Intimate Whispers (11 page)

Her eyes darkened with mystery and he hoped he touched something within her.

Gave her something to ponder and maybe accept.

But as his balls tightened, a sure signal of the inevitable expulsion of his seed, she cupped her breasts and looked down on him. She smiled such a sweet smile and sighed such an erotic sound, he wondered if he’d just lied.

With the first pulse of his cum, a shock wave that lifted his hips and drove his cock deeper into her, his hazy mind didn’t believe for a moment that Sabrina’s beauty, as she writhed above him, could ever, ever be outdone.

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* * * * *

Is it truly possible she’d forgotten this? It didn’t seem possible. Yet she must have for she clung to the intimate togetherness, the sleepy after-sex pillow-talk with a desperation that surprised even herself.

Jason lay on top of her, his torso wedged between her thighs, his head resting on her belly. He always remained mindful of her back despite how she moved with relative ease now. Only sudden jerks had the power to rip a gasp from her. With good reason, she kept those to a minimum.

She stroked his hair as he talked. “Tell me more,” he murmured, his lips caressing her skin. It turned her on, just like almost everything else he’d done in the past two days. Two amazing days.

“More about what?”

He lifted his head. “About you. About your life.”

“And what more should I tell you? I’ve gone through my childhood, my hobbies, my job.” She’d told him about her favorite books, movies and songs. She told him about the modest trust fund, which allowed her the freedom to take on website design projects at her whim. He knew everything about her undergraduate schooling, and her original goal of being a teacher until the voices took that option away.

“I want to know everything.” The sweeps across her belly grew more amorous.

“Everything, huh?” Despite the hint of amusement in her tone, her heart filled with dread. Of course, she couldn’t tell him everything. Everything was too dark. Too depressing. Too filled with Him. She couldn’t tell him she took the Pill religiously, terrified His semen was viable. She had no idea how to explain in a few days, she would need time to herself—time devoted to Him. Time when she’d probably pay, once again, for daring to be with Jason.

One day perhaps she’d tell him everything, but not now. Not so early in a relationship still trying out shaky legs.

A relationship. How she loved the sound of that.

“Why don’t you tell me more about Thad, instead?” she suggested. “I never did get what the message he sent you meant.”

A heaviness settled over Jason, the change by no means subtle. She hated broaching the subject with him, but she had to know. If she reached out to Thad later, Jason needed to arm her.

Her hand continued its gentle rifle through his hair. Soothing maybe a little of the heartbreak.

“When we were kids, we fought like cats and dogs. I mean, just nasty stuff.” He raised himself on his arms, supporting the weight of his head on balled-up fists. “How we made it past the age of ten I’ll never know. Goes to show God really does watch out for children and puppies.” He paused when she laughed. Her mother often said the 57

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same. “Beyond the fist fights, if I wanted to get his goat, I mean to the point he went ballistic, I’d call him the pet name my mother gave him.”

“Ballistic? What kind of name could have been so bad?”

“Teddy.”

“Aww, that’s cute!”

“Tell that to a ten-year-old boy out to prove he’s a man.”

“Good point.” Jason dipped his head for another one of those kisses on her belly, mouthing suspiciously close to her mons. This kiss had the word wicked spelled over it.

“I want to hear the rest of the story,” Sabrina admonished.

Appropriately chastised, he lifted his head. “There’s not much more to tell.

Whenever I started in on the teasing, especially during a good fistfight, I’d be sure to scream ‘teddy bear!’ over and over again. Didn’t matter if he was pummeling the snot out of me. It was all about making him madder.” He laughed for the first time. “He used to get so mad. I mean, red in the face, on the verge of tears, angry. All the while he’d say over and over again ‘I’m not your teddy bear’.” A flimsy association, but still. Softly she said, “But what aren’t you telling me about his death, Jason? Why are you so desperate to get in touch with him?” He didn’t look up. “What things aren’t you telling me?” he asked with a slightly bitter tone.

Touché.

In other words then, their relationship had lots of room to grow. One of them had to take the first step, though. It couldn’t be her. Somehow she’d just keep the worlds of Jason and Him separated.

