Sodden clothes dropped in wet heaps as he moved her back against the ships wheel Turning her to face the wheel, he put his arms around her, pulling her body against his. “Is this crazy?” he whispered in the warmth of her neck. Moving over her ribcage, he cupped her, weighing breasts that fit him perfectly, like everything else about her.
She placed her hand over his, drawing his hand to where she was hot, wet, ready for him. Gavin wanted to bend her over the wheel, but hearing her sighs as he teased her, caressing, seeing the pleasure on her face as she turned to capture his mouth in a fiery kiss.
In a languid movement, she leaned forward, rubbing her ass against his throbbing cock. “Like this,” she looked back at him.
The wind swirled around the boat, rocking it on its moorings. Thunder so loud, he felt it in his chest seemed to surround him as he sunk into her. Lightning cracked outside as he clutched her hips, driving harder, her cries of pleasure mingling with the din of the storm. He couldn’t think. His only need, the scent of her sex, the desire arching like a current between them. Like animals mating, wild he drove into her until with a final thrust, they both screamed sharing an explosive climax.
Gavin took a step back on shaky legs, his body quaking still from their love-making. He touched her, turning her to pull her into his embrace. “Are you all right?” He looked away, taking a cleansing breath. “I don’t know what’s happening here. I haven’t wanted someone like this since….”
She looked up, arms pinned against his chest. “Since?”
Was this something she’d want to hear? Something he was ready yet to share? He held her arms, rubbing them up and down. “We need to talk.”
It was all he could do to keep his hands off her. He distanced himself choosing to sit at the opposite side of the small built in couch. Outside the storm raged around them, but tucked amidst the trees of the inlet, they were safe from the elements.
“I lost my wife when Katrina hit the coast. I was out of the country on a Doctors Abroad program when it hit.” He glanced up from the finger of whiskey he’d poured for them both at her request.
“It will keep our hands occupied,” she teased. “So, we can talk.”
“That must have been horrible being so far away. Not being able to communicate with her.” Caroline’s gentle understanding eased his hearts re-telling of the story in ways immeasurable.
“She’d gone into premature labor with our twins. When the electricity went out—everything shut down. Then the injured starting coming in. The hospitals were jammed. Staff couldn’t get in. those present had been working beyond the normal levels allowed.”
“I remember hearing about it on the news. I’m sure that paled in comparison to the reality.”
His thoughts rolled back to the hours that he’d tried in every way possible to get through to somebody—anybody—his parents, friends, Olivia. He didn’t know their fate, whether they’d survived. “She gave birth to the girls by flashlight.” He bit his lip and continued. “The secondary generator had been destroyed when debris and wind demolished the out building it was housed in.”
“The twins?” she asked.
Gavin swallowed against the guilt and frustration clogging his throat. “They survived. Amazing really. It was nip and tuck for a few days, but my girls are fighters—to this day.”
She smiled at him. “The world needs strong women.” Her gaze softened. “I’m certain they get a lot of that strength from their mother.”
He wanted to hug Caroline for how unselfishly she spoke about his deceased wife, scant hours after she’d made love with him. He nodded. “There were complications. She required surgery. The docs did the best they could with what they had.” He stopped and stared into his empty glass.
“I’m sorry, Gavin. She sounds like she was an amazing woman,” Caroline said softly. “Married to an amazing man.”
He shook his head. “No, I should have been there with her.”
“But I bet she encouraged you to go to Haiti.”
Gavin shook his head at the memory. “She was vehement that I go. I was young in my career. She said the experience would be good for me—challenge me.”
Gavin looked up at Caroline, his mouth lifting at the corner in a half smile. “She had no idea the greatest challenge would be losing her.” He rubbed his fingers over his eye lids and sniffed back the tears prickling the back of his eyelids.
“Come over here, Dr. Beauregard,” she said, patting her lap. “Lay your head there and rest a bit.” She brushed her fingers through his hair. “You’re a good man,” she chuckled. “And not just in bed.”
