by Brindi Quinn
Of seducing me, right? Because it’s a job.
If Pine can hear the sarcasm of my thoughts, he doesn’t say anything. And as he sits there, pensive, mulling, staring, I wonder: Is it possible I’m seeing a shred of something . . . real? For the first time in my seduction-shrouded, nether-powered, not-so-deathly death, maybe this is something genuine. Pine’s face certainly looks tortured enough. My heart gives an extra-loud thump.
Yowsa.
“Pine?”
“Only think about me. Or him if you have to.” Woodily, the reaper puts his arm around my shoulder, but I shrug him off.
“I’m serious,” I tell him. “What are you worried about?”
“I can’t. I can’t tell you anything.”
Side-by-side, we stare into paradise. Fine. If he won’t talk, I will. “You’re pretty powerful, to be able to make all this. Ever think about just quitting and becoming a super hero?”
Pine’s uncovered eye drifts to me.
“Yeah, think about it,” I say. “It’d make a great comic.” I move my hand before my face and make my voice sound like an old-timey announcer: “Pine such-and-such, just your ordinary god of death, grows sick of his mundane life, sides with the living, and uses his powers to fight that which he was sworn to protect: death!”
“I’m not a ‘god of death,’ Marley. I’m only a reaper.”
I put my finger in the air. “Sir Cap-I-tan reaper,” I correct.
“And my life isn’t mundane.”
Psh. I was only trying to spice it up a bit. So sue me. There’s just no breaking him out of his bad mood, I guess. I resort to twisting the bottom of my hair around my finger and letting the sun soak into me. It feels good. Like a warm bath. I wonder if spirits can tan.
Spirit.
I am a spirit. And Pine is a reaper. And so is Minx. So crazy, right? I’ve seen my share of haunting flicks, where tortured spirits haunt the halls of a hospital or a school or a factory – the more industrial the creepier, I guess. Ghosts are known for scratching names in walls, making dolls’ heads turn around, clogging sinks – real demented acts like those – yet here I am, on an exotic beach, next to a brooding hottie, getting my tan on.
Well, I’m not arguing with it.
“You’re a spirit,” Pine says, reading my thoughts. “Not a ghost.”
I perk up because he’s finally decided to turn chatty. “But there are ghosts?” I ask.
Pine nods once.
Scary.
I shake my head because it’s proven that shaking your head can shake away unpleasant thoughts. Who wants to think about scary ghosts, anyway? I fall back onto the sand and stretch out.
“If only Milo could see me now. He’d be WAY jealous. Amy Jo, too.” For clarity, I add, “She’s my not-friend.”
Pine looks over his shoulder at me. “She’s not your friend?”
“No, she’s is, but she’s a NOT-friend. Don’t ask. The important thing here is that she’d be super over-the-top jealous if she could see me out here in Bora Bora or wherever. Carmen, though, she’d be happy for me.” I pause to explain: “She’s my best friend from the land of the living. Not a not-friend, but an actual friend, you know?”
Pine gives a nod.
“Anyway, her family’s been to Hawaii a few times, and she’d always bring me back little bracelets made out of coconut or earrings made out of shells. Ohmigosh, one time, her parents got bamboozled into this timeshare scam when they were down there and they lost all their spending cash, so they were stuck there for like a month while their bank tried to sort out their account, and when Carmen came back, she seriously looked like a bronze goddess. Like someone from a shaving commercial, you know? Anyway, that time, she only brought me some shells she’d collected, but you know what? I kind of liked that better than the jewelry she’d brought me before. Anyway, too bad I can’t bring her a souvenir from death. Hah. That’s weird, right?”
Pine takes a moment to answer. “Very.”
“Hey!”
“It’s true. You’re unusual, Marley. Your memory of life is vivid. How do you feel when you think about it?”
“I miss Carmen.”
Pine turns over in the sand so that he’s on his side, facing me. “Are you sad?”
