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  And I laughed.

  “Wicked cool or just wicked?”

  “Yes?” he said, moving his hands to my hips and thrusting up hard as I rocked on him. Moving like I was on the waves of an ocean only I could see. I let my eyes drift shut and my head fall back. I lost myself in the feel of his cock slipping deep into me, brushing all the sensitive nerves that made my body tighten and pulse. All the places that made me bite my lips and clutch at him like I was going to drown in a sea of pleasure.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “You’re so tight right now. You’re right there,” Sean informed me and I smiled, eyes still closed.

  His hands roamed my sides, making me shiver and jump. He stroked my nipples with his thumbs and then tugged me low so I hovered over him to give him access. His tongue found one hard nub and then the other and he sucked each one so hard I felt the echoing pulse of pleasure in my cunt.

  “You’re going to come soon. Come for me, Vanessa.”

  “Don’t call me—”

  “Just this once,” he said and sucked again. Licking a wet trail between my breasts.

  “Okay,” I sighed.

  He chuckled in my ear and the sound warmed me even as he clamped his fingers onto my hips and drove up under me, burying himself deep in my pussy, moving a bit faster, a bit deeper. His movements more urgent and aggressive.

  “Oh, god. Right there. Right, right, right there,” I breathed and Sean moved right there and I came, pushing my lips to his, biting so that I heard him hiss but he kissed me right back and I came and came and came. One sweet spasm following the next until he pushed his fingers in my hair and said, “Good?”

  I could only nod.

  “Good,” he said and grinned. He pushed me back and turned me over before I could even react or get my bearings. I was facing the door to the tiny adjoining room and Sean put a big hand to the small of my back, pressing down. My legs splayed wide, my forehead on my forearms as he ran the slick head of his cock to the wetness between my thighs. “You have a spectacular ass, Vanessa. See, these are the things you forget to tell a wicked-cool, smoking-hot woman when you’re under duress. I want to tell you that now. You. Have. A spectacular. Ass!” he said and smacked me hard enough to make me jitter but not hard enough to make much noise at all. I sighed softly and caught sight of motion in my peripheral vision.

  Adrenaline made my body shiver and I felt it course a silver trail through my veins. Was it Arthur from the monster box? No. It was Roxy Morton with her surreal eye pressed to the crack of the door. One bright eye blinked, but she didn’t seem to see me seeing her. She was watching us fuck.

  I put my head down, pushing myself back to take all of Sean. His hands roamed my “spectacular” ass and he made the noises of appreciation only a man in the process of getting laid can make. “Sean?”

  “Shh, I’m worshipping this ass,” he said and gave me another swat.

  My pussy gripped tight around him and my belly rolled with a nervous thrill and I forgot to care that Roxy was watching us. I actually found it really kind of hot that she was spying. And if she wanted to end her days watching some stellar sex, then who was I to get in the way. It was only one eye pressed to the door crack, anyway. How much can you really see with one little eye?

  Sean palmed my bottom again, his skin stroking over my skin and I felt my cunt grow tighter still. God, I was going to come again. All this adrenaline, plus handsome guy, plus gather-ye-rosebuds-while-ye-may mentality had pushed me to the point of over-the-top arousal. “Oh, god,” I said.

  “Amen.” He laughed softly. He leaned over me, his body pressing along my spine. “I can feel it in there. That orgasm. And I want you to give it to me. With the view I have at the moment, I’m pretty far gone, and I want us to get off together. Do you like the sound of that?” he said softly. I wondered if Roxy could hear him and shocked myself by realizing that I really, really hoped she could. Oh, I was a dirty, dirty girl. Who knew?

  “I do. I do. I really, really do,” I sort of chanted. I threw my head back and caught sight of a pale face pressed to the door. My nipples grew tighter and tingly, my stomach sizzling like I was full of electricity. She could see us. Really well.

  “Then touch yourself for me, Vanessa,” he said the end of my name with intent.

  I didn’t correct him.

  I worked my hand under my body, circling my wet clit with my fingers, pressing just enough that my body hummed with an urge to release that instant. I teased my own engorged flesh, flicking the tiny nub with the tip of my finger so that I shuddered. “Okay, okay,” I said.

