“I see.”
“I told him you were beautiful and that you like me.”
His hand fell to her lap and his fingers snaked their way to the juncture of her thighs. She shifted in her seat and her breath came more quickly.
“And that you’re very special to me in every way.” He stroked her through the fabric. “Do you like that?”
“You know I do.”
“I could make you come right now.”
“I know you could. But it might be dangerous. I could drive right into a tree.”
“You have a problem then. What are you going to do about it?”
Jane turned off onto a gravel road on the right.
“Where are you going?”
“I told you I would think of something.”
She moved again in her seat and opened her legs a little as he pressed his fingers against her mound. Immediately his hand slid deeper between her thighs.
“Mmm,” he murmured. “You do want it.”
He removed his hand for a moment and lifted it to his face. “I love the scent of arousal.”
“God.” Jane fought the wheel as the car bumped down the track. The spot where his hand had been felt cold, bereft.
His hand returned to her thighs and she moaned, clenching her teeth as he began to stroke again. His thumb found her swollen clit. She prayed that the tiny park she had thought of would be as deserted as it usually was. It had no beach, no swing sets, just a few picnic tables and a fireplace for grilling. It was a favorite spot at night for teens but no one went there during the day.
At last the gravel road ended in a small parking lot with no vehicles. Breathing a prayer of thanks, she slammed the car out of gear and into park. Without waiting for Pierce she hurried to one of the picnic tables, loosening the button of her shorts as she went. She heard the slam of the passenger door and the crunch of Pierce’s footsteps. She had given up wearing panties a while ago. Pierce wanted her so often and she was so eager for him that flimsy bits of lace were a decided nuisance.
At the closest picnic table she kicked off her shorts and lay flat on her back, inviting him with her naked pussy. Pierce was no more than twenty seconds behind her. He unzipped and freed his wonderful long, thick cock then slid his hands down her legs to spread them. In twenty more seconds he was standing between her thighs at the end of the table. He lifted her hips and placed her legs over his forearms, leaving his hands free to move up under her shirt and knead her breasts, opening her wider with each forward movement.
In the car she’d been so close to coming that she’d imagined she would explode like a rocket but he’d made her wait, teasing her for what seemed like centuries. The scent of the cedar of the wood under her shoulders mingled with the faint aroma of roasted meat and pine branches.
She dug her fingers into his shoulders, feeling the taut muscles as he moved. She tried to pull him down onto her as she begged for relief but he held her off, stroking her wet pussy with the head of his cock while she moaned and pleaded with him to fuck her, to slam into her, make her come.
At last he slid into her and then she came right away, moaning and shuddering as he drove into her.
Chapter Thirteen
Jane started the car to drive back to town. “I feel as if I’m on drugs,” she said as she put the car into reverse. Her limbs felt heavy, as if her brain had difficulty connecting with the muscles. “Don’t forget your seat belt.”
Pierce buckled up as she backed the vehicle onto the dirt road.
“Now I have my ID,” he said, “I could learn to drive.”
“Sure. There are a couple of good schools in town.”
“You won’t teach me?” He put his hand over hers on the steering wheel.
“My God no. I might let you drive into the back of a bus. You distract me too much.”
“Too bad. Not that I distract you, but I’d like a reason to extract a teaching fee again.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’ll have to devise another way to keep you in bed.” He grinned at her and touched the back of her hand.
“You don’t have to—” She broke off as she caught a glimpse of a woman with blonde hair crossing the street. “Look, Pierce. Doesn’t she look exactly like your stepmother?” Jane slowed and a minivan behind her hooted.
Pierce bent to peer through the windshield. “Where? Who?”
“She’s gone. She must have turned the corner.” The minivan went past with two kids waving and poking out their tongues. “Sorry about that. Let me pull in.” Jane signaled to take a parking spot in front of a bookstore.
“I don’t understand. What’s the panic?”
“I didn’t tell you but I thought I saw her in the coffee shop a few days ago. You know how it is, you see a face that reminds you of someone. I thought she looked a lot like your stepmother.”
“I don’t think that’s likely.”
“I guess you’re right. But ever since we talked about her maybe being able to touch someone and come back, I’ve had this awful feeling that she might do it.”
Pierce frowned. “Let’s find her and I can tell you for sure. But I don’t think it’s possible for her to be here.”
“You’re not certain of that.”
Pierce shook his head. “There are all kinds of things that go on in the other dimensions that I know nothing about.”
“If she could come through like you did, do you think she might be here to harm you?”
“How could she come through?”
“Annice thought something touched her in the house.”
“It was a spider’s web.”
“Maybe.”
“Hey there.” Pierce took her hand. “You’re trembling. I thought you were the skeptic here.”
“I was until I met you. I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Okay, let’s put your mind at rest. We’ll find her and I’ll take a good look at her.” He opened the car door and a horn blast made him shut it quickly. A truck barreled by.
