“This is nice,” she said. “I need this calm quiet.” She patted her free hand to her chest.
Dusk gathered around them, and already some of the strolling parents with children were heading out of the park. He’d soon be out of time. “We need to talk about something. You may not want to hear it.”
“Did Faye tell you she probably won’t be able to afford us?”
“No, we were discussing something else in the driveway. But after my shower, I took a good look around downstairs. I don’t understand why they called me. There’s next to no repair needed. The wainscoting is in excellent condition.”
“Maybe they wanted you here for another reason,” she suggested.
“If you think of one, let me know.” He shrugged. “But even to my untrained eye, the grounds look like a disaster.”
“The gardens need serious help, but if Faye can’t afford me, all I can do is make suggestions.” She looked sad at the prospect of limiting her involvement so severely.
“Let’s walk while there’s still daylight. Then we’ll grab dinner somewhere close.” His cell phone rang. With a stab of guilt, he flipped it open. He’d hardly thought about his father since he’d climbed on the plane this morning. His caller ID gave him a sharp reminder.
“Dad? What’s wrong?” He turned away from Lexa and plugged his other ear so he could hear every nuance. He’d become good at reading between the lines over the last three years.
“Hi, son. Nothing’s wrong. In fact, things are great. I just wanted to know how it’s going on your end.”
He glanced at Lexa with a grin. “Never been better.”
His father laughed. A full-bodied laugh Jake hadn’t heard in far too long. “What’s so funny?”
“Sorry, son, I’m just in front of the Mitchell’s house. Had a good day here. Very interesting.”
“Did the locksmith show up?”
“Sure did.” He heard a grin in the old man’s voice, a lightness in the tone Jake hardly recognized. “So did the lady they hired to stage the interior for the open house.”
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I gotta go. Oh, and I’m shutting off my cell, so don’t bother trying to reach me.”
And with that, he was gone. “He shut off his phone.”
“Who?”
“My father.”
“He probably doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
“You’re right, but that’s what disturbs me.”
Lexa pointed out that his dad was an adult, but Jake wasn’t listening; he’d already hit another button on his cell. The concern in his face warmed her. It was sweet to see a man accept family responsibility. In her family, the women tended to carry that burden.
“Jared? Have you checked with Dad?” Jake said into his phone.
No one used a brusque tone like that with anyone other than family. She touched his sleeve. “My brother,” he whispered to her unspoken question.
She nodded. It was hard not to hear his half of the conversation since he stood not five inches from her.
Since the dash through the gates at Perdition, her curiosity about Jake had taken off. Soared. She wanted to know everything about him. A voracious interest consumed her. As wild as the sex had been, so now was the need to learn about him. A veil had been lifted the moment the gates were behind them.
Sex with Jake had been the best of her life, but she wanted other things now: more and deeper knowledge of him, the man. Wanted it to the point that it scared her a little.
An overwhelming need to have his focus on her kept her attuned to his mood, tone, and glance. So, ignore this conversation with a brother? Not on her life.
The veil at Perdition consisted of desire, lust, rapacious need. Without the spirits’ influence, she could breathe again, think again, be curious again.
Jake was speaking into the phone. “You’re in Miami? Good.” He looked relieved. “Thanks for canceling your charters.”
His brother had obviously stepped into Jake’s role while Jake was in Seattle. Which meant he had a lot more than simple business to take care of back home.
Florida was a long way from Washington state. Dread grew as she considered the distance. Jake lived so far away. Her life was here. Everything she’d ever wanted with Creighton Landscape and Design was within reach.
But this snap and burn she shared with Jake was strangely addictive. Every time it happened, she enjoyed it more. When he wasn’t touching her, she missed it. Wanted the next jolt with an eagerness she found hard to deny.
“Who is she?” Jake asked. Silence while he listened to a long-winded reply. Jake’s brows knit in consternation.
She touched her fingertips to his free hand in support. The tingle zipped around and through their joined fingers. She smiled at him when he glanced at her. The fiery touch between them had freaked her at first, but now it felt right.
This was the way things were supposed to be. The spirits, hot as they made her and Jake, could never duplicate this sense of heated belonging. She was as sure of that idea as she was of the taste of Jake’s kisses.
Jake flipped the phone closed and stared at her. “My father’s gone on a date; that’s why he shut off his phone.”
“That’s nice, isn’t it?” She squeezed his hand.
He nodded, then leaned against the back side of an empty park bench, propped his butt on the top, and settled there, head down while he thought.
She perched beside him. “So, he shut off his phone for a happy reason. Are you glad or disappointed?” She trailed a fingertip from his wrist to his elbow.
“Surprised as hell.”
She stood in front of him. Nudging his thighs open, she leaned in close and gave him a hug. “I thought you brought me here to talk.”
He snugged her up close to his chest, letting the heat buzz from his chest into hers. “I did.”
She slowly brushed her breasts in tantalizing swishes across his chest. His eyes flared hot, and he finally settled his lips on hers, tongue diving in and sweeping her into a blaze of desire.