“We haven’t made it to bed yet.” He turned to look up at her and a faint image of Olivia’s face dissolved, leaving Caroline’s gentle smile.
“You deserve happiness,” she continued. “I had my tea leaves read and that’s one of the things the man told me.”
Gavin turned to his back and looked at the woman who’d suddenly turned his world upside down. “I’d love you to meet my girls, someday.”
She shrugged. “I’d like that.”
Gavin grinned, remembering how concerned he’d been about the influence of Rhianna on this budding relationship. That was what it was after all, right?
“Speaking of tea leaves and the like. I heard a story this evening. From Auntie Iris. I admit, I had to wonder about it at first, given how quickly I was attracted to you.”
“Really? Small world that she should be the one seated next to me on the plane, right?” Caroline shrugged.
“She also happens to be an old friend of the Evermore owners and Patrick O’Rourke. He and his wife were there tonight.”
“Oh, the guy you were talking to that looks like he could bench press a tank?”
Gavin chuckled. “I’ll tell him that. Anyway, I wanted to get your take on it. See if you had concerns that this was all moving too fast.”
Her smile faded. “So, you also think what’s happened between us has moved too fast?”
He noted the concern in her voice. Gavin sat up and faced her. “I am not prone to picking up strange women on planes, or want them with an almost insatiable need just after meeting them.”
He searched her eyes, seeing reason return. “What did she say?”
“Only that there is some legend, about a woman who played havoc with men a long time ago over at Evermore plantation. She had a penchant for sleeping with men.”
“Like a prostitute?”
“More like a witch. Apparently, a voodoo woman who derived energy off having sex, draining the life from the men she lured into her cabin.”
“Sounds charming.”
“Auntie Iris said that conditions had to be just right for her spirit to be released.”
“You folks down here have some pretty interesting tales floating about,” Caroline mused.
A flash of lightning overhead caused Caroline to squeal. She moved over next to Gavin, huddling beneath his arm.
“I hate lightning. Hate fireworks.” Caroline held out her hand. “I have you know I can handle an entire room of corporate big-wigs,” she said, with her face pressed into his T-shirt.
“You want to hear some more?” He asked, relishing how wonderful it felt to just hold her.
“I’d rather you got to the point of the story.” She lifted her mouth skimming the bottom of his jaw with her warm mouth.
Gavin fought the haze of lust trickling into his brain. “She claimed that conditions had to be just right to unleash Rhianna’s spirit and maybe the passion between us set her spirit free. That in some ways, would explain a lot,” he offered, realizing as soon as the words left his mouth that it sounded as though he was not taking responsibility.
She leaned back and studied him. “Are you saying that what has been going on between us, might not be of our own volition? That somehow we’ve been influenced by this…Rhianna?”
Gavin started to back pedal. “Okay, when put that way, it doesn’t sound good, I realize.”
Caroline
rose and he grabbed her arm. “What it means is I’d like to ask if you think that love at first sight is possible? I mean the kind that can lead to--” The look in her eye made him realize he was on a slippery slope.
“Let me fill it in for you—unbridled, animalistic sex? The best sex, by the way, I’ve had in oh…forever.”
Clearly, this was not going the direction he wanted. He only told her the story so he could find out how she felt. “Caroline, it’s evident I’m attracted to you. You’re a beautiful, smart, exciting woman.”
“But you think—let me see if I get this right—that if Rhianna wasn’t freed—we might have felt as great a desire to--” She cleared her throat and looked away, her hands on her hips.
“No. No. I made the choice to give you the note. I showered at the cottage, I don’t know maybe hoping you’d find me. I chose to stay behind when the others left on the tour and the lights went out. I was concerned about you, which is why I found that damn green box they told us was in every room, grabbed the candle and--” Gavin stopped mid=sentence and met Caroline’s less than understanding gaze.
“What?” she demanded.
“The green wooden boxes that Nash crafted.” He looked at Caroline as he searched for his shoes. “Grab your shoes, we’re going for a ride.”
