Night Game

CHAPTER 15

Flame woke with her heart thundering in her ears. Nightmares had invaded her sensual dreams and left her gasping. She lay still, looking up at the rough ceiling knowing dawn was just an hour or so away. She had never allowed herself to be so close to anyone. She’d formed friendships, let herself enjoy people, but she never took a relationship far enough that she needed any one. She never risked wanting anything so much that she couldn’t leave it behind, so it didn’t make sense to her that wanting to be with one person would ever be important enough to risk her freedom.

She rubbed her broken arm absently as she listened to the sound of Raoul breathing. His arm was around her body possessively, his hand under her breast. She could feel the rub of his knuckles and even that small contact sent excitement skittering through her body. He had power over her whether he knew it or not. Flame tried to be ruthless in her dealings with her own feelings. She didn’t want to let go of Raoul. She tried to be analytical and logical.

What real future together was there for them? She could seek help from a conventional doctor. It might buy her time, but it wouldn’t cure the cancer. Only Whitney could do that. And going to a doctor would reveal her genetic enhancement and everything else Whitney had done. It would put her square in the limelight and the government would swoop in and retrieve her. She was worth too much money and frankly, they would think it would be too dangerous to allow her to run around loose.

She eased her way out from under Raoul, sliding to the edge of the bed. The moment she sat up, she was aware of her body, deliciously sore, strangely stimulating as if deep inside something moved against her most sensitive parts. Raoul had been so eager to get at her body, to keep nothing between them, his hands roaming over her even after his sexual appetite was temporarily sated. And he never seemed to be sated for very long, waking her over and over in the night.

As if reading her thoughts, his arm snaked around her waist. “It isn’t light yet.”

She closed her eyes at the sound of his voice, savoring his Cajun accent and the velvet smoothness of his tone. Almost.”

“We didn’t get to finish playin’ with all the toys, cher,” he cajoled, pressing a kiss against the scar in the midst of the flames arching over her hip. “I was thinking we could spend a little time with the handcuffs.”

She turned her head to regard him with what she hoped was a stern look. Unfortunately, he always made her want to laugh. He looked sinfully sexy, a little bit wicked, yet still managed a boyish anticipation. “Not in your wildest dreams.”

“Now, sugah. The entire concept behind handcuffs is a control issue. I like control. And the thought of you kneeling in front of me, hands behind your back, helpless so I can do whatever I want to your body makes me as hard as hell.”

She did burst out laughing, “You really are a freakin’ pervert, Raoul, and honestly, just about everything makes you hard as hell.”

“You don’ know the half of it, cher.” He reached casually for the small remote on the nightstand and turned the switch.

Her breath caught in her throat and she spun around, wide-eyed as the small eggs deep inside her body began to vibrate. “What did you do?”

“You were sleeping so sound, exhausted from all the playin’ we did and I didn’t want to wake you up. It was so damn sexy putting those eggs inside of you. Do they feel good?” He licked the scar, nibbled his way up her rib cage. “Tell me what it feels like.” He laid back again, his dark eyes drifting moodily over her face, watching her expression. “Even in your sleep you get damp and taste like honey. I wanted to do so many things last night, but didn’t want to scare you off.”

Each movement of her body sent the eggs bouncing around until they were vibrating over her most sensitive spot triggering a flood of liquid heat. Her womb and her stomach muscles contracted, an unexpected orgasm beginning to wash over her so that she gasped.

Oh, yeah, they feel good,” he whispered and flicked tongue over her nipple. “Lean down here.” His hand circled the thick length of his erection, holding it up for her. “Every time I see you, or smell you, or even hear your voice, this is what you do to me. Put your hands on me. your mouth. I want to have your mouth on me.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Don’ worry, cher, I’m a hell of a good teacher.” Using the remote, he changed the setting, so that the eggs were subtly vibrating against the walls of her tight channel. His fists curled in her hair and guided her head down to him. He closed his eyes as her tongue flicked the pearled drops from him. “Son of a bitch, Flame. I might not be able to survive the lesson.”

