Ashes of Midnight

by Aurora Rose Lynn

  Except for his raspy breathing, and Violet's heart pounding against his palm, the world fell completely silent. Violet flattened her palms against the clammy skin of his chest and pushed at him. “If you're done with me, I'll go back to my housekeeping.”

  Grant said nothing as she gracefully rolled off the bed and onto her feet. Her ass was round as a peach and the insides of her thighs were wet and glistening with creamy cum. For the first time in his life, he was at a total loss for words as she untangled her panties and pulled the uniform over her head to cover her body. She scooped up the bra and panties in one hand, and without a word or a backward glance, she left him staring after her.

  She hadn’t glanced back at him. Could she see him now, not as a ghost, but as real flesh and blood or had he blown his one opportunity to free himself of the Inasad curse?

  Chapter Four

  Fuming, Violet pushed aside the curtain, stepped into the shower in her bathroom and turned the hot water on. The sex with Grant had been fantastic, but he'd let her walk away without saying anything. Was he thinking the same thing Chad had told her to her face, that she wasn't good for much in bed?

  She stepped under the hot water and lifted her face to the showerhead to let the water sluice over her face and down her breasts. Stinging tears mingled with the water. She'd reached an all-time low, even for herself. She'd slept with the boss after he'd promised to double her salary. He could well afford to pay it, she reasoned, but why did she feel as if she'd done the unforgivable and sold herself?

  The shower curtain was shoved aside. She opened her mouth to scream and quickly closed it. Still naked, Grant faced her with an unbelievably tender expression on his face. However, his dark eyes were worried.

  “Can't a person shower alone?” she grumbled loudly, reaching for the hand cloth and a bar of lavender-scented soap. Her pulse picked up and beat erratically. What did Grant want? “Haven't you had enough?”

  He reached into the shower and seized her wrist. Hot water surged over his strong forearm, leaving glistening drops. “Haven't I had enough of what?”

  “Of making fun of me in bed!” Violet huffed a breath, but it had the same empty effect as blowing on a tub full of soapy water.

  His heavy frown would have melted an iceberg. He tugged on her wrist and hauled her out onto the dry carpet. Water poured off her body, drenching the avocado-colored mat. The shower continued to run, and he smelled of musky sex.

  “Is that what you think? That I was making fun of you?” His voice was terse and angry.

  “Yes!” she shot back at him, wondering what had brought him down to the first floor. As far as she knew, he'd never left his suite before except to leave her notes. “Just like my ex-boyfriend did before he died.” She didn't dare meet Grant's eyes. Her chest rose and fell with the squeezing pain of yet another escapade in bed gone wrong.

  He lifted her chin with his thumb. “Let's get something straight. I wanted you in my bed. You're a wonderful sex partner and my―” he paused to choose his words carefully “―hurriedness with you has nothing to do with how you performed.”

  “Oh great. You're making me sound like an accounting report.” Relief poured through her at his admission.

  “Violet, stop. Let me explain.”

  “Is this the right place and time?”

  “Dammit, yes! I want to explain about me.” He waved his free hand at himself.

  “You don't owe me any explanations. I'm nothing but your housekeeper,” she retorted, flustered and once again feeling the physical strength of his magnificent body. He was so magnetic. She wanted to lie down with him again and make love.

  Drops of water from her hair dripped onto the bath mat. She shivered from the cool air.

  “You're cold.” Grant stepped into the shower and took her right along with him, seating her on the bench stretched along one wall. The water poured down on them, warming her. Her cheeks flushed pink.

  He went on. “I have a confession to make.”

  Impatiently, she cut him off. “You're a vampire, after all. Or the devil.”

  He took her outburst in good humor. “None of the above. You've probably never even heard about what I'm going to tell you. I'm Inasad, a light bearer, or in earth terms, a ghost.”

  “You can't be a ghost. It's impossible.” Was he making this up? Why?

  He clasped both her hands in his large ones, holding her attentively. “I'm telling you this, Violet, because you can see me now. I’m real. I’m solid, but I’m so afraid the curse will exert its power over me come tomorrow.”

  Oh, so that's where this was going. He was either ditching her already, or he could be telling the truth. “I'm definitely not going to be looking for you.”

  He gave her an endearingly crooked and sad smile. “Are you sure?”

  “This is ludicrous,” she whispered. “I'm your housekeeper, not your lover. First thing in the morning, I'll deliver your breakfast in front of your door, and that will be the end of that.” This dream Violet hoped would never end, but knew couldn't last.

  His hand tightened over hers. “It doesn't have to.” He spoke quietly and earnestly.

  She looked away to give herself time to think, realizing there was something more to his words than she was grasping. Her nipples were pebbled, and to her surprise, his rod was getting stiff as they spoke. Did he want her again?

  Once again, he responded as if he'd read her mind. “Yes, I do want you in my bed again, but I have to explain something to you.”

  Violet returned her gaze to his face and saw a shadow flit across his fine features. “If you're not a vampire, and you're not the devil,” she said lightly, “and you're this Inasad thing, what does that make you?”

  He swallowed hard. “For most of the year, I’m a ghost, except for All Hallow’s Eve when I have the chance to change to my former, real self.”

