To Die For

"I'm sorry," Mallory said, and squeezed his hand. "That must have been hard for you and your mother."

Jake nodded. "It was awful. My dad, he was the best, the best husband, the best father. And my mother... left alone with me to raise... I don't think she ever really got the chance to grieve."

Mallory reached up to cup Jake's cheek. "He would have been proud of you. Proud of the man his son became. I'm sure your mother is."

Jake looked at her and couldn't help but want her... her hair s.h.i.+mmering in the glow of moonlight, her green eyes sparkling as she looked at him... her touch so gentle against his skin. Never had he thought another woman could possess the fort.i.tude, the intelligence that his mother had shown all those years, raising her son to be a man. But Mallory Devereaux brought new meaning to the word strength. Her entire life was a testament to that.

Placing his arms around her, he drew her in close to him, lowering his head to press his lips against her. She tasted of raspberry and even though he'd seen her swipe the lip gloss across her lips at the poker table, the flavor seemed so sensual, so Mallory. Unable to stop himself, he ran his tongue across her lips, tasting every bit of the sweetness.

She leaned into him and dropped her hand to his chest, running it along the length of his torso. The light pressure of her fingers brus.h.i.+ng against the fabric of his s.h.i.+rt made him start to stiffen. She didn't stop her journey at his waistband as he'd thought she would. When she grazed her hand over the top of his jeans, she almost finished him off.

Surely the voodoo woman was wrong, he thought as he left her lips to kiss the hollow of her neck and down the front of her chest. Mallory wasn't cursed-she was a witch. It was the only way to explain the way he felt when he was with her-as if every nerve in his body were on fire, as if nothing at all mattered any more except touching every square inch of her and burying himself deep inside her.

He moved one hand underneath her s.h.i.+rt and cupped her bare breast, amazed again at her body that was so full and firm at the same time. He grabbed the bottom of her T-s.h.i.+rt with both hands and relieved her upper body of the garment. b.r.e.a.s.t.s that perfect just cried to be free and he wanted to be the man to accommodate them.

He tossed the s.h.i.+rt in the backseat and descended on her chest with both hand and mouth, causing her to groan. She paid him back by opening his jeans and slipping her hand inside, stroking the hard length of him until he thought he would burst from the pleasure.

"I'm going to try to take things slower this time, but I'm not promising success," he said as he tugged at the closure on her jeans, silently willing the tight garment to let go.

"That makes two of us," she teased.

The tiny strip of pink lace posing as underwear hardly presented a logistics problem. They were so d.a.m.ned s.e.xy, he left them on, then threaded one finger around them and ran it down the tiny strip of fabric.

"It's not Sunday," he said, and he pulled the fabric back gently and pressed his finger into her hot, moist center.

Mallory moaned as he stroked her. "Who the h.e.l.l cares?"

Jake smiled down at her. "You said you only wore underwear on Sunday." He slipped one finger inside of her, still stroking her sensitive nub with his thumb.

Her grip on him tightened and she sucked in a breath. "I promise to wear them every day if this is the treatment I get," she whispered, increasing the pressure and speed of her strokes with every word until he thought he would explode.

He put his hand over hers. "You've got to stop or I won't have anything left," he said as he continued to stroke her.

"But you're not stopping," she tried to protest, but it wasn't much of a fight.

"Yes, but I'm making the rules," he whispered, and leaned over to take her nipple in his mouth. He swirled his tongue around the engorged flesh in complete synchronicity with the stroke of his finger below. It was only a matter of seconds before her breathing quickened, and he felt her body contract around his finger.

She cried out when the o.r.g.a.s.m washed over her and dug her fingers into his shoulders. He waited a moment for the trembling in her body to stop before removing his finger and raising his head to look at her.

She gave him the lazy smile of a completely satisfied woman, then pushed him back onto his side of the car and straddled him. "My turn," she said, and lowered herself onto him in a single fluid stroke.

He almost lost it the moment he entered her and had to struggle to regain control. He'd just managed to stave off the worst of the embarra.s.sment when she started her motion, rolling her hips back and forth in a slow, rhythmic dance, and he had to concentrate again on holding himself back.

She dropped her hands to his chest and ran them across his nipples. He was momentarily surprised at the pleasure that shot through him with her touch, and he sucked in a breath as she lowered her head and circled the nipple with her tongue.

