Cajun Vacation by Mindi Winters

and he knew it. What he didn’t know was how to tell her. Or if he should tell her. All she wanted was a wild time, so if he spoke up, then she’d probably bolt right then. This uncertainty on how to act with a woman was so uncharacteristic. He always had the answer. But Erica left him speechless.
    At least she was enjoying the party, he thought.
    For the last half hour she had been engaged in conversation with representatives of various charities. She took her work seriously, and managed to get more additional information then her report could possible use, but she kept on talking. At first, he thought that she was brushing him off. But every time she changed conversation partners, she gave him a coy look and discreetly brushed her hand across her breast or the front of her skirt. He skipped the alcohol they served. If he started drinking then his impaired judgment would lead him to fling her on a picnic table and do her in front of everyone.
    He checked the time. Was two hours long enough face time at the event that he could safely leave and head back to his home with Erica? It had to be. He couldn’t last any longer without being inside her. She turned to him to flash the next sultry smile at him. After the teasing she put him through, he intended to make her beg him before he satisfied her next time. No matter how hard he had become, he had to tease her back just as much. He made his way over to her.
    Placing his hand behind her back, he rubbed up and down her spine, causing her to purr under her breath. He whispered in her ear. “I think it’s time to leave,” he said, his hand turning her toward the parking lot.
    “Justin!”
    He mumbled a curse and then turned to see who had called him. A burly, silver-haired man, in a button-downed shirt, jeans, and well-worn boots grabbed his hand. Justin smiled. Being rude to one of the richest men in Texas, a person who’d hired him for past jobs for the station he owned in Houston, wasn’t a career enhancing move. He just hoped no one noticed the extreme bulge in his pants.
    “Mr. Forrester, how have you been?”
    “It’s been too long. But I’ve got another job for you.”
    Justin cringed. Conversations with John tended to drag on a long time, and delaying his time with Erica wasn’t something he wanted to do. “Sounds good. You know I’m available for your local anytime you want.” Justin motioned to Erica. “This weekend I’m working for a station out of New York. They sent Ms. Canning down for a story.”
    Erica held out her hand for a greeting.
    John removed his hat, and gave her a firm shake. “An absolute pleasure, Miss,” he said.
    John put his hat back on. “Well I won’t keep the two of you, but this isn’t an ordinary job I’m offering up. It’ll be more intense than usual,” he said.
    As much as he wanted to leave with Erica, John had gotten his curiosity. “How so?” asked Justin.
    “Well, no offense to the big city stations,” he said, looking at Erica. “But I’ve always wanted my local station to be the one to start doing some of the big exposé and special reports you see on the national news.”
    “It’s the money,” said Justin. “They’ve got the budgets to pay all the people they need to make it happen.”
    “Well that’s where my plan comes in. I’m starting up a new media company to work outside of the station I currently have. We going to focus on Internet broadcasting of internally developed investigative reports,” he said. “People get the daily news, but real good journalism has been dying since the Internet came around. I got enough money to fund this for years until it takes off, but I think with advertising, book tieins and some other things we’ve come up with that it can work.”
    Justin nodded. “OK. So how do I fit in with this?” he asked.
    “I’d like to hire you to do the work with environmental reporting. Maybe even go on camera instead of behind it all the time. It’d be full time pay, but you