  She waited for him to say more.

  “At the stroke of midnight, I'll vanish from your eyesight until next All Hallow’s Eve, when you’ll be able to see me again, and I’ll be able to ask for your help.” Grant seemed to find amusement at his statement and laughed softly. “Not that I deserve your help, but I fell in love with you when I couldn’t cross over fully from Inasad. I feel I can trust you, that you won’t leave without giving me the help I need.”

  The blood went cold in her veins. What was he talking about? None of this made sense. “You're beginning to sound like a bad mix of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.”

  He nodded, the smile still playing on his lips. “I've thought that for quite a while.” Taking a deep breath and letting it out, he said, “Here goes. I'm in love with you, Vi. “ He squeezed her hands together. “At midnight, because you had the courage to make love to an almost complete stranger, I’m hoping you can see me, the real man, the real Grant Calder.”

  The pulse at the base of his throat beat violently. Violet wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or not. She shook her head. “I need time to think. I don't understand any of this.” She was perplexed. Grant was saying he was a ghost, but he was real and had made unfeigned love to her. He was also saying she might be able to see him come midnight and help him. What could she do for him to help him when she didn’t fully understand his situation?

  “If you can see me, I'll muddle on as best I can and then you can make your decision without hurrying.” He sighed. “Midnight can't be that far away, but I'll go on. I watched as you worked and sometimes I was able to travel between dimensions as you slept and make love to you.”

  “It was you in my dreams then, wasn’t it?” Violet confirmed, involuntarily jerking her hand free of his. Could he travel in her dream world and do what he wanted, leaving her hungering, aroused and ready for whatever he handed her? She wouldn't allow it. She'd had enough with Chad.

  “Yes. I tried with all my strength to stay away but you need someone to love you with both their body and their soul.”

  “Oh.” Maybe he was using her, just like Chad had, making dec
larations to her and then he’d back out, telling her he’d never said anything of the sort. All in one night, she'd found and met her boss, made love to him and discovered he was too much like Chad for comfort.

  “Sometimes I can move between one dimension and the other in my dream state.”

  “As if that would explain everything.” Sarcasm wasn't her style, but her head was spinning. The man admitted to loving her both in and out of the dream state and yet he needed her help? Why?

  “No, not everything.”

  “Look, I feel I'm about to go.” His voice started to fade away even though he sat right beside her, his thigh erotically touching hers.

  He was flesh and blood, her mind screamed. He couldn't just weave away into nothingness or into this Inasad dimension.

  “Please,” he whispered. “Stay at Brockhurst. Don't leave―”

  Violet was sure he'd said more, but he disappeared suddenly in a blinding light. She rose and looked around the shower and the bathroom and hurried upstairs wet and naked, but she didn't see him anywhere. And yet again, she felt those haunting eyes watching her. None of this could be real. Grant Calder had left more lingering questions than he'd answered. He had to be playing a joke on her.

  * * * * *

  Violet had to pack her suitcase and leave. The mystery that occupied her mind, and couldn’t possibly be solved, wasn’t worth staying for. She could pack her suitcase, but on All Hallow's Eve, it wasn't wise to travel. The trip to Brockhurst had taken over three hours on bumpy, unpaved roads that had been heavily lined with stately coniferous trees that had made her feel hemmed in. Was the feeling a premonition of what lay in store for her? Should she have turned the car around and driven in the other direction?

  Dressed in her uniform, but not having bothered to pull on her bra and panties, she lay down on the bed, then decided she wanted to see the full moon cast its silver glow through the window. She rose to pull open the heavy drapes. Bats swooped and swirled near the window. Violet shuddered. She hated bats. Trying to ignore them, she strolled back to the bed and lay down again, resting on her side to stare unseeingly out the window.

  Since she'd been a child raised by older parents who doted on her but didn't understand a child's needs, she'd drawn and painted in watercolors and oil whenever she'd had a chance. Landscapes and flowers were her favorites, but the human body had been of interest too. She'd drawn Chad as he lay naked on the couch, his hard shaft bobbing toward the ceiling. He hadn't been as powerfully built as Grant was.

  Heaving a deep sigh, Violet sat up and dangled her feet over the bed. She wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, not with all she had to think about. Where was Grant now? Would he come to her and make love if she drifted off in restless sleep? Could she help him? How?

  Nervously, she swung her legs back and forth on the bed creating a slight, but welcome cool breeze. An owl hooted somewhere nearby, but that was the only sound that broke the silence that covered the darkness like a smothering blanket.

  “Grant?” she whispered into the emptiness. “Are you here?”

  She waited, but as she half expected, heard nothing. Who were these Inasad who could live like ghosts in two dimensions? Were they immortal beings like vampires were purported to be? Wouldn't it be difficult to live in two places at once, not fully in one dimension or the other?

  Uneasiness snaked down her spine. Violet stopped swinging her legs and sat absolutely still. There was that feeling she was being watched again. Should she turn on the light and thoroughly examine the room as she had countless times since she'd moved here? No, it was just her nerves doing a number on her this time as all the other times when she'd found nothing.

