Harlequin E Shivers Box Set Volume 3: Valley of NightmaresHis to PossessThe Girl in BlueThe Ghosts of Cragera Bay

by Jane Godman

  Now, those urges were in Lucian’s head.

  The next photo didn’t help, either. Not one of the party shots. More of Damien and Marissa’s personal porn. This time, Marissa’s dress was off, and the screwing was no longer just in their heads.

  Olivia didn’t step back this time. She had a good long look at Damien’s cock inside Marissa.

  Probably a good, long feel, too, judging from the way Olivia’s breath hitched.

  Again, she closed her eyes for a moment. He knew that wouldn’t help. The images were still right there. Inside them. In every part of their bodies and minds.

  Plus, Marissa showed up.

  No chill. Some heat that slid through the air. Mixed with that ghostly perfume. And this time when the tree branch touched the glass, the touch snapped over his skin.

  “She’s here,” Olivia whispered. She drew in a long breath, shivered. “How long will she stay?”

  Lucian could only shake his head.

  “Does Damien come, too?” she asked.

  “Always.”

  No scrape of the tree branch on the glass. No heat or chill. Damien stormed in, that fire powering through Lucian like a triple shot of his favorite whiskey.

  “Yes,” Olivia murmured. No doubt sensing Damien. No doubt desperately wanting him there and also wanting him to leave.

  Lucian fought that battle all the time with Marissa.

  “These are their feelings,” she added. “But I can’t stop myself from feeling it, too. Can’t stop this ache,” Olivia said, pressing her hand to her breasts.

  Lucian was right there with her, aware of not just Olivia’s struggle but also Marissa and Damien’s urgings to get past the struggle and go back to their old ways. The urgings were always stronger when they showed up together.

  The strongest ever right now.

  However, Lucian figured that Olivia would manage to push aside the pair for at least a little while longer.

  Or maybe not.

  It was a shock when Olivia came to him and leaned into him, until her breath met his. She hesitated, clearly at war with herself. Or Marissa.

  Or maybe Marissa had already won.

  “To hell with it,” she mumbled.

  Olivia caught on to him, pulled him to her and kissed him.

  He felt that immediate kick, both below and above the waist. A kiss with Olivia felt not just like foreplay but the start of a guaranteed climax.

  And more.

  Lucian dragged her closer until her body slid against his. The adjustments were automatic, as if they’d done this so many times that they knew exactly how and where to move. Part of him hated that because these were Damien’s memories, and Lucian wanted to learn every part of Olivia’s body on his own. The old-fashioned way.

  By kissing every inch of her.

  Still, Damien and Marissa’s memories had broken down barriers and gotten them past Olivia’s old baggage. And besides, the memories allowed him to anticipate how good all of this would be, but Lucian figured the real thing would blow those memories right out of the proverbial water.

  It was that thought that had Lucian pushing this kiss. He should be doing a dozen things related to finding the killer, but instead he reached down and caught onto the back of Olivia’s knee. He lifted it, anchoring it against the side of his own leg so that the angle of her sex would slide right against his erection.

  Yes. Memories couldn’t beat this.

  Olivia did her part to make this newly memorable. She grabbed onto his butt, shoving him closer until they were officially groping each other.

  “We’ve lost our minds,” she whispered.

  No argument there.

  He kissed Olivia’s mouth and her neck while he shoved up her skirt and put his hand in her panties.

  Oh, man.

  She was hot, wet and ready.

  “Let’s fix that,” he mumbled.

  But not with his dick, which was really upset about that decision. His dick would just have to back off because Lucian didn’t have a condom in his home office, and he didn’t want to stop to go upstairs. Plus, there was that whole part about him needing to stay somewhat focused. He damn sure didn’t want Damien using this opportunity to take over completely.

  And something told him that’s exactly what would happen.

  Lucian dragged off her panties and used his fingers instead. He pressed his thumb against her clit and thrust his index and middle fingers into her.

  Olivia made a sound so perfect, so feminine that it made his erection beg. Lucian ignored it and stroked her with his fingers. It was a special kind of torture for him, but Olivia’s reaction was worth any price. Her eyelids fluttered down, half closed. Her mouth slightly opened.

  She mumbled something that he didn’t catch. But he was certain it wasn’t Damien’s name. And she opened herself to him. She latched onto the desk, pushing her hips forward so that he could go deeper, harder and faster.

  Lucian figured he could finish her off this way. It wouldn’t take much. But he had to taste her. Yes, that was beyond crazy, too, but he slid down her body and replaced his fingers with his mouth.

  He thought maybe his head exploded.

  And he no longer cared if these were Damien’s memories or not.

  The only thing that mattered was that it was him, Lucian. He had his tongue inside Olivia. He had the taste of her in his mouth. Her hand gripped in his hair. And those sounds. Each of those sounds urged him on to finish this.

  So, he did.

  He flicked his tongue over her clit, and he felt her shatter.

  Tasted that, too.

