by Alexa Silver
“You’re beautiful, you know,” he said. “I love that I can give you pleasure like this. I love watching you.”
She secretly wished she could touch him in the same way, give him the same pleasure, but the one time she’d mentioned it to him, he’d grown silent and retreated, so she didn’t bring it up now. He had told her he got a thrill from seeing her perform.
Once she’d dispensed with the skirt, he directed the air to work down her belly and into her slit, teasing at it through the silken panties that were all she still wore. Gentle strokes grew gradually firmer and harder until she was wriggling on the leather surface and begging for him to go faster. Need expanded inside her like a magma chamber beneath a volcano, demanding release.
She was all but sobbing when the air suddenly went away.
“Take off the panties, then go get the vibrator,” he said. “You’re getting the full-on thing this time.”
Her legs shook as she stood, slid the undergarment off and went to get the machine out of the drawer. Fortunately it had fresh batteries. She took it back to the living room and sprawled on the couch, spreading her legs to insert it.
Robert stopped her. “Not quite yet. I’ll tell you when.”
“Not long, please.” She hated begging, even in these circumstances. She loved his dominance.
“When I tell you.”
The puffs of air began their assault on her again, multitudes of them, stroking her everywhere, from her cheeks and throat down to her toes. Her nipples tingled as the air rushed around them, and the brushing up and down her thighs sent such hot rivers of need through her she thought she’d burst from it. Velvet-soft ripples surged against her clit, making it swell and throb. Her breath ratcheted up to a full pant and every muscle in her body tightened as the pressure built.
“Now put the vibrator in and turn it on,” Robert said.
Gasping with desire, Kelly did as he ordered. It was like putting a match to a pile of kindling. After just a few moments of the vibrator throbbing in her pussy and the air assaulting every sensitive spot on her body, she erupted in a long series of jerks and spasms.
It took a while to come down from that high. For long minutes she lay sprawled on the couch, though she pulled out the vibrator and shut it off after a few. The air movements changed from provoking strokes on sensitive places to comforting brushes over her hair and cheeks.
“Wow,” she said. “That was amazing. What you do is amazing. I wish—”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Not nothing,” he said. “Just something you’re uncomfortable telling me. No?”
“Yes.”
“One of the many things I admire about you is your honesty.”
She sat up and pulled an afghan from the other end of the couch to cover herself. She couldn’t hold a serious conversation when she was nude and the other person wasn’t—even if he was a ghost. “But I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Please, tell me. It’s important.”
Kelly sighed and pulled the blanket tighter around her. “Okay. I was wishing I could touch you and could give you the same pleasure you give me.”
“You do give me great pleasure. You know that, don’t you, Kelly?”
She strained to see his face. His tone was very serious but as usual his expression told her little.
“I hope I do,” she answered.
“You do. Meeting you, getting to know you, sharing this love with you has been the most wonderful experience of my life—and my afterlife.” He let out a harsh laugh. “There have been a few other women over the years, but none were anything like you. And I’ve watched the television since the first one showed up here, so I’ve seen a lot of women on it. I know what an extraordinary and special woman you are.” He sighed heavily. “You deserve better than this. An affair with a man who can’t touch you or hold you, who can’t take you out to dinner or the movies—whatever that is—who can’t give you a family. What kind of life is that?”
“Are you trying to dump me?” Kelly asked. “How does that work? I’m not about to leave. Are you?”
“That’s not where I’m going.” Robert was silent for a moment. His form sort of shimmered, expanded and then settled back into its normal hazy shape. “I love you. I’ve never even imagined saying that to a woman before, never imagined it was possible for me to feel that kind of emotion. But there it is.”
“I think I love you, too, Robert, but it seems weird. I don’t know how I can be in love with a ghost.”
“I’m still a person, too. At least part of a person. And here’s where I’m going with this. I want to be a whole person again. Alive in every sense. Able to hold and touch you. Make love to you with my body as well as my mind. Maybe even, God willing, have a family with you.”
Kelly didn’t know what to make of that. “You—You’re talking like that’s somehow possible.”
“Would you be interested, if it were?” he asked.
She didn’t have to think about that one long. It had filled her thoughts on more than one wakeful night. “Yes. I’ve never met a man like you before and probably never will again. But is it possible?”
“It might be. But it would be hard. And dangerous. It’s up to you whether to try it.”
“Is this some kind of black magic reincarnation thing?”
He jumped and sounded shocked. “No. Definitely not. It’s more a sort of recompense from the guys on high. It’s only possible because I was executed unjustly, for a crime I didn’t commit. I have one opportunity for a second chance. I must submit myself for judgment by one human who must be accepted by the committee as a judge and then has the responsibility to decide whether or not I deserve another chance. But before she decides, she’ll be given the opportunity to learn my history and what’s inside me in order to judge as accurately as possible. I’ve never before met anyone I trusted enough to put my fate in their hands that way.”
“I have to judge whether you deserve another opportunity for a real life?”
“That’s it.”
