Mission: Interrupted

Chapter 4 - A New Orleans Haunting

Norman found himself trying everything he could to distract himself from thinking of that damn woman. He was furious that she'd been right about his reaction to what had happened that morning. In just three hours of riding in the SUV he had gotten hard four different times. It didn't help that the guys were relentless in reliving what had gone down in the driveway this morning. Their favorite thing currently was describing the lewd act it had appeared she was doing to him from their viewpoint. None of them had ever even heard of something like that happening in real life. It even sounded far-fetched for a movie.

Despite being furious and, admittedly, embarrassed, he was incredibly curious about her and what her story might be. She had a sweet, innocent, young face, the body of a pin-up, and the smile of an angel. But underneath the smile there existed the sting of a scorpion. Stan, the videographer, had spotted the Navy SEAL Insignia amongst her arm sleeve tattoos while she was sunbathing the day before. It not only explained a lot, but also caused him to find her more interesting and sexy. Which led to another uncomfortable shift in his seat.

It was going to be a long ride for him today. Luckily they had planned a couple of detours to get footage of him and Greg riding the bikes on a county highway. Hopefully they'd prove to be distracting.

        ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Meg felt the old, familiar tingle when she crossed the city limits of New Orleans. She felt at home in the strange and wonderful city. She had found a Garden District mansion that was renting out the third floor and she had jumped on it, even though the price was pretty extravagant. Her rooms had their own balcony that faced Magazine Street, however, and would make watching the St. Patrick's day parade much more enjoyable. Totally worth it.

Making her way down Canal, she turned on Magazine Street and went several blocks until she saw the intersection with St. Joseph's. The house on the corner was even better than what it seemed in the pictures. White painted brick that glowed in the afternoon sunlight, shiny black shutters, hardwood decks that were stained a deep coffee brown, and gas lanterns at every door. Pulling around the side of the house, she saw a four stall carriage house and the gate to the courtyard next to it. She entered the code they had given her when she signed the rental contract and the wrought iron fence slid open. The courtyard was paved with ancient bricks. The back of the house was to her left and directly in front of her, on the other side of the long lap pool, was a greenhouse. That's where she drove her bike, in order to park it out of sight. Grabbing her saddle bags, she made her way up the stairs to the third floor and let herself in via the same code as the gate.

The space was clearly once the attic, with gabled ceilings and dormer windows on the west, east, and south sides. The balcony ran the entire north side, and was accessed through a sliding glass wall. The floors were original pine and, while stained and scuffed, had been polished to a high sheen. The walls were the original brick, but had been whitewashed rather than painted. There was a small, but very well appointed kitchen in the southeast corner of the enormous space. Everything was open with the only exception being the large bathroom in the southwest corner. In the center of the floor on the north side, facing the wall of windows was a queen sized wrought iron bed, covered in an ice blue chiffon and lace comforter. The whole thing was incredibly lovely, and Meg took back everything she had said in response to the very invasive application process she'd gone through to rent this place. The house was owned by some famous movie star couple for whom this was one of several domiciles. No matter, it appeared that at least one member of the couple had impeccable taste.

After putting away her meager belongings, Meg explored the kitchen to see what she might need to run down to the store for. To her delight, there was a bag of Community Coffee, a carton of eggs, some wheat bread, and best of all... a fully stocked wine cooler. Pulling out a bottle of Charles Krug Cabernet to open and let breathe, she decided to take a long, hot shower and then take some wine out on the balcony. She had a couple hours until she was planning to leave for dinner anyway.