Training Rain (9 page)

Jess had dropped Rain’s hand to hug his uncle, but he
reached for her again. She didn’t say anything, but he could practically hear
her peppering him with questions. He answered his uncle. “Not yet.”

Bebe’s face was a bit more lined than the last time Jess had
seen him. The skin sagged a bit more around his mouth and jaw and a deep frown
creased it even more. “Don’t you go leavin’ to do what you do without you go
see your momma first.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. Now introduce me to your pretty lady.”

He tightened his grip on her hand and she took a half-step
forward. She smiled at his uncle. “Beauregard Boudreaux, I’d like you to meet
Rain Silver.
Cher,
this is my uncle, Bebe.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Boudreaux.” Rain let go of
Jess’ hand to shake his uncle’s.

He pulled her in for a quick hug. “You just call me Bebe or
Uncle Bebe. We’re all family here. No need to stand on ceremony.”

She blushed the most beautiful shade of dark peach. “Thank
you.”

“Do you think you have room in here to feed us, Uncle Bebe?”
Jess asked.

He was already nodding before Jess even had a chance to
finish asking the question. The restaurant was crowded with people, many of
whom were avidly watching the family reunion. “Always room, always room. You go
sit down at the table in the back and I’ll get ya’ll sometin’ to eat. Don’t you
worry now.”

Jess nodded at some of the people he vaguely recognized. He
heard a lady off to the left say, “Dats Amalee’s boy.”

Mostly locals and a few tourists made up the diners. Jess
did as Bebe had commanded and led Rain to a small table in the back of the
restaurant.

She didn’t waste any time. “Your uncle owns this restaurant
and you didn’t think you might mention that before we walked in?”

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure what kind of greeting I would
get. I haven’t been back for a few years.” His gut twisted.

“Jessé?”

“My Christian name.”

“I like it.” She relaxed her stiff posture and gave him a
sweet smile. “It would seem your family is happy to see you. Will you go see
your parents?”

“I said I would.”

“And you always do what you say?” He hated the doubt that
clearly laced her words.

“When it comes to my family, I keep my word.”

“And everyone else?”

He shrugged. It would be a lie to say he was honest. He was
a spy—lying, cheating and even stealing were often required actions of his job.

“I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair.”

He was about to tell her she was perfectly right to believe
he would and had lied to her but Bebe bounded out of the kitchen door with a
platter full of food and carefully placed it on the table. “I thought you might
be homesick for some good food. Not sure what you bin eaten out there in the
world, but I know it can’t compare to a good Cajun meal.”

“You’re right about that.” The smell of fried food and thick
gumbo swathed him in memories.

Bebe slapped him on the back and his laugh filled the room.
“I done brought you some boudin balls, fried caimon, red beans with rice and
gumbo. I’m fryin’ up some bram now and we bring that to you with a nice ponchartrain
sauce.”

“
Ca c’est bon
, Uncle Bebe.”

“Good to see you, boy.
Bon appetit
.” His uncle beamed
down at them and then rushed off to talk to some of his customers.

Jess looked across at Rain who was staring down at the
plates of food with a slightly terrified look on her face. “What is boo dan?”

She pronounced it as if it were two words, but she was
close. Jess pointed to the round, fried balls. “Boudin is a kind of sausage but
with a lot of rice and spice in it.”

“And caimon?”

He shrugged. “Alligator.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Should I even ask about bram?”

He laughed. “Eggplant. They bread it, fry it and then
smother it in the most delicious seafood cream sauce you’ve ever tasted.”

Her eyes widened. “Well, when you put it that way, it sounds
much better.”

“Try the alligator bites. You’ll like it.” He pointed to the
small breaded and fried strips of white meat that actually tasted similar to
chicken.

That’s exactly what Rain said when she took her first bite
and they both laughed.

Bebe returned near the end of the meal. He placed a plate
filled with beignet and three cups of chicory-laced coffee down on the table
before he pulled over a chair and sat down. The restaurant was still busy, but
not quite as packed. He turned to Rain. “You know Jessé worked right here in
this kitchen when he was a boy. He’s a fine cook in his own right.”

