by Karen Kelley
She laid down the romance she was reading. She’d read the last page at least twice and still couldn’t tell anyone what she’d read.
Meditating would help to at least calm her. She left the room; Trent didn’t even look up. Wow, she really grabbed his interest. If he wasn’t careful, he might give her a complex.
Not.
It didn’t take her long to grab her Yoga mat, CD player and head out to the front porch. As she spread her mat, calmness seeped into her pores. The closing of a beautiful fall day held peace and serenity, which she sorely needed.
There was too much negative energy around her. She glanced toward the window and caught a glimpse of Trent. And there sat her negative energy. Good-looking, sexy, but way too cynical to suit her.
She sat cross-legged on her mat, back straight, headphones on. A gentle breeze wrapped around her. This was nice. She turned the CD player on and took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled as the soft rain from the CD filled her senses. After only a few seconds, her body began to relax.
“Hmm... chaka-na-na-na... hmm... ”
Empty the mind and let your body wander into transcendental meditation. Be free from your surroundings...
“That stuff really work?” Trent let the door slam behind him and tromped to the rocker. He sat down and set it into motion. “I mean meditation.”
She opened her eyes and glowered at him before removing her headphones. “It does if you don’t get interrupted.”
“You were the one who said we needed to stay close to each other. If Whistle and Ditsy show up, you can point them out to me.”
“See? He’s making fun of you. Don’t you want to get revenge or something? One little ‘boo,’ that’s all you have to do.”
“Is that a ghost?” Trent sat forward in his chair.
She almost got whiplash turning her head in the direction he pointed. Nothing. What the hell did he see?
“No, wait, it’s a squirrel climbing the tree.”
This was so not funny. She faced him with a glare that should’ve melted the rubber in his tennis shoes. All he did was laugh.
“Tell me you don’t really believe in ghosts,” he said as his laughter died. “Admit that you dug a hole for yourself and you have no way of getting out of it, and I’ll take it easy on you.”
“When you discover ghosts do exist, I want you groveling.”
“If you can prove there are ghosts, I’ll grovel all you want. Just point Whistle and Ditsy out to me.”
He was so going to regret talking about them like that.
“I don’t think I like him,” Wesley said, adjusting his position in the tree across from the porch.
“Shh, not so loud. I don’t want Selena to know we’re here.”
“She won’t unless we allow her to see us.”
She frowned. “I know, but it’s still hard for me to remember I don’t have to let her see me.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” His brow furrowed as he glared at Trent. “I still don’t think I like him. He talks about us like we don’t exist.”
“See, I told you we have to teach him a lesson, but you wouldn’t listen to me—again,” Dixie said. “You’d be content to let life pass you by if not for me.”
“Life did pass me by.”
She made herself comfortable in the branch across from his. “Well, do you want death to do the same thing?”
“What’s after death?” He pushed his hat higher and scratched his head.
She picked at the ruffle on the hem of her dress. “I would think it has to be worse than this,” she solemnly stated. She didn’t even want to imagine what they would face after they left the hotel. Sometimes that light would show up, but they were always too nervous to walk toward it. What if it burned them up? The one time she reached her hand toward it, she thought it felt kind of nice. Not exactly the fires of hell that those old biddies had warned her she was going to burn in for all of eternity.
“Maybe we should scare the hell out of him. I’ve been kind of bored lately.” Wesley looked thoughtful.
“Oh, now I bore you?”
When he turned toward her, he gave her a slow, sexy look that warmed her glow to a mellow yellow. “Darlin’, you won’t ever bore me, and if I had a body, I’d show you just how much you don’t bore me.”
He was a sweet talker, that was for sure, but wasn’t that what had drawn her to him from the very start? She cleared her mind and drew in a deep breath. “So, what are we going to do first?”
If they couldn’t have sex, then they could at least have fun. And this was going to be a lot of fun now that Wesley had come around to her way of thinking.
She looked at Trent as he sat on the porch, quite unconcerned. Selena had tried to tell him there were such things as ghosts, but he wouldn’t believe her. It was almost a shame to burst his bubble—almost.
Chapter 8
Trent closed the door to his room before answering his phone. He wasn’t taking any chances. Not that he wouldn’t put it past Selena to plaster herself against his door just to see if he was talking about her.
“Trent here,” he said after bringing the cell phone to his ear.
“You’re still alive. Amazing,” Tye said. “I know I managed to live with you all these years, but it was sort of a have-to situation with us being brothers and all, but I figured Selena would’ve done away with you by now.”
“You’re so damn funny I can’t stop laughing,” he said with more than a touch of dry sarcasm.
“I’ve always thought I had a rare talent. Maybe I should’ve been a comedian—have my own television show.”
“Yeah, so I could turn you off.”
“That was an old one, bro. It’s like I told you, no sense of humor anymore. You’ve gone stale.”
“Maybe because I don’t have anything to laugh about.”
“Okay, then have you seen any ghosts yet?”
Sometimes Tye could be a real pain in the ass. Why women flocked to his little brother was still a mystery to him.
