by Jana DeLeon
Luc shrugged. “It’s not really all it’s cracked up to be, Sabine. And believe me, you should be grateful you can’t see and mostly hear Helena. She’s no Casper.”
Sabine tried to continue her pout but couldn’t stop the giggle that finally erupted from her. “I guess you’re right. Helena certainly isn’t my first choice of the dead person I’d like to speak to.”
Helena crossed her arms in front of her and glared. “You people should have more important things to do than rag on me. Why don’t you get on with them?”
Maryse narrowed her eyes at Helena and smiled. “Funny you should bring up everything that needs to be done, because something I need done involves you directly. I just couldn’t say anything in front of Mildred.”
Helena gave her a wary look. “Okay, so what am I supposed to do?”
“Find Hank.”
There was one beat of silence before everyone started in on her at once.
“I don’t like it,” Luc began.
Sabine jumped at the same time. “For Christ’s sake, Maryse, what if he’s the one trying to kill you?”
“Calm down, people. I didn’t say I was going to confront Hank. I just want to know what he’s up to. It’s the only way to figure out whether he is the one trying to kill me. Do you think I just want to wait around waiting for it?”
Helena pursed her lips. “All of this is irrelevant because I have absolutely no idea where Hank is. I checked that pad of paper at my house. It was a motel room on the outskirts of town, but he’s not there anymore. I checked.”
“If we play this right,” Maryse said, “we may be able to get him to come to us.”
“How’s that?” Helena asked.
“I’d bet my boat that Harold’s still talking to Hank. As soon as Mildred finds out where Harold is staying, you can sit tight with him until he talks to Hank or leads you to where he is.”
“Absolutely not,” Helena said, and shook her head. “I am not spending my day watching over that man and whatever whore he’s taken up with. No way.”
Maryse leaned over, her face just inches from Helena’s. “You’ll do it all right.”
“Or what?”
Maryse pointed at Sabine. “Or she’ll start the proceedings for an exorcism.”
Helena looked back and forth between Maryse and Sabine, not entirely convinced Maryse was serious but afraid of the alternative. And since Helena knew as much about ghosts as Maryse, even though she was one, she had no way of knowing whether or not an exorcism would do something harmful to her.
Which is what Maryse was counting on to keep her in line.
“You’d do that?” Helena asked, looking at Sabine and Maryse made the translation.
Sabine gave the couch a solemn nod. “In a heartbeat.”
“Well,” Helena said, and huffed. “Fine lot you are, ganging up on a defenseless ghost.”
Luc snorted. “You’re about as defenseless as a rattlesnake, Helena.”
Sabine smiled and rose from her seat. “Means to an end, Helena. I’m going to get out of here. I need to put a closed sign on the shop and head to New Orleans to catch Raissa before she gets too busy.” She leaned over to give Maryse a hug, then gave Luc a stern look. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”
Luc raised one hand as if giving his oath. “I promise.”
As Sabine left the office, Helena turned to Maryse. “So what am I supposed to do until Mildred finds Harold—plot ways to kill him, write my memoirs, bikini wax…?”
Maryse grimaced. “Sit tight at the hotel and keep a watch for anyone who might attempt to blow it up. When Mildred gets the info, Luc and I will pick you up and take you wherever.” She looked over at Luc, who nodded in agreement.
“Stay at the hotel?” Helena pouted. “This has got to be one of the most boring places on Earth.”
Maryse grinned. “There’s a whole group of traveling salesmen on the second floor. I bet they’re on the pay-per-view movie log.”
“Yuck,” Helena said as she rose from the couch and disappeared through the wall.
Luc raised his eyebrows, and Maryse smiled. “Old joke.”
Luc shook his head and put one arm around her shoulder, giving a light squeeze. “Let’s go take care of things at the office.”
Maryse nodded and started toward the door, not wanting to think about how nice Luc’s arm felt draped across her shoulder. Not wanting to remember how her hair raised on her arm when he’d kissed her the night before. But that thin strip of lace beneath her yoga pants gave her away. She may be fooling Luc for now, but she wasn’t fooling herself.
It took a five-minute phone call to confirm that the local cops didn’t know any more now than they did the day before. Then Maryse and Luc headed out for the office. When they pulled into the office parking lot, Maryse was momentarily surprised to see cameras mounted on each corner of the building. She looked over at Luc who hurried to explain. “I had a buddy of mine who does security put up a couple of things. Just in case.”
Maryse absorbed this for a moment, not sure how to feel about her every move being watched or recorded, but she couldn’t argue with the advantage the cameras provided. “Thanks,” she said, even though the thought of starring in her own movie made her more than a little self-conscious. “I really appreciate this, Luc.” She squeezed his arm and pulled out her keys, wondering why Luc had gone to so much trouble for someone he barely knew.
