by Bryn Donovan
“Oh God, you’re drenched,” she said with a laugh. She had tossed on a denim jacket before venturing out, but he wore only a casual white cotton shirt. Soaked to transparency, it clung flat to his skin, emphasizing every muscled contour of his body.
If he had been standing in the lobby stark naked, it would have been less provocative.
“You’d better get me upstairs and out of these things,” he breathed close to her ear.
The elevator rang and the doors opened. With a slight, chivalrous inclination of the head, David gestured for Andi to go in first, then followed behind her. As the doors shut, Andi drew closer to him.
“You’re going to get wet, too,” he warned her.
“I’m already wet.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her up against him for a kiss, his tongue delving into her mouth, his hands on her shoulders as if to keep her from slipping away. She placed her hands alongside his hips in silent answer. Through the denim of his jeans, with one of her thumbs, she traced the hollow just inside the hipbone. A slight growl of approval rose from the back of his throat. Andi melted against his body and felt his insistent desire for her.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Andi jumped back from David. He didn’t seem to be in as much of a hurry, stepping away from her only reluctantly. Andi realized that they weren’t yet on his floor, and that the man waiting for an elevator had caught a glimpse of them making out.
“I’ll take the stairs,” he said pleasantly and walked off.
Andi giggled.
“I have the best neighbors,” David commented, turning back to her as the doors closed again.
When they got out on his floor, Andi said, “Oh, it’s freezing up here.”
“Yeah, it is,” he agreed, putting an easy arm around her as they headed down the hallway. “It’s fine in my place, but I don’t know what the deal is out here.”
They reached David’s door and he released Andi so he could unlock it. “You must be so cold,” she said, regarding his soaked shirt again.
“Kind of,” he said, though he looked impervious. He let Andi in first and locked the door behind them.
Andi kicked off her wet shoes.
“We should take a hot shower,” he said.
“What, you mean both of us?” she asked, hanging the jacket on the hall closet doorknob. Her heartbeat accelerated at the suggestion.
He gave her a wicked smile. “There’s plenty of room for two.”
She remembered this. “All right.”
David took her by the hand and led her to the large master bath lined in tiny polished tiles. He reached over to turn the handle below the hot and cold knobs.
“What is that?” Andi asked. Although she’d used the oversized shower before, she hadn’t known what that extra handle was for.
“It’s a steam shower,” he told her, even as soft puffs of steam began to form. “Warm you right up.”
He stripped off his sopping shirt and tossed it in the corner. Andi’s fingers went to the top button of her own shirt, but he stepped forward to close the small space between them, his large hands covering hers.
“Let me,” he said, guiding her hands to her sides.
Obeying, she let him undo the first button, then the second. The sensation of standing still while he slowly removed her clothes transfixed her. His mouth brushed the side of her neck then nuzzled the base of her throat and the tops of her breasts as he unfastened the rest of the buttons and glided the shirt off her body. He unhooked her bra and took it off next, stroking the sides and the undercurve of her breasts so lightly that she could barely breathe.
Andi closed her eyes. “You’re driving me crazy,” she whispered.
“Ah, sweetheart,” he rumbled. Andi’s toes curled at the unexpected endearment. And then she shivered as he said, “I’m just getting started.”
* * *
David enjoyed her tremulous reaction as, taking his time, he kneeled down in front of her to strip the socks off her feet and undo her jeans. He paused to rub the side of his face against the soft skin of her belly then dragged his open mouth across it, feeling as well as hearing her whimper in response. He stripped her jeans and panties off in one smooth motion, rising again to hold her as she stepped out of them, stroking her delicious body everywhere.
After reaching over to turn on the hot water, he shucked off the rest of his clothes and took Andi’s hand. Her bare skin flushed all over, even before it had made contact with the heat of the water.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get cleaned up.” Although the ideas he had in mind weren’t what many people would have described as clean.
By now the steam from the jets had filled the large, luxurious shower stall, enveloping their bodies in a dreamlike mist, warming their flesh completely.
“Ahh, that feels good,” Andi said, and David drank in the sight of the water cascading over her body, running in rivulets over her breasts, her thighs.
“Is the water too hot?” he murmured.
She shook her head and gave him an impish grin. “I like it hot.”
“Let me wash your back.” He picked up the soap.
Andi giggled. “Okay.” She turned her smooth back to him as he lathered his hands. He ran the bar over her shoulders, her small, strong back…she squirmed when he gave her derrière the same attention. His chest touched her back as he reached around to guide the soap across her belly and breasts.
“Hey,” she said softly, teasing. “That’s not my back.”
“No?” He set the bar down and ran both hands across her abdomen. Her skin was slippery all over from the soap. As his hands skimmed upward to encircle and massage her breasts, her head fell back against his chest. He could feel her staccato breaths, her wet hair against his bare skin and the wild pulsating of her heart beneath his palm.
David had never in his life felt so close to a human being. Usually, when he made love to a woman, he had a sense of sophisticated detachment. It had never been that way with Andi.
He smoothed his right hand down to dip between her legs. When she pushed his hand away, he stopped. “You don’t want me to touch you there?”
