by E A Price
“Maybe we need to give both Mike and Shannon some closure.”
He sighed. “Sure, I’ll look into it. But this ghost better behave. I won’t have her scaring my mate and cubs.”
“Thank you.” She pressed her lips to his, and he growled into her mouth.
“Now, no more talk of ghosts. It’s Valentine’s. I look hot. You look beautiful as always, and we are really going to celebrate.”
He pulled her nightshirt off, baring her to his lascivious gaze. In spite of her insecurities, she didn’t bother trying to hide herself from him. There was no point. He’d just admonish her. Besides, he’d seen her naked time and time again. She sometimes woke to him ogling her. There were worse ways to wake up.
Gunner pried her thighs apart. He settled her legs over his wide shoulders, his fingers firm but caressing on her skin.
Erin leaned back on the bed and closed her eyes as Gunner blew warm breath over her naked flesh. She arched her back slightly as arousal moistened her sex.
“My mate,” he muttered, softly yet possessively. “Mine.”
She moaned his name as he circled her clit with his tongue. He nibbled on her nub, lazily, allowing the desire to mount slowly, before he pulled away and let the tension inside her deflate before he started all over again. The ebb and flow of her pleasure were both agony and ecstasy for Erin. His teasing brought her so close to the edge over and over until she could no longer take it. The sensual torment was too much and her body was begging for release.
“Gunner, please,” she moaned. “I need to come.”
Finally relenting, he stroked her mound, his fingers pushing through her drenched folds. Two fingers delved inside her needy channel as he pressed his mouth back to her nub. As he pumped his fingers inside her, he devoured her flesh. She clutched at the covers, her body rocking against him. He curled his fingers, stroking her sweet spot and she shattered.
Erin cried out and bucked against him as pleasure poured through her. She panted and waited for her fingers to unclench. Gunner chuckled as he lazily licked away the evidence of her release.
“That was amazing,” she murmured.
“Sure was,” said a very unwelcome voice.
Erin snapped her eyes open to find Shannon standing next to the bed, apparently enjoying the show. “You wouldn’t believe the things I had to do to get my husband to go down on me.”
They heard Erin’s scream throughout the whole building.
*
“You won the lottery in the husband department,” drawled Shannon. She gave Gunner an appreciative once over. And yes, even though he had a scowl on his face that would turn Medusa to stone, he was still gorgeous. Probably wasn’t best to bring it up right now, given the mood he was in.
“What is she saying now?” ground out Gunner. His suspicious eyes wandered the kitchen, hoping to catch a glance of their unwanted houseguest. No matter how hard he tried, he wouldn’t. But he knew she was there so he couldn’t help himself.
“She, ah…” Erin hesitated. “She was apologizing for interrupting us last night... and then again this morning.”
Shannon snorted. “Yeah, right. Why’d you stop? It was just getting good.” Shannon licked her lips as she waggled her eyebrows at Gunner. “Those looks and oral sex on tap - you got it made, lady. And his schlong – it’s freaking enormous.”
Erin sighed as the heat rose to her cheeks. Shannon was turning into a very irritating houseguest, and Erin was very tempted to tell her to shove it. But… she just couldn’t. Although an uncharitable part of Erin was starting to understand why someone might have been tempted to kill Shannon, nobody deserved the nasty end that befell her. She, at least, deserved justice.
After the very unfortunate incident last night, Erin hadn’t been exactly in the mood to continue. Gunner hadn’t been pleased and had threatened to track down the Ghostbusters, but he understood. In the morning, however, the coast was clear, and Erin had all been for a little morning delight. She insisted she treat her mate a little reciprocation after his efforts the previous night. She had him right where she wanted him when Shannon popped up and… to put it mildly, Erin was slightly shocked, and it wasn’t the best time to leap out on her. It was a good job that Gunner was a fast healer. His howl could be heard throughout the whole building.
Gunner had made it clear that if Shannon weren't already dead, he’d kill her.