  His fingers gripped me hard and I hoped that they’d leave little purple bruises. Memorials to this horrible yet fabulous night. If they found me dead, they’d wonder about the ten half-moon bruises on my skin. Or maybe they wouldn’t, either way, it’d be a testament to dying happy. “Here we go. You ready, Vanessa?”

  He was enjoying that too much—calling me by my given name—but I would let it go, what with the crush of velvety orgasm that folded down over me. I came with him as Sean jerked against me. Tugging me to him, repeating my name like some mystical spell. And when he draped his warm, solid body over my back and kissed my ear I smiled.

  I heard the door snick shut. “What was that?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “That noise?” Sean kissed my neck, reached under me to cup my breasts in his hands. His skin was so warm, his breath moist heat on my neck.

  “What noise?” I said and then turned under him, pulling him down. Kissing him hard and shutting him up. He didn’t really need to know about Roxy. She’d be embarrassed. “Maybe it was our ghost.”

  He laughed in my ear but then, “Um, guys? He’s back,” said Roxy through the door. That girl had a thing with doors.

  Chapter Four

  I was buttoning my jeans when she came in. I looked her up and down and she blushed slightly. I should say something, my nature was to rub it in, but this night had been what felt like one massive hallucination, so why mess even more with someone?

  “What is it now?” I sighed, tugging my top down. “Godzilla? Zombies? Vampires and werewolves, oh my!”

  “No. Arthur’s up and cruising for his final six souls.”

  “And what will sixteen get him again?” Sean asked, subtly kissing my neck. Not so subtly that my neck didn’t tingle and break out in goose bumps.

  “Retribution, mostly,” she said.

  “Ah, no moving into the white light? No crossing over? No butterflies and angel wings?”

  Roxy shrugged. “I can only tell you what he’s giving me. Which is mostly incoherent as far as thought and is more feelings. Remember, he was killed by his sister, had no justice, and then his mother—fearful of the haunting and the activity in the home—basically is the one who called in some voodoo woman and had him trapped in that box in the basement for a few decades.”

  “So he’s just a crazy-ass, neglected, been sequestered for a billion years, nut bag,” I growled.

  “Yeah.”

  “Awesome!” I shoved my shoes on, my body still pulsing with little flickers of pleasure. At least I was going to die thoroughly fucked and mildly happy.

  “And what is Van going to do? What can she possibly do,” Sean asked. God love him, he sounded super protective and entirely unhappy that this had become some mission for me.

  Roxy dropped to the bed where we had just invoked a few orgasms and said, “Well, she was the final person in the house, like his sister. She’s female, like his sister. She’s…um…”

  “Yes, yes, yes?” I barked, rolling my hands at her in a “hurry up” motion.

  “Brash and harsh like his sister?”

  “Jesus,” I said and rolled my eyes and Sean turned his head. I think he was smiling. Rat bastard.

  “And you can stand in for Marian,” she said to me. “I feel he still has a great amount of fear for her, not to mention hatred. But the fear is stronger. So if you can act out as her and cow in him into lett
ing them go and maybe crossing over, we can all get the hell out of here.”

  “Hmph,” I said noncommittally.

  “What do you do for a living?” Sean asked.

  I blinked. “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Curious.”

  “I am a waitress,” I said.

  He grinned.

  “An unemployed waitress,” I added.

  He grinned more.

  “What! What? A waitress is a perfectly respectable wonderful career goal.”

  He laughed out loud then. “I know. I was just wondering. Your demeanor says you deal with the difficult every day. And you are a bit—”

  “Brash?” I growled.

  “Sometimes,” he said. He bent and kissed me. “But I like it. I like to be a little scared and on edge when I’m getting laid,” he said right in my ear and I snorted with laughter. I couldn’t help it.

  “Shut up,” I said with no real heat.

  “And you know…I actually need a waitress at the bar,” he said and mussed my hair like I was a kid.

  “Hey!” I smoothed it but then said, “Really?”