After all, he was just another low-paid governmental scientist. He could study rat droppings in any set of mud and water across the state of Louisiana. There was no reason for him to stay here, especially with the danger that was very, very real.
Unless his reasons are personal.
She shook that thought off and unlocked the door. Luc insisted on entering first and did a quick inspection of all the rooms. When he was satisfied everything was clear, Maryse took a seat at her desk and checked phone messages. The first three were from Aaron, and he sounded excited. The fourth trial had worked and the mice hadn’t gotten sick yet—something most cancer treatments couldn’t offer at all.
Ecstatic, Maryse made a hasty call to Aaron, explaining that she was temporarily staying at the Mudbug hotel, just in case he needed to reach her after hours and couldn’t get her on her cell. Aaron asked what was up with the hotel, but Maryse figured her house exploding would be information overload, so she played it off as repair work being done. She didn’t want Aaron’s focus to be on anything but the trials. After getting a few more details on the tests, she hung up the phone, jumped up from her desk, and danced a jig.
Luc looked over at her and smiled, her excitement obviously infectious. “Good news, I take it?”
“The best! Aaron said the mice came through the fourth trial with flying colors and haven’t even had to take a sick day.”
Luc frowned, and she felt her spirits drop a bit. What could possibly be wrong with that news? “What’s the matter?” she asked.
“What?” Luc’s eyes took on focus, and he appeared to jerk himself back into the present. “No, nothing’s the matter. In fact, that’s great news.”
“Then what was the frown for?”
He gave her a direct look and asked, “Is this Aaron another Christopher?”
It took Maryse a second to figure out what he was trying to ask in an indirect way. Then she let out a laugh. “No way. Aaron’s been in a relationship with the same person for eight years now.”
Luc narrowed his eyes at her. “That doesn’t make a difference to some people.”
“With a man.”
Luc blinked once and looked a bit startled. “Oh, well I guess that does make a difference.” He gave her a curious look. “What exactly are you using for the test, and where did you find it?”
Maryse shook her head and gave him a smile. “If you’re really nice, one day I might show it all to you, but for now, I’d like to keep it on the down-low. At least until I know I’m really onto something.” And I can find it again.
“Oh
, I can be nice.”
He smiled and stepped directly in front of her, his body so close she could feel the heat radiating off him. The hair on her arms immediately stood on end, and her heart beat so loudly, she was certain he could hear it. This time, Maryse knew there was no way in hell she was holding herself back. She had the underwear to prove it.
He lifted one hand and gently touched the side of her face. “But research is not exactly what I’m really interested in seeing at the moment,” he said.
Before she could reply, or protest, or breathe, he lowered his lips to hers. Even though he’d kissed her twice before, she was still unprepared for her body’s instant response as his lips connected with hers. Every inch of her skin tingled.
She moved closer to him as the kiss deepened, aligning her body with his. She pressed her hips into him. He stiffened immediately, and she reached around and placed her hands on the butt that she’d been longing to squeeze for days. Luc’s hands dropped to cup her breasts.
He stroked the sensitive nipples through her shirt as his tongue mingled with hers, first slow and sexy, then increasing in intensity. Maryse could feel the warmth of his hand and groaned as his fingers stroked her engorged nipples and wished there wasn’t so much fabric between them. She was just about to tear off her own clothes, then launch for Luc’s when he slid his hands down to her waist and pulled her T-shirt and sports bra over her head.
Her breasts stood at full attention as the cool air of the room blew over them, but Luc immediately set to warming them back up, cupping her breast in his hand, stroking the nipple with his thumb, while trailing kisses down her neck. When he put his lips on her other breast she felt her knees weaken. Luc paused for a moment and gave her a sexy smile, knowing with certainty what he was doing to her untrained flesh.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered. “I want you to touch every square inch of me.”
Luc laughed and lifted her onto the desk. “Oh, I have absolutely no intention of stopping. I was only repositioning you for what I had in mind next.” He lowered his head to her breast again and took it in his mouth, swirling his tongue around and around until she thought she would beg for more. As his mouth worked its magic, he reached down and slid her yoga pants off and let them fall into a heap on the floor. His hand went back to her waist, but when he came to the lacy underwear, he paused. He pulled back ever so slightly and looked down at the thin strip of pink that barely covered her. He placed one finger inside the fabric at her hip and started to slide it toward her center. “My God, Maryse. Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
Maryse sucked in a breath as his hand moved slowly downward to the place she desperately wanted it to be. “I was hoping you’d show me,” she said.
Luc lowered his head to her neck once more and trailed kisses all the way down to her breasts, all while slowly inching his finger toward her core, building a sweet anticipation that she thought might send her over the edge before they got any further. Maryse bit her lip to keep from encouraging him to hurry. Finally, he rubbed his finger across her sensitive nub, and pleasure flashed through her, making her groan.