There was no spirit directing them, no murals guiding them, no influences but Jake’s on her. She responded as fully as a woman could to the touch of her man in need.
Thought tuned out while sensation took over, and she let her body speak as she pressed close and opened her mouth under his. She tasted him, Jake MacKay, and gloried in the sweep of his tongue, the nip of his teeth on her bottom lip, the soft coaxing of this lips on hers.
She sighed into his mouth as she accepted him.
They’d been having wild sex all afternoon, but nothing they’d done could compare to the intimacy and deep connection between them now. Jake placed kisses on her cheeks, brow, nose, and chin. Each kiss crackled like fresh fizzy soda; each one blessed her with his undivided attention.
She craved more of this. Wanted all of him and no matter what happened back at Perdition House, these moments away from the raging hormones the ghosts created would be forever precious.
“I’ll remember this for far longer than anything those spirits can conjure. You make me want so much more than what happens in the mansion.” She couldn’t believe she’d said it, but the snap and crackle seemed to add to the safety factor. Jake was safe to share with; she knew it down to her soul.
He grinned and sighed, dug his fingers into her hair, and tucked her head under his chin. She could hear him swallow, hear his heart thud in his chest, feel his relief trickle through him as the muscles in his arms relaxed. “Thank God,” he said in her ear. “I feel the same way, Lexa. What we have is much more than what they gave us.”
“Jake, I’m confused. We can’t feel this way so soon, can we? You must be jet-lagged, wiped out. Maybe it’s just exhaustion.” They’d only met a few hours ago and most of that time had been spent naked, straining for sexual release.
Relationships didn’t start that way, flings did.
“No jet lag.” He grinned and cocked his head, considering. “I’m revved up and ready to
spend as long as it takes to make you understand one more thing.”
“That is?”
“I’m cursed. All the MacKay men are.”
“Cursed? Right. What was that I just said about jet lag?”
He leaned his head back to look into her eyes. His were so serious, she was compelled to cock her head to listen. “Tell me, Jake. Tell me about this curse.” She snugged her hips tighter to his.
“You’ll think I’m crazy if I blurt it out. I’ll get to it, I promise. But for now, walk with me; tell me about Lexa Creighton.”
He wanted to know as much about her as she did about him. Confidence in whatever this was between them made her want to open up in the same way her body had.
She told him everything he might want to know. Her deepest thoughts, her harshest self-doubts, her needs, and, above all, her wants. She needed to learn to balance her career with making a home and raising children. But she also needed to work and build a business she could be proud of. The way Annie and Matthew had.
Through the whole conversation, Jake nodded, taking everything she said seriously, commenting rarely. When she exposed some of her deepest doubts, he frowned and looked ready to speak but held back.
Finally, he tugged her hand and led the way to shelter under a maple tree. He leaned against the trunk and held her loosely, his hands clasped around her waist. Lines of tingling sparks, like an invisible loop of energy, made up a belt of electric warmth.
She tilted her face up to his.
“Tell me about your last boyfriend, Lexa. Who was he?”
“Most new lovers don’t want to know about past ones, Jake.” Surprised by the question, she stalled.
“He wasn’t important, was he?” His eyes gleamed with interest. “None of mine were.”
She sighed. “His name was Dave, and he gave up on me when my business started to take off. Said my work was more important to me than he was.” She felt rueful now, but at the time she hadn’t felt much of anything.
“And?”
“That much was true. I didn’t even bother to call him back when he left the message.”
“Harsh.”
“Yeah, well. He wasn’t all that.” She trailed a fingernail along his arm. He stepped back out of her reach. “Oops, sorry, I forgot.” They were supposed to talk, not flirt, not turn each other on.
He yawned.
She chuckled in understanding. “Looks like the three-hour time difference is catching up to you.”
“Not to mention all the sex. I need to hit the sack.”
“While I need you,” she said, allowing the snap and crackle to glow warmer. Odd how she could coax embers to flame now that she’d been exposed to the heat for a while. “Are you going to explain your curse?”
“Yes. But first, I need to get you into bed again. Then I need sleep.” He ran his fingertip down her nose, his eyes full of affection and awareness.
She smiled and hugged him. “I’ll forgive you if you fall asleep immediately after this time.” She glanced around, saw that no one was watching, and slid her hand down the front of his jeans. The hardness she found brought an immediate slickness between her thighs. “Let’s get back to the house. You haven’t actually been inside me, and I need you in the deepest way, in my deepest places.”
His eyes flared, and she would swear she felt his cock jump behind his fly.
“Let’s hurry, Jake. I saw a drugstore in the strip mall across from the lake. We need condoms.”
“Way ahead of you, babe.” He gave her hand a tug and led her back along the lakeside trail. He walked like a man possessed, not like a victim of jet lag. Not by a long shot.
“Mr. Responsible to the rescue.”
“Always.” But he frowned as he said it.
