Faye's Spirit (2 page)

Garth looked at him with a mildly querying expression, as if surprised he was still there. Jai really had been on his way out of here, she realised. Well, she was glad he stayed.

The presence of two such interesting men was a rare treat. Mostly because she’d been working two jobs for the past eleven months, which didn’t leave much time to meet people.

Three days a week she worked in an esoteric knick knack shop to help cover her bills. The rest of her time, including evenings and weekends, she’d been trying to kick-start her ghost connection business. Lately that had taken off, because one satisfied customer put the word out and her business started to look good. However, it also meant she didn’t have much time to meet men, while both of her older sisters had no shortage of them.

“Everything really is all shiny and new.” She nodded at the chairs, where scatter cushions were still wrapped in protective cellophane.

“Yes indeed, but we’re just about ready to go now.” Garth was clearly dying to show the place off, ghost or no ghost.

“Did you have another office before this one?”

“Not one of our own,” he replied. “We’ve worked together in a larger company since we graduated.” He picked up a cardboard box that sat on the reception desk and showed it to her proudly. Inside the box lay a brass plaque, a door plate. “This is about us starting out on our own as a new partnership.”

Faye stared at the object, reading over it.

“This will be going up outside the front door next week and then we’re ready to cut the tape and welcome clients in.”

www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

10

Garth Connors and Jai Nilsen. Chartered Architects.

Below each of their names was a list of letters that she assumed were their qualifications. They worked together. As it sank in, she realised she’d made an inaccurate assumption about them.

“Oh.” Her face heated rapidly. “You’re business partners.” As soon as the words were out, she wished she hadn’t spoken. The comment made her look like a right twit. Her embarrassment deepened and she pressed her lips tightly together, not trusting herself to speak. She looked from one to the other of them. They weren’t partners at all, not in the sense she had imagined. She’d only gone and barked up the wrong tree completely because of her sister’s relationships.

“Yes.” Garth’s eyebrows drew together as if he confused about her meaning.

“You thought Garth meant we were
partners
,” Jai said, and he elongated the word for emphasis.

Faye felt as if her face was on fire. “Well, this isn’t awkward at all is it?” She laughed at herself. “Sorry. Oops.”

The penny dropped with Garth. “Good God, no, not like that.”

“Just good friends,” Jai added, but his eyelids had lowered and he watched her with interest.

“And new business partners,” she hurriedly clarified. “Got it.”

Garth returned the brass plaque to the reception desk then shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “Don’t let us to keep you,” he said to Jai, and adopted an overtly masculine pose, widening his stance, with his shoulders pushed up and back.

Faye fought back a nervous giggle.

“You’re not keeping me,” Jai reassured him. “I’m intrigued.” He looked back at Faye.

His dark eyes gleamed and her embarrassment quickly faded as she realised he wasn’t bothered. If anything, he was amused and entertained by her assumption.

She felt little bit less like she wanted the floor to open and swallow her up. Besides, even if they weren’t lovers they were both gorgeous men in their own way. Her lewd imagining of Jai whipping Garth’s arse as he chased him around a bed was off the mark, but fun nonetheless. And she wanted them both to stay. Perhaps that had something to do with www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

11

the fact they were both looking at her as if they wanted to leap on her to prove they were straight and fully operational in the pleasure-a-woman department.

She restrained a smile.
I’m imagining it, just because Monica and Holly have had a
threesome, doesn’t mean I’m ever going to get the chance.
“Have you both sensed the presence of the ghost?”

Garth nodded.

“In that case,” she responded, trying not to appear too eager, “it would be ideal if you were both here while I make some notes.”

The men exchanged glances. Jai made it known that he was pleased by the turn of events. Garth didn’t look as sure, but shrugged it off.

“Perhaps we could get comfy.” She drew Garth’s attention back. “Is there somewhere where I can make notes while we talk about your resident ghost?”

Garth brightened. “The staff room. It was the old kitchen in the original house and we’ve kept that function. We put in a table and chairs for informal meetings.”

“Sounds perfect.” She followed Garth, noticing again how broad his shoulders were.

Jai brought up the rear. When she inhaled deeply, she found herself intrigued by the combined aromas of their chosen colognes—sandalwood and musk for Garth, and something exhilarating, reminiscent of the seashore, from Jai.

“Actually, this is where we’ve both sensed the ghost’s presence most of all,” Garth said as they entered the large kitchen area. “Here and on the staircases.”

Faye nodded and studied the place. It had been updated in line with the rest of property, but with more basic furniture, giving it a more practical look than the public areas of the building. A large table in the centre of space was the focal point. “Yes, I can sense some residual paranormal activity in here.”

She crossed to the sink. A big picture window there overlooked a backyard. It was hard to see how large it was, in this light. A sturdy door in the corner opened onto the same.

Once she’d got her bearings, she stepped behind the table and put her bag on it, lifting out her notebook, pen and phone as she did so.

The two men took seats opposite her. Faye liked the arrangement, because it meant she could look at them as they chatted but she could also see into the hallway beyond. If www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

12

anything non-corporeal stirred, she’d sense it. She opened her notepad and brought up the Internet on her phone. “So, I suppose we better get down to business.”

Both men looked at her expectantly. Jai sprawled back in his chair, one arm latched over the back rest as he got comfortable. Garth rested his elbows on the table and stared across at her. For a moment she stared back, enjoying the attention. The interest definitely seemed to be reciprocal, if she wasn’t misjudging things. It could be simple curiosity about her work, but she was aware of them looking at her even when she looked down at her notepad and dated the page. It made her remember sliding between the two of them as she’d entered the house. All that masculinity, surrounding her. She squeezed her thighs together under the table. That only made the wild tingle of arousal between them worse.

