Steamy Southern Nights Read online

  “Good dog.” She said. “Quiet.”

  She turned to say something inane to her host and then froze. He held a blunt-nosed pistol in his hand and it was trained on the closet door.

  “Come out of there,” he ordered.

  “Honestly,” she tried to speak loudly enough to be heard inside the closet while simultaneously beating back the panic dancing in her chest. “Why are you holding a gun? It’s probably a mouse or something.”

  “Get away from that door,” Gimmel yelled. He pulled out a slim cell phone and before her horrified gaze called 9-1-1 to report a robbery in progress.

  “I’ve called the cops,” he yelled. “Come out where I can see you.”

  “Good,” said Claude, calmly walking out of the door, holding a sheaf of papers. “I think the police would be very interested in seeing this.”

  “You bastard,” said Gimmel.

  “What is it?” Lucy asked.

  “A list of bribes paid to certain officials he needs onside to get his development rammed through in an ecologically sensitive area. I always wondered how you’d got so far.”

  “Too bad I shot you before the cops got here,” Gimmel said, slipping off the safety.

  “No, you didn’t,” said Beatrice from behind them. She had some kind of semi-automatic weapon in her hands.

  “This was in your desk drawer,” she said pleasantly. “I’m not the greatest shot, but at this range, I couldn’t miss.”

  “Rose,” she said, when Mrs. Gimmel came gasping up behind her. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to withdraw my support of your nomination to the garden committee. Thank you for an entertaining visit.”

  “Beatrice, you were fantastic,” Lucy exclaimed later, when the three of them had enjoyed a late supper with an excellent bottle of wine Beatrice had dug out from her cellar.

  “Thanks, honey. You were great too, for a novice. With a bit of practice–”

  “Mama.”

  Lucy turned to Claude, mostly to shut him up. “Isabelle looked pretty happy when you handed her that list.”

  His mother’s pleasure dimmed a notch. “I still can’t believe you put the necklace back.”

  “I think we did more good for your frogs by uncovering this ring of corruption than selling that necklace would have.”

  Beatrice sighed. “I suppose. And it was very exciting.” She raised her glass. “Here’s to going out in style and the beginning of my retirement.”

  “May it last,” said her son.

  “I was mostly bored, but I think things are going to get a lot more interesting around here.”

  “Mama, I am now proposing to take Lucy next door to my house and I don’t plan to bring her back before breakfast. Does anyone have a problem with that?”

  “Not a one.”

  “Ah, no.”

  Lucy missed her plane home. It took almost no persuasion for the mother and son tag team to talk her into extending her stay. She still had two months before school started again and she’d found a lot of research opportunities she might otherwise have overlooked. She’d booked a swamp tour and been horrified to find that the alligators she’d been so scared of followed the tour boat because the driver threw marshmallows overboard. The sharp-toothed creatures acted like puppies when the kibbles come out, sliding with prehistoric stealth into the murky water, jaws snapping – for marshmallows.

  She’d toured old homes, eaten in amazing restaurants, drunk coffee and eaten beignets in the Café du Monde, and she met and interviewed dozens of new found relatives.

  She found herself falling in love with Louisiana – and with this most interesting branch of her family.

  Today she’d left the university early and headed straight for the French Quarter. When her steps led her to her favorite antique shop on Royal, she went inside.

  After a friendly greeting, Lana, the sales clerk out front waved her to the back where Claude had a small office.

  She walked through the shop, past the pale blue velvet sofa where she’d first started to fall for her distant cousin, to the open door. There he was, dark head bent over. A jewelry box lay open on his desk and she saw that he was cleaning a ring.

  Her body tingled as it always did when she saw him. She wanted a minute to watch him when he wasn’t aware of her, but it was impossible. He glanced up even though she hadn’t made a sound. He could feel her, she knew. She wondered if it would always be this way between them and suspected it would.

  The smile that lit his eyes was as intimate as the things they’d done to each other last night. Under his knowing gaze, her bones melted to syrup.

  “Come on in,” he said.

  “Thanks. I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d take you to lunch, but it looks like you’re busy.”

  “Never too busy for you. You look pleased with yourself.”

  “I am. We’re celebrating. I got the assistant professor job.”

  “Congratulations.” He rose to kiss her, and she threw herself into his arms. After she was so well congratulated she could barely draw breath, he said, “Does this permanent teaching job mean you’re giving up a life of crime?”

  She shuddered. “Don’t remind me. I’ve never been so scared in all my life as when that man pulled a gun and I knew you were in the closet.”

  They were still holding each other, so no one could see him when he ran his fingertip over her nipple, so it perked to life. “Probably you should stick to teaching.”

  “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about that whole jewel heist thing,” she said.

  “Now’s good for me.”

  She hiked a hip onto his desk and he settled back into his chair. She stroked the edge of the open jewelry box, feeling the old, frayed velvet. “When I found you with that necklace in your hand, you let me believe you were a thief. I felt so angry and betrayed.”

  “I know. And I couldn’t tell you it was my mom who was the thief, not me.”

  “What if I’d turned you in to the police?” She shivered at the thought which had been torturing her.

  “You didn’t.”

  She hated even thinking about those awful minutes. “I almost did though. I almost told a NOPD detective that I’d seen you with the necklace. Once I’d told her that, you know I’d have shown her where the safe was.”

  “I’ll never forget that moment, either. That’s when I knew.”

  She narrowed her gaze. “Knew what?”

  “That only one thing was stopping you. It had to be love.”

  “Are you saying I love you?”

  “I’d rather you said it.” He reached out and touched her hand. “A man likes to know his love is returned.”

  She gazed at him and saw his heart in his eyes. The gorgeous, sexy man who made her dizzy with love, loved her back.

  “Oh, I do,” she said, feeling her heart pound. “I do love you.”

  He dropped his head and went back to polishing the ring, but she saw the glow of happiness on his face.

  “What a beautiful ring,” she said, leaning closer. “How can you bear to sell something so lovely?”

  “This ring’s not for sale. It belonged to my great—I don’t know how many times great grandmother – I’d need a researcher like you to figure out the generations. It’s the ring her husband gave her before they left France for the new world.”

  “Things probably didn’t turn out the way they thought.”

  “Things in life rarely do. But they went on to have a dozen kids, most of whom lived, and, eventually, a pretty good life here in New Orleans. My grandmother left it to me when she died. She told me to save it for my wife.”

  He held the ring up, letting the light catch it so it glowed deep red. “I thought I’d clean it up. You never know when you’re going to need a ring like this.”

  She smiled at him. “No. You never do.”

  “You like it?”

  “I love it. I see it’s a ruby.”

  “So it is.” He placed the newly cleaned ring into the bo
x and then tucked it into his pocket. He took her hand and grinned down at her. “Let’s go have lunch.”

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