“No, I had no idea.”

A knot started in Jess’ gut. There was no stopping his uncle
once he got started with the storytelling.

“Oh yes. He’s a fine cook. I thought for a while he might
want to take over this place one day, but he was meant for other things. Better
things.”

Jess gripped the other man’s arm where it lay on the table.
“Not better, Uncle Bebe, just different. There’s plenty of nights I wish I’d
stayed right here in this kitchen.”

The knot tightened and his uncle locked eyes with him and
nodded.

He turned once again to Rain, breaking the moment. “He was
quite the ladies’ man.”

“Uncle Bebe…” Jess tried to affect a warning tone.

Bebe ignored him. “Oh yes he was. He could convince all the
girls to run wit him. A silver tongue, the boy has. He talk anyone, not just
girls, into anything. One time he convinced the young deputy that old Thibodaux
was makin’ moonshine in the back of his restaurant. Had him so sure of it that
the poor boy staged a big raid on the kitchens. Of course it wasn’t true. Jessé
had just heard me complainin’ that Fin Thibodaux’s restaurant was taking our
business away.”

Jess laughed. “It took years for that deputy to live it down
and after he trashed the kitchen looking for proof, the police had to buy Mr.
Thibodaux a new one. In the end, everyone was happy. Our business picked up
during the renovations and they got a new kitchen.”

“And the deputy?” Rain asked.

Jess looked at his uncle and they both burst into laughter.
He couldn’t remember the last time he laughed so hard. “About five years later,
he was caught smuggling drugs out of the police evidence locker.”

“We never saw that boy again.”

“Did you know he was a bad cop when you
convinced
him
about Mr. Thibodaux?”

“I had my suspicions,” Jess admitted.

By the time they walked out of BeBe’s Kitchen his stomach
was completely full and he’d relived half his childhood. Surprisingly he felt
wonderful. He took Rain’s hand and they walked up Bourbon Street the way they’d
come. They turned at Saint Peter and made their way toward the park and the
river. Neither one of them spoke and the silence was comfortable. He loved the
idea that it had become easy between them to spend thirty minutes in each
other’s company and not fill the quiet with small talk.

When he started to feel a bit less stuffed with food, they
made their way back toward the rowdy Bourbon Street.

The soft, soulful strains of blues wafted into the street.
It was after ten and Bourbon Street was getting crowded. Throngs of tourists
flooded the streets in search of the New Orleans experience, exactly what he
wanted to give to Rain. It was as if he needed her to grasp his roots, to
understand him.

“What’s that?” She pointed toward a club on the other side
of the street. The sign said Randy’s Cabaret.

“Gentleman’s club.” It was a euphemism, but some of the
nicer strip clubs still used the title.

“I know you’re not a mind reader, but can you tell what I’m
thinking?”

He pushed what little gift of telepathy he had toward Rain.
Her arousal hit him as if it was a Mac truck. He looked over at the club and
back at her. Suddenly the idea of spending a nice evening listening to the
blues didn’t seem so exciting after all. “You want to go to a gentleman’s
club?”

“Is that a nice way of saying it’s a strip club?”

“It is.” He was getting aroused just by the idea of his
sweet Rain watching other women take off their clothes and give lap dances.

“Are women allowed to enter?”

“This is the Big Easy,
cher
. Women are not only
allowed, they are encouraged to do anything they want anywhere they want.”

He saw a moment of hesitation cross her face, but her
arousal still pulsated through the connection he’d established a moment before.

“Did you have your heart set on listening to music tonight?”

He tugged her hand and grabbed her around the waist, pulling
her hard against him. “I want you so turned on by the time we get back to the
apartment that I barely have to touch you to make you come the first time.”

That hitch in her breath again and he was painfully hard.
His cock demanded access, but he would endure it and enjoy the teasing for a
while longer. He watched her throat bounce up and down as she swallowed hard.
“Then you wouldn’t mind going in there with me?”

“No. I don’t mind one bit.” He gripped her tighter, making
sure she could feel how hot the idea made him.