Flame looked up at his face, and the breath rushed from her lungs. She had such power over him. It was amazing to her and all he wanted was what she’d been curious about anyway. He knew her body intimately, she wanted to know his just as intimately.

He used his fists in her hair to guide her movements, as she slowly licked, kissed, and nibbled, building up her courage before taking him deep into the heat of her mouth. He groaned, unable to stop the sound from escaping. Flame had good instincts and it didn’t take her long to figure out just from his reactions what he liked and what he loved.

Gator threw his head back, a low, strangled moan emerging from his throat. Flame never did anything in half measures and she was a fast learner. She started out so sweet and tentative. She was a mixture of innocent and siren and already she was taking him deep, suckling strongly, using her tongue to torment and tease. He had planned just a very short little lesson, but her hand caressed and squeezed his balls, circled his shaft and did the same all the while her mouth worked hot magic on him. Twice he felt the squeeze of her throat as she did a slow, heart-stopping slide. He could feel his balls drawing tighter and tighter until he was certain he would explode.

He did the only thing he could think to do to save coming too soon. He wanted to be in her body, giving her so much pleasure she wouldn’t think of ever leaving him. He had time for everything else. Years, he hoped. Years of her mouth and body and her soft, sexy laughter and her sass. He hit the switch on the remote controlling the eggs so that they buzzed to vivid life, moving and fluttering and pressing against sensitive nerve endings.

Flame rocked back on her heels, crying out as her muscles spasmed and contracted. A tremor went through her. “Raoul.”

He caught her waist and gently tugged until she was bent over the side of the bed. “Watch your arm, cher. I want you comfortable.” He stood behind her, his hand caressing her bottom. “I love your ass. I fantasize about it all the time.”

“Stop talking and do something.” She nearly sobbed the order, unable to stand still, her body tippling with orgasm after orgasm.

He switched off the remote and reached down to tug the string. She gasped as one by one the eggs slid over her heightened nerve endings causing a second shudder of pleasure. “You’re so wet, Flame, so hot.” He pressed against her, catching her hips and drawing her back while he slammed forward. “So damn tight.”

The moment he plunged inside her, driving through her tight folds, so hard and thick, filling her, rubbing against her overstimulated nerve endings she couldn’t stop from trying to take control of the pace. She was frantic, pounding back against him, riding him hard while her body seemed to wind tighter and tighter. She felt it everywhere, her legs, her breasts, but especially between her legs, the fierce pleasure spiraling out of control. Wave after wave shook her.

Suddenly he went still, his hands on her bottom, massaging, kneading, his body deep inside her while she pushed back against him desperate for relief.

“What are you doing?”

“I just can’t help myself, cher. I’m a weak man and the temptation is too much for me.”

She could feel him swelling inside her, his excitement obvious. He felt too big again, hitting her womb, too thick stretching her tight channel. Flame glanced back at over her shoulder. Her eyes widened when she saw him pick up the leopard-skin paddle. “If you want to live, you won’t dare.”

“Then I’m going to die in paradise.” He smacked her bare bottom with the paddle.

Flame gritted her teeth. “You do that again and I’ll break that thing over your head.”

The paddle went flying. “I didn’t much like it, either. ‘Course,”-his hand massaged her bottom again-”if I were to give you a spankin’ I’d want to do it with my hand so I could feel you-and you could feel me. That would be sensual, not impersonal. That’s what was wrong.”

“Raoul!” Flame wailed his name, riding back against him, moving her hips to try to force his compliance, grinding her body against his with small sobs of need. She was going to have to hurt him if he didn’t get on with it.

His hand came down on her bare butt bringing a flare of unexpected heat and then a caress as his palm rubbed over the spot. Her tight muscles contracted around him and a fresh flood of liquid bathed him. Before she could form a protest, he thrust, driving mercilessly through her hot sheath hard and deep, over and over.

