Ever Tempted

by Odessa Gillespie Black

  “She had no choice.” I picked up my fork. “You have ketchup anywhere in this joint?”

  “Sure. And if you need anything else, you know where I am.” She gave me a quick flirty smirk and turned to fetch the ketchup. Finally. But her thoughts did exactly the opposite of flattery. “The things I’d do to him, given the chance.”

  Scraping the food into a pile, I shook my head. That’s why I stayed on a remote property in the country. Other than the fact that being there created a sense of closeness with Annabeth. It kept me from having to face the normal male stresses.

  Staring out the window, I dodged the girl’s unwanted affections for the rest of the meal. Dust rustled up behind a car outside.

  A happy couple holding hands entered the establishment. After choosing a seat nearby, they absorbed themselves in cheerful conversation and leaned close to each other.

  They could show their affection without the threat of a bloody murder scene. Must be nice.

  I finished off the food and paid for my bill, leaving an unusually scant tip. It was still more than what most customers would have left her, but a larger tip might lead her on.

  A mall nearby held all the shops I could ever need for my two-week stay. With a bag of only the bare essentials, I fled the mall because every store had something that either looked like it would look great on or off Allie.

  Shutting the real world away behind the ratty hotel room door, I leaned against it. Maybe the waitress wasn’t off work yet. I could only hope.

  The room phone rang as soon as I put my bags on the long scratched dresser.

  The night before, Thomas had promised he would check in.

  “For a recluse locked in a room, you sure haven’t been in today.” His voice bordered irritation.

  “I’ve been out getting supplies. And as much as I thought being by myself in a motel would help me, it’s done very little. But it is day one.” I sat on the bed beside the phone. Not sure if I wanted to know, I took a chance on the next question. “So how irate is she?”

  “She’s better than I thought she’d be.” Thomas cleared his throat and made a funny noise.

  “Is she extremely mad, or is she just sort of mad but understands?” Dreading the answer, I pinched the bridge of my nose.

  “I wouldn’t say she’s angry, just frustrated and on the verge of driving us all nuts with questions. I think she ran a rut into the marble between the windows overlooking the driveway in the vestibule and the rear entrance of the house facing your cottage.” Thomas chuckled. “But she’s definitely not without spunk. You’re going to have to get home soon.”

  “I don’t know how soon I can come, Uncle. I have to keep some distance between us for a bit longer. I want to be sure I’m safe for her to be around before I come. Please do your best to make her understand.” I leaned back against the headboard and pulled my feet up onto the bed, shoes and all. It wasn’t like my lounging on the comforter could do it anymore damage.

  “If she demands to know your exact location, how should I respond?”

  “Honestly, you don’t know my exact location. And you can’t give her the phone number because if you don’t let it ring once, hang up and call back, then I won’t answer.” New determination I’d gained from staying away for even one day made me feel a little stronger.

  “I’m proud of you, Son. It takes a true man to back away like this. I can say she’s never looked prettier since the threat of Grace has been diminished. She’s got a new glow. Even when she’s frustrated with you.”

  “Don’t stroke my ego too much. I can’t promise you won’t find me on the doorstep in an hour or less. Every second is touch and go. I never had this much problem staying away from her in any other life.” Even hearing about how gorgeous she was gave me the uncontrollable urge to touch her soft cheeks and kiss her stubborn chin. I tried not to crush the phone with a bear’s grip.

  “You also never had the chance to be with her without Grace’s involvement in any other life. You focus on the job at hand, and I’ll keep everything under control here. At least as much as possible. This woman is a force to be reckoned with. Once she has her mind set on something, it’s hard to knock her off course.” Thomas sighed.

  I tried to slow my breathing. “I’m sorry I’ve put you in this predicament. But you know as well as I do that I can’t be around her. She’s shed blood more than she ever has in all her lives in one month there.”

  “Since I first heard your voice on the line, I’ve been trying to figure out how to clue you in on some of the current events around here without sending you right back in Allie’s direction, but there’s something you might need to be made aware of.” Thomas cleared his throat. A bustling in the room behind him and a barrage of women’s voices interrupted us. “I’ll talk to you later. I appreciate your help. No. I don’t think I’ll need any more lumber. We’ll call if we need further supplies. Thank you.”

  The phone went silent. Just like that. And I had to sit fifty miles away, in a remote torture chamber the owners hoped to pass for a top quality overnight stay and wonder why the hell Allie would need lumber. Was she building her own house away from me? Was she changing some part of the property?

  I almost called Thomas back, but then if Allie was anywhere near him…

  I could hear her voice.

  I could talk to her for just a second.

  No, the hell I could.

  I had to stop this.

  She wouldn’t change anything on the property for the worse.

  And she wouldn’t build her own home with thoughts of leaving me after only one day in my absence.

  Feeling nauseated, I put my head between my knees. The indoor-outdoor carpet was so dirty I couldn’t tell what color it had been.

  My cell beeped and vibrated.

  I stood on the chair. Disregarding the screws, I tore the vent cover from the ceiling.

  Covered in dust, my phone vibrated.

  “Be home before June twenty-sixth,” Thomas had texted.

