Southern Secrets (The Southern Series Book 2) Read online

  “Okay, I get it. You seem to have some sort of connection to the previous owners. We’ll leave it alone, for now.” He grinned at me and kissed me once more before he guided me back toward the stairs.

  “Let me go down in front of you, so if you fall, I can catch you.” He pulled me down the steep flight of stairs as I held on to the belt loops on his jeans.

  At the bottom of the stairs we met Everett and his laptop.

  “I want to go back up and get a better look at those cribs, if you don’t mind, Bebe,” Everett asked.

  “Sure, but put it all back. I want to leave it for now.”

  Banton pulled me over on the couch, down onto his lap.

  “So, what did you do today, besides clean house? It’s all spic and span as usual. You work too hard. I wish you would let me hire someone to clean for us.”

  “No way. I love doing it myself. I know everyone thinks I’m weird, but I enjoy cleaning and working in the yard. I kind of got the cleaning gene from my mom, too,” I answered him as I played with his hair. “Sorry, I got kind of sidetracked with our little treasure hunt, and I haven’t thawed anything out for supper. Any suggestions?”

  “Let’s just order in. The weather’s turning nasty, so gumbo sounds good.”

  “Mmm. It does sound good. Build us a fire in the fireplace, and we’ll spend a cozy evening in here, just the two of us,” I murmured as I nuzzled his neck.

  “Yeah, just the two of us, and Everett, and Mr. Philippe, and Constance, and Ty,” nodding at our fur rug in front of the fireplace.

  I laughed. “Well, maybe someday soon.” I placed my head on his shoulder.

  Everett returned, swinging the bookcase closed behind him. He paused, lost in thought as he looked down at his computer. Then he shook off whatever had him preoccupied and turned to us.

  “Well, kids, I think I’ve solved the baby furniture dilemma! I’ve sketched the two cribs stored away upstairs, and I think I have a friend who can build exactly what we want!” Everett gushed as he sat down on the chair across from us.

  “Why not just use those up there?” Banton asked innocently.

  “Oh, I couldn’t do that. It seems we’re intruding on someone else’s dreams. Someone else’s lost life,” I commented sadly.

  “Well, cribs back then weren’t exactly built up to today’s safety standards. And the fabric appears to be fragile, near the rotten stage with all the dust and moisture through the years. We’ll just copy the originals, and it will be as if they were made for the house!” Everett asserted.

  “I love the idea. It’s a tie to the original owners, their plans and dreams.” Banton commented softly, pulling me in closer to his side. “Is all of this all right with you?” he asked as he studied my face. I’d been watching Everett as Banton spoke about the DeLee twins, and he seemed to be near tears. He took a deep breath, and then looked at me.

  “Oh, I agree. I love the idea.” I smiled as Everett recovered, rising with his laptop and sketchbook in his arms.

  “Okay, kids…I’m off. I have a meeting tonight with some of the Aldon, we hope to get an update on the known remainder of the Orcos here in Louisiana,” Everett told Banton, walking with him to the doorway.

  “Have you heard anything else about Grant?” Banton asked as he tossed an anxious glance my way.

  “No, but if we hear anything, I’ll let you know. Mr. Philippe and Stephan will stay here at the house tonight, and we plan to keep our extra protection up here, until the council advises we do otherwise.”

  “Thanks again, Ev. You’ll never know how much I appreciate all you have done for us, and for her.” Banton said, patting Ev on the shoulder.

  “It’s been my pleasure. I love you all as if you are family, and she means the world to me,” he assured Banton.

  While Banton was in the kitchen looking for a phonebook to order our dinner, Constance and Ty came in the front door.

  “Hey, we’re just here to change clothes, and we’re off to dinner with some friends, Colin and Ben. Guess you guys have the house all to yourselves!” Constance observed, leaning over to kiss me.

  “Can’t say that’s all bad,” I grinned back at her. She jumped up and followed Ty upstairs.

  “Did I just hear Constance?” Banton asked, returning with a phonebook and his cell phone.

  “Yes, she and Ty are upstairs changing, and then they are going with the rest of the SEALs and some friends out to dinner.”

