Page 92 of The Cajun Doctor

She showed him! . . .

Daniel made sure the house was secure and did a final check on Samantha’s animals. He even kissed the pig. No, not on the lips, but on top of its adorable head.

I can just hear Aaron mocking me. So, sue me! I’ve developed an affection for Porky Pig’s needy, mini cousin.

No way would he attempt to kiss Maddie, though; the cougar cat would probably scratch his eyes out. Nor Axel who needed a bath after rolling around outside in something that smelled like chicken shit. The pig smelled better than the dog did. But then, Daniel was beginning to think pigs got a bad rep. Small, potbellied ones, anyhow.

And, yes, he knew what chicken shit smelled like because Aunt Mel had once had the bright idea of a chicken coop in their backyard. A heated chicken coop since the birds would have frozen their feathery asses off in an Alaska winter. They had lots of poultry to eat that year when his mother discovered that the electric bill had skyrocketed, that chickens made a lot of noise, especially when she was trying to sleep, and that Daniel and Aaron made piss-poor chicken shit shovelers.

Those were the days! he thought, with a sigh. It was at odd moments like this that he missed his mother most.

Would Aunt Mel want to have chickens here, if she came? He decided that he didn’t really care, one way or the other. Hell, he’d become used to a foul-mouthed cockatoo, barking dogs, narcissistic cats, and a depressed pig. What did one more species matter? Look what he’d conceded for Samantha’s sake. Whatever Samantha wants, Samantha gets. Too bad she didn’t want him. At least, he didn’t think she wanted him.

Thank God he’d been able to get rid of . . . find good homes for . . . the five animals today. Aside from the three adoptees Samantha had lined up, one of the nurses at the cancer center that he’d helped move one day from an apartment to a cottage with her toddler son (a leukemia survivor) now had a “cute” little puppy. Remy LeDeux and his big adopted family had a puppy and a cat named Garfield. Remy hadn’t been home, but his wife Rachel had, and several of their kids. Daniel would probably be hearing from Remy later. And then there was the fisherman who’d sold them several truckloads of crushed shells for the driveway; Henri now had a new boat cat named Felix.

As he climbed the front staircase, he chuckled to himself as he recalled the shocked expression on Samantha’s face when he’d made his sexual proposition. She was no doubt hiding in one of the six bedrooms on the second floor where Lily Beth’s air mattress had been moved. Aaron’s bed was his tonight, he’d called dibs on it earlier today.

He’d been teasing about the friends-with-benefits, one-week-stand sex, of course. Sort of.

No, he’d been serious.

Semi-serious.

Testing the waters, so to speak.

Samantha’s waters.

That is crude, even for me. Blame it on sexual deprivation syndrome.

He still had the half hard-on he’d been carrying around all day when he thought about her, which had been a lot. He might have to take care of business himself if he wanted to get any sleep.

With a jaw-cracking yawn, he opened the door to Aaron’s bedroom and went stone still.

The room was illuminated not with the overhead light or the bedside lamp, but instead by a dozen different candles of all shapes and sizes. Aaron must have kept a stash for emergencies . . . or seduction purposes. Tonight they were clearly for seduction.

Samantha lay on the white sheets of the bed, her arms extended over her head, one knee raised. Her red hair, which had been in a knot atop her head a short time ago, was now spread over the pillows and on her shoulders. She’d even got the lips right. Cherry red.

Did he mention she was nude? Skin-baring, freckles-glaring, eyes-beckoning. And, man, was she beckoning, with that little Mona Lisa smile! But she was also embarrassed, he could tell by the way she blushed. Or was that a sexual flush heating her face and neck?

He’d thought to shock her with his sexual fantasies, but she’d hoisted him on his own . . . well, you know what. And he was glad of it!

His half hard-on went instantly hair-trigger, full tilt boogie hard and aching. He put a hand to himself. Slow down, Trigger, he told himself. He might have even said it out loud, so disoriented was he by this wonderful surprise. He had enough sense, though, to begin to pull his T-shirt over his head and toss it to the floor. He toed off his bath thongs and kicked them aside. One of them shot out the open French doors onto the balcony.

He was still frozen in place, just inside the doorway.

“Did I get it right?” she asked in a voice husky with what he hoped was arousal. Her nipples were erect if that was any indication. Delicious pink nubs atop mounds the size of grapefruit halves. Just right.

The red curls between her thighs seemed to glisten with moisture. But that might be due to the flickering candlelight, or wishful thinking on his part.

“Perfect,” he said in an equally husky voice, and no doubt at all that his was due to arousal, which became apparent when he shoved down his shorts and briefs together to puddle at his feet. If she had any doubts, she could tell by the erection that sprang forth. Full-blown, vein-popping, bead-showing arousal.

He stepped further into the room and slammed the door shut with a bare foot. They probably heard the sound all the way to Lafayette. The sound of a man crossing the line.

“If you keep gawking at me, I’m going to die of embarrassment.” She groaned. “This is a bad idea.”

“No, it’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time.” He took several more steps ’til he was almost at the foot of the bed. He studied her body with fascination. Truly, Samantha had a body like no other woman. Maybe it was the freckles against the creamy skin. Maybe it was her long legs and small waist. Maybe it was the good parts . . . her perfect breasts, her nest of red curls, her full red lips, or her green eyes that sparked resistance even as she surrendered to him.

She closed her eyes and said, “Turn around so I can crawl out of bed and go hide in a closet.”