by Lexi Post
Holly lost her smile, and his hand received a squeeze from Joy, which he ignored once again.
He brought them down through the roof of the local bank, the old farmhouse having been remodeled to better house the commercial enterprise, complete with a modern addition in the back that couldn’t be seen from the road.
Holly winked at him. “I thought spirits didn’t need money.”
He hovered high in a corner of the main lobby where they could see behind the tellers, down the hall and the front doors. Then he released their hands.
There were a couple people at the teller stations and a financial representative headed out back. The front doors opened and two men strode in.
“It’s John and Uncle Jerry. He’s not really my uncle, but he and John have been best friends since high school.” Holly floated out toward the center of the main area. “I call John ‘dad’ even though he didn’t come into our lives until I was a teen. That was after the fire when the Tinders took us in. Are they still alive?”
Holly’s worry over the elderly couple who were John’s parents was good to see, but she had no plans to visit them and they were feeling their age. He wanted to ask her why she cared, but Joy answered instead.
“They are, but they are having health issues like most people their age.”
“Maybe I should plan another visit.”
“Maybe you should.” He gave her a stern look. “Or you could move back here.”
Holly squinted her eyes at him before floating away toward her adopted parent.
Joy started to drift after Holly, but he grabbed her arm. “Wait.” He held her until Holly had moved to the other end of the lobby. Pulling Joy back to him, he kept his voice low. “You said at the church that you discovered something new. What is it?”
Her slight smile faded and worry creased her brow. “Cameron wants to tell us more, help us, but you’re right, his hands are tied by others. However, after thinking very hard, he gave me a hint.”
He waited patiently for her to go on, his gaze wandering from her eyes to her lips.
“He said, ‘don’t be subtle.’”
That caught his attention. “Don’t be subtle?”
“Yes. I wasn’t sure what he meant at first, but when I thought about what we want Holly to learn from her visits, it started to make sense.”
“That’s probably the most help we’re going to receive on this assignment. We need to use it to its maximum. Good work.”
Joy’s cheeks turned a rosy hue at his compliment. It immediately reminded him of the photo of himself in her nightstand drawer. Was he more than a sexual fantasy for her? Even that was still a piece of information he was attempting to fit into the profile of Joy.
He pushed away the Joy project for the one they were working on together. If they weren’t supposed to be subtle then his methods would work better than Joy’s, so where did that leave him if the only way for him to keep his job was to change his methods?
He curled his hands into fists, beyond frustrated.
“Malcolm?” Joy was looking at him with that worried expression again.
He hated that. “Let’s see how she reacts to this incident.” He waved his hand toward the bank scene before them.
She drifted closer and lifted his hood from his head. “You look friendlier without that. I think this look works better with Holly.” She blushed again, making him conclude that maybe it was actually Joy who liked him better without the hood.
She floated away, her slender waist catching his eye. Maybe it was her belly button that was pierced.
He shook his head to get the thought out of his mind. For all he knew, she had no piercing at all. Maybe it was just a symbol of what she thought he liked. If so, she was a good guesser, because the possibility that she had a piercing had his body interfering with his thought process.
Forcing himself to concentrate on the problem at hand, he followed Joy to the other side of the bank lobby where Holly hovered.
Holly watched as John went into the back with a bank employee and Jerry waited in line for a teller. “I wonder why John is here. I can’t imagine him getting a loan. He’s really good with money.” Holly floated over to them to peek down the hall. “Maybe he needs something from his safe deposit box.”
Joy threw him a worried look.
The bank doors opened. “Everybody get down on the ground, on your stomachs and no one will get hurt.” A gunman with a ski mask waved a semi-automatic while another man ran for the teller counter. The customers obeyed without argument, stretching out on the floor.
“Don’t get any ideas about pressing that buzzer.” The other man waved a magnum at both tellers.
“What’s happening?” Holly’s worried gaze was on her Uncle Jerry, who now lay on the floor like everyone else, except the tellers.
Joy put her hand on Holly’s shoulder. “The bank is being robbed.”
“What?” Holly looked at him, and he nodded.
“Move out of the way, gramps.” The man with the handgun kicked Jerry in the ribs then slammed a bag on the counter. “Both of you fill this with everything you have.”
The two tellers immediately began putting money into the bag. The one in front of the gunman reached for the silent alarm.
“Hey, I said stay away from that.” The robber pointed the gun at the teller.
“He’s going to shoot her!” Holly started forward then stopped. There was nothing she could do.
At that moment, Jerry yanked on the gunman’s foot, sending him to the floor. Gunfire pierced the ceiling. The other man at the door aimed his weapon and pulled the trigger, shooting Jerry multiple times.
“No!” Holly turned her head away from where Jerry lay on the ground even as John and the manager ran up the hall.
The man near the door yelled. “Grab the money!” His partner yanked the bag from the teller even as the semi-automatic sprayed the hallway.
“Dad!” Holly flew to John.
Malcolm looked down as Joy gripped his arm, her fingers digging in hard. “It’s so hard not to help when I know what to do.”