  He sat down beside me. Overwhelmingly exhausted from my day of cleaning, I turned and put my head in his lap and threw my feet over the end of the sofa as he dialed the restaurant. After he’d ordered and given our address, he turned his phone back on and dialed Everett.

  “Hey, Ev…Constance said they are all going out for the evening, did you…oh, they did…well, I guess she’ll be safe enough, with the SEALs…all right then. Yes, just tell them to keep watch outside, I’m ready for a little alone time in front of the fire with my beautiful wife. I’ll be closing some shutters tonight, just buzz us if you need us, and we’ll unchain doors…” Banton chuckled at something Everett said on the other end of the line.

  “Yeah, you too, Ev. We’ll see you in the morning.” He turned his cell off, and then chunked it behind the sofa. I giggled at him, he was so serious. Leering at me, he pulled me up into his arms and began to slowly kiss me as he worked his hands up my t-shirt. I stretched, and then wound my arms around his neck to pull him in for a deeper kiss.

  “Hey, see you guys later…much, much later,” Ty laughed, pulling Constance out the front door. Banton paused until he heard the latch, then he turned his attention back to me.

  “So, you did work it out so we are all alone? Really?” I asked hopefully as he grinned slowly down at me. He glanced over at the front door, and I followed his eyes…Beau raised his head to look at us and yawned, then lay his head back down across his front paws. I returned my gaze to him and smiled slowly.

  “Except for Mr. Philippe and Stephan and two other Aldon outside, who have instructions to be discrete and elusive tonight, we are completely alone, Mrs. Gastaneau. I am completely and happily at your beck and call tonight. No distractions and no interruptions,” he murmured. His lips found mine once again. He kissed me hungrily, as if it had been months since we’d been together. And except for the semi-privacy of our bedroom, we hadn’t been alone since our honeymoon.

  Before I realized it, he had my t-shirt off as well as his own, and his skin felt wonderful against mine. He slid his hand between us to unzip his jeans, and when his hands brushed my abdomen the babies decided to kick furiously, causing him to jump and pull away to look at me. Grinning, he then looked sternly down at my little round belly.

  “Oh, no talking back to Dad tonight, I said no interruptions,” he teased, leaning down to place a kiss there. I lovingly wound my hands in his hair while he continued to place slow kisses up my ribcage, and then across my breasts. As he reached to undo my bra in the back, there was a knock at the door.

  “Crap, I forgot about the food…” I exclaimed between giggles. He jumped and pulled his jeans back up to button them. Comically gaining his composure as he walked toward the foyer, he then grabbed his wallet as he opened the door.

  After he’d tipped the delivery boy, he secured the front door and then drew the chain across the safety lock. Turning back to me with a sack in each hand, he searched the sofa, and then walked over and sat the food on the end table.

  “Chandler, Baby, where are you?” he asked, scanning the room. I’d dimed the lights, and he finally spotted me in the floor, nestled down on the fur rug with a quilt snugly tucked under my bare arms.

  “I’m not hungry anymore,” I said, crooking a finger at him. He quickly knelt to light the fire in the fireplace, and before he’d shrugged out of his jeans, I was dragging him under the quilt with me.

  “Wow, what’s the hurry?” he asked. I pulled his briefs down from his hips. I slid my bare knee across his groin, and there was no mistaking his passion
, it matched my own. He quickly pulled me under him as he rolled over, and then covered my hips with his.

  “You’re so beautiful, especially in the firelight. I could look at you all night,” he whispered. He slowly entered me. We took our time, exploring every inch of each other’s bodies as the fire flickered lazily in the fireplace in front of us.

  After an hour or so, we lay watching the coals glowing under the last of the logs in the fire. He sighed, and then pulled away to look at me as he propped himself on one elbow.

  “I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to break this rug in,” he laughed, brushing his hand across the fur above my head.

  “I think this rug is even softer than the one on our honeymoon. Did I mention how much I love your present?” I asked. I rose up to kiss him. He leaned down and placed his hand behind my head, holding me there for several seconds. He moved his lips slowly back and forth across mine, knowing it drove me crazy when he did. I finally caught his lips with mine and drew him down against me as my tongue explored his mouth. He moaned and slid his hands down my body, lighting fires all over again.

