Tempt Me Read Online Free

so different from the brother she’d known most of her adult life that it still jarred her. She knew it was his wife and unborn child, as well as his freedom from the curse their father had forced on him, that had changed him. She couldn’t be happier for him, but it was a big adjustment.
    “I’m starving. And of course I came. An evening without Mom trying to get me to move into the new house her loving son bought for her? Asking me when I was going to give her grandchildren like her daughter-in-law? I couldn’t pass that up.”
    Her brother snorted, setting several bags down on the counter where she’d been sitting moments before. “Can you blame her? Her nest is empty. All her children growing up and flying away. Patricia moved to North Carolina with her husband this year; you came home from school and decided to stay in that old, musty apartment we grew up in rather than the new room she decorated with you in mind...” He trailed off, making a face as BD guffawed.
    “Not even a father yet and you already do guilt so well, mon ami .”
    Angelique nodded emphatically. “He’s a natural, all right. I’m a grown woman with a college degree and a normal sex drive. I love you both, but I do not want to move back in with my mommy.”
    Celestin held up his hands in surrender. “And the last thing I want to hear about is my baby sister’s sex drive, adult or not. You win. I won’t mention it again.”
    “Thank you.”
    BD’s laughter stopped the conversation in the other room and Angelique sighed. She’d wanted to find out more about Gabriel before he came.
    Allegra raised her voice from the other room. “BD? Is my husband with you? I’d get up but his child has turned me into a giant, immovable water buffalo with cankles.”
    Celestin’s smile grew even more incandescent. “Duty calls. Coming, bebe .” He ruffled Angelique’s curls and handed her the last small bag he carried in his hand. “Could you put her ice cream in the freezer before it melts, and start setting the table, little one?” Then he was gone.
    BD was chuckling again. “That boy is going to be a great daddy.”
    Angelique rolled her eyes, closing the freezer and opening drawers in search of utensils. “If great is another word for bossy, overprotective, and way up in the poor child’s Kool-Aid, then sure. Tell me, do ex–sex spirits know where they keep the silverware around here?”
    He came up beside her and pointed to a drawer while he opened the cabinet over her head where the plates were kept. “I know a lot of things. My wife is determined I become a truly modern man. I can even do laundry now.”
    He winked at her and she laughed, charmed. Too bad he was taken. There was just something about him...
    “Am I late?”
    The voice sent the pile of forks in her hand clattering to the counter. Her heart started to pound, her body reacting the way it did every time he came to mind. All thoughts of the captivating BD disappeared.
    Gabriel had arrived.

CHAPTER 2

    “LOOK WHO I FOUND HANGING AROUND OUTSIDE.” A woman with long dark hair skirted her way around Michelle’s brother as she spoke, allowing herself to be swept up in BD’s embrace.
    “Blue Eyes, I’ve missed you. Is everything okay?”
    Bethany sent her husband a strange expression, nodding quickly before stepping away from him. “Fine. Everything’s fine. And something smells delicious.”
    Angelique noticed Bethany’s evasion, but she was too focused on the man who joined her to pay it much attention.
    He was here. He’d come.
    BD nodded in Gabriel’s direction over Bethany’s head. “Your sister will be glad you’re here.”
    “We’ll see. More to the point, the Mambo will. I’ve recently learned that denying my mother’s requests is a dangerous endeavor. In more ways than one.”
    His voice. The sexy rasp of it, the slight accent, made Angelique bite her lip. She’d heard him on the phone yesterday, when she’d called under the guise of asking Mambo