Angelique (11 page)

Chapter 7

“Hey, I hate to be the one to tell you the bad news, but someone told McCoy lumber that you’re behind on your payments with other contractors. They’re afraid to make the delivery of the other load of sheetrock and plywood we need to finish the job unless you pay seventy five percent of the cost up front,” Earl told Armand over the phone. Armand swore under his breath.

“Are you shittin’ me? What the hell is wrong with Marcus McCoy? He’s known my family for years. His damn father is friends with my dad and he knows we always pay our bills.” Armand raised his voice but he didn’t really yell. This had to be some kind of misunderstanding.

“I’ll call McCoy right now.” He hung up the phone, looked up McCoy number and the personal cell phone of Marcus McCoy.

As soon as Marcus’s voice came through the phone, Armand began to explain the situation.

“Yeah well, Armand, I have to be real careful. I’ve been stiffed out of money for deliveries a lot lately,” Marcus stated in his slow, thick Cajun accent. Armand could practically picture Marcus standing there in his dirty overalls and dark navy blue shirt, sliding his fingers up the suspenders while he held the phone in his other hand.

“You’ve known my family for ages. We pay our bills on time and before the due dates on most, so where the hell is this bullshit about us not paying coming from?” Armand asked.

“Beats the hell outta me, Armand. Listen, I’ll make that delivery today if you can pay half now.”

“I’ll give you the twenty percent that’s on the paperwork I signed when I ordered the load from you. Mark my words, Marcus, the Lafont family pays their bills, and a promise and a handshake go a long way.”

Armand heard Marcus release a sigh then accept Armand’s statement.

“I’ll be there later today. See ya then.”

Marcus hung up the phone, and Armand wondered what the hell this was all about? No one ever questioned their company’s ability to pay their bills. It had to be some sort of misunderstanding.

Being the one with the most business sense in the family, Armand Lafont had looked over the paperwork and blueprints for the continued construction of the Lafont children’s center. He was writing out some checks when he came across Marcel’s description of the damage to the main building where the truck had crashed. Immediately he felt the pounding in his chest and the anger build inside of him. Angelique could have been killed. How the hell did something like this happen? All their workers were qualified to handle every bit of operating equipment, and any volunteers wouldn’t have access to machinery. It just didn’t sit right with him, nor did it sit well with Eloi. He clenched his fists then took a deep breath. He tried to relax and concentrate on getting the work done so he could move on to other business. But then he thought of the look of fear on Angelique’s face and the minor scratches she had gotten. She was lucky, and those scratches had healed quickly. It could have been a lot worse.

As he thought about Angelique, he thought about his brothers. Each of them wanted her as much as he did. She admitted that she knew about ménage relationships but didn’t give any details. She also was successful in getting Eloi to smile, which wasn’t an easy task. He half laughed at that. Eloi was such a hard-ass. He was straight faced all the time and the most feared Lafont around, never mind lawman. He chuckled. Who would have thought a five-foot-five-inch woman would take him down a few notches? He had never seen Eloi so wrapped up before. He couldn’t even imagine how the sex was going to be. He felt the tightness in his chest. Eloi had never shown such an attraction to a woman. The four of them had never shared a woman at the same time, just one after the next in a bit of wild experimentation. Would they be able to do this? Was he going to be able to share Angelique with the rest of them? Was Eloi?
Fuck.

He never expected to find that perfect woman. He never expected to fall in love, and damn it, he was doing that already. He just knew it because he was never in love before. How the fuck could he fall in love with someone he hadn’t even had a date with or fucked yet!

Armand threw down the pen and stood up from his desk. He was pacing the room and feeling like a caged animal. What the hell was coming over him? In his mind he had flashbacks of Angelique hanging from the windowsill, Angelique with her top off as he and his brothers tended her wounds. He thought about how beautiful she looked when she exited their mama’s house with Remy and other men took notice and watched her. He thought about that jealous feeling in the pit of his stomach as she talked with those businessmen. He could feel the tightness and the jealousy all over again. Armand ran a hand through his hair. desperate for some control of these strong feelings. Suddenly he could smell the scent of her perfume, feel of her hot, wet pussy gripping his fingers, and taste her cream. Holy shit, he was obsessed with her.