Erin picked at her meatball sub – she’d had a serious craving for the things since she got pregnant. Actually, anything laden with meat products and swimming in calories floated her boat. She figured that was down to the babies… or cubs. They could be human or polar bears or even polar bears with psychic abilities. She’d prefer them not to take after her. She didn’t like to admit it to Gunner because he had a protective streak as wide as the Grand Canyon and deludedly thought she was perfect, but she didn’t want any of her children to take after her. Seeing ghosts and having visions was awful for a child. Hell, seeing ghosts was no picnic as an adult. Particularly if they were coarse red-heads who would not stop ogling her mate.
Gunner walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. Shannon watched his every move with glee. His muscles flexed lightly, as he took a long swig.
Shannon virtually licked her lips. “Damn, how’d you get him to marry you? No offense but he is way out of your league.”
“Do you want my help or not?” snapped Erin. Her patience was wearing ice thin, and Shannon was the epitome of every mean girl everywhere.
“What’s going on?” demanded Gunner. “What is she saying?”
Erin shook her head. “She's just a b… mean person.” Instinctively she stroked her stomach. It somehow felt wrong even to swear in front of the bump. “What did you find out?”
He grunted and pulled up a chair next to hers. He dragged her feet into his lap and started massaging them. Shannon snorted and opened her mouth to say something but decided against it on seeing Erin’s glare.
“Raf and I talked to some of the LLPD dicks he knows.”
Erin raised an eyebrow, and he affected an innocent look. “Dicks is short for detectives. It’s also accurate in this case,” he added almost under his breath.
Raf was human and a former cop who left to join the SEA when he mated the tiger shifter, Isis. To say his former colleagues were intolerant of shifters was to say that ice cream was somewhat tasty.
“They think the husband killed her and hid the body, hoping to make it look like a kidnapping. But they don’t have any evidence.”
“Ridiculous!” snarled Shannon, followed by a multitude of colorful curse words.
“Shannon doesn’t agree with that theory,” said Erin, dully.
“He worshipped the ground I walked on!” she howled, attempting and failing to pick up their blender and throw it across the room.
“So, not much to go on?”
Gunner rubbed her ankles. “No, and any evidence will be long gone by now.”
Erin tapped a finger against her chin, trying to block out the ghost throwing a hissy fit in her kitchen. “Maybe if I went back to the house I could get a vision. If I touched some of her things…”
Shannon stopped. “Excellent idea, let’s go now. You drive.”
Gunner’s hands stilled. “No.”
“But…”
“No, Erin. If you were going to have a vision, you would have when you were there yesterday. Don’t push yourself.”
He looked downright fierce, but she could sense his worry through the bond. Her visions freaked him out. There was just something about her turning zombie (his words) that bothered him. He worried she’d do it when he wasn’t around and would actually get hurt. She regretted telling him about the time she snapped out of one of her visions to find herself holding a knife in the middle of her kitchen. It was nothing - she was probably just trying to chop tomatoes or something.
“But, Shannon…”
“Yeah, me,” pouted the spook.
Gunner gave her a hard look
. “I’d rather put up with Shannon the aggravating ghost than risk my mate or cubs.”
Erin slumped in her chair. Yeah, she couldn’t argue with that. Her safety was one thing, but if anything happened to the babies… no, she couldn’t bear it. She nodded in agreement and wiggled her toes, trying to get him to restart the massage.
A tiny bit of tension left him, and he did. Shannon resumed her hissy fit, but Erin barely noticed.
“So why do they think Shannon’s husband killed her?” she asked gently.
Gunner gave her a wary look but shrugged. “Shannon has a trust fund that he can continue to collect on her behalf if she’s missing. But if she died, or if they divorced, he’d get nothing.”
Shannon stopped and nodded. “That’s true. But Mike makes his own money. The trust was never a huge amount of money, and he was always happy for me to give my money away to the animal shelter.”
“And they were arguing a lot before she went missing,” continued Gunner. “They suspect he was having an affair with his assistant.”