“No. I just miss her. . . . I know! We should go back out to the aquarium so I can show you where we carved our names into the concession stand! I’ve been curious to know if they’re still there or not. What do you say?”
“NO.”
His answer is firm.
Poo.
“Don’t pout.” The shirtless reaper grabs my wrists and easily pulls me into his chest. “I’m done thinking and I’ve made a decision to tell you something I shouldn’t.”
I hear him, but just barely.
His skin is warm and smooth and tight.
Forget super hero – Pine should give up reaping and become a freaking model. How much does a person have to work out to be so . . . heart-stopping.
Unless! Nether-powers!
“Cheater!” I blurt as half-clothed Pine wraps his arms around me.
“I’ll hold you while I tell you,” he says into my ear. “That way, if you start to think too deeply of things you shouldn’t, I can make you shift.”
Shift.
So does shift mean distract?
“I need to get control over you first, okay?” Pine goes on, nuzzling my ear. “But remember what I told you before. I won’t take your soul. Not now. So you don’t need to be afraid of me.” He slips down the strap of my sundress and puts his mouth almost to my shoulder. “I’m going to start.”
I’m not sure, exactly, what he’s going to start, but my neck heats over his words. The skin of my shoulder pricks with a chill, even though the air is warm.
Pine puts his lips to my shoulder and–
Babam!
I erupt with a sensation. An exhilaration, you could say. My adrenaline rushes, my veins move faster than even the fastest veins, and it feels like I’m sticking my head out the window of a fast-moving semi.
Holy. Potato. Salad.
“Take me somewhere,” my mouth whispers.
Pine sets me backwards, into the sand, and opens his mouth against my shoulder. He holds my lower spine and presses me firmly to himself. One of my hands falls limp, the other moves to the back of his head as he shifts his mouth to my neck and bites me softly.
“You’re undeclared, Marley.”
Yeah, they mentioned that before. Death’s like a major, I guess.
“That’s why there are two of us. Some spirits only get one reaper.”
Lucky me.
Pine’s mouth moves down my chest as his hand slips to my waist.
“Your desires are what matter, Marley. Your afterlife will depend on which one of us gets to reap you.”
“So . . .” I mouth. “Which one of you is Heaven and which one of you is Hell?”
Abruptly, Pine freezes and the escaping, rushing, adventurous feeling leaves my body. The dark-haired reaper sits up. “Excuse me?” he says, dryly.
“Yeah, Heaven and Hell, right? Is Minx Hell? I kind of have a feeling he’s Hell. Am I going to Hell because I kissed him? Then again, you could be Hell. Minx only went for the smooch; you flat out asked me to have sex with you right off the bat, and sex has GOT to be worse than kissing, so maybe you’re Hell.”
The reaper’s mouth wiggles. “You aren’t normal,” he says.
“Well, which is it?” I demand.
“It has nothing to do with Heaven and Hell.”
“Oh.” I eye him up. “Really?”
“Sh,” he says. “Or I’ll change my mind.” Then, he goes back in for seconds, taking the top of my dress in his teeth. Crawling over me, he puts his knee between my legs and forces my hand over my head.
Ah!
I’m filled with rushing again. I close my eyes and bite my lip and clench my toes.
Pine is a drug.
“I want you to be careful around HIM,” his voice in m
y head says. “I think it’s because you’re unusual that he’s going off script. If I can feel it, he can feel it, but he and I are different. He has a history. If you play into him, I’m worried he won’t be able to resist.”
Pine kisses my jaw.
“I can’t do much because he has just as much right to you as I do. If he’s what you desire in the end, I’ll have to concede.”
Pine kisses my chin.
“That said, losing you in a fair fight is one thing, but I refuse to let him ruin you.”
Pine pulls away and I open my eyes. His face casts a shadow over mine. His silver eyes drill into me with determination. I don’t even notice until it’s already happening that my fingers are reaching for his face.
“That tick in your head is bad,” Pine says out loud. “Don’t listen to it. If you start to notice it, shift instead. Think about me, or him if you have to, and shift.”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” I mutter, while holding his cheek.