  “Yeah. Really. And if I’m your boss, you can’t bark at me.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” I said.

  “Could you guys do career day after we get the fuck out of here?” Roxy asked. First time I’d heard her sound annoyed. Good for her.

  “Sure thing, scary ghost boy whisperer. When do we do this thing?”

  “Now is good,” she said. “He’s cruising for souls.”

  I stood. “Are we all sure we haven’t ingested a huge amount of drugs or possibly toxic fumes and aren’t all sharing a massive crazy hallucination?” I asked with great hope in my heart.

  They both shook their heads in unison. “Nope,” Roxy said.

  “’Fraid not,” said Sean.

  Damn.

  So after Roxy filled me in a bit I took a deep breath and walked out into the hall. With my fucking luck, I’d not even get a word out and Arthur the black smoke monster from the box would munch me right up and I’d be gone before I could even try our sneaky—asinine—plan.

  Sean was close on my heels even though I kept waving him off. “It’s me who has to do this. You need to be…not here,” I said.

  He gave me a patented cop stare and said, “Yeah, good luck with that. Plus, you should get used to taking orders from me since I’m going to be your boss.”

  I rolled my eyes at him and gave him the finger and he laughed softly. So what if I’d been burned about a million times in the man department. So what if most of them had been total selfish jerk-wads. Sean Tierney seemed totally different and he made my heart go pitter-patter and I might even tell him that if a ghost made of black smoke and bad childhood memories didn’t eat me.

  “Hey, Arthur, you weak baby! Where are you? You need to knock it off!”

  I have to admit. The plan that Roxy laid out for me seemed about as intelligent as starting a barbeque with a can of gasoline and a really short match, but who was I to judge? She seemed a bit cuckoo but wouldn’t you be if you spoke to dead folks.

  It all made sense in a logical illogical sort of way. So if it made the doors open and let us out of the haunted house from hell, then I was all for it.

  “Come out you chickenshit! You need to let these people go. Are you too scared to deal with me? Just me? I mean, this is why Mom rushed out of here every night.” My hands were shaking and my teeth wanted so badly to clack but I refused to act afraid. I might feel the urgent need to pee myself, but no one was going to know but little old me.

  One door opened in the hallway and terrified eyes stared out at me. Some more of our fellow housebound partygoers. I heard Sean telling them what to do. If the doors or windows open, haul ass, we’d sort out people missing and accounted for later. I heard something inside my head and some stuff outside my head. With my ears, I heard a hissing rushing sound, like water falling into a river or a crush of white noise. Inside my head I heard a small voice. A mean voice. You hurt me. You hurt me and you didn’t even get punished.

  God, that hurt. I shook my head but pushed the words out of my mouth. “I mean, you are a big baby. That’s why Dad left us. That’s why I had to act like another mother for you. How annoying do you think that was?” One door slammed and another flew open. I saw a curl of black smoke and then a window flew open behind me and Sean hustled the two folks from that bedroom out onto a small roof. He whispered, “Jump if you have to. A broken bone is better than…well, it’s just better.”

  “There you go. Let them out! Deal with me! Prove you’re brave enough to deal with me.” I heard the front door down below and then a shriek and frenzy as people saw a chance to make a break for it.

  Roxy was a few steps behind Sean and she nodded, smiling a little. She waved her fingers like “keep going”.

  I waved my hand at her. Mouthed get the hell out of here! but she shook her head no.

  Another window flew open and Sean pushed a girl who’d popped out of a closet out onto that section of the roof. “Go, go!”

  She went.

  “Come on Arthur! You wuss!”

  Bitch, I heard in my head.

  I seized that childish tone I could hear even in my psyche.

  “Oh, you are in so much trouble for that. Potty mouth! I’m going to spank your ass good, for that!”

  Wind whipped down the hallway from nowhere at all and Sean said, “Vaaaaan.” In a warning voice.

  “I’m going to beat you within an inch of your li—”

  The smoke crushed down around me out of nowhere. One moment there was nothing, the next it was a black mass of evil. I heard Sean yelling my name. I heard Roxy urging people to run. And I was swept under. A mass of nothingness that somehow felt as heavy as a piano sitting on my chest.

