“No’ so fast, cherie. Don’ your champion deserve sometin’ in return?”
Maybe she did owe him something for the trouble ... but she wasn’t so sure about just giving in to his demands though. “What kind of rescuer would demand payment?” she asked, propping her hands on her hips.
His teeth flashed in a wide grin. “One who’s smitten with your beauty, chere.”
Jessica rolled her eyes, trying not to laugh. Why did all Southern men lay the charm on so thickly? “Oh puhlease.”
He looked hurt that she doubted him. “You wound me, chere. Have you no heart? I have risked my life only t’please, and you begrudge me so small a token as a kiss?”
“A kiss?” she exclaimed. Her heart tripped in her chest, staggered up, and started to run.
He rubbed a thumb against his jaw, measuring her. “Your name and ... a kiss.”
Jessica released an exasperated breath, trying to block out the breathless feeling in her chest at the idea of letting those sultry, pouty lips touch hers. She wasn’t going to play these games. She’d give him what he wanted all right. “It’s Jessica Talvert, and here’s your reward.” She stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. She dropped down and gave him a syrupy smile of satisfaction at outwitting him.
Who said she was a dumb blonde?
“Sweet, but I’m no’ your brodder, chere,” he said in a voice brimming with enough sensual menace a delicious primal shiver skated through her body. He caught her arms about the same time she realized his intent, blocking her defensive ball busting move with one knee and her titty twister with an unbreakable hold. Before she knew what was happening, she found herself whirled around and thrust against one wall, hauled tightly against his body.
Shadows cloaked them, spilling across his face. He seemed a lot bigger and more dangerous so tightly against her. She should’ve abandoned her necklace to him.
“Some hero,” she gritted out, squirming in his hold, trying to free a hand. Despite her struggles, she insanely anticipated him stealing a kiss from her. Didn’t it make it all right to enjoy herself if she didn’t really give in? That was a rule somewhere, she was sure.
Something dark and predatory flashed in his eyes, like a slumbering wolf had been awakened. Her breath caught. All the silly little, nervous thoughts washing through her brain froze. He smiled ferally, then bent his head to claim her lips.
Jessica gasped, partly in outrage, but mostly from a surge of heat so sharp and drastic, her heart stopped for a breathless moment.
He seized the break in her defenses and plunged his tongue into her mouth, filling her with hot persuasion and the stroking glide of his tongue. He tasted spicy, like cinnamon and rum and something infinitely wilder and more dangerous. Jessica wanted to bite him, to fight him off, but he rubbed sensuously against her own tongue, silky, slick and rough. It took only moments for vengeful thoughts to disappear entirely and be replaced by the seductive call of desire. Jessica gave a shocked whimper when he retreated and sucked her tongue into his mouth.
She tried to pull back, but he captured the back of her head with an easy, merciless grip, holding her to the thrall of his mouth and his hungry, sucking kiss. Slowly, she began to realize a pressure that had never been there before built low in her belly.
Arousal cramped her pussy with a jerking spasm of pleasure. She gasped into his mouth at the piercing, sweet agony, the awakening of some long slumbering beast inside her. His mouth drove her wild, made her respond in a way she’d never dreamed possible. Heat rippled through her.
He cradled his body into hers, stroking those rough jeans against her trapped slit, melting her core until she felt her wet arousal trickle between her thighs. His groin nestled in the juncture of her thighs, so incredibly close to where she needed it, unbearably hard and erotic, wrecking what little resolve she still possessed. At some point, he’d freed her hands to draw his around her waist and bring her tighter against him, slipping them down to clutch her buttocks and mold her to the hot tightness of his cock.
Jessica clung to him, her fingers stroking his satiny skin and muscled back. She squirmed in pleasurable agony as he thrust against her, fighting the thrill that surged in her blood at his possessive hold and the knowledge that she’d conjured his lust.
She couldn’t seem to get enough air. She felt dizzy with it and the tingling pleasure between her thighs. Her lips and tongue felt gloriously bruised from his kiss, so sensitive she could orgasm if only he’d continue devouring her.
He broke away from her mouth suddenly, leaving her gasping for breath and her knees weak.
“You’re so sweet, cherie,” he said with a drowsy, heated look, rubbing his thumb across his lips and licking the moisture lingering from her mouth off the pad.
Jessica swallowed. Hard. She felt dazed and not herself, and her pulse still raced with something akin to heat. The loss of control unnerved her. “My necklace?” she managed to say past her throbbing lips. She held out her hand, palm up, encouraged by her ability not to melt in a puddle on the ground at his feet.
He gave her an unreadable look and dropped the necklace into her hand, closing her fingers over it. “It’s broken. You’ll need t’fix it,” he said, releasing her hand.
She resisted the urge to rub where he’d touched her. She felt positively branded all over. By the way he was acting, it seemed to be just her reacting so heatedly to the kiss--which was infinitely embarrassing to say the least. Jessica looked down at the broken chain. “Yes, it is.” But she’d already known that. The thief had ripped it from her neck.
“It’s not somtin’ you wanna wait on, chere.”
Jessica looked up, distracted from her unwanted physical response by the intriguing tone of his voice. There was warning there. And something else she couldn’t quite identify. “What do you mean?”
“Jus’ what I said. There’s a shop jus’ a ways from the corner of Bourbon and Canal--Mikel’s. They can fix it for you there. You wan’ me t’show you?” He grinned in the half light, his teeth flashing white against his bronzed skin.
“Thanks. I can find it on my own.” She hadn’t noticed any shops on her way down here--mostly just hotels and the like. A few bars. Her own hotel was on Canal Street.
“You’re not gonna go, are you, chere?”
Whether she did or not wasn’t any of his business. She shrugged noncommittally.
“Jus’ remember what I tol’ you.”
His advice brought the warning her adoptive parents had given her fresh into her mind. Never take this off. Never. She knew her neck was ringed with paler skin, the chain having long rested around it ... for as long as she could remember. She half wondered if he knew something she didn’t, but she shrugged the silly thought off.
He didn’t know her or anything about her. She’d gotten paranoid since coming to New Orleans.
Jessica turned to go, then stopped. “What’s your name?” she asked, glancing back at him over her shoulder.
He smiled lazily, propping one shoulder against the building in confident male fashion. “Gabriel Benoit, petite. At your service.”
“Nice to ... uh ... meet you,” she murmured and turned away before he could see her blush again ... or draw her into further conversation. She put his disturbing presence and even more disturbing kiss out of her mind.
She wasn’t here to get involved with any man, especially not one like him. She knew the type--players. Always charming, good looking, and absolutely horrible on a woman’s self esteem when they left and chased after the next piece of ass. She wasn’t going to be any man’s conquest. Not that Jessica had ever fallen for a player, but she damned well knew now why women did.
She still felt hot and bothered as she set off for her hotel. She glanced back to see if he followed--not because she wanted one last look at temptation incarnate--but he wasn’t to be seen. She quickly lost sight of the small alley as she made her way toward Canal street and left the Bourbon revelers behind. Soon the only sounds on the street were the hum of car engines, the wind, and her own footsteps. It was a long walk back to her hotel, and she was contemplating catching a cab when she noticed the obscure shop Gabriel had spoken of.
It was practically invisible, overshadowed by the giants around it, but the shuttered, double doors were thrown open to let a cool breeze inside. Obviously, they were open, even at this late hour. Jessica approached it,