Her eyes widened. “Or did you just want to go home?”

Jess chuckled at how quickly the feel of his hard cock had
made her waver. God he loved that. As tempting as it was, he shook his head and
led her across the street. A twenty-dollar cover charge for him got them in the
door. Ladies could enter for free.

In contrast to his uncle’s lively, cheerful restaurant,
Randy’s was dim and the slow, undulating music gave the entire place a sultry
feel. He kept his mind open to Rain. He knew she could feel it and she didn’t
seem to mind in spite of the fact that back in Yellowstone she had clearly not
wanted him in her head. He eased back the connection as the stage came into
view and he felt her interest pique.

She gripped his arm. “Stay.”

That confirmed she could most definitely feel the link. She
wasn’t telepathic, at least not with humans. Yet she’d known that he was
connected to her and she wanted him to stay. He opened his mind wide to her and
allowed her to experience how turned on he was just from the idea of coming in
here with her.

It was a high-end club with high-dollar people dressed to
the nines on a Friday night. The two of them were in jeans, but the hostess
didn’t seem to care as she led them over to a small table to the far right of
the dance floor. Jess hadn’t even had to use his psi skills to arrange a better
table.

The long catwalk stage had two poles, one at each end. At
the moment the poles were occupied by a pair of blondes wearing pink bras and
G-strings. They must have been twins or at the very least sisters. They
undulated in time with the slow beat of the music, which was not too loud. He
guessed they were just the between-acts entertainment. Lovely to look at, but
no real dance talent.

The waitress had curly red hair. She had on a black leather
skirt so short he could see the triangle of red panty as she approached the
table. Her small breasts were covered only by a matching red bra. “I’m Sharon,
there’s a one-drink minimum. What can I get you?”

Rain gazed at the waitress from her exposed panties to her
perky tits. “Bourbon neat, please.”

Jess had to close his eyes for a second while the wave of
Rain’s desire washed over him. He cleared his throat. “I’ll have the same.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, Sharon found Rain just as attractive.
Her eyes glazed over just a touch and she looked at him and blushed a bit.
Maybe she liked them both. The idea of having Rain and the waitress at the same
time was not nearly as erotic as the notion of watching Rain and Sharon
together.

Sharon turned and headed toward the bar. She looked back
once.

“I don’t know how long I can stay open to you,
cher
.
The naughty things dancing around in your head might be too much for me.”

“Do you want to have sex with Sharon?”

“No. I want to have sex with you. Though I wouldn’t mind
watching you and that pretty redhead rolling around in the sheets together. Have
you ever been with a woman?”

She nodded. If she’d slapped him across the face, he would
have been less surprised. “I was living in LA. I didn’t really see what the big
deal was.”

“So it didn’t turn you on?” He tried to keep the
disappointment out of his voice.

She got that adorable look on her face as she cocked her
head to one side and thought about what he asked. “I was aroused. I was also
wasted. It was an interesting experience, but I never thought about repeating
it.”

“I get the impression you were turned on by Sharon and you
might like to have sex with her.” His cock pressed harder against the stiff fly
of his jeans.

“I think I’m more interested in you watching than I am in
Sharon. She’s attractive and clearly interested, but she would only be a
plaything. I’m not sure I like the idea of that.”

He wanted to say more. There was so much to say, to ask, but
the music changed, grew louder. The matching blondes left the stage.

The stage lights dimmed to nearly total darkness. Rain
closed the distance between them on the banquet seat. Her leg pressed against
his. It wasn’t a particularly forward or sexy amount of contact, but he felt
her heat in every nerve. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her
just a millimeter closer.

A single spotlight illuminated the center of the catwalk.
One perfectly shaped leg the color of creamed coffee appeared in the light. She
was barefoot, unusual for a stripper. A shapely thigh followed and then a
curved hip. That the rest of her was still in shadow had the audience’s rapt
attention.

Rain’s hand slid along his thigh and settled just above his
knee. Somehow that light touch was erotic and the crotch of his jeans tightened
a bit more.