Chapter Six
Caroline called Louise, waking her from a deep sleep to let her know she was on her way back to Evermore with Gavin.
“I need you to meet me at Evermore and call Auntie Iris. Have her meet us there. If this Rhianna bitch is real, I think I know how she was freed.” Gavin spoke on his cell phone to his friend, Patrick.
He turned into a country lane that wound through a tree-covered tunnel of oaks. “We need to make a quick stop to get some help.”
“Tell me again why we’re doing this?” she asked as the truck bounced along the uneven ground.
He glanced at her in the dashboard light. “Because, I want to be sure. You want to be sur3e. This way, we’ll be sure together.”
Caroline stared at the well-educated man with degrees up the ying-yang. What had she gotten herself into?
He pulled up to a rickety looking tiny house, its fenced-in yard littered with yard ornaments and birdhouses. The wind whistling through the trees batted the number of wind chimes dangling from the eves of her porch roof.
“I’ll be right back.” He left the truck running as he climbed out, leaving his door open. A moment later, a small woman answered his knock and she could see the woman engaged in Gavin’s story. She disappeared in the house and soon returned, holding his arm as they navigated their way back to the truck. She moved to the middle as he helped the old woman into the passenger seat.
The woman, clutching a leather-bound book smiled at Gavin. He shut the door and Caroline watched him skirt around the front of the vehicle.
“As a boy, he often loved going on grand adventures,” the old woman said a loud.
Caroline looked over meeting the woman’s warm smile. There was something familiar about her. She couldn’t quite place it.
“Bonnie, dear.” She held out her tiny hand.
Caroline shook the old woman’s petite hand. She had a firm grip despite her size. Wait a minute--she recognized that nail polish. “Miss Bonnie? From the plane, Bonnie?”
“Caroline, isn’t it? Didn’t I tell you the Lady she’d have something special in store for you?”
“But, I--”
Gavin climbed in and glanced at the pair. “I assume no introductions are necessary?”
“Wait, you knew her all along?” She looked from Gavin to Miss Bonnie. “And you knew all along who he was?”
She shrugged her boney shoulders. “I don’t meddle with romance and fate.”
Caroline opened her mouth to speak, but the old woman pointed to Gavin. “Plenty of time to talk later. Let’s take care of the problem at hand.”
Taking the dirt road further, they passed by open fields and the occasional swamp inlet until taking a turn onto an intersecting road. Caroline realized soon that they were following a road that came up behind the Evermore plantation.
The soft glow of lights flickered through the windows of nearly every room of the old house. As though a grand party took place inside. A white, misty haze covered the ground, shrouding the garden maze. Gavin pulled around to the side lot. A black car sat silent in the lot.
Patrick pulled in shortly after. Savannah was at his side.
“You have an interesting night?” Gavin asked as the group strode up the long walkway to the house.
Patrick cleared his throat. “We’ll talk later.”
“It’s best if we stay together until we have Rhianna back where she belongs,” Bonnie said quietly.
Gavin rang the bell, then knocked, realizing the electricity was still out. “I didn’t call Nash, did you?”
Patrick glanced at Savannah. “Been a bit busy.” Caroline saw the man squeeze his wife’s hand. Perhaps Rhianna’s influence had touched them all.
A moment later, the door opened. Caroline gasped, as did Miss Bonnie. The large man stared back at them clad in his boxer briefs. That—wasn’t the issue. The buckled straps cinched around his torso, the muzzle and the leash around his neck was a little disconcerting.
“Show our guests in, darling.” Dr. Somer Ingler, dressed from head-to-toe in a skin-tight leather body suit held the other end of the leash fastened around her husband’s neck.
“Is Nash going to remember this?” Gavin leaned over to ask Patrick.
“I’ve no idea. But it’s for certain burned into my brain,” his friend answered. He gripped Savannah’s hand as they entered the house.
