“You better go to confession, Luc. Right now. Father Phillipe will give you a penance of fifty Hail Marys, for sure.” Fifty seemed like an extremely high number to her. The most she ever got was three.
“I’ll just add it to the hundred from last week, then,” he said with a shrug and an I-gotcha wink.
Luc was swaggering now toward Mary-Louise Delacroix, who had the distinction of being the only girl in sixth grade with noticeable breasts. Mary-Louise smiled at Luc as if he was a sweet beignet.
“I hate you, Luc,” Sylvie called tearfully to his back. His step faltered, and she saw his ears grow pink. “I really do.”
Just before he reached Mary-Louise, Luc turned, his black eyes dancing mischievously. And he mouthed a silent message to her. “Naked dancing.”
From that day forward, Lucien LeDeux became the plague of Sylvie Fontaine’s life.
Chapter One
Houma, Louisiana, 1999
Samson was a stud, no doubt about it.
With his usual raw animal magnetism, he stepped through the low doorway, then reared up, bracing a shoulder against the glass wall. Nostrils flaring and body quivering with tension, he surveyed the far corner where his “harem” huddled together in fear.
Or was it anticipation?
Immediately, his beady eyes honed in on one female… Delilah. She was nibbling on a tiny red jelly bean. It mattered not that her mousy brown hair stood up in spikes, unlike the renowned beauty of her namesake. Or that she darted her head this way and that, seeking escape… a clear contradiction to the famed Biblical siren who supposedly craved sexual attention. At the same time, her timid glance kept returning to Samson. Clearly, she was attracted, despite herself.
Samson was not so shy. His widespread stance and outthrust pelvis sent a message as old as time; I am male. I am aroused. And I want you. There would be no escape for Delilah, Not from this glass-walled prison. Not from the scurvy rat who would have his way with her.
But Samson was a cool dude. He didn’t force his attentions on any female. He didn’t have to. Snagging her gaze, Samson held his prey transfixed… the first step in eroding her defenses. Then he waited.
Delilah made a little squealing sound of protest, but couldn’t seem to break the eye contact. It was as if she were under some spell. Nervously, she gulped down her jelly bean, followed by two more, a yellow and a green. Gradually her body relaxed, and her eyes dilated with some strong emotion. The only thing missing from her surrender was the white flag.
Samson moved forward slowly, cutting Delilah from the pack. Every movement he made, from narrowed eyes to self-assured body movements, bespoke a fever pitch of sexual arousal. Delilah was becoming equally affected, a shivering mass of excitement, the closer he got.
Acting swiftly, Samson pounced on Delilah, giving her no chance for second thoughts. Without foreplay, he mounted her and was soon thrusting frantically, as if he had not done this a hundred times before. As if they would get no other chance to repeat the ecstasy.
Then, when they were both exhausted with sexual satiety and the door to Delilah’s “prison” swung open providing a means of escape, Delilah did the strangest thing. Instead of darting for freedom, she cuddled next to Samson and nuzzled his neck. The victim was staying with her seducer, by choice, even after the fever had passed. It was almost as if Delilah loved Samson. Amazing! Amazing… because Samson really was a rat.
“I did it! I did it!” Dr. Sylvie Fontaine shrieked with exhilaration. “Move over, Viagra. Here comes JBX… ‘The Jelly Bean Fix.’ ”
Her best friend, Blanche Broussard, stood with her arms crossed over her chest, shaking her head at what she must consider an overexuberant reaction on Sylvie’s part to a mere scientific experiment. Mere? There was nothing mere about this. It was so much more… the breakthrough of the century!
Sylvie had just run the hundredth trial run on her JBX project… the hundredth successful trial run. Despite her methodical, time-consuming analyses, she was still stunned at the fact staring her in the face… through two sets of beady, sex-glazed eyes.