Flame couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Only feel. A sob of pleasure escaped as her climax tore through her body with such force she would have fallen if Raoul hadn’t been holding tightly to her hips. Her muscles clamped down on him, gripping hard, squeezing so hot and tight she heard his breath explode from his lungs.

He swore in Cajun, a long growling, guttural curse -while his body swelled thicker and thicker until he was rising on his toes and gritting his teeth, shuddering with pleasure as his body jerked with his own violent, explosive release.

Flame lay facedown over the side of the bed, Raoul’s thick erection buried deep inside her, his body blanketing hers, while they both gasped, searching to draw air into burning lungs and calm the wild storm crashing over their bodies. Spasm after spasm tightened ruthlessly on him. rocking them both, even as they lay quiet. She could feel her body pulsing around his, greedy for more, yet she was exhausted.

Dawn had crept into the room, the early-morning light spilling over them, bringing with it some semblance of sanity. She felt the burn of tears. She wanted to spend her life here, in this cabin, far away from the insanity of who and what she was, but it was impossible. How could she stand knowing what it would have been like to stay with him? To have him? To have a family?

Raoul would bring her pleasure beyond measure. And he would always make her laugh and feel safe and protected.

“Are you crying?” His hands stroked her hair. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

She shook her head. How could she tell him the truth? Of course it hurt. He had shown her paradise and she was going to have to walk away. His hands ran down the length of her body, lingered on the sides of her breasts.

Even that small touch sent another small aftershock rippling through her. His mouth teased the nape of her neck, his hands massaging her bottom, fingers dipping into her heat and rubbing to send another much stronger aftershock through her.

“I love that,” he whispered against her spine. “I love how hot and wet you are for me and how when I touch you, and I’m deep inside you, all your muscles clamp down on me as if you’re holding me inside you and don’t want to let me go.”

She turned her face to the side, resting it on the quilt. She looked exhausted, sated, drowsy, and sexy all together. The sight of her made his throat ache and his eyes burn. He had felt empty for so long, needing something and not even knowing it. Flame was a miracle, a once in a lifetime gift, and he wasn’t going to be fool enough to let her slip through his fingers.

His body relaxed slowly, allowing him plenty of time to enjoy the ripples of pleasure coursing through her. He helped her sit on the edge of the bed, a slow grin stealing over his face as he surveyed the room. It smelled of sex and candles and he inhaled to remember the heady aroma forever.

She looked fragile when he knew she wasn’t. Everything male in him rose up to want to protect her, which was funny, because when she got him riled, everything in him wanted to dominate her. She brought out extreme emotions in him, made him feel alive, made him want to be alive.

He drew a finger across her breast and leaned close to take the tip into his mouth, biting down gently and tugging, before laving with his tongue. He felt a shiver run through her. Male satisfaction was instant.

“We can’t stay here all day,” she said.

He felt her withdrawal, a small feminine retreat, her body moving inches from his, but definitely telling him something. He caught her chin in his hand. “Sure we can. You just got out of the hospital and you’re entitled to a day or two of resting. Even with painkillers I know that arm has to hurt.”

A faint smile curved her mouth, but didn’t reach her eyes. And she avoided looking at him. “Is this what you all resting?”

Deliberately, to prove to himself he could, he bent his mouth to her breast again, this time suckling strongly, his hand on her stomach to feel the contractions sweeping through her at his touch. He loved the power of it, the way she shuddered with instant need when he’d just had her. It took him a moment or two to realize what that meant. She was still trying to withdraw and he was asserting dominance. Frustrated, he sat back, regarding her averted face while fear and anger began a deadly mix. “What is it, Flame?”

She stared out the window, refusing to meet his gaze. “This doesn’t change anything you know.”

“What doesn’t change anything?” Gator couldn’t keep the challenge out of his voice. She damn well wasn’t going to sleep with him and dismiss him.