“Well, then, let me say it right now. You do.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” he told her gently. “There are things you don’t know about me yet. You might change your mind when you do.”
“I doubt it. But okay. When do I find out those things?”
“There’s a ceremony we have to go through. It can only happen at a particular time of year, on the day of the vernal equinox. That’s coming up in a few days. There’s a ritual that will connect us. And… Well, I’m not an angel. I did things I’m not proud of when I was alive. You may be shocked. I may not be the man you think I am.”
He meant her to take it seriously, so she did. “You’ve done things so bad I might not be able to forgive you for them?”
“Yes.”
She thought it to his credit that he refused to sugar-coat the truth, but he’d lived in a different age, a harder, rougher time, especially if he’d grown up poor. But people did ghastly things to each other back then. If he’d done some of them himself…
“Are you sure you want me to be your judge and jury for this?”
“In all the years of my life and afterlife, you’re the only one I’ve ever met that I would trust for it. And if this succeeds, we’ll have a chance for a life together. A more normal life.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then I’ll be facing a different sort of judgment and you’ll be free of me. Free to pursue a normal life with a good, normal man.”
“I’d mourn you. And I might not find anyone like you again.”
“You would,” he said.
“All right,” she said on a sighing breath. “I’ll do it. Tell me what I have to do.”
Chapter 2
Kelly’s heart clenched in rhythm with the flickering candle she held. The lambent light offered little help negotiating the uneven stone steps leading down into the guts of the earth. Mostly she had to rely on her ghostly companion for direction and
guidance.
She tested each step, checking for obstacles or areas that might crumble, before she put her weight on it. So far they’d held but how long would that last? She couldn’t even imagine how old this passage was. And how could she have not known it lay below her home all this time? No survey or plat map she’d seen showed it.
“How far down does this go?” Her words echoed through the cavern, coming back to mock her. She couldn’t see an end to the curving staircase. It got lost in the darkness beyond the candle’s limited reach.
“Not much farther now,” Robert assured her.
“Did I forget to mention I’m claustrophobic?” Kelly asked.
“What is that?” Robert asked.
Of course. That word hadn’t been invented at the time he’d been alive. Hadn’t he heard it used on the television, though, or read it?
“Never mind. Let’s just keep going.”
Despite her caution, her foot turned on a stone. She grabbed for the wall, scrabbling for an uneven spot she could hang onto to right herself. Her heartbeat ratcheted up from too fast to out of control in the instant before her fingers latched onto a protruding block and she righted herself. The candle flickered wildly and almost went out, before settling down again. Although he’d told her she need only bring the one candle, she had a flashlight stuck in her shoulder bag as well as extra matches, more candles and a butane lighter, just in case. “Shit,” she swore. “These people ever heard of railings? Building codes? I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
It took a couple of minutes to get her breathing under control and let her pulse settle from frantic to fearful.
A warm flow of air caressed her cheek, while the image of his hand there filled her mind. “I find it hard to believe you are doing this also,” Robert said. “For me.”
“You are the only reason. And I’ve probably lost my mind.”
“As much as I want this, I don’t want you to do it if you have any doubts at all.”
“I have all sorts of doubts,” Kelly admitted. “But I also have one certainty. If it will give us a chance to have a real life together, I need to do this.”
“Let’s go, then,” he said. A warm cushion of air surrounded her hand holding the candle as she descended. It felt like air, but she saw it as his big hand surrounding, supporting hers. She drew a deep breath, settled the bag back on her shoulder and tipped out some extra wax from around the wick of the candle.
He hadn’t lied about the distance. A minute or two later they reached the bottom. A short stone-lined passage ended at what appeared to be a natural cavern. Kelly raised the candle when they got there, but the light didn’t reach the ceiling or the walls. It did show some kind of pit in the center of the space, where a pile of wood waited.
“Use the candle to light the fire,” Robert told her.
The wood was neatly arranged on top of a pile of kindling, dry enough that it caught quickly when she held the candle to it. Soon a substantial fire blazed in the pit. Enough to light the chamber. The space was larger than she imagined, with rough stone walls and few interesting features other than the pit. No other exits or tunnels led from it besides the one through which they’d entered.
“Now a drop of blood in the fire.”
Kelly nodded and dug the knife out of her bag. “I’m a bit of a wimp about this part.”
“It just needs a drop,” he assured her.
Still, she had to steel herself to push the point of the knife into her arm and keep pressing until a bead of blood appeared. She held her arm over the fire and let it drip. When the first drop hit the wood, a tower of flame rose up from the center, sending Kelly stumbling backward, arm thrown across her face to protect her eyes.
A single, booming note thundered around the cavern. Kelly pressed her eyes closed and hugged her hands in close to her ears. As the sound died down, she opened her eyes to look.
On the far side of the fire, five figures now stood, three men, two women. All were tall and slender and solid, though a smoky haze seemed to surround them, washing out the color of their hair, skin and clothes to grayish white. The five of them stared from her to Robert and back. Robert glided over to talk quietly to them, but Kelly couldn’t hear what was said. When he finished speaking, the newcomers spoke among themselves for a moment. Robert backed away.