  Lucian caught onto her, keeping her close so that he could get every ripple of her climax. Every last aftershock. And as quickly as those subsided, he was ready to start it all over again.

  “It won’t be long now,” someone whispered.

  Not Olivia.

  She hadn’t said a thing.

  The sound of the voice jolted him back, and Lucian heard the watery laugh and the scrape of the tree branch over the window.

  Chapter Five

  Olivia stood in the shower and let the hot water and the bad thoughts slide right over her. She didn’t know where to start with berating and cursing herself. There was so much ground to cover. So many angles to attack.

  She’d basically been making one mistake after the other since this whole ordeal with Lucian had started.

  Mistake one—continuing the research job after the image of Lucian had haunted her. And the screw-ups kept coming. Like staying put in Marissa’s old house even after learning about this insane situation. The touching. The kissing. The lusting.

  The oral sex was only the latest blunder.

  And, sadly, the best one yet.

  It’d been a while since she’d felt the slack feeling of relief from a really good orgasm. It’d been a while for everything related to sex, period, and it sure didn’t help that the orgasm was more than just good. Like the man who’d given it to her, it’d been unforgettable.

  She could still feel it.

  Cursing that, too, Olivia stepped from the shower and winced when she brushed the towel against her raw, sensitive skin. She couldn’t blame the orgasm for that, though. No, this was from being pushed down onto the sidewalk outside Lucian’s office. Her knees were bruised. Her right palm, too. But a few bruises were minor compared to what could have happened.

  Lucian and she could have been killed.

  “It won’t be long now,” Olivia mumbled, hating that it was almost certainly true.

  She might be a mistake-maker, but she tried not to lie to herself too often. That’s why she took out the almost. Whatever sick thing it was that had been set into motion, it wouldn’t be long before it took over.

  More sex.

  More danger.

  More fear.

  And she doubted she stood a chance of avoiding any of it.

  Olivia finished drying off and put on the robe that Lucian had given her. His robe. That carried his scent. Her body
noticed all right and started to give her that little nudge and reminder that if she wanted more of his scent, all she had to do was reach out and take it.

  Literally.

  Lucian was standing outside the bathroom of the guest suite, and Olivia practically ran into him when she opened the door. She managed to stop herself right before her breasts landed against him.

  She already had so little willpower when it came to him, and she knew that it would evaporate if they touched. So, she managed to keep a smidge of space between them.

  He’d ditched his jacket while she was in the shower. His tie, too, and his crisp, white shirt was casually unbuttoned to expose several inches of his chest. Of course, it was toned and looked totally touchable. Ditto for the rest of him. The partial Armani attire suited him even better than the full suit did.

  “Standing guard?” she asked. A failed attempt at humor.

  “Yes,” he admitted. “I thought you might try to run again.”

  “That didn’t work so well for me the last time,” Olivia mumbled. “But if I believed it would end the danger or this sexual obsession that I have with you, I’d try running again.”

  His eyes were already dark, and they stayed that way. “But you won’t run,” Lucian said like it was already gospel.

  She hated that he was right.

  Hated that he knew he was right.

  “I can’t stay your prisoner forever,” she said.

  Though prison was such a strong word for the plush suite. Decorated in grays and white again like his office, but the bed was orgy-sized.

  Ironic since she might be sharing it with Marissa and Damien.

  “It’s not Marissa’s furniture,” he said as if reading her mind. “But she does touch the window up here sometimes.”

  Olivia huffed and reached for her clothes that she’d tossed on the foot of the bed. She got a handful of Lucian instead when he stepped in front of her. Specifically, a handful of his thigh, and it gave her a head full of memory fragments.

  Of Marissa touching Damien’s thigh, and just about every other part of him.

  Olivia’s gaze met his. Held it. “I should get dressed,” she said, and she forced herself to take her hand off him.

  His gaze kept holding her, however, and even though she’d managed to move her hand, Olivia had no such luck looking away from him.

  “I have a PI on his way to your apartment now to pick up some of your things,” Lucian said. “I figured you’d want a change of clothes.”

  Because her mind was almost solely on that partly unbuttoned shirt and touching him again, it took a moment for that to sink in. “It’s a keyless entry. He doesn’t have the security code.”

  Lucian gave her a flat look, one that informed her that a security code wasn’t much of an obstacle for a man like him. “If there’s something specific you want him to pick up, just let me know, and I’ll call him.”

  There it was again. Lucian taking charge. And her blindly following as if Marissa had sapped every bit of her brain. “I need my birth control pills. They’re on the sink in my bathroom.”

  His eyebrow lifted.

  “So, apparently there’s something you don’t know about me after all?” Olivia challenged.

  The eyebrow stayed lifted, and she huffed.

  “Look, that wasn’t an invitation to sex,” she insisted. “Obviously, you don’t need one of those from me since Marissa’s in charge of the invites here. But I need the pills to stay on cycle. And please don’t make me explain that. You already know more about me than you should.”

  Heck, he’d had his hand in her panties. His mouth in there, too. And his hands had been to parts of her that his mouth had missed.

