Page 13 of Rafael

“I couldn’t help it,” he admitted. “I practically tripped over it.”

That’s where she’d dropped it. On the floor.

“No boogeymen?” she asked.

“None,” he said.

“Goodnight.” Gisele pushed past him, her breast brushing against his arms, sending a spark of electricity throughout her system, coiling at her core.

“I’ll be right below you. Just yell if you want me to come up,” he said.

“Trust me,” she murmured. “I won’t yell.” She’d letan attacker strangle her to death before she called out for help.

Gisele entered her apartment and slammed the door in Rafael’s face.

Was that a chuckle she heard?

Whatever. She only had to put up with him for one night, and she’d be free of him. Gisele dropped her purse on the table by the door and tossed the sheer nightgown in the waste basket beside it. How could she look him in the eye, knowing he’d seen what she slept in? Not only had he seen the nightgown, but he’d touched it with his big, callused hands.

She stalked toward her bedroom, stopped and returned to the waste basket. Why toss her favorite nightgown just because a man had touched it? That would be ridiculous and wasteful.

After retrieving the skimpy garment from the otherwise empty basket, she raised it to her nose. Was the scent clinging to it that of Rafael’s aftershave?

Gisele drew in a deep breath through her nostrils.

Maybe. Or her over-active hormones were imagining the scent she’d detected as she’d passed so close to him that her breast had brushed his arm.

Yeah, sweet, gullible Bianca hadn’t stood a chance against the overpowering charisma of Rafael Romero. They didn’t call him Romeo for nothing. He was truly hard to resist.

But he needed to come down a peg or two. No man should be so confident. Even if he had every right to be.

She’d love to be the one to bring him down. Then who would have the last chuckle?

CHAPTER 3

Rafael grinnedas 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 onher 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 beensmart 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.”

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