Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
With the Zydeco Festival still in full swing, business was steady. Tourists filtered through the shop, purchasing voodoo dolls, gris-gris amulets, Gisele’s Motion Lotion, LP#9 and other remedies advertised as infused with voodoo magic.
She’d sent Lena out to get lunch for them from the diner and hadn’t had time to eat her chicken Caesar salad. Every time there was a lull in the flow of customers, she’d dash back to her salad. Before she could take a bite, the door would open, and more people would enter.
Lena could handle questions about different products or voodoo customs as well as Gisele could, but someone had to run the register while the other fielded those questions.
Thirty minutes before she was due to close the shop, a heavyset teenage girl stormed through the door, blond hair flying, her face red and angry. She slammed a bottle on the counter in front of Gisele and demanded, “I want my money back.”
Gisele calmly lifted the bottle and noted the label—LP#9. “I don’t normally offer refunds for my lotions and potions. Could I have a name, please?” she asked in her calmest tone.
“My name is Lana Dafani, and I want my money back.”
“What seems to be the problem, Miss Dafani?” Gisele asked.
“This potion didn’t work,” Lana said, her voice rising. “In fact, it had the opposite effect of what I expected.”
Gisele studied the girl’s face. Her lips looked like any normal teenager’s lips. Not having seen her before applying the potion, she couldn’t tell if it had worked. “Did you follow the instructions that came with it?”
“What instructions? There were no instructions.”
Gisele shook her head. “Every bottle of LP#9 is sold with instructions printed on the label affixed to the back of the bottle, and either my assistant or I go over those instructions before a bottle leaves the shop.” She held up the bottle and pointed to the back label.
The girl squinted at the label. “Oh, those. Yes. I did what it said. It didn’t work, I tell you.”
“I also record the names of those who purchase it.” Gisele booted her computer and brought up the database of customers and products purchased by each. “I know I didn’t speak with you.” Gisele turned to Lena. “Did you sell Miss Dafani this bottle of LP#9?”
Lena shook her head. “I did not. I’d remember her if I did.”
Gisele searched for the teen’s name in her database. “I’m sorry, your name isn’t coming up.”
“I didn’t buy it,” the girl said. “My mother purchased it. I used it, and I want our money back. It didn’t work. It’s dangerous and shouldn’t be sold. I should sue you for everything you own for what it did.”
Gisele shook her head. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to be more specific. Can you explain to me what it allegedly did?”
“Tell you?” She snorted. “I’ll show you.” She stormed out of the shop.
Lena leaned over Gisele’s shoulder. “We’ve never had a problem with the LP#9 lip plumper.”
Gisele checked her database for any other Dafani. “I have a Beatrice Dafani in the system. She’s a forty-two-year-old woman who lives in a small town to the west of Bayou Mambaloa. She purchased the bottle onthe first day of the Zydeco Festival.”
“We were both here,” Lena said.
“The sale was recorded, so one of us spoke to her mother about how to test it on a small patch of skin to make sure she doesn’t have an allergic reaction to the ingredients in the formula.”
The blond teen burst through the door again, dragging a young man behind her.
He wore a hoodie pulled up over his head and walked with his head down, his face hidden in shadows.
Lana came to a halt in front of the counter and swung the young man around to stand beside her. “This is what your poison did.” She yanked the hoodie down and pointed to the teenage boy’s face.
The boy’s cheeks flushed a mottled red as he stood before them. He looked like any teenage boy with a smattering of whiskers not yet thick enough to form a beard. It was his lips that had Gisele concerned. They were swollen to over three times puffier than normal.
“Oh, sweetie.” Gisele came around the counter. “What’s your name?”
“Dewek,” he said, his words garbled by the size of his lips.
Gisele spoke to the young man in a calm and soothing voice. “How much of the potion did you use?
“I didn’t use it,” he said. “Not intentionawy.” He glared at Lana. “She put it on my wip bawm.”
“Your lip balm?” Gisele asked.
He nodded. “I had chapped wips.”
Gisele frowned at Lana. “When we sell this, we very specifically tell the purchaser not to use it on chapped lips.” She turned a gentle smile on Derek. “How many times did you apply the lip plumper?”
