Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
Rafael grinned as he descended the stairs and reentered the shop below Gisele’s apartment. What had started out to be a disaster of an evening, beginning with his run-in with Bianca, had come full circle.
The break-in at the Mamba Wamba gave him a second chance to prove to Gisele he wasn’t a bad guy out to deflower her pretty cousin. He just wasn’t interested in the blonde. Not when Gisele showed more fire and gumption than any woman he’d ever met.
He liked that she was an independent business owner who could stand on her own. She didn’t need a man in her life. She was just the kind of woman he preferred. A woman who wouldn’t chase him down when he stopped calling. Someone who was fine on her own before they met and would be fine again when he ended their brief relationship.
Though he was glad for the opportunity to start over with her, he was concerned about the attack on the business and Gisele.
As he stared around at the shop, he wondered why someone would break into the place and not attempt to rob the safe or steal the jewelry.
Unless he was some religious zealot bent on destroying anything to do with Voodoo, considering it blasphemous and heathenistic. After all, they were in the south.
But why now? From what Rafael knew about the feisty gift shop owner, she’d owned the place for a few years. During that time, no one had broken in and destroyed her products like tonight.
He crossed to the shelf he’d kluged together and fingered a few of the bottles. One was marked LP9. Huh? As in Love Potion #9?
Rafael shook his head. He guessed some people needed a little help in that department. He could have used some of that on his fiancée the night before their wedding to keep her from running off with the maid of honor. Had she been given a love potion, she might not have left him standing at the alter the next day, looking foolish and pathetic in front of his family and friends.
No. If he had to use a potion, it wasn’t meant to be. His marriage wasn’t meant to be. Alison had been smart enough to do something to get her happily ever after. Had she stayed and married Rafael, they’d have been miserable and would have ended up divorced within a year, if not sooner.
Cheeky bastard , Johnny squawked.
Rafael raised a hand. “Guilty, I’m sure.”
Cheeky bastard , Johnny repeated.
“Mouthy little dude, aren’t you?”
The parrot flapped his wings and hopped from his high perch to a lower one. He leaned over and pecked at an empty food dish. Get me a beer, woman.
Rafael looked around the cage and then behind the service counter, searching for bird food and found a bag of seeds on a shelf in the broom closet. With a plastic scoop he found next to the bag, he dug into the seed.
Rafael carried the full scoop across the shop toward the birdcage.
As he neared Johnny, the bird flapped his wings in anticipation. Get me a beer, woman .
“It’s not beer, but maybe some of this seed will do the trick.” He stopped in front of the cage, worked the latch free and stuck his hand in, pouring the seed into the food dish while only spilling a few tiny bits.
As he pulled his hand out, a noise sounded at the front of the building.
He turned to find Gisele standing there with lettuce leaves and what looked like different fruits. “Well, I’ll be damned,” she murmured .
Rafael frowned. “What? Was the bird seed in the broom closet not for the parrot?”
She shook her head.
He stuck his hand back in the cage to retrieve the food dish.
“No,” Gisele said, hurrying toward him. “You got the right food.” She came to a stop beside Rafael as he pulled his hand out of the cage, “It’s just that Johnny usually bites any man who puts his hand close to his cage—like he did tonight with Remy.”
Rafael’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, yeah. I forgot. He kept asking for a beer. I assumed he was hungry.”
Gisele nodded. “He probably is. That’s why I came back down with some fresh fruit and vegetables. The seed is all well and good, but he needs a more balanced diet.” She shook her head again. “He didn’t bite you?”
Rafael inspected his hand. “No. He didn’t.” He shrugged. “Must have been too hungry to bite the hand that was feeding him.”
“From what the vet said, he bit his last owner’s hand almost every time he fed him. Neither the vet nor his vet techs could get a hand in Johnny’s cage without wearing gloves.”
“Just call me lucky.” He grinned and held up both hands. “And I still have all ten of my fingers and toes.”
Gisele smiled at him for the first time ever. That one smile stole the air from his lungs and left him stunned for a full three seconds .
Her eyes flashed with amusement. “Valentin was so startled when Johnny exclaimed, ‘ Reach for the sky, ’ I nearly lost it.”
