Possess Me (5 page)

Nothing had changed. The beautifully aging redhead who still spoke Portuguese when she was excited pulled him inside the large, rambling building that had long ago been converted to small apartment units. She shoved a giant plate of food in front of him, and showed him his sister’s latest college grades.

He fixed the window unit, trying in vain once more to convince her to move to a new house. A house of her own. He would pay for it. He had the money. But she refused. She’d raised her children here, she knew all her neighbors, and this was where she would die. But she didn’t argue as vehemently as she had in the past. Maybe he was finally wearing her down.

“Who is she?”

The change in topic startled him. “Who is who?”

His mother rolled her eyes. “You think I don’t recognize that expression? I am too old to know love, passion, when I see it?”

Love? “I’m just full. I ate too much. I always do when I come here.”

“Okay, don’t tell me. I only hope she is good enough for you.” Her smile faded as she studied his expression. “You
are
a good man, Celestin. I wish you would believe it.”

He chuckled, hearing the bitterness in the laugh. “I’m glad you think so, Mom. But you don’t know—”

“I know.” She crossed herself, mumbling a prayer under her breath. “I know all I need to know. My son does what he has always done; he protects the people he loves. Now go, I have my book club coming over in a few hours. I love you, my angel.”

She hustled him out the door, and he walked away in a daze. Did she really know? It had been seven years since his father died. Seven years since he’d discovered that along with a few gambling debts and a paternity suit or two to pay off, his father had left him one more token of his affection.

A blood debt to a Loa who didn’t show any signs of moving on.

Mambo Toussaint, the voodoo priestess he’d gone to when he’d first accepted Bone Daddy’s bargain to save one of his sisters from the fate, had told him she couldn’t help him. “There’s a way, but I’m not the one to discover it. Not for you.”

So he’d lived with it. Lived with the lack of control. Lived with the knowledge that a woman or man could walk up to him at any time and, if they knew what to say, he would be bound to give them pleasure, without having any of his own.

His piercings brushed against his shirt, a constant reminder, along with most of his tattoos, of the fantasies the Loa had indulged him in. Still, not being able to come for so long had an effect on a man.

He thought about Allegra again. What would she think if she knew all he’d done? How many ways he’d taken and had been taken? Her desires told him she might be up for all the things he wanted to do to her.

But what would she see in the morning’s light?

And that was the problem. He wanted her to be his. Just his. He didn’t want to share her with anyone. Not his friend, and certainly not Bone Daddy. He remembered what his mother had said and hoped it wasn’t true.

Falling in love was the last thing he should do.

THE HOMEMADE CHIME OVER THE DOOR JANGLED A JOYFUL
note of welcome. Allegra limped in, her muscles aching from the afternoon walk.

She’d watched him through the window last night. Rousseau. Pacing back and forth like a caged animal. Naked and aroused. And thankfully alone.

She’d been glad Michelle was asleep in the other room. Her friend wouldn’t let her hear the end of it if she knew Allegra was so greedy for a glimpse of the man that she’d taken to peeping.

He looked angry. Frustrated. Had someone turned him down? Left him, of all people, sexually frustrated? Somehow she didn’t think so. Couldn’t even imagine the possibility.

He was a glorious specimen, but it was her heart, not her body, that melted as she studied him. She wanted to soothe his hurt, his anger. Wanted to hold him, to make him smile like he had that first day when she’d gotten him to laugh. He didn’t laugh enough.

Shit. She was falling for a man who, if Michelle could be believed, thought he was possessed by a voodoo spirit. Falling fast without any clue where she would land.

And that’s why she’d had to come here, to Mambo Toussaint’s voodoo shop. She had to know more about Bone Daddy. Psychosis or supernatural, she needed information.

She really loved the warm feel of the place. It was cozy, each shelf and nook filled with some herb or trinket. And books everywhere. Michelle had told her once that her mother believed that knowledge “took the hoodoo from the voodoo,” allowed practitioners to find the true magic inside themselves, instead of being bogged down in superstition. Not that she didn’t also carry items for the tourists, things people could take back with them when they went home that told others, without a doubt, they’d been to New Orleans.

“
Bonswa,
Allegra. How is that bath oil working for you?”

She smiled at the small woman in the bright head scarf behind the counter. “Very well, thank you so much. How are you today?”

The petite woman hopped down off her stool and rushed over to her, wrapping her in a warm embrace. “Better than you, I think. Come, sit and I’ll introduce you to my friend Elise Adair.”

Allegra allowed Michelle’s mother to guide her to the small sofa in the corner of the shop, and looked over at the elegant blonde woman she’d assumed was a customer. “Are you related to Ben Adair?”

Elise gifted her with a wide smile and came to sit beside her, laying a hand on Allegra’s arm. “Benjamin is my son. You must be the writer he’s told us about.”

Allegra blushed. “I wouldn’t call myself a writer. Just a wannabe journalist currently on sabbatical. You don’t look old enough to be Ben’s mother.”

“Oh, I like you. Please, call me Elise. Annemarie and I were just talking about our stubborn offspring, and bemoaning our lack of grandchildren. Thankfully you’ve come to take our minds off our maternal woes.”

The women laughed together, and Allegra bit her lip, wondering how to broach the subject of Rousseau and his . . . issues.

“Look at her face, Elise. So beautiful to be so serious.”

“Well, who can blame her? She’s had to overcome too much. The skydiving accident, the rehabilitation, and now she’s in love with Theresa’s troubled boy Celestin. She’s got a lot on her plate.”