“We’re both a menace to traffic right now,” Jane said. “Let’s take a deep breath and think about this.”
“Not much to think about. We get out of the car without causing an accident. We walk in the same direction as the woman you saw. We take a good look at her. I tell you she resembles my stepmother but it’s not her. Then we come back to the car, drive to the apartment and then…”
Pierce glanced behind and opened the door when the road was clear. Jane unfastened her seat belt and slid out of the vehicle. She still felt uneasy. Pierce came around as she locked the door and took her arm.
“Ready for ghost hunting?”
“That’s not funny. Will you promise me one thing?
“What’s that, my love?”
“If we find her you won’t get too close. You won’t let her touch you.”
“I keep telling you it’s not her.”
“Even so…” Jane took his hand.
“Okay. That’s an easy one. I promise.”
They walked toward the corner where Jane had last glimpsed the woman. She took a deep breath. Why was she feeling so apprehensive, so threatened? The sun beat down with summer warmth yet she shivered. A crowd in holiday mood surrounded them yet she felt alone. Only the feel of Pierce’s strong arm steadying her seemed to anchor her to reality. Was it all going to come apart? Maybe the few weeks they had spent together were all there was to be. A cruel fate had allowed her to taste a joy and a companionship she had only dreamed of and now was it to be snatched away?
She focused on the approaching street corner. Every step forward was an effort. All her instincts screamed at her to run, to take Pierce away. If she felt an emotional threat, a dark shadow over her soul, he faced something more. Maybe he could be snatched back. She grasped his forearm with shaking fingers. “Stay close.”
“I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
They reached the corner far too soon. The woman Jane had seen a few minutes before was
standing about halfway along the street, looking into a shop window. As if she sensed their arrival she glanced over her shoulder and smiled. Then she turned slowly and took another step down the street. To a casual observer she would seem to be a youngish woman, dressed in holiday clothes as one would expect in mid-summer on the coast, out to kill a couple of hours shopping in the tourist area. Once more the woman stopped and looked back at them again as if inviting them to follow.
Jane heard Pierce’s quick intake of breath.
“Is it her?”
“It looks very like her but I wouldn’t swear to it. Let’s go closer.”
“No. Stay away. She frightens me.”
“Well she always was a scary woman. But her hair’s different and the clothes of course. She does bear a resemblance but it’s not possible that it’s her.”
“Where did she go?”
They had taken their eyes from her for a mere moment while they spoke. When they looked back she was nowhere in sight.
“She must have gone into that shop. We’ll check. I need to set your mind at rest.” He sensed Jane’s hesitation. “We’ll stay outside.”
Reluctantly she allowed him to lead her down the street to a large window that displayed glasswork and jewelry.
“It’s the kind of place she’d like,” Pierce muttered. He shaded his eyes with a hand and peered through the plate glass. “I don’t see her. There’s a fairly good view all around.” He dropped his hand. “I don’t think she’s there. We must have been mistaken. But I think we’ve lost her.”
He put his arm around Jane. “You’re upset. Let me take you home. It’s nothing to worry about. You just saw someone that looked like her and your mind is playing tricks.”
“I’m so afraid she’ll harm you.”
He laughed. “How can she harm me? She’s just a young woman enjoying the town. Come.” He turned her gently away from the shop.
Jane nodded and moved with him back to where she had parked the car.
For the rest of the day Jane found it impossible to shake off the gray cloud of unease that had settled on her. It followed her around as she made a snack and hovered over her shoulder as she tried to watch a DVD video of a Stephen King classic.
Pierce switched off the set at the end and beamed at her. “I love that stuff.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
He stood and knelt beside her. “Hey, sweetheart, what’s the matter? Are you mad at me? What did I do?”
She stroked his hair and let her fingertips linger around his mouth. “I’m mad at myself more than anything.”
“Is it still about the woman we saw?”
She nodded. “I can’t get her out of my mind. I only saw her for a few minutes at the house—”
“When she was murdering me.”
“I have this dread that she may want to take you back with her or kill you again. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
“You won’t lose me.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Not unless you want to get rid of me.”
She rested her cheek on his head. “Are you sure you don’t know anything more about coming back? Are there different ways of doing it?”
“I only really know about touching, and so if it was her touching Annice I suppose it’s possible. But highly unlikely.”
“Why would she want to take you back?”
“We don’t know that’s what she wants. We don’t even know that’s who she is.” He sat back on his heels. “Look, while I was dead I only heard stories about those who returned to the living. No one knows for sure how it happens.”
“Someone might.”
“What?”
“There are people who study phenomena and do all kinds of research. I bet someone has looked into this.”
“Maybe—”
At that instant the phone rang. Pierce stood. “I’ll get it.”
Jane watched him cross the room and pick up the receiver. He looked as if he’d never known anything else but life in the twenty-first century. At times she found it difficult to recall that in reality he was over a hundred years old.
“Thank you,” Pierce said into the phone. “I’ll do that right away.”