“No, I do. I just got a little overwhelmed.”
David caught up both her wrists and pinned them below his left hand against her heart, a gentle restraint. “Shh,” he whispered into her ear from behind. He reached his other hand down again to rest at her most sensitive place. She didn’t resist, though her body writhed against his. “Andi,” he said to her, half a command, half an entreaty, “Don’t come yet, all right?”
“What?”
“Please…stay with me.” He barely knew himself why he asked, except out of an overwhelming urge to make the moment last a little longer, away from the curse of his history, away from fear.
He stroked her clit and kissed and bit the back of her neck, until her gasps and syllables of pleasure echoed against the shower walls. Though she came closer and closer to her edge, she awed him by complying with his demand.
“Oh, God,” she cried out, shuddering but not letting herself go. Thick steam swirled around them. “David, please,” she begged.
Desire overwhelmed him. He had to have her now. He turned her around and lifted her up against the wall of the shower, then drove into her. Andi wrapped one leg around him, her foot at the small of his back, drawing him more deeply in.
“Yes,” he choked out, “come with me…”
She screamed as she convulsed around him. Fulfillment seemed to come over her more absolutely than ever before. Her muscles gripped him tightly, and after maybe a dozen thrusts, he lost himself in her.
Andi laid her head on his shoulder, spent. David felt an almost heartbreaking tenderness toward her. He carefully set her on her feet long enough to turn off the water and the steam, then pulled a towel off the rack outside the shower and began to dry off her hair.
She giggled. “I can do that.”
“So can I.” He attended to her arms, b
reasts and belly, all tinged pink from the heat, and crouched down to dry off each leg. As he straightened and tossed the wet towel in the corner, her gaze lingered on him. He scrubbed a second towel over his own damp body with considerably less care.
She sighed and leaned against the door of the shower. “I’m exhausted.”
“We can’t have that.”
She squeaked as he lifted her up in his arms. He carried her to the bed, lay her down and stretched out next to her, holding her close. Andi snuggled her head into his chest with a soul-deep sigh.
He stroked her damp golden-brown hair, but he had no words. She fell sweetly asleep next to him, but David lay awake holding her long into the night.
Chapter Fourteen
David and Andi drove into the Evanston neighborhood on Halloween night. Carved pumpkins glowed from porches and front windows. Andi saw one with an elaborate, artistic design, a cat surrounded by swirls. Most of them were more traditional, though—crude smiles or mean faces chopped out with a regular kitchen knife. She’d always hated the angry jack o’lanterns.
As they came to the street where the homes became larger and grander, there were no more jack o’lanterns, and then they reached the mansion, standing by itself, its windows vacant and black.
Andi got out of David’s car. A profound silence surrounded the place, as though it were cut off from the rest of the world. A half-moon, shining through the few ragged leaves left on a branch of an oak tree, somehow illuminated nothing.
It was the least festive house she’d ever seen in her life. And here, more than anywhere else, it felt like Halloween.
David asked, “Should we go in?”
“Yeah.”
They hung out in the front parlor, and in a few minutes, Morty came to the front door. He brought in a large black suitcase, set it down and clambered to a seated position on the floor, saying, “You could use some chairs in here, you know.”
Andi sat down near him as he took out a set of keys big enough for a custodian, found one tiny key and unlocked the suitcase. She caught only a glimpse of the contents—a couple of silver flasks, an old clothbound book—before he pulled out a board and some other object and slammed the suitcase shut again.
“Talking board,” he said as he set it out on the floor.
Damaged bamboo framed the long, narrow artifact. Worn paint spelled out the letters of the alphabet in straight rows, with an “and” symbol, an ampersand, after the “z.” The words YES. and NO. occupied the upper corners. Andi wondered vaguely why in the old days people used to put periods after so many things. The bottom corners read GOOD-EVE. and GOOD-NIGHT.
“A Ouija board,” David complained. “It’s a kid’s game.”
Andi ignored him and sat down.
“You think so, huh?” Morty rejoined. “They’ve been around since about twelve hundred BC. Started out in China, but they didn’t just stay there. Pythagoras had one. The math guy.” Morty placed a triangular object on top of the board. “This one’s from eighteen ninety-two. Isn’t she a beaut?”
Andi said, “My sister Lissa and I used one once, when we were kids. I think it worked.”
David looked surprised. Then he sat down. “Your sister was putting one over on you,” he suggested.
“She was only six,” Andi told him. “She couldn’t really spell.” She told them about her experience, with the woman who introduced her to the word “whore.” She could tell that David believed her and that he didn’t like it.
The psychic believed her too. “I’m glad to hear this. Sounds like you’re a good conduit. That means my friend Mr. Girard here won’t have to worry about whether I’m scooting the planchette around.”
“Planchette?” Andi asked.
“This.” Morty pointed to the triangular device.
“Why won’t I have to worry about whether you’re moving it?” David asked.
“’Cause I won’t be touching it.”
David’s eyes narrowed. “So what do we need you for?”
Morty gave him a smug grin. “I’m the man with the board.” He went on more seriously, “And I’m the one who knows how to talk to these guys. It sounds like at least one of them is malicious. Hopefully you don’t have a demon.”