“I take it that’s a no?”
“What do you think?”
Something clunked outside his door.
He jumped, then smiled. Caught in the act. He eased to the door. He had her now.
“Yeah, Selena is real crazy or one of the best con artists I’ve ever had the misfortune to run across.”
“Hey, I can hear you. Stop yelling. You almost busted my eardrum.”
He flung his door open. “Gotcha!”
Empty.
He peered down the hall both ways. Odd, he could’ve sworn he heard Selena right outside his door.
“I think you’re losing it, bro. What the hell are you doing?”
“I thought I heard Selena eavesdropping.” He walked down the hallway and to the landing. Selena was just coming in from outside, and she was talking on her phone.
“No, Mom, I really don’t need any food.” She grimaced. “What? Pizza. No, we shared. Yes, I’m eating salads. Mom, I’m fine, really.” She glanced up, but quickly looked away when she saw he was watching her.
“Maybe it was a ghost,” Tye offered.
Trent raised the phone to his ear. “What?”
“I said that it might have been a ghost.”
“Go to bed, Tye.”
“Can’t. I have a date with Cindy later.”
Trent glanced at his watch as he headed for his room. “It’s almost ten.”
“Yeah, that’s when the fun starts. Don’t you know midnight is the witching hour?”
“Since I’m hunting imaginary ghosts, I won’t have anything to worry about—unless Paige shows up. Good night.” He closed his phone at the same time that he walked inside his room.
He could’ve sworn he’d heard someone outside his door. As he’d said earlier today, it was an old hotel. The foundation was probably shifting. That was how a lot of ghost stories were started, with the creaks and groans of an older home that was settling... or hotel as was this case.
He
put his cell phone on the dresser and opened the top drawer, then paused. His pants were in the top drawer. That wasn’t where he’d put them. He opened the next drawer. Socks and briefs that were supposed to be in the top drawer. He shook his head. Childish stunts.
“Ahh, Selena, do you really expect me to fall for something so juvenile?” He grabbed a pair of pajama bottoms and tossed them on the bed. Her little tricks weren’t fooling him.
After removing his clothes, he pulled on the bottoms and turned back the covers.
“Jesus!”
Footsteps hurried down the hall, and his door was flung open.
“What?” Selena rushed inside. She took one look at his bed and backed up a step, then forward two. “Is that what I think it is? Ewww... ”
“Don’t you think you’ve carried the pranks a little far?”
“Not me,” she said, still staring at the mess on his bed.
Damn it, he didn’t like being made a fool of. “This isn’t at all funny. Gelatin in the bed?”
“Dark red at that. Black cherry? It looks pretty gruesome.” He caught her barely restrained laughter.
Trent flung off the top cover and grabbed each corner, bringing them together. “It’s not a bit funny, and if you think it’s going to convince me there are ghosts in the house, then think again.” He tromped off toward the bathroom with his bundle of soiled sheets.
“It wasn’t me,” she yelled after him. Not that he would believe her. “I warned you about taunting the ghosts, but would you listen... nooooo... ”
“Your whole family is probably involved in this,” he muttered, but she heard him quite well.
“See.” She looked up. “He still thinks I’m doing all this.”
“Because you are,” he yelled over the water running in the bathroom.
“Grrr... ”
This wasn’t funny. Why didn’t they just show themselves and get it over with. Not only did she have two horny ghosts plaguing her, but apparently they were just full of practical jokes. She could live without their pranks.
He came out of the bathroom a few minutes later minus the sheets. That was when she noticed he wasn’t wearing a pajama top. This was so not good.
On the other hand, it was so damn good. He had a light dusting of dark hair on his nicely tanned chest and the sexiest abs she’d ever seen this close. She had to restrain herself from reaching out and dragging her fingernails over each hard ridge. Instead, she forced her gaze upward and ran headlong into a thundercloud.
Not good.
“That was the most childish stunt I’ve ever had to deal with,” he told her.
“I agree.”
His frown only deepened.
She opened her arms in supplication. “It wasn’t me.”
“I wouldn’t put it past one of your relatives to have sneaked up here and done this.”
She shook her head. “They promised to stay away.”
“Apparently, they lied.”
“My relatives are very honorable, and if I ask them not to do something, they won’t.”
The look he cast in her direction had her snapping her mouth closed. She had plenty more she’d like to say, but she knew it wouldn’t do her a bit of good. He’d raised the barrier between them again.
Not that the wall had ever really tumbled down, but there had been moments during the day when he’d acted human. But she knew without a doubt, there was no way she’d convince him that ghosts had put the Jell–O in his bed.
Why couldn’t he see the world wasn’t just black and white? Colors filled the universe. Beautiful, bright colors.
Yeah right, if she tried to explain that to him, he’d probably say she was on drugs.
“Believe what you want, I’m going to bed.” She turned and strode off toward her room. She heard his door shut, none too gently, but didn’t even turn around.
Once inside her room, she leaned against the closed door. If Wesley and Dixie appeared before him, Trent would probably make some excuse—a trick of the light, or she was using mirrors or something.
