DutyBoundARe (2 page)

She jerked her coat on, slung her backpack over her shoulder and stalked out of the café, striking off toward the bus stop.

On her own. Again.

She glanced behind her, peering into the shadows out of habit. She hated the way Seth made her feel like a stalked animal. There was no logical explanation for the belief he was on her trail, and yet she knew he was out there. Waiting for the moment she let her guard down.

The doorbell jangled and she started at the sudden noise.
Silly girl
.

“Lisette. Lisette, wait,” Mathieu called after her.

She paused on the curb and watched him jog toward her, zipping up his leather jacket. He stopped under the street lamp and stared down at her. She wasn’t looking to become someone else’s problem, just someone to have her back for the moment.

The light cast his face into shadow, disguising his features. It was probably for the best. She had a serious problem when it came to falling for the bad boys, and though Mathieu walked the path of honor, there was something deliciously dark about him. And she didn’t mean the shade of his skin. It was something else, something she’d wondered about since her horizons had opened up.

She’d loved him once. Their relationship had been a flash in the pan, but he’d been her first. She doubted he’d approve of her lifestyle now, much like her family, but she didn’t need his blessing, just his muscle.

“The sixth, you said?”

“Yeah.” She turned to face him fully, ignoring the urge to glance over her shoulder.

“Do you like dogs?”

What kind of question is that?

“I do.”

“Good. Gator’s friendly and takes it personally when people don’t like him.” He flipped his collar up and glanced down the street.

“Gator?” She blinked at him.

“Yeah, my dog, Gator. You can stay with me for a while. I’ll see if I can track down Seth, but that’s it.”

Lisette gaped at the man.

Was he serious?

A tiny thread of hope shot through her. No more watching her back. A place to stay that couldn’t be linked to her financially. She couldn’t ask for more.

“Yes, I’m serious.” He spread his hands. “You taking me up on it, or not?”

Had she accidentally spoken out loud? Didn’t matter. All that did was a safe place to sleep.

“Well, yeah. Thank you. Really, thank you, Mathieu.” She could kiss the man. Hell, that didn’t sound like a half-bad plan, but he wasn’t ready for her. At least, he didn’t think so.

Lisette froze with a piece of bread
poised over the skillet, holding her breath as someone stopped outside Mathieu’s apartment. She’d spent the whole day jumping whenever footsteps echoed past. This time, the lock scraped and the door swung inward. She exhaled, soaking up Mathieu’s presence like a balm.

“What kind of a person doesn’t have internet?” She turned toward the front door as it closed. The sight of him hit her in the solar plexus. There was no preparing for him and the way being in his space brought up all her old questions and desires. But mostly, he made her feel safe. She’d had her first night of uninterrupted sleep, no startling awake or lying frozen in place from imagined sounds.

Mathieu paused taking off his coat, his gaze flicking over her, ignoring the dog wiggling its whole body at his feet. “Good afternoon to you, too.”

“Hi. What’s up with no wifi?” Lisette dropped the bread onto the skillet and nudged it over to make room for more. She’d spent a handful of hours in his space and already she craved his presence.

“I don’t need it.” Mathieu bent and scratched Gator behind the ears, muttering something for the dog alone. “When did you get tattoos?”

The skin on the back of Lisette’s neck prickled. Maybe it was the inflection in his voice, or maybe she was just sensitive about it. Either way, she sucked in a deep breath and finished toasting the bread for their lunch. According to Mathieu he only had so long before he needed to get back to work.

“Six years ago, I think. How old am I?” She paused to do the math. At twenty-nine, she’d had her left arm wrapped, from shoulder to elbow, in a colorful bouquet of flowers for a while. “No, five years.”

“What are you making?” Mathieu stepped into the galley kitchen and peered over her shoulder.

“Sandwiches, but I’m toasting them. Sort of like a poor man’s Panini. You still like ham and Swiss, right?” She flipped the bread onto a plate. There was something about the act of cooking for someone else she flat-out enjoyed.

“Uh, yeah.” He leaned against the refrigerator, watching her with Gator sprawled on the floor between them. The space was crowded, but comfortable. But a person wouldn’t assume that from the expression creasing Mathieu’s face.