“Demon?” Andi squeaked. “That can happen?”
“Hell yeah, it can happen. What do you think? And it’s pretty nasty business when they show up, believe me. You’re going to want a professional. Otherwise—” he chuckled “—you think you got problems now…”
“I don’t believe in demons,” David stated.
“Well, lucky you, pal. Hope you never have to. So, what, you want to do this thing?” He glared at David, who glared back before giving him a curt nod.
A trickle of worry snaked down Andi’s back like dry sweat. Yet she found herself asking, “Why don’t we do it on the third floor?” That’s where they’d seen David’s mom, after all.
“Eh, it’s better to do these things on the first floor in case you need to…you know. Run out of the house.”
“Oh.”
“Let’s get started.” He moved the triangular thing to the center of the board.
David and Andi already sat across from one another.
Morty said, “Take a few deep breaths. Clear your heads.”
Andi obeyed.
“Now I want both of you to rest the fingertips of both your hands on the planchette,” Morty said. “Just relax.”
“Now what?” David said.
She doubted that he was very relaxed. She didn’t think she was either.
“Now I ask our guest to chat with us,” the psychic answered. He cocked his head at David. “I don’t suppose you know the name of that lady.”
David’s mouth set in a stubborn line. “Katherine,” he offered, after a moment. “Katherine Girard.”
Morty raised his eyebrows at the last name. He nodded soberly. “All right,” he said. “Thank you, Mr. Girard. That will be very helpful.” He then spoke in a loud and completely un-mystical manner. “Katherine Girard, my name’s Morton Silva. I wonder if my friends and I could talk some things over with you. Okay?”
After a short silence, David said, “Now what?”
“Now it’s wait-and-see time.”
Andi didn’t know how long they sat there before David said, “So, nothing.”
“Sometimes it takes a while,” Morty explained. “Let’s try calling her again. Hey, Ms. Girard, we know you can’t be far. Can you come talk to us for a minute, please?”
After another wait, David let out a harsh sigh. “This is stupid.”
Morty shrugged. “We might have to come back another night. Sometimes it takes more than one try. I think I could do it with Andi here, but you won’t trust me. Though since you’re a Girard, it seems like you ought to have a good connection. Tell you what, we’ll give another shout and then we’ll just call it.” He wasn’t kidding about the shout. He bellowed, “Hey, come over and say something, already. Is anybody here?”
When the planchette moved beneath her hands, Andi jumped so hard that her fingers flew momentarily off of the device. She repositioned her hands on the moving planchette and shot a look at David, thinking he was kidding around, making it move. He merely watched as the device moved over to Good-Eve.
He asked, “You’re not doing that, are you, Andi?”
“You know I’m not.” She shivered, then looked up at Morty and confessed in an undertone, “This is kind of cool.”
Morty nodded with a knowing look in his eyes, as if to say, You’d better believe it, babe. He said, “Are we speaking to the lady of the house?”
The planchette drew a circle around the Yes.
“Great. Now, Katherine—”
The triangle shot across the board to No.
“Oh, what have we got here?” Morty breathed. More audibly, he said, “Okay, so…this is the lady of the house, but it’s not Katherine Girard?”
The device glided smoothly back to Yes.
A dif
ferent ghost. Suddenly, on impulse, Andi called out, “Irene?”
Another circle around Yes.
“Oh my God,” Andi murmured.
“Keep your hands on there,” the psychic told her. “Who is she?”
“The one I told you about, David’s great-grandma…she disappeared?”
The triangle moved to No.
“I don’t believe this,” David declared.
“Okay Slappy, you want to tell me how I could be doing this?” Morty challenged him. “Let’s move on. Irene Girard. My apologies for getting your name wrong, ma’am. Nobody here has seen or heard from you before. Am I right?” he added to Andi, who nodded. “Irene, are you trapped on this earthly plane?”
The device whirled around the board, landing on nothing.
“That’s all right, that’s all right,” the psychic soothed. “That can be a tough one. Let’s try this. Do you have anything you want to tell us?”
Yes.
“I know it’s hard to convey a long message. Can you tell us in a few words what you want to say?”
The planchette spelled out, L-E-A-V-E.
David tensed. “This is what you called a malevolent spirit?” he asked Morty.
“No!” Andi insisted. She closed her eyes, sensing the young woman. Her perfume smelled like Lily of the Valley.
“She’s got a better read on this one than I do,” she heard the psychic tell David quietly.
Andi opened her eyes again. “Irene, were you murdered?”
The planchette drew another circle around the word.
“That’s a yes,” Morty said. “Did your husband do it?”
Yes.
Andi blurted out, “Why?”
Their hands didn’t move, and Andi thought that maybe she’d asked too hard of a question. Then the spirit spelled out, Him.
“Him,” Morty said. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t understand.”
More aimless loops around the board.
“What the hell,” David said.
The spirit’s frustration enveloped Andi. “She doesn’t know how to explain.”
The device stopped then moved in more deliberate motions.
Run.
While Andi searched for something else to say, the planchette moved to Good-bye.
