Cajun Magic 02 - Voodoo for Two Read Online Free PDF Page A

Raccoon Saloon. Ben felt more at home by the minute.
    He bent to where Lucie pushed to her hands and knees in a puddle of beer. The color in her cheeks high, she was still so pretty she made his chest hurt. He steeled himself against the onslaught of unwanted emotions and pulled her up into his arms. “Hey, Lucie.”
    “Ben?” Lucie blinked, her eyes widening, her face blanching as her fingers curled into his shirt. “You came back,” she whispered, then flung her arms around his neck.
    He held her close, the scent of her shampoo wrapping around him. This was what he’d been missing in his life. This woman and the feel of her body against his. But it was all an illusion, which would end when Lucie got her bearings. Ben steeled his heart against further pain and forced a chuckle, “Yeah, babe, I’m back, and I can see not much has changed around here. You’re still giving the men of Bayou Miste hell.”

Chapter Three
    Desperate times called for desperate measures.
    Lucie LeBieu swallowed the wad of guilt in her throat and stretched up on her tiptoes. When her fingers wrapped around the bottle marked “Tailless Raccoon Spit,” she dragged it from the shelf of her grandmother’s pantry.
    “Need help in there?” Alex called out from the kitchen.
    “No. I can handle this myself.” Yeah. Sure . Just like she handled her love life. And everyone in Bayou Miste knew that was nonexistent. But if she was caught with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar, she didn’t want her two friends to catch any of the old woman’s wrath.
    Lucie’s grandmother wasn’t the normal, run-of-the-mill grandmotherly type. Oh, she had in her kitchen the usual flour, sugar, and everything necessary for a scrumptious batch of chocolate chip cookies, or even yummier Louisiana gumbo. But it didn’t stop there—she had many more mysteries stashed away in her cupboards. Tailless Raccoon Spit was only one of the strangely labeled containers Lucie found as she riffled through the pantry.
    Her grandmother wasn’t an escapee from a mental institution, or a homeopathic healer, per se, although healing did make up the majority of her work. She was none other than the infamous bayou Voodoo queen, Madame LeBieu. And if she knew what Lucie was up to, she’d likely stir up a retribution potion that would give her granddaughter a wicked weeklong itch or something even more dreadful.
    But Lucie was madder than a crab in a fishnet, and she wasn’t going to let her grandmother’s reputation scare her out of doing what she had to do. And her anger was directed toward one red-hot sexy Cajun. “Of all the people to turn up at the Raccoon Saloon, why did it have to be Benjamin Franklin Boyette? Why now? And the rat bastard pretty much accused me of starting that fight with LeRoy.” She stomped in and out of the little pantry.
    Lucie’s friend Calliope opened the container on the counter and dipped a finger into a powdery concoction. “Lucie, you know Madame LeBieu would have a hissy fit if she knew you were messin’ with her stash of magic ingredients.”
    “Stay out of that, Calliope Ostelet.” Alex, the more levelheaded of her two friends, swatted at Calliope’s hand. “It’s liable to turn your skin purple or give you boils.”
    Lucie ignored the two and walked back into the storage room.
    Alex followed, leaning into the doorway to sniff. “What’s she got in there, anyway?”
    “None of your business, Alexandra Belle Boyette.” Lucie emphasized the “Boyette” as if it were a nasty-tasting word. As she pushed past Alex, she redirected her guilt and anger toward her friend. She knew she shouldn’t meddle in Mamère LeBieu’s magic. But now that a foreclosure notice had been served, and worse, Ben was back in town, she had no other choice. “I shouldn’t even be talking to you.” She stopped on her third trip back to the butcher block in the middle of the cluttered kitchen. “You could have told me big brother was back.”
    A rosy