He looked at the clock. Three o’clock, Monday afternoon, and he had yet to hear back from her. He’d called her in the morning and had gotten her voice mail. She didn’t call yet. What if she never did? What if she had a secret life wherever she came from? Was there another man, maybe a boyfriend she was with? Who had hurt her? Who struck her or made her distrust her own feelings and desires? What was she afraid of?
Fuck!
This was so unlike him. He was the levelheaded one. He was a boxer. He knew how to control his emotions and focus on the objective to win. He ran this business like a pro, just like the championship fighter he had been. If he could just hear her voice, he would calm down and stop overreacting. If he acted like this in front of Angelique, she would think he was some crazy lunatic. What the heck? The sound of his cell phone ringing saved him from further irrational thinking. He grabbed it off the desk and looked at the caller ID.
Eloi.

“Did you hear from her or what?” Eloi asked, sounding just as crazy as Armand felt.

Armand laughed. “You sound like I’m feeling right now. No. I haven’t heard from her yet, and I don’t like the ideas that are going through my head,” Armand replied.

“Well, I don’t like that report from the accident at the site none either. It doesn’t seem possible that no one saw a thing. She could have been killed, Armand.”

“I hear you, Eloi. I was looking the damage report over. It was an accident ’n’ she’s fine. We seen her, took care of her, and touched her, too.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the other thing bothering me. Why does she want to be so secretive? The way we all seduced her yesterday, she should still be in bed with one of us right now.”

Armand agreed, and he could hear the upset in his brother’s voice.

“I hate to admit this, but I think I got it bad for her,” Armand admitted. He and his brothers were close. They shared everything, and if they were going to share Angelique, then they would have to be honest and upfront.

“She must got da voodoo in ha’.”

Armand laughed.

“She has something in her that I want more of.”

“We should all meet before she comes tomorrow. It’s obvious she isn’t coming today.”

“It’s a Monday, bra. No one visits on a Monday because it’s bad luck.”

“I feel like I have bad luck already without her here. Could our luck get worse?”

“I suppose not. We meet tonight at the house after work. Hopefully she calls by then.”

“Later, bro.”

“Later,” Armand replied.

* * * *

Angelique was trying to focus on the conversation between her sisters Ellena and Angelina over their lunch. They were both involved in relationships that happened under crazy circumstances. Both men were jerks, but the Aubert sisters worried about being old maids and never meeting their Prince Charming. They would probably freak out about the ménage relationship and what she was going through right now. But she couldn’t talk to them about the Lafont brothers. Not yet anyway. It could be just a phase she was going through, or they could just want to fuck like most New Orleans men, and any men for that matter, liked to do. She thought about that most of the night, which kept her so hyped up and sexually aroused that she couldn’t relieve the need she had. Even her vibrator failed. She was doomed, and she knew it. Mama Cherise Laveau, the local voodoo woman, had passed by her on her way here and eyed her over. Oh yeah, the woman knew what she had been up to. Mama Cherise mumbled something to her about five hearts being stronger in danger than one.
What the hell did that mean?

She wanted to call Armand, Eloi, Marcel, and Remy. There wasn’t one she wanted to talk to more than the others, and that would mean a lot of time on the phone. She did have work to do. Her sisters had been insistent that they meet for lunch, but she just couldn’t focus.

“Hey, Angel, what is up with you?” Angelina asked, snapping Angelique out of her thoughts.

“Not a thing. I just have a lot of work to do, that’s all.”

“You get orders for that stuff you stocked up on in New Orleans?” Ellena asked as she took a sip from her tea.

She hated to lie to them about her online business, but she just wasn’t ready to face them with it. When she was financially successful, she would.

“Yeah. Got most of it sold.”

“That means another trip to the city?” Angelina asked.

“Yeah, probably Wednesday or so. Not sure about it yet.”

Just then, they heard some commotion going on in the street. The roar of engines coming from an ATV echoed in the streets. In a flash they saw Clovis Guidry driving the ATV, dragging his brother Gaston by a rope with a boogie board attached to it. Three other crazy guys followed doing the same thing. The women laughed as they watched the scene before them.