  I lost my balance on the rickety chair and almost fell on the floor. I never lost my balance. I could pounce on a wild deer from twenty feet away, for God's sake. My heart slammed against my chest.

  The text told me no more than I’d known before other than now I had a time limit to my impending coronary attack. Of course she was leaving. I had killed her and without the amazing CPR abilities of Kaitlyn and Shelby—telepathic twins Ava had hired in the guise of being housekeepers—she would still be dead. What good, respectable girl would stick around for a dangerous guy with a psychotic ghost stalker to get his shit together?

  A night’s sleep had brought her to her senses. That had to be it.

  I dropped the phone on the bed. The veins in my wrist pulsated and the bones began to ache.

  I couldn’t lose her again.

  I called Kaitlyn.

  I could depend on her to get a message to Allie better than I could Shelby. Shelby had been so angry with me for leaving, she wouldn’t talk to me before I left and now wouldn’t answer my phone calls or texts.

  Kaitlyn had hugged me. She acted less on impulse than her sister.

  “Hello, John.” Kaitlyn’s voice was tense.

  “Why are you calling me John? Is Allie nearby?” My hands shook harder. Holding the phone was difficult.

  “I’m glad you got back to me so soon. I need you to do something for me. Make sure what we talked about happens before June twenty-sixth. You’ll need to be here.”

  “Why is everyone talking in code? I knew I shouldn’t have left. What the hell is going on over there?” I wanted to slam the phone against the wall. Composure. Get it under control. “Will you let your boss know that if she tries to leave, I have great tracking skills?”

  “Yes. And I do realize it’s short notice, but if you want to keep your position, you’d better see to it that you’re here. With the supplies I ordered, of course.” Kaitlyn hung up.

  I texted he
r. “What supplies? Somebody better tell me what the hell is going on? Is she going to leave if I’m not there by that time? You of all people should know I might not be able to be back that soon.”

  “You’ll do what it takes to get the job done. I have faith in you.” And that was the end of her communication.

  I texted various times, but she wouldn’t answer.

  I couldn’t deny the shaking, nausea, grating and stretching any longer.

  The motel had been the only one near a forest within a fifty-mile radius, which is why I’d chosen it. Giving in to the sting of the bones stretching and popping, I staggered to the woods behind my room before the full change took place.

  Searing knives sliced through my muscles. Torturous reformation of my bones took me to the ground. Needles of black hair stabbed through my skin and sprouted into a full thick coat.

  A few minutes later when consciousness found me again, I used my feline legs to lift myself. Animal life in the forest beckoned me. With power and strength veteran only to a panther, I pounded through the forest toward my prey.

  * * * *

  My clothes were just where I’d left them. In a heap at the edge of the woods.

  I slipped my jeans on and slung my T-shirt over my shoulder.

  As I rounded the corner of the building, I stopped in front of my room. The door was ajar and the room was dark.

  In my haste to get to the woods, I must have left it open.

  I held the door facing as some leftover dizziness from the shift muddled my senses. Once in, I shut and double-checked the locks behind me.

  The motel room had reeked of smoke, hints of moldy food, and bodily fluids I tried not to identify. I tensed as a distinctly feminine fragrance replaced the foul mixture. Pheromones.

  “You’re probably the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen.”

  I shot around.

  In a dizzy gaze, I tried to make out who’d spoken to me. Had I heard the voice before or had the haze between shifts made it hard to place a voice I knew well? As the dark room came into better focus, I stepped closer to the bed. The form of a woman lay on my bed.

  Allie?

  Sweat beaded on my forehead and chest. I rushed toward the love of my life, stripping as I went. I knew if I was alone with her this would happen. Drunk from the blood and flesh I’d consumed, I fell into her arms. Scooping her close, I forgot that I should have chastised her for showing up here and lying on my bed without a stitch of clothing to protect her.

  Her kisses were different, more demanding.

  Trying to focus, I pulled back from her hungry mouth and tight grip.

  “My, you do have an appetite. I should have served you what you really wanted this afternoon in the storeroom instead of waiting till now.” The voice was all wrong.

  I jerked the blankets between us and dipped closer to her as the cloud around her whisked away.

  Holy shit.

  It was the waitress.

  Pulling blankets with me, I jumped from the bed, leaving her naked and uncovered.

  “What’s wrong?” The seductive humor in her voice changed to confusion.

  “What the hell are you doing in my room?” I turned my back to her.

  “You didn’t seem to mind a minute ago.” Her attempt at manipulation was weak.

  That did not just happen. How could I have let it?

  “Out. Out of my room.” I turned back to her with my gaze safely diverted. I pointed at the door.

  “Really. You can’t say you don’t want this. I could see it in your eyes at the restaurant.” She slinked up from the bed and neared me. Her nakedness didn’t seem to bother her, but it bothered the hell out of me. And not in the way she hoped.

  “Get your clothes and leave. Now.” I sidestepped and grabbed a wad of clothes that weren’t mine. I tossed them at her.

  “You are loyal. I like that in a man.”

  “Just please. Go. Now.”

  “Your loss.” She ran a finger down my arm as she passed me.