Rafael chuckled. “Your parrot has quite a vocabulary.”
She snorted softly. “I didn’t teach him the words or phrases he knows. His previous owner was a man who ran an antique store and liked to drink beer. Johnny came to me with those phrases. His language can be offensive to some.”
“Not to you?” Rafael asked.
Gisele shrugged. “I’ve been known to bust out a curse now and then—usually, when I’ve stubbed my toe or broken something. Never to hurt anyone’s feelings.” She tipped her chin toward the birdcage. “Johnny doesn’t know what he’s saying.” Her lips twitched. “Except when he asks for a beer. Apparently, his previous owner taught him that phrase to remind him that his food dish was empty.” She pushed a piece of mango between the bars of the cage near the upper perch.
Johnny hopped up to the perch and went to work on the offering.
While he was occupied with the mango, Gisele opened the cage door and set the rest of the fruits and vegetables on the cage floor. Once she’d secured the door, she turned to the shelf Rafael had fixed. “Thanks for putting my shelf back together. I’ll have to work on some replacement items to refill it. ”
“Are the bottles actual Voodoo potions?” Rafael asked., not ready for Gisele to leave.
Gisele’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. Why do you ask? Do you need one?”
He held up his hands. “Not at all. I’m just curious. Who buys them? Do they get them as pranks or gag gifts? They don’t really believe in magic, do they?”
Gisele lifted her chin. “Do you believe in magic, Mr. Romero?”
Rafael shook his head. “Of course not. Magic isn’t real. It doesn’t exist. You can’t put your hands on it. Touch it. Feel it.”
Gisele crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you breathe air, Mr. Romero?”
His brow twisted. “We all do,” he said.
“Can you touch it or feel it?” Gisele asked.
Rafael frowned. “No.”
“Neither can I,” Gisele said. “Does it make any less real? Can we live without it?”
“No,” Rafael said. “But that’s different. We have to have oxygen to breathe and live.”
“Just like magic, you can’t feel it or touch it.” She smiled. “But you believe it exists. Who is to say magic doesn’t exist? Maybe all you need to do is believe that it exists.”
Rafael’s brow dipped lower. “How do you know if your potions work? Have you witnessed the effects your potions have on your customers?
She nodded. “I have. ”
“And do they work?” Rafael asked.
“For the most part.” Gisele lifted one of the bottles from the shelf. “This mixture is one I concoct to help people with depression.”
Rafael cocked an eyebrow. “Did it cure a customer’s depression?”
“Not so much cured, but it helped that person to feel better about herself. I encouraged her to volunteer at the animal shelter. She swears the potion worked.” Gisele’s lips twisted. “I think the dog she adopted is the real reason she’s no longer depressed.”
“Remy tells me that people buy into your voodoo because your grandmother is the Bayou Voodoo Queen.”
Gisele cocked an eyebrow. “And that doesn’t scare you?”
“I find it fascinating.”
“Not unnerving?”
He shook his head. “Not at all.”
“You aren’t afraid I’ll put a hex on you and turn you into a cockroach?”
Rafael laughed. “You’d do that?”
Her narrowed. “If you hurt my cousin again, I might consider it.”
His smile faded. “I don’t know what your cousin told you, but I have no intention of having a relationship with her. Not now, or ever. I tried telling her several times, but she wouldn’t let it go.”
“You broke her heart,” Gisele accused .
“I don’t know how.” Rafael shoved a hand through his hair. “I only danced with her once at the Crawdad Hole, and she thinks I’m in love with her. I’m not. I’m sorry if I hurt her feelings, but I’m not interested in her.”
For a long moment, Gisele held his gaze as if assessing his words. Finally, she shrugged. “Bianca is young and impressionable—and she’s beautiful. She’s used to every guy falling all over themselves proclaiming their love. She could be confused. But I saw you two kiss.”
“You saw her kiss me .” He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He hadn’t been able to get through to Bianca. Now, he was having difficulty getting through to Gisele. “I’d like to put the entire incident behind me.” He held up a hand like he was swearing on a witness stand. “I promise that I’m not going after your cousin. Though she is attractive, she’s not my type.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Rafael wished he hadn’t said it.
