Chapter One
Mike was the consummate host, greeting each guest one by one as they entered Rochester Mansion, the place he’d called home for just a little over a year now. The drama of the first few months seemed almost like ancient history and though their little family hadn’t entertained much new company lately, today was different.
It had been Rachel’s idea, of course. The model-turned-starlet had been working double-time on her career for the past six months, working on a set somewhere in the green isles of New Zealand and as she said, it was now her time to be a homebody and spend a little time with the man of her dreams. Aimee and Eliza, the other half of their little harem-like family were out for the week, visiting family. Aimee’s father, Larry, had died in an unfortunate and embarrassing accident that was completely hush-hush. As he was her ex, Eliza felt obligated to accompany the redheaded teenager that had become far more a part of her life since they’d lived together at Rochester Mansion.
“Your home is lovely, Mr…”
“Mike is fine.” Mike said, taking the blonde’s hand as she stepped across the threshold. Once it hit, he realized he’d lost count of the pulses of energy the house sent through him when a female the house found compatible crossed into its boundaries. It was a magic that had taken him a bit to fully comprehend. It didn’t manufacture desire out of whole cloth, it simply perfected the circumstances that would allow any latent attraction to come to a boil. The difficulty in understanding it had been accepting that given the right circumstances, almost any pairing would eventually happen.
He followed the sexy slink of her body as she entered the main chamber, turning back to watch the next guest coming up the walkway right after he caught the last one’s eyes turning back towards him.
“Turn out is amazing.” Rachel said, singing out the last word as she ran her fingers down his sides from behind. “See anything you’re interested in?”
“Can’t see behind me.” Mike whispered, his eyes on the MILF picking her way over the cobblestones in death-defying stiletto heels.
“You’re too sweet, as always, Mike.” The actress sighed. “But you and I both are going to spend a little time with one of these beautiful ladies. Got me?”
She laughed, coming up from behind him and giving him finger signals at her eyes, then his own.
He smiled. “Oh, don’t worry about that, darlin’.” He twanged. “Don’t forget, I want you to pick your own favorite as well.”
Rachel wrinkled up her nose. “Hm. If your cock’s in one and your mouth’s on another, not sure what’s left for me.”
“You’re supposed to be the creative type.” Mike said, laughing.
The actress saw his attention turn as Mike addressed the gorgeous, late-thirties blonde that had finally made it to the bottom of the porch, pecking him on the cheek before returning to mingle with the crowd.
Platinum blonde curls fell around her shoulders, framing a face he could imagine to be sweet, angry, or passionate depending on the circumstances. He also remembered her.
Corey.
She was one of Eliza’s friends and had, ironically, been there to ‘catch him in the act’ escorting Rachel Shane to her hotel room when they had first started their relationship. Her report to Eliza had caused a bit of a dust-up, even though she had divorced him and remarried. It was a short fight.
Eliza hadn’t talked about her since then and he wondered what the status of their relationship was. Were they still friends? Did the hot blonde still feel some obligation to spy on him at her friend’s behest even considering the open nature of their relationship? It was going to be a good time finding out, but Mike wasn’t going to let the house dictate the terms on this one.
“So glad that you could come.” He said, crossing to the other side of the threshold before she could approach. “I’m Mike.”
The blonde’s head came up, hitting him with the glare of crystal blue eyes. “It’s nice to meet you, Mike.” She said, taking his hand. “Love the house.”
“If you love this, you should see this.”
Her hand still in his grip, he led the surprised MILF around the corner of the deck and towards the kitchen entrance. Only the front door triggered Rochester Mansion’s magic and that was the way he wanted it. He was curious just how far she would go to figure out what was going on. It was fairly obvious from the way she spoke that she didn’t think he knew who she was.
“This porch is incredible.” Corey said, her eyes going to the intricate carvings overhead. “Is all of this original?”
“According to the records that came with the house, I’ve refurbished it to the point where it should look precisely the way it did when Cyril Rochester first moved into it.”
“Amazing.” The blonde whispered.
“I’m glad you made it.” Mike said. “Rachel’s pretty excited that so many are showing up for her casting call.”
Corey seemed to come out of a reverie, her eyes snapping to his. “Absolutely. The chance to work with her is…well, I’m not an actress, but sometimes…”
“I think you’d make a good actress.” Mike said, leading her into the kitchen. “And, if you don’t mind me saying it, you’ve definitely got the looks.”
He watched her blush and try to compose herself quickly. “I’m probably too old, though.”
Mike decided he was going to give the blonde plenty to talk about. He sized her up, letting his eyes wander from head to toe, then back up again. She was certainly dressed to impress; and he was going to let her know how impressed he was.
