skin. His body was magnificent. Chest solidly muscled without being bulky. There was the beautiful tribal tattoo of a gator coming over his shoulder that made him look sexy as hell. A light crop of hair trailed down his abs to his crotch, where his cock protruded proudly from a thatch of dusky hair. Angel’s mouth went dry.
“Like what you see?”
“I suppose you’ll have to do,” she said nonchalantly.
In the blink of an eye, he was on the floor next to her, chasing her into the pool by nipping at her tail. Her tail swung, catching him across the face.
“Hey! Watch that tail before you put somebody’s eye out.”
Angel was already floating in the pool, staring back at him.
“Sorry, I guess I have too much junk in my trunk.” She snickered while paddling around.
It felt good to have the water on her skin. She could smell everything. Hear the sounds of wildlife just outside the grotto.
“I hope to help you unpack some of that junk when we get back.”
“Get back, where are we going? We just got in.”
She swam in a circle before rolling. The sensation was awesome. Bubbles came up and tickled her underbelly.
“There’ll be plenty of time for shallow pool fun. Right now, I want to escort you on your first trip through the bayou. Come on, follow me.”
Jacques entered the pool and went immediately under water. Angel dove, noticing for the first time how clearly she could see. The lights under the water were totally unnecessary. Jacques swam down and then through what looked like a tunnel; green algae and grass were below them. She could feel the stillness of the water as fish passed them by, giving them plenty of room.
“Holy crap! Look at all of the fish.”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, cher.”
The tunnel fell away and she was in a big body of water. It had to be the river outside his house. The indoor pool led to the river. How creative. They could shift without being seen.
“This is great!” Angel swung her tail really fast and darted out into the water, leaving a tide of foam in her wake. She dove under and saw Jacques fast on her trail. She darted away again, laughing.
“You can’t catch me. Sucka!”
Oh no. All of a sudden he was not just nipping at her heel but on top of her, turning her, nipping her shoulder, and rolling in circles with her.
“Stop, stop, I’m getting dizzy,” she said seriously.
Jacques stopped immediately and stilled them both.
“Are you okay, Angel?” he asked with concern.
Angel shook her head and then clamped down on his shoulder and tried to roll him, but he was solid.
“Hey! That’s not right. Why can’t I roll you?”
“Because you’re an amateur”
“Whatever!”
“Listen, until you have a better feel for being a gator, I want you stay near me. If you start feeling ill, let me know. If you feel disoriented, let me know. If you get tired…”
“Right, right, let you know. Okay, I got it, enough with the lecture! Look at the stars. They’re so beautiful out here in the darkness.”
“You should see it in the summertime. There’s no better place to be.”
Angel could only imagine. The beauty of the bayou from a gator’s vantage point was awe-inspiring. Things worked together so naturally. It was easy to see, on a fundamental level, the hand of the creator. The sounds of the bayou held its own allure. From the croak of the frog to the maraca-like rattle of the cicada or the sound of the water, so still, she could hear it roll off her skin if she stayed stationary.
Jacques swam farther away from his home, deep into the bayou. She could tell this trip was more than a leisurely stroll. At intervals he scanned the shore, sniffing.
“So, what are we looking for?”
Jacques sighed and swam away from the bank.
“Traps. Like the one Steven Boucher swallowed.”
“But I thought he was caught in a cage.”
“There are different types of traps. If a gator’s caught in a cage that means the trapper wants the gator alive. The one Steven was in was the kind you set when you want a gator dead. It’s like a fishing line with meat on the end. The gator eats the meat, swallows the hook, causing internal damage. The gator gets strung up.”
“That’s horrible.”
“It’s a painful way to die, that’s for sure.”
Angel swallowed. Here she was thinking the restoration of the Bayou Moon was their biggest concern.
“Why does he think it was a shifter?”
“The area where the trap was located was shifter land. I’m sovereign over a lot of territory, but not all of it is legally ours. My grandfather sought to change that over a hundred years ago by buying up large quantities of land and deeding it to a wildlife trust in my family’s name. Each generation adds to the trust and my family manages it. This land is considered ‘trap free.’ His nephew was found on our property. There shouldn’t have been any traps for him to get into.”
“Hmmm. I see your point.”
“My men have been trying to find the coward, but they haven’t gotten anywhere so far.”