“Lip plumper?” Lana said, her gaze going from Gisele to Lena and back to Gisele. “What lip plumper?”
Gisele’s brow dipped low. “LP#9 is lip plumper. You knew that, right?” She pointed to the back label again. “Lip Plumper #9. Right above the instructions.”
Lana leaned closer, her eyes widening. “No way. That wasn’t there. I swear it wasn’t.”
Lena pulled another bottle out from beneath the counter and showed her the back label. “It’s on every bottle of LP#9 that goes out of the shop.”
Lana shook her head.
Gisele turned her attention back to Derek. “How many times did you apply the balm?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Thwee or fo times...evewy houwa unti my wips swelled wike dis.” He pointed to his swollen mouth and then glared at Lana. “Why would you spike my wip bawm with wip pwumpa?”
All the anger leached out of Lana’s face, leaving it pale and drawn. “I thought it was a love potion,” she whispered with a stricken expression.
“Wuv potion?” Derek’s frown deepened. “What da fuck, Wana?”
Lana shrank back. “I thought that if you loved me, you’d finally ask me out. We’ve been friends for so long. I didn’t want to be just friends anymore. I wanted you to love me as more than a friend. I wanted you to be my first date. My first kiss.”
Derek’s frown softened. “You did?” He reached for her hand.
Lana took it. “I love you.”
“I wuv you, too.”
Lana’s eyes widened. “You do?”
He nodded.
“It wasn’t the love potion?” she asked and then shook her head. “No, wait, it wasn’t a love potion.” Her face brightened into awatery smile. “It was lip plumper.” She lifted his hand to her cheek. “You really love me?”
Derek nodded. “I ahways have.”
Lana turned to Gisele. “Thank you. This place is truly magical. He loves me.”
Lena frowned. “It wasn’t a love po?—”
Gisele elbowed her assistant gently in the side. “My potions bring out the truth that’s already inside,” Gisele said.
“Yes, yes, of course.” Lana leaned into the teenager and stared up into his eyes. A frown sent her eyebrows back down, forming a V over the bridge of her nose. “Do you have a potion to counteract the lip plumper?”
Gisele nodded. “Of course I do. Wait here. I’ll be right back. ”
Lena frowned as Gisele walked past her. “We have a counter agent?” she whispered.
“We do,” Gisele assured her. She walked into the small bathroom at the rear of the shop and dug in the cabinet until she found what she was looking for. She poured a medicine cup full of the special elixir that would set Derek on a course to full recovery and carried it out to the afflicted teen. “This is my grand-mère’s go-to tonic for overdoses of LP#9. Drink up. It might take a few hours for the magic to work, but by morning, you should be just fine.”
Derek managed to pour the fluid past his swollen lips and swallowed. He handed the little cup to Gisele and gave her a distorted smile. “Thank you.”
“Thank you.” Lana hugged Gisele, whispering in her ear, “If not for you, I might never have known Derek loved me. You really are magical.”
Gisele smiled and waved a hand toward the contents of her little shop, giving it a touch of drama. “I only use Voodoo to help people,” she said.
“Well, you helped us.” Lana smiled, tucked her hand into the crook of Derek’s elbow and left the shop a lot happier than when she’d blown through the door minutes before.
Gisele’s gaze followed the young couple until movement near Johnny’s cage caught her attention.
Rafael stepped out into the open, a smile spreading across his face .
“How long have you been standing there?” Gisele asked.
“Long enough to bond with your feathered friend.” He tipped his head toward the entrance. “I came in behind the lovebirds.”
“So, you saw all that?”
He nodded. “I did. You might want to consider renaming LP#9.”
Gisele sighed. “I thought it was a fun play on Love Potion #9, and I’ve been very careful to tell customers it’s not a love potion but a lip plumper.” She shook her head. “But you’re right; it’s time to rethink the name.”
Lena walked past Gisele, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. “I hope you and your man don’t need me to stay late. I have a date for the concert tonight at the festival. Want me to turn the sign over?”
“Please,” Gisele called out to her assistant as the younger woman reached the entrance.
Lena flipped the sign from Open to Closed . She paused in the doorway. “You’ll have to show me where to find the elixir to counter LP#9 in case I need it for another overdose.”