“I’m not going to patronize you and throw out a flattering age that I know isn’t even close.” He said, watching her face. “But I think you could easily go another twenty years before I’d see you as old, and even then, you’d be a hot old lady.”
She was a friend of Eliza’s from school, so he figured she would be approaching forty, just as she was. The two shared something in common, certainly. Both were gorgeous.
Corey’s face went through a few emotions before she apparently abandoned saying anything else self-deprecating. She smiled. “I really appreciate that, Mike.”
“Deserved.” He said. “I think Rachel’s in the main room if you’re ready to meet her.”
“No rush.” Corey said, leaning against the countertop. She smiled again. “Unfortunately, guys that think like you are always already married.”
Mike laughed. There it was, he thought; the first test.
“Well, I’ll have to admit to you, I’m currently married.”
Corey looked a little flustered at his comment, but he continued.
“But my wife, Eliza, and I enjoy adding a little spice to our lives now and then.” He leaned in closer to Corey. “Rachel Shane is a perfect example of that.”
“You…” Corey started, but had nowhere to go with it.
“The two of you would get along perfectly. You’ve got a lot in common, actually.”
The blush was furious this time, spreading across her whole face as her plan for the evening fell apart. He could see her scheming, though, as if not entirely convinced that the bombshell he had just dropped on her was true.
“I’d love to meet her sometime.” She said, softly.
“She’s out of town, unfortunately.” Mike said, then laid down the gauntlet. “So you’d just have to settle for me.”
Mike gave a second for the realization of what he had just said to cross over Corey’s pretty face before he dismissed himself. “I should really be getting back to the door. Let me know if there’s anything that you need.”
He would have liked to have seen the evolution of that expression as it matured with her processing of the conversation they’d just had, but what he had said was true; he really should get back to the door. Rachel had gone to a lot of work for him to simply end up spending the whole time banging one of Eliza’s college friends, after all. He made a mental note, though. He was going to seduce that blonde goddess, and, if at all possible, bring her into bed with him
and Eliza. That should bring the whole thing to an end, right?
Chapter Two
He had barely made it back to the front door before the sight coming up the front steps took his breath away.
Anna.
Even though the strawberry-blonde hair he had remembered had changed to a soft, inviting brown that matched her soulful eyes, he recognized her immediately. One of Aimee’s sorority sisters, the shy beauty had availed herself of his hospitality when the girls’ house had burned down after a particularly intense party. Her broken-wing nature had drawn him in and they had spent one of his more memorable nights at Rochester Mansion in his bed. Building the broken young woman’s self-esteem had a side effect of building his own, it turned out.
Her smile made him happy like nothing else had since the day he had walked down the aisle with Eliza the second time, with both Aimee and Rachel at her side.
“Hey there, Mister Mike.” She said, immediately moving in past his extended hand and into a warm embrace.
He had been testing the magic of Rochester Mansion at the time, specifically one of Cyril Rochester’s spells. She had forgotten about the time they had spent together, but in the following days it seemed as if the bond they had formed during that time lingered.
“It’s good to see you again, Anna.” He said as the embrace lifted and those gorgeous eyes came back into view. “Aimee said you left school.”
Anna blushed. “So, was she just gossiping, or did you ask?”
Mike smiled. It was definitely a question coming from a young woman that had far more confidence than the fragile flower that had originally been terrified to pursue her own desires.
He looked down at her and refused to lie. “I asked.”
The blush deepened.
“Are you and Rachel Shane…a thing?” Anna asked, taking a bit of extra time to make herself finish the sentence.
Mike looked around, following her eyes as they roamed wildly around Rochester Mansion’s main chamber. It was as if he could see into her mind, so he side-stepped her question, even though he wasn’t particularly avoiding it. He whispered in her ear as her distraction continued.
“You’re as beautiful as any of them, Anna.”
He could sense the struggle in her eyes that finally concluded with her looking back up at him. “Flattery will get you…everywhere.” She grinned.
“I definitely think that you could have a career in film.” Mike said. “I have a hard time keeping myself from staring at you.”
Anna gave the room one last glance before she seemed to steel herself, facing him. “I should have known you were going to make this easy on me.” She whispered. He felt the warmth of her hand slide into his, the fingers spreading his own. “Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”
“What am I making easy on you?” Mike asked, smiling.
“Certainly not getting you to a quiet place to talk.” Anna smiled.
“As you wish.” Mike said, laughing. The house was almost overflowing with beautiful women, so that wasn’t an option. Since no one had arrived behind the lovely former sorority girl, he figured the door no longer needed to be manned. “Let’s go around back to the carriage house.”
The two walked down the far steps of the front deck, following the little cobbled path leading to the back that had been part of the house’s original design. It hadn’t come up in his time with Onatah down at the Source, but he assumed that it was her magic that tended to repair anything wrong with the beautiful home, but only to its original design.