“Don’t call me that, Marley.”
“Why?” My eyes are soft, transfixed on his. “It suits you.”
Pine swallows. “Because every time you do, it makes me forget what you are and what I’m here to do.”
I draw my fingertips across his mouth, and he swallows again.
He smells good. And familiar. I can’t put my finger on it, but his smell reminds me of something I did recently.
“Say my name,” he says.
“What will you give me?” I toy.
“You’ll see,” he says, smoldering at me darkly.
Hotness.
Is that enough incentive? Yes, my body is under his spell. Even the paradise around us feels distant.
“Say it,” he orders.
“Pine.”
His eyes glow. “Say it again,” he says, lowering his face to mine until we’re inches apart.
“Pine.”
His eyes sear. “Thank you,” he says. “That’s better.”
But then something happens I SO didn’t expect.
“Pine?” I whisper his name a third time, adding, “I think I really like you a lot.” And then I grab the back of his head, push his face to mine, and kiss him.
Chapter 9: Starting Over
“You . . . like me?”
In the aftermath, Pine’s eyes are wide.
He chews his lip. “And you kissed me?”
Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh, I DID! If this doesn’t make me a slut, I don’t know what does! Especially since I was making out with another reaper not that long ago!
Or . . . was it a very, very long time ago?
“Sorry,” I say, face red and chest racing. “Sorry for just . . . you know, going for it.”
Then again, we were kind of heading that way anyway, right? I just beat him to it.
“Something’s wrong.” Pine pulls himself away and rolls over, sprawling, onto the sand – and he looks exhausted. Like one of those runner types who’s just finished a marathon.
My kiss . . . KILLED him?!
Good going, Marley Craw! You probably had stank breath or something!
“What do you mean something’s wrong?” I ask cautiously, as he starfishes himself out.
“Feel this.” He grabs my hand and presses it to his chest.
Ho! His heart’s pounding just as hard as mine! Okay, I’m guessing that’s a good sign. At the least it means my kiss excited him.
“S-so?” I say.
“This isn’t right,” says Pine.
ISN’T RIGHT!?
Okay, keep your cool, Marley Craw. Growing hot in the neck due to an extreme case of embarrassment, I retract my hand and shuffle away.
“L-like I said, I’m sorry, Captain. I just . . .” Ruby-faced, I stare at the sand. “You kind of confided in me just now, and earlier, when you were worried, you were so real, and then you just started seduction mode, and . . . isn’t that what you were going for anyway? Both of you guys have just been trying to get me to make out with you and . . . DO it and stuff, right?”
Damn right, that’s right! So for him to be acting like this after one measly kiss is totally alarming! I feel like there’s ‘something wrong’ with me now!
Ohmigosh! I just thought of something!
Could I be . . . a bad kisser?
Neat.
Pine grabs my elbow and pulls me to the ground beside him.
“Did you mean what you said?” he asks. “That you think you really like me a lot?”
“Not anymore! Not when you react like that to me kissing you!”
“You don’t understand,” he says broodingly, shaking his head. “I’m here to . . .” His adam’s apple bobs.
Not helping, Pine! Spit it out, would you?! You’re making me feel like the biggest goober yet!
“All of this–” He motions to the surrounding lagoon– “Is for you, Marley. But when you . . . when we . . .”
Not bothering to finish his fractured explanation, the shaken reaper abruptly takes my face at the side, leans over, and kisses me back.
I clench my lips tight because I was so not expecting it.
What. The. HECK?
This is all too confusing for a spirit like me to handle!
All too . . .
But with Pine’s lips on mine, I forget to breathe. My heart fills in the empty space, giving a few obnoxious thumps, and making my body throb.
Before I know it, I’ve opened my mouth to his.
A slut, through and through, Marley Craw.
But it’s worth it. Pine’s mouth is soft, his bottom lip full. His kiss is different than Minx’s. Though just as passionate, it isn’t as aggressive and hungry. It’s controlled. Like he’s savoring every movement. It’s romantic, too.