The tallest man stepped forward. “We understand you wish to stand in judgment of Robert and attempt to bring him back into your world?” His voice boomed and echoed around the cavern.
Kelly drew a deep, steadying breath. “I do.”
“This is not a thing to be attempted lightly. The chances of succeeding are small and there is some danger to yourself.”
“I understand that. Robert has explained it. He’s tried to dissuade me from trying it too.”
“To his credit,” the man answered, “but it does not change the facts. Why do you wish to try this?”
“Because I love Robert,” she answered. “But more than that. His life was marked by a series of misfortunes and injustices that gave him no chance to live as the good man he was at heart. Then it was cut short in the most glaring injustice of all. I have a chance to possibly set that right. To give him an opportunity for the life he should have had.”
“You have only his word for the events of his life.”
Kelly shook her head. “I’m not a complete fool. I did some research and found what historical records there are. Incomplete and vague as some were, they did confirm most of what he told me.”
“In this test you’ll have a more first-hand view of the truth,” the tall man said. “You understand that in this trial, you are the sole judge and jury? By Robert’s own choice you’re so designated. But that in no way obliges you to accept the responsibility. And it is a grave one. You alone are given to know the truth of events in his past and what is in his heart. You alone will then judge whether it’s fit that he be given another chance at life and whether it’s safe to turn him loose in your world. This is not a choice to be made lightly.”
“I understand. And I accept the responsibility.”
She glanced over at Robert, meeting the gaze of his light eyes. Curls of fear twisted her stomach, but it wasn’t physical fear for herself this time. Suppose he’d lied to her and Robert had committed the murder for which he’d been hanged? Or others? Just because he’d been lynched by an angry mob didn’t guarantee his innocence. If this trial went as she’d been told, she would soon know. And the truth could prove harder to bear than not knowing.
He knew her well enough to understand that she wouldn’t trust him in her world if she thought him dangerous to it. He denied having committed the crime he was hanged for, yet he admitted he was no innocent either.
All five members of the group watched her intently. The spokesman in particular stared at her so hard she felt as though he tried to read her mind. Maybe he did. Again she heard odd lilting sounds that might have been them speaking to each other. After a moment, their leader spoke to her. “So be it.” He looked at Robert, then at her. “You understand that once his body is returned, he will not remember who you are until after you’ve made your judgment?”
“I understand,” Kelly agreed. And she realized that how Robert reacted to her when he was in body again but with no memory of her would be part of how she judged him.
“And the test for the two of you is that you hold onto him, embrace him for as long as it takes to consummate a union between the two of you. Once you have reached consummation you will know all. Then you accept or reject him. Should you push him away or deny him within ten minutes after consummation, the trial is over, a negative verdict rendered.”
“I understand that also.”
The man nodded. “Let it begin, then.” He swept his arm up, palm facing toward them, and around in a circle. The haze that surrounded the five strangers expanded until it filled the room for a moment and Kelly was reminded of walking through a blizzard, but without the cold and wind.
Then it clear
ed and she found herself alone in the room with another stranger, a man who bore some resemblance to her beloved Robert. She’d seen his shape clearly enough on occasion that she expected a tall, broad-shouldered man who was lean for his height.
Everything else about him shocked her, from the unkempt blond hair pulled roughly back from his face and tied with a leather thong to the bare feet and dirty, shapeless, colorless trousers that were his only bit of clothing. Blond stubble didn’t hide the strong jaw and sensual mouth she loved. The narrowed eyes revealed only slices of icy blue irises.
Most shocking of all were the scars. Because he was half-turned away, she saw the lash marks that seamed his back, but worse was the deep red line that snaked across his throat and up below his ear. Somehow the ghostly Robert had made sure those marks didn’t show.
When she gasped, he swiveled toward her. His eyes widened and he took a step backward. “’Oo be ye?”
At least that was what she thought he said. The words were English but so mangled by his accent she could barely understand them. It shocked her almost as much as his appearance. His three hundred years or so of eavesdropping on Americans and even sometimes conversing with them had reduced the ghostly Robert’s accent to a bare hint of British inflection in a few of the vowels. But other than the face, very little about this man resembled the Robert she’d grown to love.
“I’m Kelly. I won’t hurt you.”
He eyed her warily. “Kell-ey?” He glanced around and frowned. “Where be we? I be dead, no? They hanged me.” He reached up and felt the mark on his neck. “This be hell?”
“No. I’ll explain in a bit. I’m here to help you.”
“’Ow?”
“I’ll explain. Come here.”
Instead he backed up a step. She advanced on him. He halted, straightened, folded his arms across his chest and stared at her with icy hard eyes. She refused to be intimidated, but when she reached out a hand to touch his face, she did it slowly so as not to alarm him into further retreat. The skin of his cheek above the beard stubble felt a little rough, but warm and soft.