Read [Bayou Gavotte 03.0] Heart of Constantine for Free Online

a quick checkup, here and now. “I’m not really afraid of him. He was actually quite considerate.” When he wasn’t trying to scare her away or kissing the hell out of her.
    If anything, she was afraid
for
him. His life had been a series of catastrophes for the past two years, and yet he’d encouraged her to offer him up to the hostile world on a platter. Why? It would mean total ruin of his already disastrous career. Suspected murder might be titillating, vigilante brutality might seem justified, but rape? Nobody but pervs would go for that.
    It hit her then: He didn’t care about his career.
You’re dead
, the reporter had said, and Constantine had agreed. The reporter had meant career-dead, but had Constantine meant…
dead
dead?
    It made sense. Several months ago, he had appeared to attempt suicide, although afterward he’d told the media it was just a joke. Today, his aura had clearly revealed his emotional anguish, a ghastly mixture of bitterness, anger, and pain. He expected betrayal. How would it be to live like that? Maybe he really did want to die.
    She couldn’t let him. “I will not throw him to the jackals,” she said. “It’s too late for that anyway, even if I wanted to, which I don’t. They believe I’m sleeping with him.”
    “Only because you said you were.” Because she’d kissed him, too, but she hadn’t mentioned that to Lavonia. She still didn’t know what to think of it herself.
    Oh,
God
, what a kiss. She’d never felt hunger like that before, never been so enmeshed in another’s aura. Never
participated
like that, never felt such a sensation of enjoying and being enjoyed.
    If he was so eager to get rid of her, why kiss her like that? Any woman with enough breath to run would hurry back for more. As for the image of their naked bodies writhing together that had surged into her head just before she drove away…
    “What got into you?” Lavonia said. “It’s one thing to like his music, but you’re acting like a silly little fan-girl.”
    “So because I’m a fan, I shouldn’t help him?” Marguerite huddled inside the throw. “He needed rescuing from that jerk of a reporter. I had no choice.”
    Lavonia rolled her eyes. “Maybe the rumors about his telepathic abilities are true. Maybe he planted that idea in your head. Tantric sex, my foot!”
    “It was a great idea, and the credit is all mine.” It was also completely uncharacteristic; she’d pretty much given up on sex ages ago, both thinking and doing.
    On the other hand, if she thought about having sex with Constantine, she might finally warm up to the idea.
    “I’ve always wondered if the rumors were true,” Marguerite said. “It’s one of the reasons I came to Bayou Gavotte—because I wanted to see him in person. Not that I expectedmeeting him to prove anything, but because, in a way, I owe him.”
    “Owe him? For what?”
    Marguerite heaved a sigh. Lavonia probably wouldn’t go for this either. “You know the story of how he supposedly sent telepathic messages to a corrupt cop, scaring him into killing himself?”
    “Yes, I know the story. That cop was a jerk who deserved to die, but I don’t know whether I believe Constantine had anything to do with it.”
    “I don’t know either. But—and don’t tell anyone this, please—that cop was my uncle, and he wasn’t just a corrupt, violent police officer. He was also a pedophile. Don’t tell me how I know—it’s a long story—but I was afraid he would get to my little sister. So if Constantine did cause his death, then he saved my sister, and I owe him.”
    Lavonia huffed. “Even if the story is true, Constantine did it for vengeance. It had nothing to do with saving your sister.”
    “Not directly, but it prevented my uncle from hurting anyone else, and I can’t help but be grateful.”
    “
That’s
why you made a fool of yourself this morning?”
    Oh, hell, she didn’t know. Her mind was such a muddle.
    Fortunately, Lavonia didn’t need an