"Touch my b.r.e.a.s.t.s," she instructed as she increased her hip motion. "Both hands."

He couldn't comply fast enough. Both hands shot up eagerly to encase her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and she threw back her head and moaned. Even though he didn't think it possible, her reaction made him even hotter, and he lowered his head to take an engorged nipple into his mouth, suckling on it gently. She responded by tightening her body around him like a glove, increasing the friction and speed until he couldn't hold back any longer.

"Come with me," he whispered, and took her breast into his mouth once more.

"Yes," she replied, and he felt her body begin to spasm, as she took him deeper inside of her.

The o.r.g.a.s.m burst through him like lightning, hitting so hard it actually made him dizzy. He could feel Mallory's body around him, growing tight then loose and her legs shook with the strength of their finish. Finally, she became still and leaned against him, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressed against his bare chest, her heart racing right alongside his own.

He felt the car rumble and the sounds of roaring in his ears and for a second, he thought it was a backlash of previously released energy, but at the sound of the second rumble, he opened his eyes and looked out the winds.h.i.+eld just as a flash of lightning lit up the bayou as clear as daylight. "It's a storm," he said.

Mallory rose limply from his chest, a satisfied smile on her face. She glanced out the pa.s.senger window. "Looks like a doozy. We'd better get inside before the bottom drops out."

She rolled off him and bounced onto the seat, reaching for her pants on the floorboard. He knew he should be dressing, but instead, he watched her slide into the tight denim, feeling his erection stir all over again. She grabbed her T-s.h.i.+rt from the backseat and pulled it on, her taut nipples protruding easily through the thin fabric.

She looked over at him and shook her head. "Stop grinning like an idiot and get a move on. All of me looks the same inside, I a.s.sure you." She reached for the door just as a huge burst of thunder rocked the car, causing them both to jump. Before they could make a move, a single bolt of lightning burst from the sky and struck directly through the hood of the car, spraying sparks of fire in every direction.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

"Holy s.h.i.+t!" Mallory pushed the door open, jumped out into her yard and ran several feet from the car without even turning to look. Jake followed close on her heels, hoping like h.e.l.l the sparks didn't singe his bare a.s.s as he escaped.

When they turned back to look, the

Mallory took one look at the burning car and started to giggle. As the first sound left her mouth, the rain began to pour on them as if unleashed in one big tidal wave. She laughed harder, leaning over at the waist, as the rain soaked every square inch of her.

"d.a.m.n it, this is not funny," Jake said, trying to pull her back to the seriousness of the situation. "The car is on fire, there's a flood coming from the sky, and you're laughing."

She raised her head slightly to look at him and he couldn't be sure whether she was laughing so hard she was crying or whether it was merely the rain streaming down her face. Pointing at the car, she finally managed to speak, "I'm not laughing about the car. I'm laughing about your clothes. They're still inside."

Jake stared at the car in dismay, wondering for a moment if he could retrieve them before it was too late.

The explosion that followed settled that question for him.

Pieces of the car burst up from the center and they both crouched down, covering their heads from the shards of flying metal. When only rain continued to pour down upon them, they rose up and looked at each other in amazement.

"I didn't really think it would blow up," Mallory said, "I figured the rain would put it out first."

Jake shook his head. "It must have gotten to the gas tank first. Hertz is not going to be happy about this. Or State Farm."

Mallory started to giggle again, then looked at him and put one hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry," she managed to get out, "but you have to admit, it was a pretty spectacular finish."

Jake wiped the water from his eyes and looked once more at the smoldering car. It was kind of funny, when you thought about it in abstract. He let out a single laugh, then another, and pretty soon was laughing as hard as Mallory when the high beam of a floodlight hit them.

"Good G.o.d Almighty!" Scooter stared at them for a moment, then brought one arm up to cover his eyes. "We had a deal, Mallory, remember, since that one time with me and the two strippers? No naked people on the front lawn. And this is a guy - I just saw another naked guy."

He stalked back to his cabin, arm still over his eyes, and ran right into a post as he stepped onto his porch. He wrestled with the screen door for a moment, then slipped inside, the door banging behind him.

Mallory grabbed Jake's hand and pulled him toward her cabin, a huge grin on her face. "C'mon, let's get you inside before you hurt anyone else. I've got some sweats you can borrow and this whole car fire thing has given me an idea about winning this tournament. It's a long shot - I mean miles long - but what the h.e.l.l, it's better than what we've got now."