Wrong? Yes. Deceitful? Yes.

But what choice did she have?

“That was a cheap shot, Sabrina. I’m sorry.”

Did she call those kisses on her mons wicked before? He started them again, only this time burning a trail farther down—his way of apologizing, she guessed—and they were downright sinful.

Accepting the way he spread her thighs, she closed her eyes and let the first blossom of pleasure spread outward like ripples on a lake.

“We’ll get there soon enough, Jason. Don’t worry.” Until then, he’d keep his secrets. She’d keep hers. Never the twain shall meet.

Oh yes, she thought to herself, the sounds of his mouth’s movement muffled by her flesh, a vibrant orgasm already swiftly rising, never the twain shall meet.

* * * * *

“You can’t keep calling out from work for me. I appreciate it, Jay, I really do, but stop it, okay?”

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His eyes lifted to meet hers. Once again busted for staring at her ass and not paying attention. She tried to give him a disapproving look, but who was she kidding? She loved it when he got all googly-eyed from studying that part of her anatomy. “What?”

“Stop. Calling. Out.”

His ears reddened. “I have more leave than a little bit. I can afford to call out.”

“That’s not the point,” she insisted. The wounds had healed over, leaving nasty scabs behind, but soon they too would fall away. None of the voices reappeared as yet, so for a little while longer, she felt safe. At least well enough to pursue finding out more about Thad. To do that, though, Jason had to go back to work and give her some privacy. When they weren’t at his place, they were at hers. Always together. Her own ears heated to think about how much of that time was spent in bed. And not sleeping.

He reached forward to capture her arms. Pulling her into his lap was child’s play.

Now clean-shaven, his jaw brushed against the sensitive skin of her neck when he spoke, dotting blazing kisses in between his words. “That’s what leave is for.

Vacations.”

“Vacation?” she snorted. “What kind of vacation is this for you?” Waggling his eyebrows made her laugh. “Let’s be clear. I have no problem with the way I’m spending my vacation. People are paying good money for all-inclusive hotels and running the risk of a severe case of the runs on cruise ships, but not me.”

“No?”

“Nuh unh,” he replied after a brief nuzzling. “I’ve got my own private resort right here.”

That sent a shiver down her spine. It shouldn’t have, but there it was. His growing erection trapped beneath the seat of her ass didn’t discourage her ardor either.

She peeked at the doorway leading to the bedroom, chewed on her lip and contemplated. One more day together couldn’t hurt anything. One more day of screaming orgasms and hot, sweaty sex. The kind that left him drippy and panting. Left her limp and sated.

Already her nipples tightened in anticipation. One more day, they encouraged her.

One more very, very good day.

“That may be,” she forced through her tight throat because His next visit weighed down on her. Any day now. “But you also have a job I don’t want you to lose.

Especially because of me.” Turning, she made him stop nibbling along her skin to face the seriousness of the situation. “I’m fine and you can’t stay at my side forever.” Jason blew out a breath. He looked more worried than ever, but nodded. “Fine.” She patted his hand before rising. “Finish your muffin. Go to work. I’ll be here when you get back.”

Watching him down the rest of his breakfast was sensual in itself. Jason ate everything as if he’d never see food again, relishing every bite. “What are you going to do today?”

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It would do neither of them any good to get his hopes up. Let him think about almost anything than her attempts to reach Thad without him. The few times she got him to speak about his brother, the conversation had been strained.

“Business has been slow lately. I’ll scope some potential work out and maybe hit pay dirt.”

“It would drive me crazy to do freelance work. I like a nice, steady paycheck coming in every week.”

“That’s because you’re anal.” Understatement of the year. Who folded the ends of the toilet paper into triangles every single time they used it? Hotel housekeepers had nothing on him.

He straightened. “I’m fastidious. There’s a difference.” Sabrina found herself snorting again. “If you say so.” Puckering her lips, she blew him a kiss. “I’m serious. Go on. Go to work. I’ll be here. I don’t plan on doing much, really. When you get home, you’ll be bored to tears by my recap.” True to his nature, he stood and headed toward the sink with his empty plate and glass. Washing and drying them took no time at all. “There’s one way we can solve that.”