  Panic swelled in my lungs and I struggled to remember my instructions from Roxy. I thrashed when I heard Sean’s voice and his own panic. Such a stupid, stupid, nice, sweet, sexy, stupid man becoming that attached to me so fast. I yelled for him but no sound came out of me and somehow that scared me more than anything else.

  I tossed and kicked and moved but it was like trying to swim in oatmeal or sand. The smoke blocked all light, filled my ears so I stopped hearing others and heard only the wild roar of my blood in my ears. When I opened my mouth to scream, it snaked down my throat, gagging me.

  What was I supposed to say? What? Think, Van! Think!

  Gotcha is what I heard in my head. Finally and then and oily little chuckle that inspired a sickening shiver.

  I focused my energy. Listen to me, Arthur, I’m not your sister.

  You can’t trick me, he said in my head.

  But I have! And I’m not your sister. Now listen to me, Arthur, you are the victim here.

  And you’ll pay for making me the victim.

  I rushed on in my head, focusing my mind, picturing white light and a gorgeous crossing for him. I squashed my natural inclination to panic and thought at him. You were wronged and we want to make that right. We want to help you cross over, Arthur. We want to help you get your just reward of peace. We want to… My brain seized up. What had Roxy said?

  Don’t want it, Arthur said in my head and I felt the darkness suffocating me. It wasn’t so much killing me as dragging me under, making me weak and tired. No, he chuckled. No, no, no!

  Yes! I roared in my head. Then it came to me and I rushed on before Arthur could stifle me. We want to destroy the box and help you cross and have a ceremony! I pushed that image in my mind. Pushed it at Arthur like I was giving him a present. Because it’s all the spirit really wanted. All the little boy who’d been trapped alone and angry and sad for all these years. Recognition. Peace. Honor and a little fucking attention. Really, you couldn’t blame him.

  It will be like a party! In your honor. We’ll have a religious figure or more! We’ll say prayers and sing songs. We’ll light incense and honor you, Arthur. And all you went through. We’ll destroy that horrible box and we’l
l help you cross over and we’ll be there and—

  Was it my imagination or could I breathe a bit more deeply? Arthur did not speak to me but I felt a decidedly perplexed and yes, receptive, presence in my mind and body.

  We will be there to say goodbye to you Arthur and then you will be…safe.

  Safe? he asked in my head.

  Yes, safe. And I will personally tell everyone what happened to you and that your sister should have paid.

  I sucked in a blissfully deep breath and heard Sean yelling for me. It was the first thing I had truly heard since the smoke enveloped me. I tried to call out, but no, not yet.

  Promise? he asked, the petulant little boy voice in my mind almost made me laugh.

  Cross my heart! But now you have to do your part.

  I sensed suspicion in the air. But I rushed on. You have to let the souls you’ve gathered go and let them feel safe too. Let them be safe the way we’re going to let you be.

  I’m coming back if you lie to me.

  Damn Skippy. You come back and kick my ass!

  And then we hit the ground. It was sort of like being dropped over a banister from the top floor to the bottom. My ass hit the hardwood with a crack and I started bellowing like a pissed-off grizzly bear.

  Sean Tierney hit the ground on his knees and started checking me over for cuts or wounds, “Where were you? Jesus Christ, where were you?” He kept muttering and then kissing me and then muttering and then kissing me.

  Finally he let me speak and I said, “Fuck if I know.”

  “How are you, Van!” Roxy asked.

  “I am fine but you need to call a priest! Call a rabbi! Hell, woman, call the National Guard. We have to give Arthur the ghost version of a bon voyage hootenanny or he’s coming back to get his souls.” Roxy was on her cell phone—that finally worked!—before I could get up off the floor.

  “I need to get you home,” Sean said, pulling me in and holding me to his chest. His heart was pounding so hard his chest jumped against my cheek. People who had dropped from the smoke were weeping and one woman kept saying, “Here’s the ground. Here’s the ground. Right here. Here’s the ground.”