He hung up. “Feel like a trip to Boston? My cousin’s lawyers want to give me the third degree.”
“In Boston?”
“Right. At the head office. I have the feeling that my cousin Alex would accept me even if he had doubts because he has no one else to leave his money to and he liked me. I brought back good memories. But I expect the lawyers will be tougher.”
“I’m sure they will.”
“So you want to come? I’ll let you drive me and we can find a couple of good hotels on the way.”
It would be good to get away. More than likely the mystery woman would be long gone when they returned. “You bet. When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jane called Annice at her office to let her know she’d be out of town for a few days. “Do you know anyone who’s into the woo-woo stuff?” she asked.
“My God, what next?” Annice lowered her voice to a fierce whisper. “Aren’t fake IDs enough?”
Jane hoped none of Annice’s lawyer bosses were within earshot. “There used to be a woman about three miles out on the coast road. Wasn’t she giving séances or something?”
“What on earth do you want to do? Make contact with the spirit world again? Haven’t you had your fill of that?”
“Not exactly. Make contact I mean. I’d like to know if there are any theories about what happened to Pierce. You know, any ideas or stories about—coming back.”
She heard Annice give a big sigh. “Tell me what’s up.”
“Is anyone else there?”
“No. There’s a big meeting on. The partners are all in the conference room. I’m supposed to hold all calls.”
“You remember when the spider web fell on you in the Newland house?
“How could I forget? Cut two years off my life.”
“We think it might not have been a spider.”
There was a moment’s silence “What do you mean? What else could it have been?” Annice whispered.
“I think I’ve seen Pierce’s stepmother around town.
“Was that the woman you were staring at in the coffee shop?”
“You noticed.”
“I did. Go on.”
Jane swallowed. “This sounds silly I know…”
“Not any sillier than the other stuff you’ve made me believe.”
“I’m wondering if she was still in the house even though Pierce had gone and if she touched you. That could mean she came back, like Pierce did.”
“But I thought the living person had to touch the dead one. I can’t believe I’m saying this.”
“I think that’s what normally happens. You see, Pierce said most ghosts either don’t know they’re dead or they’re bound somehow to the afterlife. But Pierce and his stepmother seem to be a bit different. If she’s come through I need to know what she could do. Would she be just like Pierce and take her place in the world? Or does she have a problem remaining here? Most of all I want to know if she’s here to harm him.”
“You sound pretty convinced she’s here.”
“Pierce says it’s not possible but I think he’s in denial. I need to know. I’m looking over my shoulder every two minutes, scared to death she might appear behind us.”
“Appear?”
“She seems to come and go suddenly.”
“What you need is a psychic expert, not a medium.”
“I do?”
“Yes. I’m not saying I believe this but I’ll go along for now. If she’s here then you’re not going to contact her at a séance. Let me look in our list of people we use as expert witnesses. They’re usually all about fingerprints and science stuff but I think there might be someone we used a year or so ago…”
Jane heard a sudden babble of voices in the bac
kground.
“Meeting’s over,” Annice said. “Call you back.”
Pierce threw the last few clothes into his bag on the bed and closed the zipper. He could hear Jane on the phone in the living room. It was amazing how he’d become so accustomed to the sound of her voice, how he’d grown to expect to see her engrossed in a book, sharing a meal, lying next to him in the bed. He smoothed a wrinkle in the bedspread.
At first he’d wanted her body like a man dying of thirst in the desert.
But he’d come to realize how extraordinarily fortunate he’d been in the person who’d touched him and brought him back to life. She’d accepted him and helped him. Where would he be without all the information she’d given him, without the documents her friends had procured? Still struggling to find a place to live and a story to reunite him with his family, that’s where.
Despite all the problems, Jane had persevered until she’d found the solution to each one. She was smart and loyal and fun to be with, even when they weren’t in bed.
When he looked back he saw that he hadn’t had much real fun as a boy and a young man. During his first lifetime, his family had hung together in a kind of loose confederation where everyone followed their own whims. They got together at Christmas, for important anniversaries but the small stuff of daily living, the things that bound people together with joys and sorrows passed them by. Maybe that was why he’d taken his young cousin Alexander under his wing all those years ago. He’d been starved for real human affection and contact.
Alexander, who was ninety now and thought he might leave his fortune to a young man who claimed to be a descendant of his cousin who’d disappeared.
His thoughts went back to the days when he and his cousin were both young. There’d been lots of parties where people claimed to be having a wonderful time and sex had been freely available. He’d been a catch and there had been droves of young women waiting to catch his eye. He’d let his eye be caught time and again but he’d escaped the snare of marriage. Even if he’d married all those years ago his wife would be dead, wouldn’t she?
Servants had looked after the house and everything that needed to be done was accomplished quietly and efficiently. In the few weeks with Jane he’d learned more about shopping, cooking and cleaning than his mother and stepmother ever knew.
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