10
J ake sat in the passenger seat of Lexa’s truck, thinking about the date his father was on. Worry ate at him. Worry that hadn’t filtered through while he’d been inside Perdition. Fact was, he’d hardly thought of the old man from the time he’d stepped onto the grounds until he’d left. The spirits had driven all his concerns from his mind. The only constant had been sex.
He was making up for his lapse now. Lexa’s comment about him being Mr. Responsible rang true. He found it irritating that she’d pick up on his concern for his father so quickly.
This must be part of the curse as well. His woman being in tune with him, the way his mother had been tuned in to his father.
He was already aware of how important her business was to her, how much she needed to succeed. Her face telegraphed so much to him. Other women had been honest and open, but with Lexa, it was like he knew her deep down.
While she drove, he slid his fingers across the seat to clasp her hand where it rested on her thigh.
At the first tingly touch, his worry about Jed lifted. “Sorry I’ve been quiet. Now that I’m away from the house, I’m remembering things I need to take care of. That happening to you?”
“Big time. I hadn’t planned to stay over and here I am, frittering away all these hours where I could be working.” Her eyes went wide. “Oh! I’m so sorry. I know how that sounded, and I didn’t mean this time with you. I can’t believe I said that.”
He laughed. “Look, if anyone understands the demands of a business, it’s me. It’s hard carving time out for yourself.”
“Maybe that’s the point of this whole thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Annie and Matthew Creighton left Perdition and founded a huge business. They built a lot of banks, office buildings, commercial stuff. They worked together on everything.”
“Are you saying they want us to join forces?” He couldn’t see how. She couldn’t transplant to Florida. And he couldn’t leave his father.
His responsibility there was clear.
“I spoke to Belle, the one who called us.” She stopped the truck in front of the closed gate, then turned off the ignition. She sat with her head on the headrest. She looked at him then, eyes wide. “She told me Annie and Matthew were worried about me. Wanted me to find love before it was too late.”
“Too late?”
“Apparently, I work too hard to leave room for a man in my life.”
“Are they right?”
“Maybe. Probably. Who knows? I’ve been so busy getting to where I am that I don’t think about that stuff.” She blinked and shrugged in a gesture that screamed confusion. “At least, not until today.”
And he’d been consumed by family obligations as well as relocating his business.
She undid her seat belt and turned toward him. She blew out a breath. “There’s something on your mind. Spill.” She glanced at the gates, and he saw the way her mind turned.
Once they went through to the grounds of Perdition, their minds and bodies might not be their own. “We don’t have to go back in there,” he suggested.
“How’s this? If we feel anything remotely out of our control, we make another run out the gate and never come back. Agreed?”
“Yes.”
“Now, what’s on your mind?”
“My father’s date.”
“Uh-huh?”
“Apparently, the Mitchell’s home stager showed up on the job site today, and my father fell over himself trying to impress her. Looks like it worked.”
“That’s what Jared said?” She smiled and gave his fingers a squeeze. She looked delighted and relieved.
He nodded. “He said they shook hands and Dad’s face changed. Went from dark to light.” His voice had sounded lighter too.
“That’s a weird way to say it.”
“Judging from the change I heard in his voice, I’d say it was accurate.”
“Cool! Dating this lady could be good, Jake. How old is your father?”
“Fifty. No, wait, fifty-one.” He waited for the explosion of disbelief.
Right on cue, her face split into a grin. “No way!”
“My parents married within days of meeting each other. He was just shy of tw
enty. She was eighteen. I was born right away, and Jared followed a year after me.” The curse was a force of nature not to be ignored. But Lexa would understand soon enough on her own. Explaining it wouldn’t help.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about a woman stepping into his mother’s place. It wasn’t something he’d ever thought of. He figured the curse precluded a second go-round.
He frowned. His reaction made him look and feel like a nine-year-old. He chuffed out a breath.
“What happened, Jake? Why do you worry about him? Is he ill?”
Not ill, but sick at heart. “My mother was killed in an accident with a patrol car. High-speed chase. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nearly killed my father.”
“Was he in the car too?”
He shook his head. “Might as well have been. She went out to pick up a book from the library, a simple errand that could have waited. But she’d been waiting weeks for the book to come in, and she got impatient. She was always in a hurry.”
“How long ago?”
“Three years. My father claims he knew the moment it happened. Says he got cold, like the burn that he’d felt for her since their first touch had gone out.”
She blinked. Blinked again. Then he saw her eyes fill and moisten.
He pulled her close and let the buzz and crackle soothe them both. It zipped around his chest, then lower as she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Jake. It’s hard losing someone you love so suddenly.”
“I’ve been afraid I’d lose the old man too. It was like a light went out behind his eyes. Jared ended up walking away from his marriage and a great career and headed to sea. He told me that just last month he set up a business taking honeymooners on charters in the Caribbean. Serious case of burnout and too much loss all at once.” Saying it that way made it sound simpler than he’d thought.
Burnout, a terrible accident, a marriage gone cold. The blame he’d wanted to place on Jared slipped away. In his own grief, he hadn’t seen the load of shit Jared had faced.
“You’ve been watching over your dad alone?”
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