Flame finally turned her head and looked at him. “You know exactly what I mean. We…”

“Don’t you dare use the F word. I made love to you all last night and this morning and you knew that was exactly what I was doing. Don’t you even think about calling it anything else.”

Her eyebrow shot up. “The F word? You weren’t so afraid of using the word the other day or last night for that matter. I was going to say slept with you. You’re such a hothead. We slept together, that’s all.”

“I swear, Flame, I’ve never had anyone make me as crazy as you manage to do. I’m not letting you just dismiss me after last night.” His dark eyes glittered at her.

She shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. “I’m certain you’ve rejected lots of women after sleeping with them. Don’t act so outraged.”

He was angry. He could feel the anger churning in his gut, riding him hard as he struggled for control. He turned away, paced across the room when his fingers itched to shake her. She could pretend to be casual about what was happening between them all she wanted, but that’s what it was-pretense. “You’re being a damned coward, Flame, and that’s beneath you.”

Her breath hissed out between her teeth and she whirled around, her eyes fairly shooting sparks. “Don’t you dare call me a coward. You don’t know the first thing about me. Your ego is a little wounded because I’m not falling at your feet like all the other women you took to bed and then walked away from.”

He stepped closer to her, uncaring that the walls of the cabin expanded and contracted and beneath his feet, the ground shifted ominously. “You think I don’t know you want me as much as I want you? Hell, honey, you don’ have near the experience I have.”

Flame sucked in her breath and quickly turned her face away from him, but not before he saw the hurt in her eyes.

“Fils de putin!” Gator passed his hand over his face. This was his fault, not hers. He was the experienced one, yet he’d been so out of control, wanting her so badly, he acted like a buck in rutting season. How would she know he’d been making love to her when he hadn’t been tender and gentle?

“Flame…” he began, at a loss for words. He didn’t talk about feelings. He just felt. “I made love to you. That was me making love to you and maybe you deserved a different initiation, but I meant it as loving you. I’m not all that civilized and I can’t say what I’m feelin’ right all the time, but…”

She turned her head from him and he caught the glitter of tears. “Don’t, Raoul. This is me freaking out, not you doing something wrong.” She drew the sheet around her, suddenly feeling vulnerable. “I’m afraid of you, of how you make me feel. When I’m afraid, I have a tendency to run. And if I can’t run, then I go on the offensive.”

“You’re not embarrassed with me, are you? Because the things we did are natural. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m not embarrassed.” And God help her she wanted to do them all again with him. “I’m just-confused. I’ve always had a plan and I’ve always kept on the move. I don’t know how to stop. I don’t know if I can stop, or even if it’s safe to stop, even for a little while.”

“It’s okay to be confused, cher. I can live with confused. I just can’t take you leaving me. Maybe we’re both a little afraid, but I say we give it a try.”

He was standing in front of her, totally naked and comfortable with it, such a temptation to her. It was impossible to be embarrassed around him because he made her feel beautiful and comfortable in her own skin, with her own sexuality. He made no excuses for the things he wanted from her body, but more than that, with the way he looked at her, the look in his eyes hungry and possessive, she couldn’t help but respond.

He held out his hand. “We need to shower. Don’ be worrying about what we can’t change, cher. You don’ throw something like this away.”

“Like this?” she echoed.

He sighed. ‘Why do women always make you say things?” He took her hand and tugged her to her feet. “If I’m makin’ love to you, sugah, it’s because I’m in love with you. Come on, you’re still a bit sticky from all that whipped cream.”

Flame didn’t let herself think about the future as the hot water poured over her. Raoul insisted on shampooing her hair, using her broken arm for an excuse, and then he soaped her body, his hands lingering in intimate places. His lovemaking was far gentler without the wild, frantic pace, but no less intense. She wanted to cry with the way he made her feel.

“It’s going to be all right,” he whispered, holding her close to him.

She knew a sound must have escaped without her realizing it. Life wasn’t as easy and laid-back elsewhere as it was in the bayou, but she wasn’t going to think about it anymore. She’d stay with Raoul as long as she could.