“Tomorrow,” Gisele called out with a grin.
Lena left the shop with a wave.
Gisele followed her to the door and twisted the deadbolt. Then she turned and leaned against the door, aware that she’d just locked herself in with Rafael. A shiver of excitement almost reenergized her tired body. “What a day.”
“I bet you’re tired,” he said. “You’ve had a constant flow of customers all day.”
She nodded. “Nothing like a little drama to cap it off.” Gisele pushed away from the door and walked back to the counter where Lana’s bottle of LP#9 sat next to the empty medicine cup. “Someday, I’ll look back on that little episode and laugh.” She smiled. “I’m just too tired right now. Poor Derek.”
“You have antidotes for all your potions?” Rafael asked.
“No,” she said and scooped up the medicine cup and lip plumper bottle. “But I have a bottle of liquid antihistamine in my first aid kit for allergic reactions to peanuts, wasp stings, mosquito bites,” she snorted and held up the hand with the bottle in it, “and now LP#9.”
Rafael chuckled, the sound warm and intoxicating.
Gisele could get drunk on his laughter. Or was she just weak from hunger? “Can I help you with something?”
“No. But I might be able to help you.” He held up a bag. “I brought you a present.”
She swayed toward the bag, a little lightheaded. “If it’s food, I’ll love you forever.”
His lips twisted. “Sorry. It’s not food. However, I whipped up a pot of taco soup in my apartment. Play your cards right, and I’ll share with you…after I install your present.”
Her mouth watered at the prospect of taco soup. “You certainly know a woman’s love language.”
He grinned. “I thought food was a man’s love language.”
“I’ve always been different. Ask anybody.”
“I like different,” he said, his eyes warm and friendly.
Her guard was way down. If she wasn’t careful, she’d do something stupid, like ask him to kiss her again.
Focus, woman.
She nodded toward the bag. “What can I help you install so we can make it quick and get to that taco soup?”
He dug into the bag and pulled out several devices. “These are only a temporary solution until you can install that security and surveillance system I know you called about today.”
“Right. I had nothing else to do today.” She shook her head. “The festival will be winding down after tomorrow. I won’t be as swamped. Besides, I couldn’t have called today anyway. I’m sure none of the installers answer their phones on the weekend.”
“Good point.”
She studied the devices he laid out on the counter. “What do we have here?”
“Alarms,” he said. “I can install one on every door and window in a few minutes. If someone tries to get in, the alarm will screech loud enough to wake the dead.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “You tested it in a cemetery? How many bodies did you raise?”
He chucked his finger beneath her chin. “Don’t get cheeky, little girl.”
Cheeky bastard , Johnny squawked.
Rafael chuckled again, the sound seeping into her skin like warm syrup.
God, she was too tired to fight the desire rising inside.
Get me a beer, woman , Johnny called out, giving Gisele the needed wake-up call to move away from the man before she lost herself in his chuckle and promises of taco soup.
“I’m just going to feed Johnny. Yell if you need me.” She tore herself away from the man and hurried to fill Johnny’s feed dish with seed. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she called out.
Gisele left through the back door and trudged up the stairs to her apartment.
As she slipped her key into the lock, footsteps pounded up behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rafael hurrying up to her.
Rather than argue, she unlocked the door and stepped back, waving a hand for him to go inside before her.
“Good girl,” he said, bent and brushed her lips with his, “you know the drill.” A frown dented his brow. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
He disappeared inside before she could ask him why he shouldn’t have done that when she wanted him to do that again.
Gisele raised her fingers to her lips. They still tingled from that rare brush with perfection. She really wanted him to do that again.
She practically fell through the door, intent on cornering him and insisting he kiss her again.
Rafael emerged from her bedroom. “All clear.”
Though she stood directly in front of him, he sidestepped her and headed for the exit, leaving before she could speak.
“What the fuck?” she murmured.
Talk about mixed messages. He showed up with presents, offered her food, kissed her and then apologized and ran out before she could ask him to do it again.
“Who was that man?” she asked the air.
Gisele shook her head and looked around her apartment, trying to remember why she’d come up there in the first place.
Oh, yeah.