Gavin touched her hand and curled his fingers through hers. Caroline stood in awe, unsure whether her eyes were playing tricks on her. Instead of the pristine, refined historical décor she’d seen earlier that evening, it had become a jungle of sorts-with vines snaking up the stair rails, the potted fern and trees that had adorned the porch and accented the room had grown to twice their size, some of the pots toppled over, the dirt spilled across the custom-made rugs.
Patrick spoke first. “Hey, guys, we thought we’d stop by and help clean up a bit after the party.”
Caroline scanned the room, seeing vegetation growing where it shouldn’t.
Nash glanced at his wife, saying nothing. Caroline imagined the muzzle impeded that ability.
“It’s nice you dropped by. Nash and I were about to have sex on the dining room table. We haven’t been there yet, have we pumpkin?” She gently tugged the leash. Nash grunted.
Gavin directed his question to Nash, but kept his eye on Dr. Ingler. “Curious, buddy. Those emergency boxes you all made for outages? You don’t happen to remember where you got the lumber to make them?”
Dr. Ingler chuckled. “Of course, he remembers. It took him forever to chop down that old tree.”
“The one in the middle of the road, out by the workers’ cabins?” Patrick asked, tossing Gavin a side-look.
“Why yes. Exactly. Why do you ask?” The woman cocked her head.
“And you mentioned you have them in all the rooms?” Gavin queried.
“It’s a big house, Dr. Beauregard. You can see why we’d need to have a box in each room.” She waved her hand placidly through the air. “As you can see, the lights are still out. We had to open every single one in order to give us light.”
A peel of thunder rolled from above.
“We need to collect those boxes,” Bonnie said holding her gaze on Dr. Ingler.
“Whatever for?” Somer asked, watching as Gavin and Patrick ran up the stairs. She then shrugged. “If you wish to join us, we’ll be in the dining room.” She walked in stiletto heels, hips swaying, as she gave the leash a little tug.
“This house needs a cleansing.” Bonnie dug in her bag and pulled out a what appeared to be a stick of herbs. She’d seen them at the tea shop.”
“Smudge stick.” She lit the end until it began to smolder, smoke curled from
the end. She handed one to Caroline, another to Savannah. She lit a third for herself and began to wave it in the air. Savannah, though knowing exactly what to do, followed. Caroline mimicked the two women as best she could. Certainly, her friends back home were never going to believe this. Between them, they found two boxes and brought them to Miss Bonnie.
“Follow me,” she said. The three walked past the dining room where Caroline raised her hand to block out what she heard coming from the house’s owners.
Through the garden maze and heavy mist they dutifully followed behind Miss Bonnie beyond the garden to where stood an old tin barrel for burning trash.
“Place the boxes in there,” she said. Taking one of the tapers she lit the end, touching the flame to some papers, she started a healthy fire.
Patrick and Gavin emerged from the house, each carrying a stack of the wood boxes, same style, same color. They dumped them in the bonfire. Flames shot high, licking at the sky, coming precariously close to the branches of on old oak with a swing.
“Is that all of them?” Bonnie asked.
“All we could find. Looks like Nash was a busy man.”
“With the energy of the storm coming in, and the hearts seeking comfort—when those boxes were opened, Rhianna found her way out,” Bonnie said. The old woman raised her arms in the air, her lips moving in silently.
Auntie Iris, driver hurrying behind her, appeared from the shadows. Pink curlers woven through her silvery hair, she wore like a tiara on her head. She joined Miss Bonnie. “I saw this comin’,” Auntie said. Now listen here, it’s going to take all of us to sequester her again.”
The small group stood around the fire. Bonnie took Aunties hand, then Caroline’s, and so on, until they all clasped hands around the fire that had grown higher, more threatening.
“Focus now. Don’t know one let go, no matter what happens. You hear?” Aunt Iris said. “We put ‘ol Rhianna where she can’t escape again. She don’t be wreaking havoc anymore.”
Caroline caught Gavin’s eye and his tender smile. Was that his way of saying I told you so? Or was it his way of saying goodbye? Had these past two days been nothing more than a horny spirits revenge at getting a little nookie?
Hurricane Season Page 8