“Ugh!” exclaimed the peeved ghost. “Mike wanted kids, and I didn’t – that’s what we were arguing about. And that slutbag hussy Shelly wishes she could get into my hubby’s tidy whities.”
“Shannon doesn’t believe her husband could have done it,” murmured Erin.
A touch of sympathy passed through their bond. “She wouldn’t be the first wife to be blindsided. Raf’s going to get me copies of the reports. I’ll keep looking.”
“He damn well better,” sniped Shannon. “I’ve been waiting far too long for my justice.”
“She said thank you,” lied Erin, narrowing her eyes at the unrepentant ghost.
Not that Gunner cared. He could give a shit about the bad manners of their houseguest. He just wanted her the hell away from them.
“It’s getting late, babe,” rumbled Gunner, “you should be in bed.” He ran a hand up her leg and gave her a lusty, suggestive smile. “You know we still haven’t really celebrated Valentine’s.”
Erin bit her lip. “I’m sorry, I’m not really in the mood.” She really didn’t want a repeat of what happened that morning. She was surprised Gunner wanted to risk it.
“Hey, you kids wanna get down, and dirty I promise I won’t look,” offered Shannon. Although the naughty smile on her face was hardly encouraging.
Erin patted her mate’s hand. “Another night,” she promised.
“Should have got the fucking Ghostbusters,” grumbled Gunner.
*
“You could run over there and be back within an hour,” wheedled Shannon.
“No.”
“Oh, come on!”
Erin sighed as she peeled her orange. The babies may be making her crave meat, but Erin was determined she would have fruit, too. Even if it looked very unappetizing when compared to a meat platter.
“You heard what Gunner said.”
Shannon smirked and folded her arms. “You always do as you’re told?”
“No, I do as I’m asked because he rarely asks me to do anything unreasonable.” Apart from asking her never to cross a road without holding his hand because he was afraid she would be run over. Or when he insisted he taste all her food first in case it was undercooked and he was afraid she would get food poisoning. Sometimes he was too protective. She decided not to mention those instances. Shannon didn’t need any more oil pouring on her red-hot fire.
“You let your husband boss you around? I’d never let mine tell me what to do. In my house, I’m the boss.”
Erin gave her a deadpan look. “You sure he didn’t kill you?”
“Har de har har! Now go to my house and get a vision or whatever!”
“Shannon, Gunner is looking into the case. And he’s right, if I were going to get a vision, I would have when I was over there on Valentine’s.” Erin gave her a sad look. “Perhaps you’re going to have to accept that we may never find out what happened.”
“Get over this you cow!” yelled Shannon as she lunged at Erin.
Erin didn’t move, or flinch, as a frustrated ghost tried to slap at her. Other than a slight chill as the spectre passed through her, there was no effect. Although… She blinked as an image of a woman in a hospital bed flickered through her mind. The woman was hooked up to life support. She got a look at the name on the chart.
“Does the name Diane Temple mean anything to you?” asked Erin, slowly.
“No!” griped Shannon as she started pacing the kitchen.
“When you passed through me I saw a woman called Diane Temple in a hospital bed.”
“So what?”
“So, I must have seen it for a reason.”
Shannon stopped and stared at her. “Are you saying you got a vision?” Excitement shimmered over her form.
Erin hesitated. “Maybe. I just don’t know what it means.”
“Well let’s find this Dinah Trumpet and shake the bitch until she spills what she knows about me.”
“Diane Temple,” muttered Erin, “and I think she’s in a coma.” She paused. Gunner told her explicitly that he didn’t want her going to the house until they had… appeased Shannon. But surely a hospital would be safe. And it looked like Los Lobos General. She remembered the hospital vividly from the time she was there after a wolf shifter tried to throttle her… long story.
“I suppose I could call the hospital and ask about her. And I suppose if I called Gunner and told him…”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
*
Erin peeked inside Diane Temple’s hospital room. She had flashed her SEA badge to get past security.
“Well? What’s happening? What’s going on? Who is this woman?” demanded her very own annoying ghost.