The clothes his grandmother had chosen for her were very tasteful and in stark contrast to the strange leather and mesh attire. She wiggled into a powder-blue tank top and frowned at Raoul. “Are you certain you had nothing all to do with that bag of sex toys? I just can’t imagine your grandmother in an adult store. I mean, you are a perv and it had to come from somewhere, but it just doesn’t seem like something she’d do.”

Gator drew his jeans over his hips and buttoned them up, as casual dressing in front of her as he was with his nudity. “Now that you say that, I’ve never had an inkling she even knew there were such things as adults stores, but don’ be selling her short. She wants us together and she’s very shrewd.”

Flame ducked her head. “She wants you to have children. Raoul. She doesn’t want you to be with me. I’m go to tell her the truth. She deserves to know.”

Raoul paused, hands on the last button of his jeans. “Don’ be getting all hot and bothered, cher, but she already knows the truth. I told her a little bit about you when you were in the hospital and I made certain she knew you couldn’t have children.”

“Then why…” She pointed to the candles and the remnants of mesh and leather. “Why would she want us to have any kind of a relationship let alone a permanent one?”

“Because you make me happy.” He said it simply, his dark eyes meeting hers.

Flame shook her head. “You’re such a goof, Raoul. I have no idea why I make you happy. You’re not a very logical person, are you?”

He grinned at her as he scooped up the fur-lined handcuffs. “We’ve still got these, cher. You’ll make me very happy when you’re my little sex slave.” He leered at her and dangled the cuffs.

She started laughing again, shaking her head just like he knew she would. “You’re going to have to help me with the zipper on these jeans.” They were just a little tighter than she normally wore them.

Raoul dropped the cuffs on the bed and crossed the room to stand in front of her, obediently doing the enclosure up for her. She suddenly sucked in her breath. “Too tight?” He stepped back to look at her. “They don’ look too tight.”

“Sex slave.” She repeated the words aloud. “There were tie-downs in that car. And a recorder. It was on when James tore my shirt open.” She looked up at him. knowledge blossoming. “That’s what they’re doing. They drug the girl, have sex with her, and record it, probably really humiliate her and they keep her locked up while they get her addicted to drugs. They’re using her as their own personal sex slave, Raoul. She’s got to be somewhere in the bayou.”

“You think they’d keep her alive all this time?”

“Why not? The bayou’s a big place. They use her for a while, make a few recordings, keep her hooked on drugs then…” She trailed off.

“Then kill her?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Remember the mini-discs I found in Saunders’s safe?” She rubbed her temples and sank down onto the edge of the bed. “It’s all coming back to me now. I saw those same discs in the car. What if they turn the girls into porn stars or prostitutes or sell them as sex slaves? Keep them, terrorize them, hook them on drugs, degrade and use them, threaten them with the movies, eventually the woman might do what ever they say.”

“That’s a big leap, Flame.”

The car was a trap for a woman. It can’t be just date rape. Raoul. The driver’s in on it. The camera installation alone would require big bucks. It’s well hidden. I heard the hum or I wouldn’t have ever noticed it. These stupid painkillers. If I hadn’t been so foggy from the operation, I would have remembered every detail.”

“If more girls were missing we’d know about them.”

“Why would you? My guess is, they don’t usually grab women close to home. The first girl was probably taken because her voice triggered the need and whoever is the ringleader couldn’t resist.”

“And then Joy did the same thing.” Gator shoved his hand through his hair in agitation. “You think the old man knows?”

“How could he not? His son. His driver.”

“We could be wrong about this, Flame. We have to go slow and make sure. Parsons has a lot of political contacts. If we make a mistake, we could be in trouble. James Parsons could just be a common garden-variety sleaze bag. I don’t see him as the type of man to be involved in a crime of this magnitude.”

