Johnny Gator Read Online Free PDF Page A

was worried.   I thought you might be sick or something.”
    “No,
no, I’m good.” He sounded thick-tongued and sleepy, though.
    Nola
narrowed her gaze and raked it over him. “You don’t sound so good, Jean
Batiste. What’s wrong with your left foot?”
    Johnny’s
eyes locked onto it and after a few seconds, he shifted position so it wasn’t
as visible. “Nothing but a little dirt, that’s all.   It’ll wash right off.”
    Something
wasn’t right and she knew it. “How’d you get so muddy anyway?”
    “I
must’ve fallen in the lake,” he said after a pause. “How else would it be?”
    “I
don’t know but you’re pretty dirty.”
    His
eyes shone and he grinned.   “A little
water, a little soap, I’ll be clean, cher .”
    He
sounded like the man she’d come to know, the one she wanted with body and
soul.   Some of the concern she had
carried for the past few days receded.   Maybe she had worried for nothing.   Leave it to me to get carried
away, she thought with a rueful smile.
    “Maybe
I can scrub your back,” she said. “And other hard-to-reach places.”
    “ Tre bon,” he replied. “I’d like that,
very much. Before I go inside, though, I want to hose off a little.   C’mon, let me do it and then we’ll go in.”
    “Sounds good to me.”
    Johnny
turned and padded toward his home.   Nola
fell in step behind him, intrigued by the way the mud made patterns on his
back.   For some reason, it appeared
thicker in the middle.
    “Hold
still,” she said and touched it.
    Beneath
her fingertips, his skin seemed rough and hard.   Perplexed, she spread her hand over it and shook her head. Tougher than
calloused skin, it had an olive cast.   “Does this hurt?”
    He
halted. “No, cher , it’s just dirt.”
    “I
don’t think so.   Did you fall on your
back? Maybe it’s bruised or something.”
    “No,
no, let me go wash.”
    A
desperate note crept into his voice and she fired off a series of questions.
“Why were you sleeping on the ground without any clothes? What’ve you been
doing the last few days? And why in the name of the good Lord are you so
filthy?”
    “Nola.”
    The
way he said her name sounded like a prayer or plea. “I’m waiting for answers,”
she said.   After all the worrying the
past few days, her nerves and patience were both shot.   She liked this man, maybe even starting to
love him. She wanted to get intimate with him, but if there were issues now was
the time to discover them.
    “ Cher, I can’t give you any, none you
could understand.”
    His
green eyes met hers, bright with emotion.   The expression he wore was sad but Nola steeled herself to ignore it.
“I’m not stupid,” she said. Her throat tightened with emotion and an urge to
cry. “I’m sure I could comprehend.”
    A
flash of amusement lightened his features for a few seconds, then vanished. “Oh, woman, this is beyond anything you’ve ever known, believe
me.   It’s probably better if you go.”
    Here we go again. Resisting an urge to roll her
eyes, Nola said, “No, it’s not happening.   I won’t go unless I have a good reason and so far I don’t.   What’s going on, Johnny?”
    “You
wouldn’t believe me if I tried to tell you.”
    Johnny
moved forward to the side of his house where an outdoor faucet connected to a
long, green hose.   He turned on the water
and started washing off.   Nola stood back
a few paces, arms folded across her chest, and watched.   As the caked mud and dirt sluiced away, his bronze
skin emerged.   He stood facing her so she
could see his flat belly appeared normal, the skin soft and supple.   Unable to bear the suspense, she stalked
over, snatched the hose from his hand, and said, “Turn around.   I want to see what your back looks like
clean.”
    He
threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender and pivoted.   Nola aimed the hose at his back where the
skin had appeared thick and rough.   As
the water washed off the grime, she stared in