Jake hurried along beside her, trying to remain horrified at Scooter seeing him in the buff but too curious about Mallory's comment to stay fixated with one emotion. "Why would the car fire give you an idea about poker?"

They stepped inside the cabin and Mallory hurried to the bathroom and returned with towels. She tossed one to Jake and began to pull off her wet clothes. "The same thing happened before to Amy and me when she let me drive her car," she said as she began to ring the water from her hair.

Jake stopped drying off for a moment and stared at her. "You and Amy were having s.e.x in her car, and it was..h.i.t by lightning?"

Mallory rolled her eyes. "Don't you wish. No, Amy was sick with the flu and I had driven her to the doctor. We'd just pulled up into my driveway when her engine started smoking-turns out something was wrong with the fuel line and the whole thing went up in flames. Car was totaled, but I managed to get her thesis research out of the trunk before it was too late."

Jake stared at her, trying to make sense of her line of logic. "And this has what exactly to do with the tournament?"

Mallory grinned. "Amy. Amy has everything to do with the tournament. She's playing the tournament as proof of her thesis. She's developed a method for counting cards that she claims will improve the player's odds by five hundred percent."

"Amy is writing a thesis on poker? I thought she was a computer hacker." Could this get any more bizarre? "What the h.e.l.l is she majoring in - criminology?"

Mallory laughed. "Well, her minor is political science, which is close enough, but her major is math, and she's a complete prodigy. If she says her method works, I'm sure it does."

"Why didn't you mention this before?"

Mallory shrugged. "I guess it just didn't occur to me until now. In the beginning, it wasn't necessary because I had everything covered. Then we got busy breaking into hotels, finding voodoo dolls and searching apartments... I guess I kept thinking we'd figure it out and go on as originally planned. Plus, it took Amy years to develop this. It can't possibly be easy."

She grabbed the phone off the kitchen counter and pressed in some numbers. "We'll just have to hope she can teach you something that will help before tomorrow morning. How are you with numbers?"

What the h.e.l.l. "Better than with cars."

It only took a couple of minutes for Mallory to arrange things with Amy, who was instructed to hang tight until Mallory had everything in place. Then Mallory hung up the phone and went in search of clothes for Jake. She took another couple of minutes to dig some sweatpants and an oversized T-s.h.i.+rt out of her closet before picking up the phone again.

Jake grabbed the clothes off the couch and pulled on the pants. They were a couple of inches too short but would have to do. The T-s.h.i.+rt, however, was a whole other matter. It was pink, for starters, with the word "s.e.xy" across the front in glittery silver lettering. "No way," he said, and tossed the s.h.i.+rt back at her. "Give me anything else - Kill Something Season, Fish and Wildlife, Beer Drinking Contest - anything but pink s.e.xy."

Mallory lowered the phone from her ear and gave him a smile. "That's the biggest s.h.i.+rt I have - I sleep in it." She lifted the phone back up to her ear. "You'll live. And before you even suggest it, you are not going bare-chested in front of Amy. She's very innocent and your bare chest is very distracting." She grinned at him and turned her attention back to the phone.

"Scooter," she said, "can you come over as soon as possible? I need your expertise on an electronics matter."

Jake could hear the other man protesting all the way across the room. Mallory rolled her eyes and waited for Scooter's tirade to end. "He's dressed now, I promise," she said. She paused for a moment then shook her head. "Seeing another grown man naked definitely does not make you gay."

A minute or so later there was a knock at the door, and Mallory opened it to an apprehensive Scooter. He took a single step into the cabin but as soon as his eyes locked on Jake's T-s.h.i.+rt, he stepped back outside. "Mallory, you said he was dressed," he protested. "That ain't no way for a real man to dress."

Mallory grabbed Scooter's arm and tugged him inside. "His clothes burned up in the car and that's the biggest s.h.i.+rt I own. And you're smaller than me so don't even suggest it." She walked toward the kitchen, pulling Scooter behind her. "With the way the casino cameras are set up, do you think you can fix something to get a shot of Silas's hands?"

She grabbed a pad of paper and began to draw. His curiosity overriding the insult of his clothes, Jake stepped closer to see a rough rendition of the casino layout on the paper.

"So what do you think?" Mallory looked at Scooter. "Is there any way to install the cameras where Silas won't notice? I figure the table is out because there's no way he isn't looking for that, especially with Reginald hosting."