“You’ve been with me the whole time; you know as much as me.”
Erin approached the bed carefully and gasped as she recognized the occupant. “It’s you!” she whispered as she looked up at Shannon’s ghost.
“You really shouldn’t have come here,” said an angry voice behind her.
*
Gunner sifted through the files as he sipped on a cup of the gawdawful SEA coffee, which seemed to have been percolating since dinosaurs roamed the earth. He doubted he was going to find anything. He wouldn’t admit it to the arrogant, shifter-hating LLPD cops, but they did a thorough job. And if the reward Mike had offered hadn’t stirred up any witnesses, he doubted anything would.
His bear grumbled. No, the beast was right; he had to keep looking. Erin couldn’t turn her abilities off, but if he could help get rid of one ghost who was mildly haunting her, he was going to do everything he could. He loved Erin. Every single part of her. Wouldn’t change a thing about her. His bear agreed with that wholeheartedly. But he wished he could protect her from herself. Erin in a trance was easily the scariest thing he’d ever witnessed. He worried about what she might unconsciously do.
Not to mention Shannon was hell on his love life. While he didn’t share Erin’s reticence about resuming their amorous activities, he wasn’t keen on the crazy spook watching them either. Not to mention the painful incident the day before. Thankfully he was good as new.
Wes, a liger shifter and fellow agent strolled into the break room, whistling. Gunner got on okay with him, even if he was a cat and, therefore, a horny, sly bastard.
“Hey, no Erin today?”
His bear rumbled. An immediate quirk of jealousy assailed him as he wondered why the cat was so interested in his mate. Gunner soothed that away quickly. Wes was just being friendly. There was nothing in it and certainly no need to go loco. He wondered if he’d ever stop being so possessive. He doubted it somehow.
“Erin’s cutting back on her hours.”
Wes smirked. “How’d you get her to agree to that?”
Gunner shrugged and went back to perusing the files. It had involved a meat feast party sub, curly fries, an epic foot rub and a marathon of Charmed (which he loathed), but Erin had reluctantly agreed to work fewer hours. She didn’t want to, but e
ven she couldn’t deny that she was slowing down. He’d actually been more concerned about getting Erin’s team leader Diaz to agree to her working less. But, oddly enough, the jaguar shifter had been more than accommodating. The damn cat had virtually been jumping for joy ever since Christmas. There were rumors spreading that the jaguar had either won the lottery or was on drugs. If Gunner cared at all, he would have looked into that.
Wes let out a groan and threw his coffee cup at Gunner. His bear saw it coming and batted it away. The beast roared in fury.
“What the hell?” he snarled.
“Erin’s in danger, asshat. Look at your freaking phone,” slurred Wes before doubling over and shuddering. “What the fuck just happened?”
Gunner grabbed his phone and noticed the missed call. “Erin!”
*
Shannon licked her lips as she blinked awake. She let out a croak and was immediately plied with water from her husband. Tears streamed down his happy face as Shannon glared at him.
“What the crapola is going on?” she rasped.
A vaguely familiar, pretty brunette stepped forward. She smiled kindly, as she hugged her huge stomach. “Do you remember anything?”
“Uhmmmm… Erin?” How did she know her name?
The brunette nodded.
“Oh, Shannon!” wailed Mike, trying to hug the life out of her.
“Need air, moron!” she gasped.
A huge blonde guy with light blue eyes put a hand on Mike’s shoulder. She had the strange sensation that blondie was really pissed at her, but she had no idea why.
She picked at the various tubes coming out of her body. Hospitals were so gross. Wait, why was she in a hospital? Was she sick?
“You’re probably a little confused right now,” said Erin.
“No freaking kidding,” she muttered.
Erin blew out a breath. “Long story short, your husband’s assistant…”
“Shelly fake tits mcbitch face?”
“Yes, her. She drugged you and had her sister, who’s a nurse, put you in a medically induced coma. She had her sister admit you to the hospital under the name Diane Temple and paid the health insurance through your husband’s company.”
