down to clasp his erection with her hand, drawing a sharp exclamation from him.
“Please, now,” she begged again. “Do it now. Don’t make me wait another hundred years.”
“God, no.” he gave her a long, lingering kiss, then moved over her, stroking his wonderfully hard shaft against her before cupping her hips, lifting her as he drove forward and into her.
“Andre!” She called his name as he began to move within her, then kept pace with him as he quickened the tempo.
They were Andre and Morgan.
Andre and Linette—the lovers who had waited so long for their fulfillment.
When he angled his hips, she came undone for him, orgasm taking her in a soul-shattering explosion of pleasure.
Above her, he cried out, following her over the edge into ecstasy.
She drifted back to earth in his arms, stroking the damp skin of his back and shoulders, then kissing his cheek.
She clung to him for long moments. Her voice strong as she said, “It’s over. The curse is over.”
He didn’t answer as he moved to her side. When he tried to shift away from her, she kept him close.
Raising his head, he looked at her. “You’re forgetting about Yvonne.”
“No, I’m not.” She can’t hurt us.”
“She doesn’t fight fair,” he murmured.
“She has to—now. Because loving you gives me the strength to defeat her. I didn’t understand that a while ago. I understand it now.”
He looked stunned, and she gave him a reassuring smile.
“You can’t quite believe you’ve found a woman who can freely love you. But you will,” she said, reaching down to knit her fingers with his. “It’s over. Your life is going to change now.”
“How do you know it’s over?” he asked, his voice grating, and she realized he couldn’t yet alter the way he thought of himself.
She moved her head against his shoulder. “Because love changes everything.”
As if in response to her words, something flickered at the edge of her vision. When she looked up, she gasped.
Beside her, Andre stiffened. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Over there,” she managed, pointing.
He followed the direction of her hand, and his breath caught. A jaguar was standing in the swamp, about twenty feet away, staring at them. Well, not a real, solid jaguar, because she could look right through the cat to the foliage on the other side of him.
“You see that?” she asked, unable to raise her voice above a whisper.
“Yes,” Andre answered, his tone awed.
The big cat stood regarding them. It swished its tail, then opened its mouth, raised its head and roared. Only there was no sound.
Slowly it turned and began to walk away from them, into the bayou. And the farther it got, the more light she could see shining through the mass of the animal—until there was nothing left of the cat at all.
Beside her, Andre made a strangled sound. “It’s gone. I saw it leave. I felt it leave me.”
“Yes. The cat that haunted you has vanished.”
He stared after the animal, but she knew he still wasn’t entirely convinced.
She took him in her arms, hugging him tightly, wanting to hold him forever out here in this beautiful natural setting that he knew so well. But they had other obligations.
“We should go back, so Janet won’t worry about us,” she said.
He nodded. “I wasn’t thinking about her.”
“I’m glad you were focused on us.” She hesitated for a moment, then said, “But we have to think about her too. She cares about you very much.”
“Yes.”
Quietly, they both moved off the makeshift bed and began getting dressed.
Andre bent to pluck a piece of greenery from her sweatpants. And she did the same for his shirt. Then, hand in hand, they walked back toward the house.
“So, will you tell me how you got out of the handcuffs?” she asked.
“I did it when I changed—to the cat.”
“Oh.”
As they stepped onto the lawn, Morgan saw a lone figure was standing on the balcony, staring out toward the swamp.
It was Janet.
When she spotted them, she hurried down the stairs, then stopped short as she gave them an assessing appraisal.
Morgan felt herself flushing and fought not to look down at the rumpled clothing that had served as bedding not so long ago. Probably she should have checked more carefully for bits of moss and other debris.
A small smile flickered on Janet’s lips. “You look like you . . . worked out your differences,” she said in a soft voice.
“Yes,” Morgan agreed, then asked the question that had been bothering her since she’d first come here. Looking the housekeeper directly in the eye,