“I agree. But he wants to feel important. And he’d love to put one over on his father, if I’m any judge of people. He’s a spoiled kid who wants his own way. The driver is the brains. And he drives Emanuel Parsons everywhere. So he probably knows every private thing in their lives. If he could get James on camera, drugging and raping a woman, what do you think Daddy would do to protect his son?”

Gator shook his head. “This is a big jump, Flame.”

“You weren’t in that car. I know that was Joy’s earring.”

“And James Parsons would say that she was his girlfriend and they had lots of sex in the backseat of the car. Or he could just say she rode in the car.”

“Well, maybe we should go to your grandmother’s house and play these discs. I have a firm belief that slime-bags hang out together. There’s a reason Emanuel Parsons is visiting Saunders.”

“He’s investigating him for laundering money.”

“That’s the official version. What’s the real one? Why go to his house late at night? There was no party, no social event going on. I’ve thought a lot about that night. I was distracted knowing you were there, but Parsons didn’t go for dinner. Saunders was in his ivory tower working late. No one else came. It wasn’t a let’s-get-together-for-drinks atmosphere and Saunders found out before Parsons left that the money was missing. I heard the guards talking about the robbery, so whatever business he had with Saunders that night involved whatever was in the safe.”

They looked at each other. “The discs,” he said.

She nodded. “It has to be. He couldn’t have opened the safe for papers because there weren’t any papers, I would have taken them. And why would Saunders be paying Parsons unless he was paying him off, which I’ll admit is a possibility.”

Gator shook his head. “Unlikely. Saunders is a killer, plain and simple. When something, or someone is in his way, the first thing he thinks about is removal.”

Flame went very still, one hand going defensively to her throat. “Like Burrell,” she whispered. “I gave Burrell the money to pay off his loan. He called Saunders and was going to meet him to give him the check.”

There was a small silence. Flame pressed her fingers against her eyes. “Saunders probably didn’t show at the meeting and his men were waiting in the swamp to kill Burrell. I thought they were there for me. How could I have missed that? Oh, God, Raoul, I got him killed by giving him the money for his last payment. He would have been better off losing the money. He’d have his life his houseboat and he’d be sitting on the river smoking his pipe and laughing with his friends. Instead he’s Saunders’s lesson to others not to cross him.”

“If Saunders had him killed, cher, you had nothing to do with that decision.”

“I recognized one of Saunders’s men in the swamp before the others came. I’d seen him at the back of Saunders’s property. He brings in the women for Saunders.”

Raoul retrieved the discs from the duffel bag as she swept up the photographs and stuffed them back in the envelope.

“Let’s go.”

Flame’s breath caught in her throat as she observed the stark, grim lines etched in his face. There were times looking at him, like now, that he was intimidating. She followed him out to the airboat, placing her feet carefully on the undulating boards of the pier. She reached out to rub his arm in a soothing gesture.

“Remember when you told me about losing control. You didn’t tell me everything, did you?”

“Why would you suddenly think that?”

“Because the pier nearly shook apart just now. What else happened, Raoul?”

He glanced at her as he helped her on board. “You don’t want to know.” As she brushed up against him he felt the knife concealed along her rib cage. Instant heat spread through him. He caught her arm on the pretense of steadying her and inhaled her scent.

“Of course I want to know. It’s what’s made you who you are.”

“Well I’m not telling you. I can’t afford to lose you. Maybe when you’re eighty, so if you want to find out. you’ll have to stick with me that long.”

“I made a few mistakes.”

“Drop it, Flame. Ask me anything else, but leave that alone.”

She leaned into him, her hand cupping the side of his face, her eyes staring into his. “You’re a good man, Raoul. Whatever happened, you’re a good man. I’ve seen evil and I know the difference.”

He kissed her because he had to. It was a need. An obsession. It was a claim. His mouth descended on hers, his tongue demanding entrance and the moment she opened for him, he swept inside, taking control. He loved the taste of her and he loved the feel of her soft, silky skin. Her mouth was hot and addicting, so that he didn’t, couldn’t stop. His arm swept around her waist and dragged her closer. Her arm bumped his chest and she flinched, Gator pulled back with a sigh of regret.