“That?”

“Your recap.”

“Ah,” she said in between sipping the remains of her coffee. “And what would that be?”

“Well, I wouldn’t object at all if you were in the nude while you told me about your day.”

Her laughter echoed around the dining room. “You’re incorrigible. And insatiable.” She waited until he headed toward his bedroom before wondering aloud. “How did I get so lucky?”

Jason turned, flashed her another of his mysterious smiles and exited the room.

By the time he actually left for work an hour later, she was a ball of nerves. Dead certain he knew what she was up to and would have her ass on a stick the second he busted her.

Shaking hands barely had enough control to put out the implements she needed.

Candle, pen, paper, anointed oil. A picture of Thad she borrowed from Jason’s place with every intention of returning it once successful.

He would kill her when he found out, but she was taking her chances. Other than some phenomenal sex where he took more pleasure out of making her shudder beneath him, she’d yet to show her gratitude for taking care of her.

“C’mon Teddy,” she muttered. “If you really want to talk to your brother, I need your help.”

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In one, maybe two days more, the voices would start. That had to mean she was receptive to speaking with the dead. Or actually, they were receptive to speaking with her.

Lights dimmed, she sat down at the table where they’d eaten earlier, pen in hand.

She studied the picture of the two men, noting every resemblance between the two. The picture suppressed their eye color, but the shape of their eyes, the shape of their faces couldn’t be hidden. No one who saw the two together could mistake they were family.

Same height and build, Jason slung an arm over Thad’s shoulder. Reid, the third brother Jason spoke less of, had two fingers behind Jason’s head.

They looked happy together until she looked closer at Thad’s face. He seemed sad, despite the obvious joking happening in the picture. Something about the way his mouth turned down, even while smiling, made it seem that more disingenuous. Thad might as well have been interacting with two strangers instead of his brothers. His stance suggested he’d bolt at the very first opportunity.

Things hadn’t gone very well the last time she tried automatic writing, but Sabrina felt a little more prepared. The small gold cross her mother bestowed on her at her twelfth birthday hung from a thin gold chain around her neck. Almost forgetting, she put down the pen and picked up the glass bottle. She poured a little of the anointed oil into her palm and dipped her fingers into it. The same fingers drew a crude cross on her forehead, another at the juncture beneath her clavicles.

“Heavenly Father, look down on me. Guide and protect me. Bring only to me the spirits who are here to help. Here to love. Protect me from those who would do me harm. So mote it be.”

The words were some jumble of Christianity, Wicca and good old-fashioned make-it-up-as-you-go. Before meeting Jason, she hadn’t tried to actually conjure someone’s spirit from the dead in at least fifteen years. The outcome was too unpredictable. At least when she’d tried this the last time, the only thing the spirit that temporarily possessed her had tried to do was make out with Jason. Spirit had good taste at least.

Blowing out a breath, she picked up the pen and went for broke.

“Thad Raines. Teddy Raines. Come to me. Let my hand be your tool. Speak to your brother, Jason, who waits for your words.”

Eyes closed, pen poised over paper, she let out another cleansing breath and waited.

* * * * *

The cell phone lying next to the office phone vibrated with sufficient tension to make it walk across the desk. Jason snatched it up. “Hello?”

“Yo, bro. Where you been?”

Reid. Calling his cell phone was out of character. “Hey. Why didn’t you try my office number? Everything okay with Mom and Dad?” 61

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“Yeah, they’re cool. I had been trying your office number, but it kept going to voicemail.”

Jason frowned at the red flashing button on the phone. “Today?”

“No, but for the past few days. Didn’t you get my messages?”

“Still going through emails first. I’ve been out for a week.”

“Business trip?”

“No.”

“Sick?”

A pause. “No.”

“You gonna keep skirting around where you been or just get straight to the point?” Was it any wonder he was the oldest? He’d been a bully when they were kids and he was a bully now. Only he called it “authoritative”.