She scooped out a bit of pesto from a jar she’d found in his pantry, layered the sandwich with spinach, Swiss, and ham. The secret was returning the sandwich to the skillet for just a moment so the cheese got to the ooey-gooey-yummy consistency.

“What’s up with the serious face?” she asked, glancing at him as she moved both their sandwiches to the skillet.

“I’ll wait till you’re done,” he replied.

“Okay.” She shrugged and kept her attention on the skillet.

“Gator been out lately?”

“I took him out about half an hour ago.” He’d mentioned that he came home during lunch to walk Gator and eat, but with the impending rain she’d taken the chance when it presented itself to get the dog out for a while.

Mathieu lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. She didn’t know what he made working as a detective, but she’d expected someplace a little nicer than the third floor walk-up in an old, refurbished brick building with shutters tacked on outside the windows and a balcony about to fall off the wall. It wasn’t so much the place he lived as the feel of being with him that had unnerved her.

It was nice. Pleasant even.

Mathieu might give her the silent treatment, but there was something else, something unspoken that gave her the sense of safety, of being wrapped in a warm blanket.

She’d slept in his bed last night, surrounded by his scent and his things. For the first time in weeks she hadn’t started awake, certain that whatever sounds she heard were Seth coming to get her.

Lisette pulled the sandwiches out of the skillet as the cheese began to puddle on the bottom of the pan. She plopped them down on the finest of paper plates. The man really was living the bachelor life, it would seem.

“Here we go.” She handed him the bigger sandwich with a smile and flipped the burner off.

Mathieu’s gaze flicked over hers, and for the fraction of a second it felt as if the earth stopped spinning. He rocked her world and didn’t even know it.

Lisette gave herself a little shake and gathered her sandwich and a glass of tea before joining him on the sofa. There wasn’t even room for a dinette set in the apartment, which was a crying shame.

She settled in on the worn sofa, folding her legs underneath her. Gator stared up at her with sad, brown eyes.

“Stop begging, you hog,” Mathieu snapped, but there was no heat in his voice.

Gator trotted to the other end of the couch and repeated his begging attempt with another audience. Mathieu grumbled and pulled a tidbit of ham from his sandwich, covered in cheese and pesto.

Big softie.

She bit into her sandwich before she said it.

“Did you sleep alright?” Mathieu nudged Gator toward his bed.

“I did.” She’d almost slept through Mathieu’s alarm. Instead, she’d woken as he opened the bedroom door, tip-toeing across the squeaky floorboards in nothing but his boxers. She’d watched him through narrowed eyes. There were scars where he’d once had smooth flesh, signs of a life lived on the edge.

“Good.” He tapped his foot and still refused to look at her.

“What’s going on with the nervous act?”

Mathieu slashed his gaze toward her, brows drawing down. He wasn’t the only one who used his powers of observation.

He sighed and placed the sandwich back on his plate. “I dug around in the recent cases at the station. How long have you been in New Orleans?”

“A week and a few days. Why?” She nibbled on the corner of her sandwich without tasting it.
No. No. No.

“Nothing for sure, just keeping my eyes open.” And yet he still wouldn’t look at her. It was getting damn annoying.

“Okay, what did you find?”

His mouth twisted up and he stared at the coffee table. “Just an assault case. Woman didn’t know the man and the guy got scared off by a pair of college students. Nothing that sounds like what Seth did to you.”

Her gut screamed,
It’s him!

Did she know that for sure?

She couldn’t. There was no way of telling if Seth had followed her to The Crescent City or not. Except she felt it. He was there, waiting for her.

Lisette shook her head, aware that Mathieu was watching her.

“He can’t find you here,” Mathieu said, his voice low.

“You’re right. He can’t.” She smiled, more for him than her.

Now, if she could just believe Mathieu.

“If you don’t have internet, any idea where I could go to use it?” Lisette had been away from New Orleans for so long her old haunts were gone, destroyed in the wake of Katrina.

“Don’t most cafés offer it now?”

“You seriously don’t use the internet?” Lisette was a complete social media junkie. She’d pulled the plug after Chicago on everything except her website, where she was the anonymous owner of Kinky Girl Blogs. Even the other bloggers didn’t know her identity. Considering the nature of what they all blogged about, it was safer that way.