Scooter flipped the pad around and stared at it a minute, his brow scrunched in concentration. Finally, he shook his head. "I could put three or four cameras in the ceiling with an angle down, but getting a clear look at his hand would still be a long shot. One of them may pick something up... say... three out of ten times."

Mallory looked over at Jake. "That's a thirty percent better chance than we have right now."

"Yeah, at this point anything is better," he agreed. "Do you think Reginald will let you install the cameras?"

"I think, given the situation, Reginald will be thrilled to let us install some cameras, and we're on our way to talk with him right now." She grabbed her rain jacket from a peg in the kitchen and motioned to Jake. "C'mon, s.e.xy, let's go find Reginald and get Scooter to work. We'll grab some clothes for you from your hotel room since you wearing my T-s.h.i.+rt appears to be an affront to masculinity. I'll call Amy on the way and tell her to meet us at the casino." She looked at the two men and smiled. "Sound like a plan?"

Jake nodded and followed her out into the rain, wondering exactly how bad things had gotten when he felt better about this tournament right this moment, pink s.e.xy T-s.h.i.+rt and all, than he had in days.

Mallory stepped inside her uncle's office and closed the door behind her. Amy and Jake were hovering over reams of paper with numbers and photos of cards on them and Scooter was busy having fun with his new drill again.

With the number of curveb.a.l.l.s thrown at him lately, Reginald was probably hunkered down in his office with a bottle of scotch. To his credit, her uncle hadn't shown a single iota of surprise when Mallory had insisted he meet her at the casino, then burst in with Amy, Jake and Scooter and informed him that Silas was a money launderer, Jake an FBI agent and that they knew all about the ATF and their blackmailing scheme. But then she figured with everything the man had endured for the last couple of weeks, he would have bought a story about aliens in the casino.

What she was about to do could have waited - probably needed to wait - but there were too many unresolved items wedged between her and Reginald and she somehow felt that getting it all out now would make things go better tomorrow.

"Uncle Reginald?" she said, and he raised his head from the paperwork on his desk. "You got a minute?"

Reginald motioned to the chair across from him. "At the moment, I got nothing but time, and it's dragging, every single second of it."

Mallory nodded. "I can imagine. It's fairly crawling for me too. We need a lot more of it for our plan to work the best, but at the same time, I just want it to all be over."

"Yeah. It's the 'over' part that I'm most worried about."

Mallory s.h.i.+fted in her chair, not exactly knowing where to start, then finally decided she'd start at the beginning. "I've already told you Jake and I broke into Silas's room, that night I saw you at the hotel."

A fleeting glimpse of embarra.s.sment pa.s.sed over Reginald's face and he nodded. "I remember."

"Well, I took something from Silas's room - a voodoo doll." She looked her uncle directly in the eyes. "It looked just like me, Uncle Reginald. The hair, the facial expression, the clothes I wore the first day of the tournament. That doll was me."

Reginald stared at her for a moment, then finally blinked, his expression never s.h.i.+fting.

"You knew," she said. "The voodoo woman was telling the truth."

Reginald dropped his gaze to the desktop. "I knew."

"d.a.m.n it! Why didn't you tell me? Why did you let me go around my entire life wondering? Why didn't you bring me to the voodoo woman sooner, when something might have been done?"

Reginald looked up at her with sad eyes. "I begged my sister to have the voodoo woman at the birth but she wouldn't hear of it. She said that you were the reason Silas put the curse upon her and you might as well live with it. She said it was karma, or some bulls.h.i.+t, that someone had to pay and it wasn't going to be her."

"But you could have taken me yourself... if you knew what was done."

Reginald nodded. "I planned to. As soon as your mother left the hospital I figured I'd get my chance. But she knew. She knew I'd try, and she had some fool idea in her head that if the curse came off you, it would go back on her. So she left the hospital and disappeared."

Mallory stared at her uncle. "What do you mean, she disappeared?"

Reginald held both hands up in the air in frustration. "She walked out of the hospital with you and drove away. I still don't have any idea where she went."

"And my father?" Mallory asked, trying to absorb what Reginald said.

"Was in prison for one of his many visits. Your mother blamed it on the curse, but the truth is Silas Hebert set him up to take the fall in a money-laundering scheme for stealing your mother away. There wasn't anything out of this world about it."

"So my father was telling the truth about the money."