Bayou Heat Read Online Free PDF Page A

attention.
Vigueur
, his
grand-mère
would call it. Strength, force.
    Marshall hadn’t really said much about her and Teague hadn’t wanted to know. He’d
     been so surprised that his half-brother had asked him for help that he hadn’t taken
     time to question him too deeply. When he’d thought of it at all—beyond the pain-in-the-ass
     aspect of it—he’d pictured some dried-up, earth-hugging, bookworm type whose passions
     ran to spouting Latin plant names. He thought of the woman lying semicomatose in the
     next room.
    Oh, Erin was passionate all right. Teague smiled, reopening the cut on his lip, not
     caring. An imposition and pain in the ass for sure, but she also intrigued him. Too
     much.
    And he was going to do absolutely nothing about it.
    Eyeing the tub behind him, Teague carefully moved over and twisted the cracked ivory
     handles. If he was going to sleep in it, he’d use some cool water for a mattress.
     He wet a towel and made a half-hearted attemptat cleaning the walls, stopping when he realized he was just making it worse.
    He needed rest, needed to be alert and on the ball. He’d clean up the mess in the
     morning.
    A long, low groan escaped his lips as he cautiously lowered himself into the tepid
     water.
    Something tugged at his hip. He reached back and pulled it off, examining the plastic
     bandages as he leaned his head back against the rim and slipped lower into the water.
    “What in the hell?” He frowned as he made out the small cartoon characters wielding
     swords and shields. His gaze drifted to the open bathroom door and the sheet-draped
     mound huddled in the small bed.
Who are you, Erin McClure?
    He let his eyes slide shut. One hand dangled over the back of the tub, the gun lying
     within easy reach on a footstool, hidden from view.
    He curled the fingers of his other hand around the crumpled bandages and drifted off
     to sleep.

THREE
    “We simply have to stop meeting like this.”
    Teague didn’t bother to open his eyes. He wasn’t sure why. He just knew he shouldn’t
     start the day being charmed by her.
    “Sounded like a herd of buffalo routing around in there,
ange
,” he said lazily. “You always such a considerate hostess?”
    “To be a hostess, there has to be an invited guest.” She stalked into the room without
     so much as a glance in his direction—he knew, he peeked—and closed the French doors
     he vaguely remembered opening after he’d drained the tub at some point during the
     night. Place had been a damn refrigerator.
    “I have to be downtown in an hour,” she went on, all business. “I’m hot. I want a
     shower.” A stifled sigh.
    Probably looking at the blood smears, he thought. They’d look a lot worse in daylight.
     Another reason to keep his eyes shut.
    “
I need
a shower.”
    “Sounds like you need a strong cup of chicory,
chèr
. Are you always like this in the morning?” Startling images of a variety of things
     he could do to put a smile on her face made him shift a bit. He was even more certain
     he shouldn’t start off fantasizing about taking her to bed for the rest of the day.
    “Clean up your mess and be out of here in five minutes.”
    Teague cracked open one eye. “Or else?” He didn’t bother picking up the gun again.
    She planted her hands on her hips. “I’ve been trained in jungle warfare our military
     has never even dreamed of. Use your imagination.” With that, she stalked back into
     the other room.
    Helpless against it, Teague smiled.
    Erin was smoothing the wrinkles from a pair of poorly packed khaki pants when she
     felt him behind her. Clear across the room in the doorway, but she could feel him
     nonetheless. It was like the damn man had a palpable aura of heat hovering around
     him. Probably due to all the pheromones women sent shooting his way, she thought irritably.
    She’d spent a good part of what little rest she’d gotten the night before tossing
     and turning. But then a naked, bloody Cajun sleeping in