  I kept my gaze on the hideous painting on the wall behind the bed as she unlocked the door and left.

  I slapped the locks back into place and overlapped the curtains as far as they’d go.

  Red clouded my vision. Not so much at Sage or whatever her name had been, but at myself. With a clenched fist, I punched the wall.

  In through the nose, out through the mouth.

  How the hell had I made such a mistake?

  She had long, brown, wavy hair and was about the same height as Allie. But that was no excuse.

  The change between the animal and me hadn’t changed fast enough. My mind not being quite human between shifts might have just lost me the person who mattered to me more than life itself.

  I would have to tell Allie. I wasn’t the guy who hid things. Lies had gotten me where I was today, along with the help of a psychotic ghost bitch.

  I slammed the wall with my fist again. Drywall crumbled, leaving a hole.

  The legs of my jeans were still sprawled across the floor. Boxers close to the bed.

  Grace was probably floating around somewhere on a different plane of reality, watching me, laughing at what had just happened.

  Chapter 2

  My mistake gave me more resolve to fight the animal than ever before.

  After two weeks of excruciating self-searching, shifting at will, and almost always terminating the shift when it began, I could stay away no longer. Kaitlyn and Thomas had warned me, I had to be home. Ready or not. When I got there, I didn’t know what would happen.

  And I never walked into a situation without knowing details and having a plan. This was out of character for me. But then when I’d met Allie, she’d started a change.

  The old, crabby guy I’d become from years of separation from her had begun to melt away and that goofy, giddy feeling I’d had in the 1870s had slowly emerged. I hoped that silly but optimistic feeling could continue to grow into all it should have been, after I told Allie the truth. Which was another way I’d matured. Not that I had been a liar, but in my very distinct situation, there had been times when not revealing all the details of a situation had been necessary.

  At least I wouldn’t have to be confronted with Allie’s longing gaze for very long when I reached the property. Aggressive attempts at seductions would probably wan to vexing efforts to avoid me at all costs after I told her of my surprise rendezvous with Sage, the naked waitress. As frustrating as it would be, it would give me some more time to tune the animal out and be as close to a normal human male as possible.

  Beyond the trees, the sky around the estate was brighter than I’d seen it in over a hundred years. The back of the property glowed like a stadium on Super Bowl Sunday and could be seen from miles on approach. Old Buicks to the shiniest newest sports cars lined the drive.

  Not to judge, but old cars probably meant Allie’s biological family.

  New shiny cars held the possibility of single male prospects searching for a hot brunette to cling to their arm or fall into their bed.

  I hadn’t worked on my insecurities. I had every reason to feel insecure around her. If Allie got mad enough after our talk about my moronic mistake in the hotel, I didn’t think I could handle some guy I didn’t know carting her off to God only knew where.

  It was just a party. Deep breathing. In through the nose. Out through the…oh, hell, forget it.

  Why would she throw a party with me gone? Maybe she hadn’t missed me as much as I’d hoped she would. There were so many thoughts in the crowd of people, it was hard to pick out her inner voice to get insight on what she might have been thinking.

  I wiped my sweaty hands on my pants and stalked through the wooded lot beside my cottage. The ground was soft with leftover moisture from rain that hadn’t seemed to stop for the last two days of my leave. Festive music and laughter invaded my private little piece of heaven as I opened my door.

  If Allie felt the need to party, t
hat was fine. I’d stay in my cottage and close my mind off to all the obnoxious cheeriness. After the people were gone, I’d try to approach her.

  I flopped on my sofa and stared out the window. White lights strung around the Rose Maze and all over everything that could hold a light up. People clumped in groups. Staffed dressed in penguin suits carted trays of champagne. Chirpy, buoyant music changed tunes every few minutes. Bursts of laughter sliced at my nerves.

  Feeling sorry for myself would get me nowhere. I’d spent my life allowing adverse circumstances to dictate every step I took.

  Not tonight.

  After I stripped, I dropped my clothes into a hamper and stomped to the bathroom Ava had installed in the area where our old back porch had been. We’d washed in a large tub and used an outhouse near the creek just off the edge of the woods for restroom facilities back in the old days. It was nice not to have to bother with all that work just to make a good impression on Allie’s guests.

  A quick shower, a decent set of non-shit-shoveling clothes, and I was out the door.

  * * * *

  The Rose Maze was named after Amber Rose Rollins, Allie’s first mother. It was the only thing in the back yard that hadn’t changed in the last few weeks. Since Allie had arrived on the property, she’d given the house some shifting abilities of its own.

  As I approached the crowd, soft music, tinkling glasses, and joyous laughter reminded me of how it had been in the 1870s, except then lanterns would have replaced the electricity. And Allie would have glided gracefully through the crowd in one of her elegant flowing gowns.

  She probably donned some troubling little dress that unintentionally gave a nice view of all her endowments. I tugged at my collar.

  “…have you seen her? She’s beautiful.” Near the parking garage, a happy little girl in a crowd of other children bubbled over talking with her hands and trembling with excitement.

  A little boy stuck his chest out. “Well, Miss Knowles kissed me right on the cheek. She said she hoped if she ever had a little boy that he would look just like me.”