“And New Year’s is only a few weeks away.” Angel stated the obvious.
“So what are you going to do?”
Jacques swam close to her, rubbing his body against her. It felt, for lack of a better word, arousing.
“I’m going to show you the bayou then take you back home and make love to you all night.”
Her heart skipped at the blatant certainty of his words. They both knew there would be no half-hearted requests to wait or feigned coyness. She wanted him and he wanted her. It was elemental.
“Do you promise?”
She swam by him, repeating the gesture he’d just shown her.
“Careful, cher, if I mate with you here, in alligator form, we’re truly mated, bound together…forever.”
Angel inhaled. “Is that how it’s done?”
He slowly swam away, putting some distance between them.
“For the most part. Usually other shifters are there to bear witness, and there’s a particular place where the mating ceremony is held, but that’s just formality. As long as we mate in gator form, we’re bonded.”
The idea was sobering and so inviting. She wasn’t an exhibitionist, so having people look at her while they mated seemed a bit scary, but the idea of mating with Jacques was slowly becoming acceptable.
“So, how does it happen? Is it painful?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never asked. Mating is instinctual to us. Our beasts take over physically. It’s an act of dominance, so I would cover you, but only because you allow it.”
Beneath her feet, Angel could feel the muddy bottom of the bayou; it felt like home. She had instincts she’d never even noticed. She’d always thought of gators as lumbering, but with each swish of her tail and move of her body, she flexed pure muscle. Angel felt powerful, liberated. They wound their way through thick groves of crisp-smelling grasses and plants. Jacques pointed out little markers as they went. He named areas and alerted her to all types of animals, some edible, some not worth their time. She could not only hear but also see other mammals such as ducks and deer from yards away. Before long they were back at his home, going through the underwater tunnel.
Jacques chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“You’re a noisy gator, that’s what.”
“Am not! You can barely hear me.”
“Oh no, cher, every creature in the bayou tonight knew you were there.”
Angel came up into the large pond in the grotto. She moved in the water and heard a swish. Okay, so she wasn’t silent and deadly…yet.
“Okay, oh great sovereign of bullshit. Why don’t you show me how it’s done?” She laughed and splashed
around.
“I’d be happy to…oh most beautiful sovereign heffa.”
“That’s not funny!” she fumed. Once again cursing whoever decided to call female gators cows.
“Oh really? But saying I was the sovereign of bullshit was a riot.”
“I was just playing,” she grumbled.
Jacques swam near and rubbed his jaw alongside hers in what she inherently knew to be a mating gesture of fondness. She couldn’t stop the tremor that ran through her crocodilian frame.
“So was I, cher.” He chuckled as only a Cajun could.
Here he was, getting her all aroused again.
“Will you show me how to make less noise?”
Jacques swam up to the steps leading into the pond and shifted into a standing position. Water ran down his body, caressing his pecs, abs, groin, thighs, and legs. The man was perfection. Shallow water lapped at his waist as he sat on the second step looking at her. His long, stiff cock jutted up to lay against his stomach as he reclined on his elbows in the tepid water.
“Helping you make less noise wasn’t really what I had in mind.”
The look in his eyes was pure animal magnetism.
“Shift for me, Angel.”
Angel didn’t even need to ask how. It was as if all she needed was the request and she was in front of him, naked and just as wet, in more ways than one.
Angel waded toward him slowly, allowing her hands to skim the water as she approached. When she was in front of him, Jacques reached forward, grasped her by the neck, and slowly dragged her toward him until she straddled his thighs and covered him from pussy to chest. His lips connected with hers with a slow, building heat that threatened to drive her mad. Oh, how she wanted this man. Angel grasped his shoulders as his lips trailed down the long column of her neck, leaving goose bumps in his wake. She gasped in pleasure and trembled at the contact. Jacques’s body was warm and solid beneath her. She moved her hips, wedging his cock between the folds of her pussy. Moving them back and forth along his length, she was able to tease them both. Jacques grasped one of her breasts and began to suck and lick with abandon. The sensation was tantamount to lightning striking in her core and she had to have him. Without missing a beat, she reached between them and aimed him at her throbbing opening. Angel sank down on his cock with a groan. She couldn’t take all of him the first time, so she tried again. This time she was able to take just a bit more.