Is it cheesy to say that?
Well, it’s true. His kiss is miserably romantic. The kind of kiss someone gives as they depart for the Navy, when they know a long separation is coming and they want to remember every morseled minute. It’s the sort of definitive kiss seen on cinema screens in the time of black-and-white, all cherishing and sincere. The kind of kiss someone gives when they have either all the time in the world or no time left at all.
That’s what Pine’s kiss is like.
And as he kisses me that way, I realize something.
This isn’t just a kiss of seduction; it’s meaningful.
I’m dead. Dead as a deadbolt dead, and at the end of my reaping, my soul will go somewhere beyond. I might even end up on one of those ghost communicator shows. You know, the one where the psychic says something ambiguous like, ‘I see a woman and the color red and the letter P.’ Only, for me, it’ll be the letter M.
I digress. What’s important is that I’m dead, my fate unknown, and even with all of that, being in the care of two gosh damn reapers, even, I can’t help but notice–
This person kissing me . . . I think I really like him a LOT.
Pine pulls his mouth away, but not his body. He hugs me tight to his chest, so that I can feel the rush of his pulse mixed with mine.
“You’re really going for it this time, huh?” I whisper. “Your nether-powers must be full-bore, to make me think I like you so much.”
“Powers?”
“Yeah, you know. Your lusty-lusty seduction powers? They’re making me think I actually like you, which we both know is completely ridiculous and obviously just the magic talking. I mean, it’s not like I even know you that much at all.”
Oh gawd. I’m blabbering. Blabbering is so not attractive! But it won’t stop!
“And your nether-workings must be extra strong right now because they’re making me not just want you, but want to be with you. Whoo, whoo, Pine. Going for the win!”
“What are you–?”
“I mean, you’ve kissed lots of other girls before me, right? Oh sorry, lots of other spirits. You and Minx both.”
“Er, yeah?” Pine looks confused. Still, my mouth blabbers on:
“Congrats on making me all crazy enough to go saying weird things, Captain
. I get it now. Grim reapers are like prostitutes. Or rather, escorts. I always knew it was a contest to see which one of you could get me to fall for you or give in to you or some other pervy goal, but you’ve really messed me up because even though I know all of that – even though I know it’s just your job or whatever to distract me from thinking about things and make me want you more than Minx – my heart’s starting to feel really strongly for you, enough to make me proclaim lame things, and I guess that’s just part of it, right? Is this what you were waiting for when you said you wouldn’t take my soul yet? And now that you’ve tricked me into liking you, you’re going to–”
Pine takes my mouth captive with his palm. “Stop talking. You’re wrong. Yes, I’ve kissed many spirits, Marley Craw, but none of them ever . . .” He chews his lip again. “It shouldn’t be possible for you to ‘like me a lot.’ You should want me, you should desire me, but you shouldn’t like me. If you ‘like’ me, that isn’t my power at work. I don’t know what it is. You’re unusual.” He releases my mouth. “How did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“How did you make me feel like I was really kissing you?”
“You . . . weren’t?”
Pine looks on the verge of explaining something, but whatever it is, he restrains himself, saying instead, “We need to go back right now. I need to make a call.”
With that, he yanks me up from the ground and tugs me after him through the sand and into the water, grabbing his sand-covered hoodie on the way.
Geez, break my arm off, will you?
We dive below the water and when we come back up, there’s a door standing awkwardly in the sand. With the white dress clung to my body scandalously, I try to keep up with dashing Pine as he yanks me over the sand and through the door.
The door opens to a room. The same room we left from, I think, only, once more, it’s changed. The walls have reverted to their former state of solid glass. The floor and ceiling, too, and we’re again suspended in the air atop a mountain. This time, though, the blue sky doesn’t show through the windows. Now, it’s inky blue night. Directly over us, a silver moon, larger than any moon I’ve ever seen, hangs in the sky, painting our glass box in pale silver glow.