Her words tugged at his conscience. This scene was mild compared to the many he’d worked as a Glasgow Watchman, but Joy was a healer, and it was probably traumatic for her even though she didn’t know the victims.
He looked at Holly, tears tracked down her face as she knelt by John. “Dad? Dad? Please be okay.”
Stealing himself against the softening of his heart, he waited.
The gunmen exited the front door and ran for their car. Still, no sirens could be heard. The thieves had done their homework. The local police department changed shift at two o’clock. It was a small department for a small rural town. By time they arrived, the suspects would be long gone and Jerry would bleed out.
“Dad?”
John started to get up, but his knee gave out and he rolled over grasping it. “Fuck.” Taking a few deep breaths, he pulled himself up and hobbled over to Jerry. John dropped down next to his friend, despite the gory mess that had once been the man’s back. “Anyone have medical training!”
Holly floated up and over to the counter where the date was posted for customers. She crossed her arms and spun back around to glare at him. “This is not going to happen.”
He raised his brow. “Why not?”
“I won’t let it.” She took a furtive glance at Jerry. “I’ll keep my dad and uncle from coming here and you can’t stop me.”
Malcolm nodded. “Then the teller will be dead instead.”
She threw her hands up in the air. “Well, holy crap, what do you want me to do?”
Joy finally let go of his arm and took Holly by the shoulders. “Let’s discuss this outside.”
He followed the women as they phased through the roof.
Holly pulled away from Joy and advanced on him. “Why show me this? How am I supposed to change it?”
“I never said you were.”
She poked her finger into his chest. “Listen, Mr. The
World Sucks, you don’t have to prove to me that life is tragic. Just tell me what I’m supposed to do about this.”
He shrugged. “Why do you want to do anything about this?”
Her hand dropped, and she stared at him as if he’d just killed a hundred puppies. “Because that’s my father who just got shot and my dear friend. I love them both to pieces. I don’t want to see them hurt never mind killed.”
“But you’re in Scotland and they’re here. How much can you really care?”
“Malcolm.” Joy’s stern tone wasn’t going to stop him from driving his point home.
He raised his hands out to the sides. “You’re over there because a man who is already dead means more to you than people who are still alive that you say you love.”
Holly’s mouth opened but nothing came out.
He pressed his advantage. “Oh, that’s right, there’s the One of a Kind Christmas Shop. That commercial endeavor must be more important than the people you love.”
“That’s enough!” Joy grabbed his hand, and before he could blink, they were racing through the ether.
Chapter Six
Within seconds they were in Joy’s home, the pristine white walls a fitting backdrop for the rage she was in. If he’d wanted to see what lay beneath the surface of Joy Collingwood, he was seeing it now.
Solidifying, she turned on him. “What do you think you’re doing? That was not what we were trying to achieve with that visit.”
He looked down at his hand and ran his thumb across his fingers. “That’s what I was hoping to achieve.”
“Malcolm, showing her loved ones being shot is bad enough. You needed to let her come to her own conclusions.”
He waved his hand to the side. “You heard her. She just wanted to change the outcome. She missed the meaning behind it.”
“The meaning? You didn’t even give the poor woman a chance to breathe, never mind process what she saw!” Joy patted her chest. “I’m still trying to process it, and I knew what was coming. Now, not only have you shocked Holly, but you’ve done exactly what Cameron said for you not to do. Do you wish to end your existence?”
She turned, stalking away from him then she spun back to face him. “How can I keep you safe when you do everything in your power to undermine me?”
He was so fascinated by this side of happy, caring Joy that it took a second to register what she said. “Keep me safe?” He not only sounded like a bumbling idiot, he felt like one too.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course! You’re the one on trial here. You’re the one, by your own words, being tested by those above Cameron. You’re the one who chose me to come along for the ride. I assumed it meant you wanted my help, not that you wanted me to witness the end of your existence because if that’s what you were hoping then you’re sadly mistaken. I refuse to stand idly by while you destroy yourself.”
Her anger took a toll on her hair, multiple strands now framed her face making her appear more wild and sexy then he’d given her credit for. Suddenly, the barbell jewelry seemed to fit, and his cock began to harden. He solidified as well. “Destroy myself?”
She stomped toward him, her ankle high boots clacking loudly on the tile floor of her living room. “That’s what it looks like to me. What do you call it?”
Her blue eyes flashed, revealing emotions he hadn’t seen since…since Blair. He brushed past her. He refused to go there again.
Her hands on his arm stopped him short.
“Where are you going? You owe me an explanation.”
He scowled at the two hands holding his arm. He could easily break their hold. She thought she could stop him. Save him. He didn’t need saving. He needed—
Like fog clearing beneath the onslaught of the sun, understanding dawned.
He needed her.
No. He shook his head. He didn’t. He didn’t need anyone. His gaze traveled up her arm to the pulse beating in her neck. His lips itched to lick her there, to move his hand under her dress and cup her between her legs to feel if the fuxing barbell lay there.
He forced his gaze to hers. The dark blue flecks in her eyes seemed to fight with the lighter colors, as if her body was on fire. As he stared at her, her mouth parted slightly, her breaths became more pronounced and her cheeks, already flushed with anger, grew rosier.
