“I thought Terrebonne Pharmaceuticals made birth control and hormone replacement pills.”
“They do. This is a… um, special experiment. But we haven’t started the human trials yet.”
“Special? Human?” His head cocked in puzzlement as he watched her face redden again, and she avoided his eyes. “Aha! You’re going to be one of the experimentees, aren’t you? Whooee! Sylvie Fontaine taking a love potion! And, man, you wouldn’t want news of this to get out any too soon, right?” A rush of exhilaration ran through his veins, just like when he had a good hand in bourré and knew he was going to win the game. Sylvie Fontaine didn’t know it, but she was going to help him and the shrimp fishermen. Or else…
The possibilities were endless… and surprisingly tantalizing.
“Project heads often volunteer to be their own ‘guinea pigs.’ And it will be a long time before this product is ready for market. That’s the only reason Terrebonne Pharmaceuticals wouldn’t want a premature announcement of our tests.” Her eyelashes fluttered as she spoke.
She was a rotten liar. He kind of liked that about her. “I don’t understand why you would be working on a love potion. And by the way, are you the only one I’m going to be lusting… oops, I mean loving? I’m not gonna be in rut for every woman I meet, am I? That could be really time-consuming, and I have a date with some crawfish down on the bayou.”
Her shoulders slumped, and he almost regretted his vulgar taunting. Almost.
“Luc, why do you talk to me like that? You’ve been doing it for years and years. What have I ever done to you?”
” ‘Cause you’re so uppity-uppity, always looking down your nose at me.” And you react so quickly to the least little jab.
“I am not. I do not.”
“Mais oui, you do. Not that I care.”
She raised her brows in disbelief. “In answer to your question, no, you won’t be attracted to just any woman. Only me.”
“Well, isn’t that convenient?”
“The jelly beans you ate had my enzymes in them.” She put up a halting hand when he was about to make another smart remark. “If I’d put your enzymes in a neutral set of specially prepared jelly beans and I ate them, then the process would be reversed.”
“Enzymes?”
She shrugged. “Enzymes can be obtained in lots of ways, or simply by taking a tiny drop of saliva.”
“Yech! I ate your spit?”
“Luc, that’s the least of your problems.”
Her words were beginning to sink in, which raised more questions. He narrowed his eyes at her. “Who are the males who are gonna be sucking up love potions with you in this little human test run?”
She jutted out her chin stubbornly.
“I have a right to know, dontcha think?”
She refused to budge.
He tried to think. Houma and the bayou region were a vast network of gossip grapevines. A guy couldn’t piss in his own toilet without the entire parish counting the drops. Luc figured Terrebonne Pharmaceuticals wouldn’t be bringing in outsiders for this experiment. It would probably be men within the company, in order to preserve secrecy. And he didn’t care what Sylvie said, secrecy would be important. He couldn’t think of anyone… except. . . no, that was impossible. “Your boss,” he guessed.
Sylvie’s cheeks immediately turned bright red.
He clapped his knee with glee at the absurdity of the situation. “Don’t try to deny it, chère. I can see the truth on your face.”
“Oh, all right. Charles Henderson will be one of the participants,” she confessed hesitantly. “But don’t you tell anyone.”
Like anyone would believe me! Once he snapped his gaping mouth shut, he burst out laughing. He couldn’t help himself. “You’re giving a love potion to a gay man? Talk about!”
“Gay? Gay?” she shrieked, and his ears started ringing again. “He’s not gay.”
“Honey, Chuckie boy is one-hundred-percent lah-di-dah. I guar-an-tee.”
“How do you know? Are you gay? Oh, this has got to be the worst thing you’ve ever said to me. The worst.”
“I’m not gay,” he said with affront. “But I have gay clients.” Well, he’d had one gay client two years ago… a female impersonator at a gay nightclub in Lafayette, The Blue Lily.