Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #1)(69)

Luc rolled on a condom, gathered her in his arms, then kissed her deeply. Holding her face in his hands, he entered her. She gasped as he filled her and gently bit the soft flesh of his neck. Luc groaned and increased his stroke both in speed and length. She dug her nails into his back, clinging to him like a drowning woman, as he entered her over and over, each stroke better than the last, until she felt the fire building to an inferno.

“Oh God, Luc,” she started, then couldn’t continue.

Luc held her tighter and drove deeper. As her body clutched around him, they moved together again and again until she climaxed, pushing him over the edge with her.

They clung to each other for a while, neither of them wanting to move. Then Luc moved back enough to lower his lips to her again. “You are the most incredible woman,” he whispered and kissed her again.

Maryse smiled as he finished the kiss. “I’d have to say that incredible thing works both ways. I don’t think I can move my legs.”

Luc laughed and drew her close to him again. “Then I guess we’ll just have to stay here until you can.”

Maryse lay her head on his shoulder and tried to concentrate on breathing. She was beginning to think she might actually recover when the alarm went off, shrieking with a high-pitched whine. Maryse jumped off the desk in a panic, scanning out the windows for movement, and certain that any minute, she was going to have a heart attack. But hey, at least it removed the necessity of finding something to say during that uncomfortable period following post-coital recovery.

Luc yanked on his pants, ran to his desk, and pulled a 9mm out of his top drawer. “Get down and stay down,” he ordered, then left the office through the back door.

Maryse sank down onto the floor and slid around behind the desk, dragging her clothes with her as she went. She wiggled around on the cold, hard tile to pull on her yoga pants and T-shirt, then peeked around the desk and snagged her tennis shoes. These days she never knew when running might be called for.

Ready for action, she peeked over the top of the desk looking for a weapon, but the two best options were a stapler and a letter opener. Both required a proximity to the killer that she wasn’t really interested in achieving, but unless she wanted to scotch tape the killer’s hands together and mark the event on the calendar, the stapler and letter opener were her best options. She grabbed the two items and slid back down behind the desk.

She listened intently for any sound of Luc, but the alarm was so loud it drowned out everything. What had tripped it? And more importantly, what did they have planned for her?

And what was Luc doing toting around a gun, especially something like a 9mm?

Sure, most people that worked on the bayou carried some form of protection. Maryse had a 12-gauge and the pistol with the rubber bullets, but a 9mm? There wasn’t anything in the bayou requiring that kind of rapid fire to stop. Even an alligator would back off a gunshot in a heartbeat.

Her mind flashed back to Luc’s actions when the alarm went off—the way he crept down the hall, pressed flat against the wall. And when he’d left out the back door, it had been weapon first, just like in the movies. Except she got the feeling Luc wasn’t imitating a movie when he’d left. It appeared to be a natural reaction from someone who had been through that same routine over and over again. Which made no sense at all for a zoologist.

But made all the sense in the world for a cop.

Chapter Fifteen

It was probably only five minutes before Maryse heard the back door creak open, but it felt like hours. She peered between the cracks of the desk and tried to see who had entered the office. She clutched her weapons and made the hasty decision that if the bad guy found her hiding place, she would stab him in the crotch with the letter opener, then staple his eyes. It was the best she could come up with.

When she heard Luc’s voice yelling from down the hall, she let out a huge sigh of relief. She crawled out from under the desk and had just achieved a standing position when Luc ran into the office.

“Are you all right?” he asked and did a hurried check of the room, gun still firmly gripped in his right hand.

“Was anyone out there?”

Luc frowned. “No. But they could have gotten away before I made it outside.”

Maryse nodded. “So what do you think happened?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out.” He pulled out his cell phone and pushed in a number.

Whoever was on the other end of the call must have been sitting with the phone already at hand because Luc spoke as soon as he finished dialing. “Did you get anything?” he asked.

Maryse stared at him for a moment. She’d assumed he was calling the police, but that question didn’t sound like anything you’d start with when calling 911.

Luc was quiet for a couple of seconds, then clenched his jaw. “I see,” he said, and flipped the phone shut.

“Who was that?” Maryse asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

Luc picked his gun up off the desk and shoved it in the waistband of his jeans, then strode to the front office window and peered between the blinds. “We’ve got to get out of here,” he said, ignoring her question.

“Why? Who did you call? What did they say? What’s going on, Luc?”

“Later,” Luc said, and opened the storage closet. On the top shelf sat computer and a monitor, flashing alternating pictures of each side of the outside of the office. Luc pulled a flash drive from the CPU and slid it into his jeans pocket.