  “Um, Banton,” I whispered against his neck, after we’d christened the rug a second time. “I think I’m hungry, now.”

  “Oh, yeah…we kind of forgot about dinner, didn’t we?” He laughed, and then rose up, offering his hand to me. I just gazed at him; his body was so beautiful in the firelight. The muscles in his legs seemed harder somehow, his stomach pulled taught across his mid-section as he bent to pull me to my feet. I was amazed all-over again. His body was pure perfection since he’d been bitten.

  Standing, I grasped the quilt under my arms.

  “No fair, you got a full-frontal. Why all of the modesty all of a sudden?” he asked, tugging at the quilt.

  “Well, I’ve always been modest.”

  “Yeah, I guess you have,” he murmured, bending to kiss my nose. “But this is no fair, I want a peek.” He pulled the quilt from my grasp

  “Banton, stop! Give it back,” I begged. He held it away from me. My hands went instinctively to my ever-rounding tummy.

  “It’s beautiful, don’t. Don’t cover up, wait a minute.” He dropped the quilt as he bounded from the room. I giggled, watching his bare backside as he took the stairs two at a time. He bounded back down a few minutes later, having donned a pair of jeans.

  “Hey, no fair,” I called out as he rounded the bottom of the stairs.

  “No, seriously, sweetheart, please…I want to take those pictures now,” he said as he placed my camera on the coffee table.

  “What pictures?” I asked warily.

  “You remember, the tummy pictures, the ones with your hands across your tummy.”

  “Only if your hand is in them, too,” I countered. He smiled at me. Placing the camera on several books to raise it up, he looked through the lens. He then leapt up and bounded down the hallway, coming back moments later with a white sheet from the linen closet.

  “Here, kneel down right here on the rug…now drape the sheet across your legs, and then back up the backside and across your breasts, like this…” He pulled the sheet under my arms, and then snuggled up close behind me. He took my left hand in his, and then placed it under my abdomen, so my wedding ring would show. Chuckling, he scurried back to the table to look through the lens on the camera.

  “That’s it. That’s what I want.” He snapped several pictures of just me, and then set the timer, hurrying back across the room to pose behind me as I giggled.

  “Don’t move…here, I want to place my hand just so,” he whispered in my ear, placing his hand gently over the top of the babies’ bump. As I gazed down at his hand, he placed a kiss on my shoulder. The camera flashed.

  “Perfect!” he exclaimed, jumping up, and retrieving the camera. Clutching the sheet to my body, I took the camera from him and reviewed the shot. It was beautiful. With the firelight, he’d created a magical glow around us, capturing all of my love for him, and his for me, in one special shot.

  “This one is going on a wall somewhere…maybe in our bedroom,” he announced. “It’s our first family portrait.”

  “You’re so adorable,” I said as I pulled him in for another kiss. “I love you so much.”

  “And I love you.” he murmured back. He gazed at me several seconds, and then reached for a robe he’d brought me from upstairs. He held it as I shrugged into it, and then pulled me into his chest and kissed the end of my nose. “Now, I’m hungry. Let’s eat!” he exclaimed as he grabbed our food from the end table, and then pulled me down the hallway.

  After we finished, we took a long, leisurely soak in the large antique tub in the downstairs bathroom, something we hadn’t been able to do since he’d been back. When the water had finally begun to turn cool, I sighed, and we rose to get out. Banton insisted on tucking me into the bed after I’d donned my gown, and wouldn’t let me go back downstairs to clean the dishes.

  “No, I caught you yawning several times during dinner, and then several more times during our bath. It’s time for you to rest, Andie. Take care of my babies, and I’ll do the dishes. I’ll only be a few minutes,” he said, disappearing through the doorway.

  “You’re spoiling me, and I love it,” I called out, snuggling down into the covers. My eyelids began to get heavy as I heard him shut the water off in the kitchen, and then open and shut the front door to let Beau out. I was barely aware of him sliding in beside me or turning the lamps out.

