Free Kiss of Temptation: A Deadly Angels Book by Sandra Hill Page B

meeting.
    “Yeah, well, let’s get a closer look at ol’ Armageddie,” Leroy said, motioning with a forefinger to the man. “Hey, Rev , come on over and meet some folks.”
    As if he’d been waiting for an invitation, the man shoved away from the wall and began to amble over toward their table. It might have been Leroy who called for him, but the man’s eyes were still locked on Gabrielle.
    And, be still my horny heart , he was even more good-looking up close. In fact, Gabrielle didn’t think she’d ever met another man so compellingly attractive. Her heart was racing and her lips parted. She sighed before she had a chance to check herself.
    He smiled, knowing perfectly well what effect he was having on her. Without his even speaking a word, Gabrielle knew she was in the presence of a player. The kind of man who could make a woman melt with just an arch of a brow. The kind of man women like her should steer clear of. She had no time for games.
    “Rev, these people would like to meet you,” Leroy said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Charmaine LeDeux Lanier, Louise Rivard, and Gabrielle Sonnier, my sister.” He put particular emphasis on that last, as if warning the man off her. Then, “The Rev. Ivak Sigurdsson.”
    It was an indication of how smart Leroy was that he could recall all those names he’d just been introduced to.
    “Rev?” the man replied. “Hardly.”
    “Aintcha a minister?” Tante Lulu asked, her eyes still filled with wonder.
    “Sort of. Just call me Ivak.”
    “And you kin call me Tante Lulu. Kin I touch yer wings?”
    “Sure,” he said, while the rest of them asked, “What wings?”
    Ivak pulled a chair from a nearby table and shoved it in between Gabrielle and Tante Lulu, forcing Gabrielle to move slightly to his right.
    While Tante Lulu was touching his shoulder, Ivak turned to Gabrielle, his eyes smoldering an erotic message at her. “Did Mike send you here?”
    “Mike who?”
    He licked his upper lip. “My boss.”
    She felt as if he’d licked her upper lip, and she just barely stopped herself from mirroring his action. She shook her head slowly from side to side to clear the odd buzzing in her ears. “No. I went to Tante Lulu for help in getting my brother out of prison. She has a lot of connections, or so I was told. And she heard about some prison talent show that she thought her family could infiltrate, or something, and I got kind of bulldozed into coming here today. But holy moly! I’m turning into a regular Chatty Cathy.” She was rambling and couldn’t seem to stop.
    He continued to smile at her.
    And she felt an erotic thrill pass over her in waves. Just from a smile. But wait. “Oh my God! You have vampire teeth,” she blurted out. And he did, not that they made him any less attractive, just different.
    “Oops,” he said, and wiped a hand across his closed mouth. Then, he asked, “Better?” He bared his top teeth at her.
    She nodded. The pointed incisors were mostly gone. He now had perfectly straight, white teeth that would do an orthodontist proud.
    “Sorry about that. I can usually control myself, but when I’m in high emotion, they come out.” He shrugged helplessly.
    “Your teeth elongate and retract at will?” she asked tentatively.
    “Not exactly.”
    “And why are you in ‘high emotion’?”
    “Tsk, tsk, tsk!” he chided her. “Surely, you feel it, too.” His voice was husky as he took her hand in his under the table.
    The shock of his touch, palm against palm, was almost her undoing. In a week that had been filled with one shock after another, this reaction to a stranger could be her tipping point. As blood drained from her head, she could feel herself growing faint. The only thing anchoring her to the chair was Ivak’s tighter hold on her hand.
    Luckily, Tante Lulu drew his attention from the other side. “Didja ever meet St. Jude?”
    What? Where did that come from? Honestly, the old lady was a fruitcake, and Gabrielle was