An hour later they decided to head back to work, and Angelique finally had a chance to look at her voice mails. As she drove home, she heard messages from all four Lafont men and five messages from customers and one of the men she met at Maw Maw Lafont’s party. They wanted to have lunch with her tomorrow in New Orleans to discuss Secret Pleasures. She was stunned because their conversation at the party seemed to focus around her personality and theirs. Maw Maw told her that these men were billionaires and only worked with people they got along with and felt a connection to. Her curiosity was getting the best of her as she wondered what they would discuss at lunch. Then she thought about the Lafont brothers. If she went to town again, then they would want to see her. She wasn’t sure what she was more nervous about. Seeing the men or having lunch with the business tycoons. Maybe she could push the lunch date off until Wednesday and take care of seeing the men at the construction site after she did the lunch meeting in town. If she could get these new orders finished between today and tomorrow, then she could do this.

Angelique called back the businessmen and set the lunch date for Wednesday. She would call Armand tonight. She figured they would all be at home around eight o’clock or so. Immediately she went to her house, lit some candles, and put on some light jazz music to begin sewing. She had a lot to do in twenty-four hours if she wanted to go to town on Wednesday.

* * * *

The Lafont men finished cleaning up from dinner then sat on the porch drinking beers and listening to the high-pitched sounds of insects in the night. The sky was clear and bright, and their conversation had remained on the same subject since supper. Angelique.

It was nearly eight thirty when Armand guzzled down his beer. “I don’t get why she hasn’t called yet. It’s making me crazy,” he admitted.

“She hasn’t called any of us back yet,” Remy offered, taking a slug from his bottle of beer.

“You really think she got some other man?” Marcel asked.

Numerous curses were exchanged throughout the porch.

Eloi shook his head. “There is no way she is involved with another man. And even if she did, he’s done now after us,” Eloi stated confidently.

“How do you know, Eloi?” Remy asked.

“It was all in the body language, Remy. She came really hard in my arms, and a woman can’t fake it that good,” Eloi stated.

“Yeah, and no woman who can fake kisses like that or orgasms like she had,” Armand added.

“Fuck, why do we have to start talking about this when she isn’t here?” Marcel complained, and they all grunted.

“Damn, we got it bad,” Armand admitted just as his cell rang. He looked at the caller ID and smiled at his brothers.

“Angelique?” Remy asked, and Armand nodded.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Armand, it’s Angelique.”

“Hey,” he replied, not wanting to show how happy he was that she had called.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you or your brothers back sooner, but I was behind in my work.”

“You could have called just to let us know you were okay. We were worried about you,” he told her. She was silent a moment.

“I’m sorry about that. Are your brothers there?”

“Yeah, they’re here, too, and just as upset that you didn’t call them.”

“I said I was sorry. I told you this was too much for me right now. I don’t know if I can handle it with business and all.”

His eyes widened as he tried to control his concern.

“Listen, sugar, there’s no pressure here. We just want to get to know you. We want to see you again. Are you coming to town tomorrow?” he asked, hoping she was.

“No. I have to work.”

“You promised to come back to us, Angel.”

“I got a lunch appointment Wednesday, and then I’m going to come volunteer at the site later in the day, okay?”

“What lunch date are you talking about and with whom?”

“I didn’t say date, Armand. I said an appointment, and it’s none of you business with who.”

“None of my business? You are my business and my brothers’ business, Angel. Who is it with?” Armand was losing his control. His brothers looked just as steamed.

“I told you that I had a life and I have to work, Armand. If you can’t understand that and respect my privacy, then this conversation is over.”

“I respect your privacy, but I don’t like being lied to. Is there someone else?” he asked.

“No. Listen, I have to go. I got another call coming in and more work to do if I want to head into town Wednesday. I’ll see you at the site.”

“Angelique, wait a minute. The others want to say hello.” He heard her frustration, but she said okay, and he handed his phone to Remy. He didn’t like the feeling he had. She was holding back, and he couldn’t sense if it was fear or uncertainty, or if she was playing them. It bothered him to think she wasn’t who she seemed to be.

Eloi didn’t talk to her. It was just Remy and Marcel who said a quick hello. Then they hung up and talked about what they thought was going on. By midnight they had enough beer in them to pass out, so they headed to bed.