Gisele lifted her chin and stared down her nose at him. “And what would your type be?”
He didn’t speak at once, wanting to choose his words carefully. “I prefer a woman who is more mature and isn’t clingy. Someone who knows who she is and what she wants out of life. A woman who doesn’t need a man to define her. And she needs to be passionate.”
Gisele snorted .
He stepped closer and cupped her cheek. “She needs to be passionate in her beliefs and in her love.” He stared down at her face, falling into the depths of her eyes. “Passionate in her love,” he repeated, “for her family, her community and animals. I couldn’t be with a woman who didn’t love animals or who didn’t defend her family.”
Gisele’s tongue slipped out and swept across her lips, leaving a glistening sheen Rafael found hard to resist.
He wanted to kiss her. To claim those lips and taste this woman who’d been more concerned about her bird than her own life. One who’d come to her cousin’s defense when she’d thought she was being mistreated.
He’s a keeper , Johnny squawked, pulling Rafael out of the trance he’d fallen into.
He straightened, let his hand fall to his side and gave Gisele a tight smile. “I’ll walk you to your door.”
“That’s not—” she squeaked, cleared her throat and started again. “That’s not necessary. Good night, Romeo—er...Rafael.” She spun and darted for the front entrance.
He’s a keeper , Johnny repeated as she ducked through the door.
Rafael grinned at the bird. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He followed Gisele out the door and to the base of the steps leading up to her home above the shop .
She ran up the steps and dove into her apartment, slamming the door shut behind her.
Rafael climbed up after her. When he reached the top, he tapped his knuckles against the door. “Gisele?”
“Go away,” she said, her voice sounding as if she stood immediately on the other side of the door, not halfway across the room inside.
“I really need to check your apartment for intruders.”
“There’s no one here but me,” she said. “Go away.”
He shook his head even though he knew she couldn’t see him. “Not until I’m positive you’re not being held hostage and being forced to say what you think I want to hear.”
“I’m not being held hostage,” she said.
“Prove it,” he insisted.
The sound of locks turning was followed by Gisele yanking open the door. “See? It’s just me.”
“Have you checked in your closet or under your bed?” he asked.
“Oh, for the love of—” She stepped aside. “Check for yourself.”
He enteredand made a quick pass, thoroughly checking behind, beneath and inside places a person could hide. When he was satisfied, he returned to where Gisele stood at the door.
“All clear,” he said. Before she could make a biting retort, he cupped the back of her head and dropped a light kiss on her lips. “Sleep tight.”
Then he was out the door, pulling it closed behind him. He paused on the landing, listening. “Lock the door.”
The sharp metal click left him with a smile on his face.
He hadn’t planned on kissing her. But he’d kissed her anyway.
And she hadn’t slapped him.
His grin broadened.
If she’d been angry about the kiss, she wouldn’t have hesitated to slap him into tomorrow.
She hadn’t slapped him. Which meant she was either too shocked by the move or was still recovering from that shock.
Or she’d like the kiss.
Rafael chose to believe the last scenario. He let himself back into the shop and locked the door behind him.
As he passed Johnny’s cage, the bird fluffed his feathers and gave him the side-eye. Cheeky bastard.
Rafael laughed out loud. “Damn right, I am. And I have no regrets.”
He’d chosen the apartment over the yoga studio next door to Gisele’s shop with the express purpose of getting to know the woman better.
So far, it was proving to be a great idea .
He unrolled his sleeping bag and flipped the light switch, plunging the shop into darkness.
In the little bit of light shining through the front window from the streetlights on Main Street, he found his sleeping bag and laid down on top of it. With his hands laced behind his head, he stared up at the ceiling. If he was correct, her bed was directly over him.
He wondered if she was thinking about that kiss. He sure as hell was. The way her lips had felt against his only made him want to kiss them more.
He’d have no trouble staying alert through the night, not when his body was on fire for the woman so near and yet so far.
He’d have to work hard to win her over to go on a date with him.
But he was up for the challengeas long as she wasn’t looking for anything long-term.
Although...
He shook his head.
No.
Short relationships only.
He never wanted to stand at an altar again.
Been there, done that and had the scars to prove it.