“Why would I need to? I’ve got an email at work. If anyone needs to talk to me, they can just call me.” Mathieu continued to munch on his sandwich.

Lisette shook her head.

Unbelievable.

She hadn’t met anyone under about fifty who didn’t have at least an email and Facebook account. The entire concept was a little strange to her, but she had to remember she was a transient in Mathieu’s life. He didn’t want her there for long.

“Can I ask you a question?” Lisette shifted to face him, bobbing her foot off the couch. Gator took it as an invitation and leaned over to lick the soles of her feet. The muscles in her calves constricted at the alien feel of dog tongue.

Mathieu glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He wanted to tell her no, it was written all over his face. She bet that if it was possible, she’d be gagged and in the closet, but he wasn’t that kind of person. Too bad.

“You’re going to ask me no matter what I say, so get it over with.”

“True, but I thought I’d at least ask your permission.”

“Go ahead.”

She bit her lip for a moment. Did she want to know? Being near Mathieu had brought all the unresolved tension back up, as if they’d split yesterday, not eight years ago.

“Why did you break up with me?” Lisette shoved her sandwich in her mouth despite the churning in her stomach.

Chapter two

Memories

Mathieu turned to face her. He should have seen this one coming a mile away. Those memories were better left under lock and key. He’d been at the beginning of a journey back then, and Lisette had stumbled into his path. They should have never been, but he’d wanted her. Time hadn’t changed it, but maybe explaining it to her would help get his head where it needed to be. Off her sweet little ass and back on the case.

“Because my sister told me to.”

Lisette blinked at him. She set her sandwich on the plate in her lap and pushed Gator away before he could steal the remains.

“Let me get this straight.” She cleared her throat and her gaze narrowed. “You broke up with me in college because Lola told you to?”

“Yes.” It sounded ridiculous, but Lola had been spot on. She always was.

“Do you care to explain why?” Lines marred her brow and her voice rose.

Mathieu estimated he was about five seconds from an angry woman melt down. It might be easier to deal with Lisette angry at him, not making his bed and fixing lunch. Except she could call Lola for the rest of the story, so either she heard it from him or her.

“Not really, but I guess I don’t have a choice. On the surface, I’m a black man from a lower middle class family. You’re a white woman from a well-to-do family. I seriously doubt your parents would be okay with you dating me.”

“I never cared about that,” she said vehemently. Color rose on her cheeks and Gator reacted to her rising anger by pushing up and searching for an offender.

Damn dog already thought she was his.

“I never said you did. I said your family did. I didn’t break up with you for that reason, but it did occur to me that I did us both a favor.”

“Then what’s the real reason?”

Mathieu studied Lisette. There was a fire inside her that hadn’t been there before. Oh, he’d felt the embers, but she hadn’t been quite so spunky at nineteen. Or had she been twenty? He couldn’t remember.

“You were a good girl and I was a bad boy. I cared about you, but I didn’t care what being with me would do to you. Lola saw where I was headed and she didn’t want to see you hurt.” Truth be told, Mathieu would be hard-pressed to like himself if he’d taken her down that path with him.

The woman he dated before Lisette had introduced him to kink in the manner of restraints and breath play. It had all been so new he hadn’t known how to talk to Lisette about it, and he had no business experimenting with someone so innocent and sweet. BDSM was a rough world, and he doubted she was cut out for that. For him.

“That is a load of utter bullshit.” Lisette pushed to her feet, taking her plate and, therefore, Gator with her to the kitchen.

It was what he’d give her. The truth was too much to trust to anyone now.

“I’ve got to run. Try one of the cafés for internet. I’ll be back late tonight.” His phone buzzed right on time.

Mathieu slipped out of the door and locked it behind him. He didn’t like leaving Lisette angry with him, but he wouldn’t begrudge the wedge keeping them apart.

He jogged down the stairs, the chilly, humid air seeping into his clothing and weighing him down.

In the parking lot beside the building, his old partner sat in a cruiser, engine idling. He slipped into the passenger side seat, folding his large frame in around the computer equipment mounted to the dash.