Under the Bayou Moon by Gynger Fyer Page A

him, and beg him to have her for lunch. It was crazy, it was insane, but something about him had her twisted in knots, and at the moment she was more than willing to put on the straitjacket.
    “I guess I can do it. As long as you don’t think this means I’m going to stay.”
    “Don’t worry, I heard you loud and clear. But just so you know, I’m not going to make it easy on you.”
    That Cajun accent coupled with the downright sexy look in his eyes had her squirming in her chair with her legs crossed. It was going to be a long day.

Chapter Six
    Jacques paced the spacious living room of the home his family kept in the Old French Quarter, or as the locals called it, Vieux Carre. It was spacious and decorated in a relaxed yet modern style. His mother had welcomed Angel nearly an hour ago, and the two were now upstairs doing whatever women did.
    She’d been quiet since they’d left VingtEt Un. It killed him that he couldn’t put her at ease about meeting her parents and going through the ceremony. The look on her face when he told her about the mating ritual made his gut twist. For the millionth time, he cursed the Monreuxes. If they’d exchanged Angel as planned, he would’ve been raised with her. Their connection would have been absolute. They would have performed their mating engagement at eighteen, which was common among gator shifters in his pod. Then they would have had their official mating ceremony. By now they might have been on their second or third hatchling.
    Just the idea of Angel carrying his seed made his heart quicken. Mine . He heard his gator growl. If he were back in Lafayette, he would have rushed home and gotten into the water, allowing his gator to burn off some steam while gliding through the calm waters of the bayou. Right now Jacques felt like a time bomb waiting to explode. He wanted Angel, but he was sure he’d scare her if he got too close right now. No, what she needed was someone who’d quiet her fears about meeting her parents and performing the engagement, not some over-sexed mate wanting to claim her as his own. He knew she was nervous about meeting her parents. So nervous, in fact, that she hadn’t asked him a single question about the engagement ceremony.
    “She’s perfect!”
    His mother sailed into the room like a hurricane. Jacqueline Bertrand was in her late fifties. She was tall and curvy and her hair was a beautiful strawberry blonde, which she kept cut in a short hairstyle his father had often called “sassy”. She was wearing black slacks and a black and white striped sweater that made her blonde hair stand out even more.
    “To tell you the truth, when I saw her, I thought I was seeing her mother Sofia. She looks like her twin. I know it’s formality to check her, but like I told her, anyone looking at her can tell she’s Tom and Sofia’s hatchling.”
    “I told her about having her markings checked and about the engagement ceremony.”
    “I already know. She asked me about it. I told her what to expect in both cases.”
    “Don’t you think that’s something her mother should have had the privilege of doing?”
    “Well, Jacques, what would you have me do, stick my head in the sand and let the woman go into this thing blind? I laid it out for her. I wanted her to know why it’s important for her to be checked tonight, especially with Henri and Diane Dubois present. I swear that Diane Dubois can be like a barracuda at times. She’s your mate, so she needs to get used to the tedious formalities of being the mate of a sovereign bull. And one of those tedious formalities is dealing with ‘the mouth of the south.’ It’s not always easy being the sovereign cow of the Lafayette pod.”
    Jacques gave a brief grin at the moniker she’d given to the sovereign cow of the Orleans pod.
    “Mom, Angel’s been through a lot in the past few weeks. When I told her about her family, she was happy, but I can tell she was upset too. I don’t want her worrying