He’d have to be a saint to resist her. With his free hand, he grasped her behind her neck and brought her lips to within a hair’s breadth of his. He held her there, hoping she’d try to pull away, silently begging her to tell him “no.”
Once again, the photo of himself, tucked into her bedside drawer, flitted through his mind and he knew he was lost. With a groan, he pressed his lips to hers and breached her mouth with his tongue. He swept inside, dominating her, holding her there despite her hand gripping his arm.
When she sucked on his tongue, he gave up the fight. Within seconds, he’d phased them both and swept them together into her bedroom.
He wanted her. All of her. He angled them over her bed before solidifying them again, never letting go of her sweet mouth.
As soon as her body sunk into the mattress, she became more aggressive. She let go of his arm and ran her hand into his hair while her other hand burrowed beneath his cape to yank his shirt from the waistband of his kilt.
Her chest arched up against him and her legs spread, allowing his to anchor between them, his already hard cock pressing against her thigh. With a practiced hand, he unlinked his sporran and threw it to the side.
Her tongue explored his mouth, tangling with his own, and like her hands, it never stopped moving. The need she exhibited stoked his own.
Finally, he pulled his mouth away, anxious to taste her skin. She turned her head to the side, giving him access to her neck, which he gladly kissed.
Suddenly, she phased. “Disrobe me.” At her words, he looked up, thinking she wanted him to strip her, but that wasn’t the case.
She solidified again and beneath him now lay a naked Joy, and with her hand lifting his kilt and grabbing his ass, he had no doubt that she liked it this way. He pressed his abdomen against her thighs and she tilted her pelvis to rub herself against the course wool of his kilt.
He knelt back, not willing to let her climax so quickly. Despite his own need, the longer he could detain it, the sweeter it would be. Lowering his head, he nipped at each nipple, the hard points perfect for a piercing, but no jewelry shone there.
He sucked hard on each areola, holding it still while she writhed beneath him, her hands in his hair telling him she didn’t want him to stop. But his curiosity was strong and he moved farther down, keeping his fingers on her hard nubs, just holding them, but not squeezing. If they were at his place, there was so much more he would do to her.
When he licked at her navel, the one place he was sure would be pierced, he swallowed his disappointment. Maybe the golden barbell was simply a wish and not something she actually had.
He finally pinched at her nipples in varying rhythms as he licked downward to her mons. The lack of hair anywhere there had his cock throbbing, anxious for release. There was no way he’d be able to do a complete investigation of her body. Again, if they were at his place…
He couldn’t hold on anymore. Instead, he lifted himself over her and positioned his cock at her wet entrance. He rubbed his cock against her opening spreading her moisture over it and up. His tip hit against something hard and Joy let out a small yell.
His entire body tensed. Fux, the woman had a pierced clit! He lost all control and entered her in one hard thrust.
Joy saw stars as Malcolm’s hard, thick cock pushed to his hilt, the reality shattering every fantasy about him she ever had. She opened her legs wider and bent her knees. As he pulled out, she tilted her pelvis for his next thrust.
His cock ran against her clit hood barbell, sending pleasure cascading through her to spike as he hit her cervix again. This is what she’d dreamed of. His abrasive peasant shirt rubbed against her nipples and his woolen kilt sc
raped against her inner thighs.
She forced her eyes open as he thrust again, his jaw was clenched and his silky black hair fell forward. Reaching up, she pulled his face toward hers.
At first, he resisted her tug, but she wouldn’t let up as her need spiraled higher, his cock sliding along her clit and deep into her pussy. Finally, he let his head drop, and she thrust her tongue into his mouth. As soon as his met hers, she sucked, tensing the muscles in her sheath.
He exploded inside her.
Her entire insides burst into flame from her core outward, spiking up her spine and into her brain. Bliss, pure and white caught her in its sweet grip as she held on to the man that brought her there. He kept still, his own release filling her as he let her luxuriate in the pulses of sensation as they swept through her like wildfire.
At some point, she’d let go of his hair, so as she finally came down from her peak, she noticed his head turned away and over her shoulder. Her fingers still gripped his back through his shirt, so she reluctantly forced them to loosen. The man’s back was like rock.
He lifted his head and stared at her.
She opened her heart, hoping for something sweet and wonderful.
“You have a clit piercing.”
Her disappointment was fleeting and she chuckled, loving the way his eyes darkened as her sheath tightened around him with her movement. “Technically, my hood is pierced, but yes I do.”
“I didn’t expect that. Have all your lovers been as surprised as I am?”
She found the tension in his body odd for his question. “No, because I had it done after Alan broke it off with me. I went through that stage of hurt and rebellion and wanted to do something totally opposite of my character. I never had another lover after that, but…” She glanced toward her nightstand where she kept her sex toys. Would he find those exciting, too? Or think her pathetic?
His body relaxed as he looked at her nightstand as well. “You’ve enjoyed the jewelry anyway?”
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
His gaze came back to rest on her, his weight firmly on his elbows now. “From what I just saw, I don’t think the piercing opposite of your character at all.”