Air conditioner repair was unfortunately on him, but he wasn’t complaining too much.
“You never answered my question about you and Rachel Shane.” Anna said, turning her face up to his in the moonlight. It cast a glow on her skin that took her beauty to another level.
Mike turned the dials on the padlock he’d installed and clicked it open, taking it out of the hasp and sliding the door open.
“It’s gorgeous.” She whispered, looking around the space as he closed the door behind them.
“Probably because you keep getting distracted.” He laughed, squeezing her fingers. She turned back to him, smiling, just as he continued. “Yes, Rachel Shane and I are a ‘thing’, if that’s what you want to call it. I love her and she loves me, but we’re not exclusive.”
He watched her face for a moment but at least in this, he had no ability to read her.
“So, quid pro quo, you never answered my question, either.”
Anna’s eyes focused on his. “What was that?”
“What am I making easy on you?”
Another blush crossed her beautiful face, but it was an automatic response she couldn’t control. She seemed to be exerting a lot of control to make herself answer him.
“Well, I’ve always had a shyness, sometime debilitating.” She whispered.
“It’s okay.” Mike started. “I think that sometimes…”
“Shut up, Mike.” She said, interrupting him with a smile. “Let me do this.”
Mike pursed his lips comically together.
“I’ve always been crazy shy and it took meeting you here in the Spring to help me. I can’t really put my finger on exactly how, but you awoke something in me. I left school not long after then and didn’t look back.”
There was a long silence that Mike let linger as she seemed to be bringing herself to the next level she wanted to be at. He felt a surging pride in her, as the young woman he’d met back then would never have been able to open up even as much as she had already.
His hand was still in hers and she led him in a slow arc around the carriage house, right to the base of the ladder leading up to the hayloft, which she put her back to.
“I started picking it up, a little bit here, and a little bit there. Experiences, happiness, all the things that I’d been missing.”
Her hand left his, leaving a moist emptiness, but he was distracted as she grabbed the outside bars of the ladder behind her and stepped up onto its bottom rung, bringing her eyes to the level of his own.
“So, I’m making it easy on you to thank me for making you less shy? I don’t see…”
Anna rolled her beautiful, chestnut-brown eyes at him and he laughed.
“Then what?”
“You’re making it easy for me to do what I wanted to do back then. I ached for it every hour of every night I lay there on the couch in your study.”
Mike was about to ask her when her lips met his. He could taste a sweet mixture of the lips he remembered and something fruity with a whiff of alcohol. She wasn’t even tipsy as far as he felt from her, but it had likely been a bit of liquid courage to help her through what she had just done. The kiss itself was delicious; everything he’d remembered from the touch of those sweet lips and the press of her remarkable young body against his own. This time, instead of in his bed, he was pressing her against the ladder as she freed her hands from the rails, running one through his hair while the other cupped his cheek. The kiss grew to a passion, though it never lost that initial sweetness.
After a minute or two, he pulled back, if anything just to see those eyes again.
“Is that all you longed to do?” Mike whispered. The thought that burned in his mind was that the effect of Rochester Mansion’s magic, Onatah’s magic, had worn off on the young beauty long, long ago. This response was coming directly from her.
“Yeah, not exactly.” She said, her ubiquitous blush coming along for the ride as her lips turned up into a playful smirk. She immediately turned, bracing herself against him as she faced the ladder and raced up it, tight shorts accentuating the incredible curves of her body that he remembered fondly.
Just remember you’ve never been together, Mike reminded himself as he scaled the ladder’s rungs, two-by-two.
Chapter Three
Rachel mingled with the crowd, keeping in mind what Mike had said about picking her favorite, but there were so many. Every shade of hair and skin was represented, all there for the opportunity to app
ear in her next project. That was going to happen. There may have been ulterior motives involved when she advertised the casting call at Rochester Mansion, but the original motives were true. She was looking for just the right girl for a role that could potentially create another star. She was probably here; Rachel just had to find her.
She walked with that peripherally uncomfortable feeling that everyone knew her and she knew no one. There were a few she recognized, though she didn’t want to let on. The blonde sitting on her own against the grand staircase was from the library down in town, and also from the bed she’d shared with Mike and Aimee. She likely wouldn’t remember that, though. When they had finally revealed the secret to her, Rachel had found no reason to disbelieve. Everything about the mansion and what she had experienced there was magic. Discretion was important, though. She grasped the concept of just how the magic worked, merely assisting in bringing the possible to fruition, but she agreed that too many gossiping tongues could cause unwanted attention to be brought upon them.
Rochester Mansion- The Complete Series Page 26