Allegra looked down to where Elise was touching her, recalling all the times Ben had done the same as he repeated the thoughts forming in her mind. Her memories.

She’d never told Ben. Never talked about it with her family. One night, when she’d first arrived in New Orleans, she lay in the dark telling Michelle about what had happened. She’d jumped from a plane hundreds of times, she loved the sensation of floating, falling—it was one of the perks of the job. She got to experience everything.

Even when the large gust of wind threw her off her landing course, she hadn’t been concerned. Until she realized her chute had a tear in it. She aimed for the trees, believing it would be better than crashing directly onto the ground. She’d second-guessed her decision many times through the long night that had followed.

Elise cooed and patted her arm soothingly, as if she could see the image in her mind, feel the terror and loneliness that had washed over Allegra as she waited to be found. And Allegra knew, without a doubt, that she could. “Ben
did
say it ran in the family.”

Elise threw back her head and laughed. “You’re just as strong and smart as Benjamin said you were. Good. You’ll need to be to get through what comes next.”

Annemarie nodded, drawing Allegra’s attention to her face. It was darker in tone, but so similar to Michelle’s, even to the few scattered freckles over her nose and cheeks. She could only hope she looked as good as these two did when she was their age. “What comes next?” Allegra clenched her skirt with her fingers. “I have to be honest, I’m not sure that I believe that Rousseau is being ridden by a Loa. That he’s possessed. From what the book said, long-term possessions just don’t happen.”

Elise nodded. “It
is
unusual, but then, Bone Daddy is an unusual spirit. Nothing like the rest of the Loa.”

Annemarie leaned back. “True enough. Bone Daddy isn’t like the others at all. He’s a wild card to those of us who practice. Mischievous as all get-out, and so mysterious even The Mysteries, what we like to call the rest of the Loa, don’t seem to know that much about him. Or maybe they just aren’t talking.” She shrugged, her vibrant, patterned caftan shifting with the movement. “Before he found Rousseau he’d pop up from time to time, always leaving sobbing women in his wake. He
is
a hard one to resist, but why would any normal red-blooded woman want to? He gives them pleasure beyond their wildest dreams, no strings, and they move on to find the pastures greener than they’ve ever seen, and good fortune shining on all their endeavors. It’s a win-win deal with one sexy devil.”

Allegra watched Michelle’s mother fan herself and had to agree. How
could
anyone resist something like that? “Michelle isn’t tempted.”

“Oh, honey, my baby isn’t normal; you should know that by now. No matter how much she wishes she was. That girl is running so hard from being special, she doesn’t have time to see what’s right in front of her. But that’s another story. We’re talking about you. Has he played with your mind yet? Showed you your fantasies?”

“Yes.” How did they know? She’d almost convinced herself she’d imagined it.

Elise leaned closer. “His eyes change? Maybe his personality?”

“Yes. You two are scaring me. Are you saying that it’s . . . real? That there actually is a Bone Daddy? That Rousseau isn’t in control of his actions?” And what did it mean that his alter-ego was interested in her, but Rousseau had never asked her out?

“Bone Daddy would never take Rousseau down a road he wasn’t willing to walk, if that’s what you’re thinking. He’ll drag him kicking and screaming if it’s one he wants, but
wishes
he didn’t, but never anything he didn’t desire. That’s not his style.”

Annemarie sounded so certain that Allegra found herself relaxing. A little. She still had to deal with the fact that she was beginning to believe what they were saying. That the man she wanted was, well, conflicted. “So what comes next? What do I do?”

Michelle’s mother shared a look with Elise and shook her head. “That we can’t tell you. But you’re a smart girl, Allegra. I’ve always thought so. You’ll figure it out.”

“Words of wisdom, Mambo.” The three women glanced up, startled by Ben’s sudden appearance at their side. “My ears were ringing, so I thought I’d stop in and see what sort of mischief The Mamas were cooking up.”

Elise blushed, standing and offering a cheek that her son dutifully kissed, his attention on Allegra. “Darling, we’re talking about what we always talk about. Babies.”

Annemarie Toussaint chortled as Ben helped her up off the couch and lifted her off her feet for an enthusiastic hug. “Put me down, scoundrel. Babies. As in, if you don’t give us some soon we’re gonna get desperate and stick a fertility bundle ’neath your bed.”

“Don’t blame me, Mambo. I’m trying to follow orders. I keep propositioning women, and they keep turning me down.”

Elise sniffed, but her eyes twinkled delightedly at her son’s antics. “That’s your problem. You proposition when you should propose. At least you have impeccable timing. Can you walk Miss Allegra home so we can continue planning the end of your bachelor days?” She smiled apologetically down at Allegra. “Not that we haven’t loved seeing you here, but I know you’re anxious to get home and sort everything out.”

She was. She had to be alone, to sort out fact from fiction in her head, to think about all she’d learned here today. Ben winked at Allegra, holding out his arm for her to take and bowing like an old-fashioned courtier. “I live to serve. Hey, you wouldn’t want to get hitched so my mother can finally sleep at night, would you?”

Allegra stuck out her tongue. “Ha. I should say yes just to spite you. At least I’d know I’d have a great mother-in-law.”

The older women’s laughter followed them out the door and onto the busy sidewalk. Ben kept her close to the shops, his body protective beside hers as she limped at a slower pace than the rest of the crowd. “So what did they tell you?”

She huffed. “Something Michelle was trying to tell me. Something that, if it’s true, a
friend
should have told me a lot sooner. Instead of trying to push me in the deep end without telling me there were piranhas in the pool.”

Ben sighed. “I know you, Legs. You wouldn’t have believed me.”