He stroked her slowly, gently, as his mouth continued its assault on her breasts, and just when she thought she was going to lose it, he stopped and started trailing kisses down her stomach as he worked the bit of lace off her body. As he inched closer and closer to her throbbing sex, she eased back until she was lying on the desk, certain that any moment she would melt into a puddle on the floor.
When his warm tongue made contact with her, it felt like a jolt of electricity burning from her center and spiking through the top of her head. Her vision blurred, and the room moved in waves. Up and down, he continued his assault, then switched to a gentle swirl. Maryse wished like hell she had something to grip…comforter, bedsheets…anything. Luc increased his speed, and her legs began to quiver, her breathing stopped altogether, and she clutched his hair in both her hands. Then the orgasm hit her like an atomic bomb, and she cried out as wave after wave of intense pleasure rushed over her body.
Her hips began to buck and thrash around, but Luc held them in place, obviously not yet done with her. He slowed his pace, and Maryse panted, trying to get her breath back, and before she knew it, the heat at her center was building again. Just when she thought he would send her over the edge again, Luc stopped his assault and rose up. It was only then that Maryse realized he’d pushed down his jeans and she could see every perfect square inch of him.
Luc rolled on a condom, gathered her in his arms, then kissed her deeply. Holding her face in his hands, he entered her. She gasped as he filled her and gently bit the soft flesh of his neck. Luc groaned and increased his stroke both in speed and length. She dug her nails into his back, clinging to him like a drowning woman, as he entered her over and over, each stroke better than the last, until she felt the fire building to an inferno.
“Oh God, Luc,” she started, then couldn’t continue.
Luc held her tighter and drove deeper. As her body clutched around him, they moved together again and again until she climaxed, pushing him over the edge with her.
They clung to each other for a while, neither of them wanting to move. Then Luc moved back enough to lower his lips to her again. “You are the most incredible woman,” he whispered and kissed her again.
Maryse smiled as he finished the kiss. “I’d have to say that incredible thing works both ways. I don’t think I can move my legs.”
Luc laughed and drew her close to him again. “Then I guess we’ll just have to stay here until you can.”
Maryse lay her head on his shoulder and tried to concentrate on breathing. She was beginning to think she might actually recover when the alarm went off, shrieking with a high-pitched whine. Maryse jumped off the desk in a panic, scanning out the windows for movement, and certain that any minute, she was going to have a heart attack. But hey, at least it removed the necessity of finding something to say during that uncomfortable period following post-coital recovery.
Luc yanked on his pants, ran to his desk, and pulled a 9mm out of his top drawer. “Get down and stay down,” he ordered, then left the office through the back door.
Maryse sank down onto the floor and slid around behind the desk, dragging her clothes with her as she went. She wiggled around on the cold, hard tile to pull on her yoga pants and T-shirt, then peeked around the desk and snagged her tennis shoes. These days she never knew when running might be called for.
Ready for action, she peeked over the top of the desk looking for a weapon, but the two best options were a stapler and a letter opener. Both required a proximity to the killer that she wasn’t really interested in achieving, but unless she wanted to scotch tape the killer’s hands together and mark the event on the calendar, the stapler and letter opener were her best options. She grabbed the two items and slid back down behind the desk.
She listened intently for any sound of Luc, but the alarm was so loud it drowned out everything. What had tripped it? And more importantly, what did they have planned for her?
And what was Luc doing toting around a gun, especially something like a 9mm?
Sure, most people that worked on the bayou carried some form of protection. Maryse had a 12-gauge and the pistol with the rubber bullets, but a 9mm? There wasn’t anything in the bayou requiring that kind of rapid fire to stop. Even an alligator would back off a gunshot in a heartbeat.
Her mind flashed back to Luc’s actions when the alarm went off—the way he crept down the hall, pressed flat against the wall. And when he’d left out the back door, it had been weapon first, just like in the movies. Except she got the feeling Luc wasn’t imitating a movie when he’d left. It appeared to be a natural reaction from someone who had been through that same routine over and over again. Which made no sense at all for a zoologist.
But made all the sense in the world for a cop.
Chapter Fifteen
It was probably only five minutes before Maryse heard the back door creak open, but
it felt like hours. She peered between the cracks of the desk and tried to see who had entered the office. She clutched her weapons and made the hasty decision that if the bad guy found her hiding place, she would stab him in the crotch with the letter opener, then staple his eyes. It was the best she could come up with.
When she heard Luc’s voice yelling from down the hall, she let out a huge sigh of relief. She crawled out from under the desk and had just achieved a standing position when Luc ran into the office.
“Are you all right?” he asked and did a hurried check of the room, gun still firmly gripped in his right hand.
“Was anyone out there?”
Luc frowned. “No. But they could have gotten away before I made it outside.”
Maryse nodded. “So what do you think happened?”