Johnny wanted a beer.
She grabbed a mango from the counter, cut it in half, fished some lettuce from the refrigerator and headed back down the stairs a little slower this time. She wasn’t sure how she should act around Dr. Jekyll...or was he Mr. Hyde?
She decided to pretend like nothing weird had happened rather than call him out on it and look like the weird one.
Rafael was at the back door, screwing one of the devices into the doorframe with a battery-operated drill.
She paused, wondering whether she should wait until he was done or...
A smile pulled at the corners of her lips. Instead of waiting for him to finish, she squeezed in behind him, pressing her breasts against his back in order to make it through the sliver of space between him and the doorframe.
He stiffened, his hand freezing, the drill bit spinning in the air.
That got his attention.
Once through, she walked away, crossing one foot in front of the other like a model on a runway.
The drill quit whirring.
Gisele glanced over her shoulder to gauge Rafael’s reaction to her version of vamping.
His gaze was on her.
In time to see her trip over her own feet and land in a graceless heap. The mango half flew from her hand, rolling to a stop beneath Johnny’s cage.
You break it, you buy it, asshole , the bird said.
A burst of laughter rang out behind her as Rafael reached her. “Sorry. Sometimes, I forget Johnny’s a bird. He has a comedian’s timing.” He dropped to his haunches. “Are you hurt?”
Her lips twisted. “Yes.”
“Here?” Rafael reached out and ran his hands over her legs.
Her heart skipped several beats, then pounded against her ribs. “No,” she breathed.
“Here?” His fingers skimmed up her arms, tickling the soft undersides.
She giggled and squirmed. “No.”
“Then where?” he demanded, his hands traveling down her sides, tickling her relentlessly.
Gisele squealed and tried to wiggle her way free. “Stop...” she gasped. “Not fair...”
Immediately, his hands stilled.
Her breath grew ragged as she stared up into eyes almost as black as his hair. He was leaning over her, his face so close she could feel his warm breath against her skin.
“Then tell me where it hurts so I can kiss it better,” he said,
His voice, so deep and husky, sent shivers of desire coursing through her veins.
She raised a finger and pointed to her cheek.
Rafael pressed his lips to the spot. “Here?”
She nodded and pointed to her other cheek.
He kissed that point. “Better?”
Again, she nodded. Then she touched her finger to her lips. Her breath lodged in her chest as silent seconds passed and he didn’t move.
He didn’t want to kiss her. He really wasn’t that into her. He didn’t find her attractive. She was making a complete fool of herself.
Her heart squeezed so hard inside it hurt.
Then, like a light switch being flipped on, Rafael let out a groan. “Oh, hell,” he muttered. “Who am I kidding?” His mouth crashed down on hers, wiping away all her self-doubtand filling her with acceptance, confidence and...hot, raging desire.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him to her, deepening the kiss he’d started.
Her leg wrapped around his calf and slid up the back of his knee to his thigh, bringing him closer still.
It wasn’t close enough. Her fingers searched for and found the button on his jeans and flipped it free.
His hand tugged her blouse from her skirt and slid beneath to cup her breast.
As her fingers wrapped around the tab of his zipper, a loud, raucous squawk broke through her haze of desire.
Cheeky bastard , Johnny said.
“Ignore him,” Gisele whispered.
Bring me a beer, woman , Johnny persisted.
Gisele and Rafael remain motionless, her hand frozen on his zipper tab, his hand cupping her breast.
A moment of silence passed. Then another .
Gisele released the breath she’d been holding. “See? If we ignore him, he’ll?—”
A knock sounded on the door to the front entrance.
“Can’t they read the sign?” she whispered. “We’re closed. Ignore it.”
The knocking stopped.
Rafael’s hand squeezed her breast gently.
Gisele slid the zipper down a couple of teeth.
“Gisele?” a female voice called through the back door.
Gisele lifted her head enough to see a woman stepping over something at the threshold.
Rafael grabbed her and rolled her to the side and out of view of the woman heading their way. He leaped to his feet, yanked her up onto hers and helped her tuck her shirt into the waistband of her skirt.
They turned to face the woman rounding the corner of the hallway, dressed in a sheriff deputy’s maternity uniform.