“I love your mouth.”

She smiled at him. “I would never have noticed. I take it you’re driving.”

“I have two hands.”

The airboat skimmed over the water for several minutes, birds rising into the air, shrieking in annoyance. He deliberately maneuvered the boat close to the shore so she could see the alligators sliding into the water and the turtles sunning themselves This was his home, had been a good portion of his life. “When I was a young boy, we lived in the cabin. All of us. Grand-mere and my three brothers. We fished mostly and Nonny did quiltin’ and the like to get by. We were happy, cher. We didn’t know were poor. And at school, if any of the kids teased us about our raggedy clothes, we’d just beat ‘em up. It was a good time.”

“How’d you manage to get so much property and that beautiful house your grandmother lives in?”

“My brothers and I worked. I joined the service and I still send most of my pay home. My brothers send a good portion of their paychecks as well. She raised us and loved us when she could have said it was too much for her. We were wild, Flame. She’s a good woman.”

“I know that, Raoul. It was a wonderful thing that you and your brothers did.”

He shook his head. “Naw, it was wonderful what she did for us.” He took the boat out into the open water so he could go much faster.

She looked around her at the beauty of the bayou and laughed with sheer joy. “I love it here.”

Gator expertly swung the boat into a narrow slough, one the boat barely fit through. “Me too. I’m not much for the city, cher.”

Her eyebrow shot up. “You think you’re shocking me with that admission? I had you pegged as a country boy. through and through.” She frowned, wishing he’d slow down as they rounded a corner and nearly hit the stump of an old cypress tree rising out of the shallow water. He zigzagged, scooting around the obstacle and shot back into the open channel.

“You having fun? I like this boat. You already tore up my motorcycle.”

“You tore up that bike,” he reminded.

“But it was your fault. You shouldn’t have given me keys.”

He laughed as they made another turn onto marshland, the airboat slowing to go over the watery land.

“What are you doing, you crazy man?”

His hand brushed hers until their fingers tangled together. “We’ve got a tail, Flame. He’s havin’ a hell of a tryin’ to keep up with us, but he’s following for sure.”

“Who is it? I could jump off here and wait for him,” she offered, all business.

“With your one arm?”

“Don’t you worry about me, Raoul. I can take care of myself, one arm or not. You keep that in mind the next time you want to try smacking my bare bottom.”

“Damn, cher.” He grinned at her, almost making her heart stop. “You’re giving me a hard-on just thinking about your pretty little ass. Now’s no time to be gettin’ me all hot and bothered.”

“Will you be serious? This is the perfect place for me ambush him.” She pulled her hand away from his and curled her fingers around the hilt of her knife.

His grin widened. “You’re so damned sexy, sugah. I love it when you talk dirty.”

“Raoul! Swing back around and let him get close enough so we can see who we’re dealing with.”

“I know who it is, I recognize the boat and the way he drives it. That’s Vicq Comeaux. He’s about as mean as they come, but he isn’t part of any of this.” Gator took the airboat back to the open water and poured on the gas so that they left the second boat far behind.

“He tried to kill you.”

He nodded. “So did you. It seems to be a hazard I have to deal with quite often.”

She frowned at him. “Maybe you should brush up on your people skills.” She glanced back at the boat. “Really. Raoul, let me have a go at him. He could creep up behind you someday and you’d never see it coming.”

His arm circled her neck, drawing her close enough that he could find her mouth again, kissing her hard and deep. “That’s what I love most. You’re such a blood thirsty little wench.”

“Do you ever take anything seriously?” she demanded.

He pulled back to look into her eyes. The grin disappeared and something dark and cold and lethal crept into his eyes. “I take what James Parsons did to you seriously. And I take what Whitney did to you very seriously. Don’ you worry, cher, when it counts, I’m deadly serious.”