Focus
, she told herself. She was here to work. “Can I begin by asking what you know about the history of the house?”

“It was built in the 1850’s,” Garth replied.

“1850’s right. Do you know anything about the people who lived here before you bought it?”

Garth shook his head. “The place stood in complete disrepair when it went to auction.

Apparently it’d been a family home for most of its history, but it had been abandoned and let go derelict for the last forty years.”

“Interesting.” Faye drew herself a quick time-diagram of occupancy with the approximate date noted alongside it. “What a waste of a great building while it was empty.”

“That’s what I thought,” Garth said.

“The place was a nightmare when Garth got the keys,” Jai interjected. “Woodworm and dry rot and damp.”

It sounded as if he hadn’t approved of the purchase to begin with. Faye scribbled on.

“Do you know the reason why it was left derelict?”

Garth shook his head. “There weren’t any details in the estate agent’s information package.”

There wouldn’t be, if some sort of a drama or tragedy had happened in the house.

Faye didn’t verbalise her thoughts on that score, but she picked up her phone, opened her favourite search engine and tapped in the street address. She continued to chat as she looked www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

13

over the links that appeared. “It can happen that way, if people can’t live with the paranormal activity. Is your ghost noisy, I mean does it throw things around?”

“What, you mean like a poltergeist?” Jai trailed his fingers back and forth over the raw wood of the table while he spoke.

It was an overtly erotic gesture, making her wish those fingers were trailing on her naked body instead. She found it hard to concentrate, because both of them looked as if they’d much rather be flirting than talking facts about the building. An undercurrent of sexual interest traversed the table, ricocheting between them. Occasionally the men would glance at each other, Garth with an almost territorial look in his eyes.

“Yes. That can sometimes put people off buying a house if it had that kind of heritage.” She twisted her pen in her hand, weaving it between her fingers.

Jai watched.

Something about the simple habit she had of playing with her pen made him look brooding, his sensuous mouth pursed.

“Any physical description for me?”

Jai met and held her gaze.

Garth pulled himself together to respond. “I’ve seen something moving in the periphery of my vision, and Jai has a sense of when she’s in a room, but she’s never clear.”

“But you’re sure it’s a woman?”

Jai nodded. “Somehow it
feels
that way, and there’s the cheap scent, very blousy and floral.” The way he said ‘feels’ was deliberately suggestive.

Faye wrote it down. “She has a distinctive perfume, how intriguing. That must have been an important part of her corporeal persona if she has carried that with her.”

“This is too weird, talking about it like this.” Garth ran his fingers over his short cropped hair, making Faye want to do the same.

“Don’t worry, I’m used to it.” She gave him a reassuring glance.

“It’s not even as if we’ve really seen anything specific, is it,” Jai said.

Garth agreed. “With me it’s just like I get the feeling someone is there and see something from the corners of my eyes, but when I look properly I see nothing, even though I feel as if I’m not alone.”

“It’s similar for me,” Jai continued, “but with the scent.”

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FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

14

Faye noticed how easy they were with each other, how their comments rolled from one to the other. “Does it make you feel uncomfortable, or afraid?”

“No. It’s more that it’s weird,” Garth said, “you know, kind of eerie.”

He probably wouldn’t have admitted fear anyway, but she felt he was being up front on that score. He seemed like a straight-forward kind of man. What it indicated to her was that the spirit wasn’t giving off malevolent vibes to them as the new occupants. “Is there a particular time of day that she appears?”

Garth replied without hesitation. “Late at night, always. We were working elsewhere and checked on this place at night while the renovation was being done, and that’s when we started to notice.”

“Anyone else caught sight of her—that you know of?”

They were silent a moment then Jai spoke up. “One of the builders made a joke about it. He told us he thought the place was haunted when they came back to pick up their gear.”

“Yes,” Garth agreed, “that’s what got us thinking we ought to investigate before we open the office formerly. What with our own odd feelings about a presence and his comments, it began to become an issue.”

Faye nodded. “When will you officially begin working from here?”

“Monday after next, nine days away,” Garth replied, “although I’ve started living in the private accommodation on the top floor.”

“Ah, so you’re already resident.” That meant at least one of them wouldn’t be rushing off to a home elsewhere. If she had to wait around for the spirit to make an appearance some company would be ideal, especially two such intriguing men. Just then she felt her skin prickle and her perception shifted. There was indeed a paranormal presence in the building.

“We’ve got a receptionist lined up to start next week,” Jai stated, “but I made a joke about the place being haunted and she freaked out. I had to pretend I was kidding to stop her running off on us. That really motivated us to get this sorted before opening.”

“I can see that would be a problem. You don’t want your receptionist shooting out whenever she hears a creaking floorboard.” She chuckled. “It pays to have good sense of humour in this job.”

Both men nodded. Faye had grown used to people treating her warily, as if she were a bit of a nutcase, a hippie freak, but these two seemed to like that about her.

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FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

15

“You seem confident about your work, are you always successful?” Garth moved the conversation onto more personal ground, and he seemed genuinely curious.

“Mostly, yes. There was this one case I was involved in where a ghost lingered on after I’d been there. It was a difficult one, because the ghost had attached itself to someone who was still living. Its presence did diminish though, and I still visit there to see how things are. I’m hoping that we can work towards a quick result to enable you to open up here without concerns.” She paused and thought about the next statement. “I can already sense the paranormal activity in the house, in case you were wondering. It’s increased since I arrived.”

“Impressive,” Jai commented. “I’m not getting anything outside of what’s shooting between the three of us.”

Faye almost dropped her pen.

He grinned.

When Garth looked at him questioningly, Jai shrugged it off.

Faye couldn’t help laughing. His comment thrilled her to bits. “Back to our ghost, do you get any sense that she’s unhappy that you are here, that she might resent you being in her house?”