  “Banton?” I whispered.

  “What is it, Baby?” he asked, his breath blowing in my hair.

  “Tonight was the best. I loved it, more than any date we’ve ever had.” I closed my eyes a final time.

  “Me too, Andie, the first of many, many more to come, I promise.”

  Chapter Forty

  As daylight crept through the curtains to our room, the slam of the front door and a loud voice from the downstairs foyer woke us.

  “Guess the date is over, huh?” Banton murmured in my ear. I yawned again and stretched.

  “Never, not in my head, anyway,” I grinned at him as he leaned over to kiss me.

  “Banton, Chandler…are you two love birds awake yet? You-who!” a chirpy little voice drifted up the staircase.

  Banton rose over me, and grinned down at me.

  “Everett!” We both exclaimed together. Giggling, we threw the covers back, and pulled our sweats on. He was the first out the door. I stopped to brush my hair and pull it up in a hairclip, letting it fall down my back in loose curls. I’d fallen asleep with it wet and there would be no straightening it.

  “Hey, Fruit-loop!” I heard Banton exclaim as he stood at the top of the landing.

  “There you are, I thought something might have happened to you two last night,” Everett called as Banton bounded down the staircase. I could hear them talking about me as I rounded the bottom of the stairs and proceeded down the hallway to the kitchen.

  “Is she feeling all right? I’m afraid she overdid it yesterday when she entered her little nesting phase.”

  “Nesting phase?” Banton asked. I heard him pull a chair out. “She’s great, Everett.”

  “Nesting, you know…getting the house, the ‘nest’ ready for the babies,” he quipped.

  Banton laughed.

  “Yes, I’m feeling great this morning. Why?” I asked when I entered the kitchen. Everett came over and kissed my forehead he greeted me, offering me a beignet.

  “Where did these come from?” I asked as I popped it in my mouth.

  “Downtown Bakery. Now dish, did you all have fun last night while you had this big ole house to yourselves?”

  “You know we did. Where is everyone, by the way?”

  Banton placed his hand intimately between my thighs under the table. As my heart rate accelerated, I narrowed my eyes at him. He grinned back at me, moving his hand higher.

  “Constance texted me last night, and said for you all not to worry, they were staying at a hotel downtown so you all could have
some alone time. They should be here any time.”

  “And what about me overdoing?” I popped another sweet roll in my mouth and washed it down with some milk. I caught Banton watching me with a satisfied smirk; he always seemed to be pleased when I ate with a healthy appetite.

  “Well, spring break is almost over, and I thought today might be a good day for you two to spend some time with Gabriella,” Everett answered as he sat down.

  “I feel great! Banton, can we?” I asked. He rose to pour himself a cup of coffee.

  “Sure. Ev, how is she? How is her progress?” he asked, sitting back down beside me.

  “About the same. I think it’s time to push her. She is so unsure of herself, and I’m afraid she is actually regressing because of it,” Everett answered, sipping his coffee.

  “How do you mean?” I asked, concerned.

  “She thinks she’ll never be able to get control of her hunger in extreme situations. She doesn’t understand we all struggle with it, but it’s something you have to practice. And where John is concerned… well, she’s so passionate, and misses him so desperately. She is afraid of her control there, too. She thinks she’ll never be able to reconcile with him and let him know she is alive. It’s as if she is giving up on him.”

  “Oh, Everett…what can we do?” I asked.

  “It is such a personal thing, we can’t exactly give her a John blow-up doll to practice with,” Ev said as Banton laughed. I glared at him…Everett was being serious.

  “Well, we will just have to come up with something, something she can do to build her control and her self-confidence,” I offered. “Everett, there has to be something you haven’t thought of, to challenge her, to test her…her…” I couldn’t find the right words.

  “Erotic side? Short of hiring a male human hooker, I’m at a loss,” he answered me blatantly

  “Okay, this is making me a little uncomfortable; we’re talking about my best friend’s wife. Let’s just stick to working on her hunger and other emotions, all right?” Banton asked sheepishly.