Some people stayed blind to what went on around them.
If that was the case, though, her career might be in serious trouble, and there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot she could do about it.
“They’re pretty mad,” Wesley said. “You think the quivering mass of goop was too much?”
“Too much? Of course not. It was in the ice box, so that makes it fair game.” A wicked grin crossed her face. “And I’m just getting started. Wait until you see this.” She floated into Trent’s room, hovering close to the ceiling. Not that he could see or hear them. She loved eavesdropping. Being a ghost did have benefits.
“Con artists,” Trent muttered. “The whole family is probably in on the hoax, but I’m not buying in to their little game.”
He flipped back the covers to put a clean sheet on the bed; his hands stilled.
“Putting new sheets on the bed was a good one, darlin’,” Wesley told her.
She preened. “I know. Let’s see how he explains this one away.”
Trent stomped to the window and tried to raise it. His brow furrowed. He clamped his lips together and tried the window again. It still didn’t budge. “Her family had to get in some way,” he mumbled.
“It’s locked,” Dixie said, then chuckled.
Trent moved the metal lock to the opposite position, and with only a little effort, it raised. He frowned and lowered the window, relocking it.
Wesley moved to the picture on the wall, and with a wave of his hand, it fell to the floor.
Trent jumped, whirling around. “Loose nail. That’s all it was.” But his gaze skirted around the room, eyes narrowed as he peered into every dark corner.
“Good job,” Dixie told Wesley.
He shrugged his shoulders and downed his head. “It’ll do for now.”
Trent turned off the light and climbed into bed.
Dixie’s color turned a darker shade of pink. Whistle and Ditsy. She wasn’t amused. Not one little bit. No, Selena had been right when she’d told him making a ghost mad was not a good thing.
“Now what?” Wesley asked.
Raising the palm of her hand, she blew across it. Red dust sparkled as it landed on Trent.
“Dixie, that was the red dust. Are you sure?”
“Oh, I’m sure.”
“But they don’t even like each other. You might be startin’ something that’s going to get out of hand.”
“Not like each other?” She laughed. “Maybe not, but they certainly lust after each other. That’s as plain as the nose on my face.” Her eyes crossed as she looked at her transparent nose. It was still there... sort of.
“It’s a very cute nose,” Wesley offered.
He always knew the right thing to say at the right time. Just when she needed to feel as though she had a little substance. Damn, she loved him to distraction.
“Come on, let’s not leave Selena out of the dream.” He grinned and vanished in an instant.
Chapter 9
Trent rolled to his other side, pulling the pillow closer to him. He was surrounded by fog. A cold breeze whispered over him. He shivered. The air around him suddenly warmed. He glanced around. The fog parted.
Selena stood before him wearing the same red negligee that was trimmed in black. He pushed the covers to the side and stood. Damn, she looked even sexier tonight, even though she wore exactly the same thing as the night before.
“You’re here,” he said.
“It’s just a dream.”
“This doesn’t feel like a dream.” He reached out and touched her hair, running his fingers through the silky strands. She leaned toward him with a deep sigh. Hell, at this rate he’d want to start spending all his time asleep.
“You’re right. I’ve never had a dream quite like this.” She ran her hand through the hairs on his chest, testing the hard ridges of his abdomen.
He sucked in a deep breath. “You’re not a bit shy, are you?”
&n
bsp; She laughed. “Why should I be? This is just a dream. When morning comes, we’ll remember it was just a dream no matter how good it felt. None of this is real.”
“It feels pretty damn real right now. You feel pretty damn real.”
“It’s my fantasy.”
He frowned. “I thought it was mine.”
“Who cares?”
That made sense. He pulled her negligee over her head and tossed it to the side. “You’re not embarrassed?”
“Why should I be? I want you to see me naked, to touch me, to kiss me. This is what I want.”
What she wanted? He wasn’t sure how that worked. Could Selena have a fantasy in his dream? Not that he minded fulfilling everything that her heart desired. Or maybe it was his dream that she would want him as much as he wanted her.
Damned confusing.
His gaze swept over her, and suddenly he didn’t care that he was only dreaming about having sex with Selena. He only knew he wanted her. He felt like a kid in a candy store, and he planned on sampling every delicious morsel.
He caressed her breast, running his thumb over the nipple and watching it become a hard little nub. She closed her eyes, thrusting her chest forward. He didn’t disappoint, but cupped both breasts, fondling them, brushing back and forth across her nipples.
His reward was watching the emotions that crossed her face. The sheer delight. The way she leaned into his hands, silently begging for more.
“That feels good,” she said, tugging at the string to his pajama bottoms and letting them slide to the floor. She opened her eyes and stared at his erection. “That’s what I call a fantasy come true.”
When she reached for him, he turned her around so that her bottom was nestled against him. He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the heat from her body wrap around him.
“I thought this was my fantasy, too? I wanted to touch you.”
He laughed near her ear. “You are touching me.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He could hear the frown in her voice, but when he slid his hands over her breasts and down to her pubic hair, the frown changed to a moan.