  But the feeling persisted, sending a cold shiver through her body.

  “Grant? Is that you?” she whispered into the moonlit room.

  She caught the sound of a rustle somewhere to her left where the dresser was. Fishing in her pocket, she realized she'd dropped the Maglite in the master suite and never retrieved it.

  There was the rustling again, just above the threshold of her hearing. Unsteadily, her heart pounding, she got to her feet and walked toward the sound. All four drawers in the chest were open with the bottom one pulled as far as it would go. Draped carefully over it was a white negligee she'd foolishly brought with her. What need would she have for such a fancy piece of nightwear when she was nothing but a housekeeper? Was Grant trying to talk to her?

  She folded her arms across her chest and huffed a breath. “You're still playing games, aren't you?” she asked pointedly. “You want me to put that on, don't you?” Violet remembered him telling her he loved her, that he'd been watching her without her knowledge. Warmth flooded her cheeks. “You know I'm not that kind of a girl, right?”

  Talking to a ghost was absurd, she thought. Was he here at all or was she imagining all this as a result of lack of sleep?

  There was that feeling of being watched again, more real this time. “Grant? Are you there?” Gazing down at the drawer, she saw the negligee was no longer there. Where had it gone and how?

  She spun around as a stiff breeze curled around her back. The negligee was draped on the bed as if she were planning to wear it. “Grant, I don't like your sense of humor,” she said, beginning to get irate. “What kind of game are you playing?”

  Then he stood in front of her, naked and beautiful, the moonlight slicing right through him as if he weren't quite solid. His lips quirked up in that crooked smile she found so entrancing, and he pointed at the negligee, but he didn't speak. She swallowed hard, wondered if it would be best to pack her suitcase in a hurry and take her chances getting home on the dark, winding road.

  Grant shook his head. His dark brown eyes glittered with affection.

  “Oh,” was all she could say, quickly followed by, “You're half here and half there, aren't you?”

  He nodded, but his eyes remained tender.

  “Are you immortal, kind of like a vampire?” she thought to ask.

  He shook his head.

  “Then there's hope for a normal life?” Whatever normal was for him. Abruptly she recalled he was, despite living as a recluse, a well-known software developer and he funded a program for school children who had trouble learning for various reasons.

  Then it dawned on her why he needed her help. She was the only one who could see him. Making love to him had ensured she could see him when he blinked out of Earth existence and into this Inasad world.

  He nodded, and a huge smile curved his lips. Grant was so sexy; it made her body quiver again. The memory of his cock sliding deep into her pussy made her flush from her chest to her cheeks. She took a deep breath and willed herself to stand still. If she ran to him, and threw her arms around his neck, would her hands go through him? “How do I help you?” she asked softly, gnawing on her lower lip. His life was in her hands.

  He lifted his shoulders in a half shrug.

  “Is sex the answer?”

  Adamantly, he shook his head from side to side.

  “Okay, that's out. One or both of us would get awful frustrated, right?”

  He nodded again.

  So all he could do was agree or disagree with a nod or a shake of his head.

  “Why do you want me to put the negligee on then?”

  He blinked repeatedly.

  She sighed again. “I'm a slow learner. I get only yes or no answers, so I have to think up the possible answer.”

  Nodding again, his smile warmed her heart.

  “If I wear this negligee, will it make you feel better?” Violet had never known a man who didn't want to see a woman at least half naked.

  His head bobbed up and down again.

  She unbuttoned the bodice of her uniform. “I can't imagine how,” but her voice was lighthearted and teasing.

  His eyes widened, and he licked his lips.

  Pulling the uniform over her head, she was completely naked. “Is this better?”

  Again the rapid up and down bobbing. How could she h
elp him, relieve the curse of the Inasad? “Are there more like you, these Inasad?”

  He agreed.

  “A few?”

  The terse shake of his head. Grant stretched his arms wide.

  “Oh, I see. There's a lot of you.” The knowledge disheartened her. If she helped him, did she have the responsibility to help the others? How many were there? “A hundred?”

  His arms stayed wide, and his expression saddened.

  “More than that? A thousand?”

  Agreement.

  “A hundred thousand?” Violet wanted to know. If she could pull Grant out, then she could pull the rest out so they could live normal lives too.

  He shook his head again, and his arms stayed spread apart.

  “How many of you are there?” Frustration was beginning to eat at her. “A million?”

  This time he nodded, and his arms fell to his sides.

  “Oh God,” she murmured. “If I pull you out from this two dimension thing, can I pull them out at the same time?”

  He cast his head from side to side. A deep weariness enveloped her, but she found her body tugging her towards making love to him, if only in her imagination. “Do they have to come out one by one?”

  Pursing his lips, he nodded.

  “I have to think.” She paced back and forth, aroused and fighting the dread of what would happen if Grant remained Inasad. She'd only just met him a few hours ago, but her heart was being affected by his playful, lighthearted presence. Was she falling in love with him? Or had she loved him from the time he made his existence known to her in her dreams?

  Grant paced right along with her, back and forth, back and forth from the bed to the window. Endearingly, he folded his arm and rested his hand under his jaw as if deep in thought.