Page 8 of Xavier

Her lips pressed together, forming a tight line to match the frown forming a V over her nose. “Maybe.” When her gaze shifted to him, she swept it across his face and down to his bruised and bleeding hands. “You shouldn’t have interfered.”

He almost laughed, not expecting those words coming from her mouth when she’d just been manhandled and almost kidnapped. “Are you telling me I should’ve let them take you?”

She shook her head and started to get down. “No, but you don’t know what you’re getting into.” Her heel missed the running board, and she pitched forward.

Xavier caught her around the waist and crushed her to himself as he staggered backward. When he was steady again, he lowered her to the ground, her body sliding down his. The electric current it ignited made him all too aware of her silk top, held on her shoulders by spaghetti straps, the swell of her breasts and the floaty, colorful skirt rising up her legs.

Even after her feet touched the ground, he didn’t release her immediately but stared down into her dark eyes. The light from the truck’s interior reflected off the black irises, making them even more mysterious. Dangerous.

Her hands rested against his chest as her tongue swept across full, sexy lips. “You don’t know what you’ve done,” she whispered.

“What have I done?” he asked, tempted to taste those lips.

“Probably the worst thing for you and your career as one of the Bayou Brotherhood Protectors.”

He couldn’t resist brushing a strand of her ebony hair off her cheek, mesmerized by her eyes, her scent and the way her hands felt on him. “And what’s that?”

She drew in a breath, her breasts rising and falling. “For the second time in less than a week, you’ve rescued the most hated woman in Bayou Mambaloa.”

“Why would they hate you?” he asked.

She snorted softly. “Ask your boss. Better yet, ask his wife.”

Chapter 2

Lissette held her head up, her shoulders back, and stared at the man in front of her. She braced for the derision and contempt so many others had shown her.

She knew who Xavier was on a surface level, having seen him around Bayou Mambaloa before and after her time in prison. She’d never interacted with him a few nights earlier.

That evening, she’d left the Annual Frog Leg Festival early and had been on her way to the Remedies and Roux shop where she’d left a potion steeping in its juices, intent on straining the liquid and pouring it into vials for sale the next day.

She’d finished her potion and had left the shop, heading for the marina where she’d left her pirogue.

Unbeknownst to her, one of her dissatisfied customers had followed her from the festival, waited for her to emerge from the shop and had accosted her, intent on personally informing her of his displeasure and demanding a full refund plus the amount incurred for his hospital care.

She’d given him strict instructions on how to use the remedy for low libido. Just a little would do the trick. He’d decided to take the entire bottle of the remedy at once. He’d ended up in the hospital with an erection that had lasted more than six hours.

When she’d refused to refund his purchase, he’d gotten nasty, called her horrible names and tried to force her back to the shop to get his money.

She’d managed to get loose and run out onto Main Street, straight into Xavier’s arms.

Her dissatisfied customer had left, rather than face one of the brawny men of the Brotherhood team.

That had been days before.

Tonight had been different. The men attacking her not only wanted her, but they’d wanted what was in her tote.

Her fists tightened as she thought about the bag she hadn’t been able to retrieve from the van.

She should have resisted Xavier and gone back to get it.

Inside the bag had been the reliquary, the box belonging to a long line of Gautier practitioners. She’d only received it that afternoon, along with a hasp from the lock that had been on the family tomb.

Now, she had nothing.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Xavier shook his head. “Why are you the most hated person in Bayou Mambaloa?” Xavier asked softly, dragging Lissette back from her long line of thinking that had run through her thoughts in a flash of memories and images in less than two seconds.