  Yes, he knew plenty about her.

  Lucian calmly took out his phone and fired off a text. No doubt to the PI so he could retrieve the birth control pills. For a private person, she was having to bend a lot of her privacy rules.

  “Marissa might be issuing the invitations,” Lucian said, putting his phone back in his pocket. “But you’re in on this, too.”

  Was she?

  True, she could voice all the doubts flying through her head. She could try to keep physical distance between Lucian and her, but with every passing moment, the doubts along with her resolve were fading.

  Lucian didn’t help with that, either.

  He walked back toward her. She squared her shoulders, trying to take some kind of stand to remind Lucian, and herself, that she still had a trace of a backbone. But then he slipped his hand inside the robe.

  Olivia braced herself for another of those heart-stopping kisses, but Lucian didn’t do that. He merely eased his hand to her waist, tugging her close until they were cheek to cheek and with his mouth against her ear.

  “When I kiss you and touch you, you feel Damien?” he whispered.

  It was question that she’d dreaded and tried not to think about. “Sometimes.”

  Lucian didn’t say another word, but Olivia knew that he was waiting for her to finish that. With the truth.

  “Most of the time I feel Damien when you kiss me,” she amended. Then, Olivia shook her head again. “But I’m not sure who I’m seeing or feeling now.”

  Lucian made a sound to indicate he was giving that some thought.

  Oh, his breath was so warm. And that scent. Not Marissa’s or the lingering smell of death at his office building. This was all Lucian.

  Both that scent and his breath brushed against her mouth. Made her want to beg. Or just take. But the sensations didn’t completely erase the question on the tip of her tongue.

  “When you kiss me and touch me,” she said, “you feel Marissa?”

  He slid his hand to her breast. “This isn’t Marissa.” He swiped his thumb over her nipple, causing her vision to blur. “And that reaction wasn’t. Should I do another test to prove it?”

  Olivia shook her head. “But you still want her.”

  Lucian didn’t deny it. Didn’t kiss her, either. Much to the disappointment of her mouth. Instead, he took his hand from inside the robe and slid it around her waist. She tried not to be disappointed that there was now thick fabric between them.

  “You need something to eat,” he announced.

  Food was the last thing she wanted with her stomach and body churning, but Olivia didn’t put up a fuss when Lucian led her down the stairs. That backbone of hers was shrinking more and more with each passing second, and that’s why she untangled herself from when they reached the foyer. It was such a small victory, but she thought she could feel Marissa scowling at her.

  “You’re not taking over yet,” Olivia mumbled to the dead woman though she figured it was about as useless a warning as those that she was issuing to her body about staying away from Lucian.

  “Are you having any more luck warding off Damien than I am Marissa?” she asked.

  Lucian stopped. Looked at her. “Damien has a one-track mind when it comes to you.”

  “When it comes to Marissa,” Olivia corrected.

  He shrugged.

  Oh, heck. “No. Damien’s not developing a thing for me, too?”

  Lucian looked like a man who was about to choose his words carefully. “I think Damien would like to settle into this life. Here. With Marissa in your head, and your body. Of course, there’s a problem with that.”

  She nodded. “Their killer wants to kill us. There won’t be much settling in our lives if that happens to him again.”

  However, that did lead her to another disturbing problem. “What if we find their killer and they still don’t leave?”

  Lucian didn’t seem to have an answer for that, and thank God he didn’t try to placate her with one. However, he did try to distract her.

  “You really should get something to eat,” he repeated.

  She heard the reminder just fine, but she didn’t head for the kitchen. Instead, she went back into Lucian’s office and had another look at Marissa’s journal entries that were taped all over the walls. Obviously, Lu
cian, who was right behind her, thought there must be something to find in these entries, or he wouldn’t have been studying them.

  But was there something that Marissa was trying to tell them?

  “The devil comment bothers me more than the rest,” Olivia said, her attention landing on that one.

  “‘I offered to make a pact with the devil himself,’” Lucian read aloud. He walked closer, stood by her side. “And you’re wondering what other pacts Marissa might have made?”

  “Or what price she had to pay for a pact like that.”

  Lucian mumbled some profanity, but his words weren’t exactly laced with surprise, which meant he’d already considered those pacts Marissa might have already made. Maybe Lucian and she were the price. And perhaps they’d have to pay with their lives, too. But what could Marissa and Damien gain if Lucian and she were murdered like them?

  God, she hoped this was a case of misery loving company.

  Or Marissa and Damien doing all of this so they could have one or two more days together.

  She shivered, and as if Lucian had read her mind, he touched her arm, rubbed gently. “By the way, that’s me touching you,” he said.

  Olivia couldn’t help it. She smiled. Though heaven knew there was nothing to smile about. Nothing to kiss about, either, but she leaned in, brushed a kiss on Lucian’s mouth.

  “That was me kissing you,” she countered. And it was.

  No images of Marissa. No needy sex jolts. Scents or noises at the window. Just a simple little kiss.

  That melted her.

  Yes, Olivia had been melting a lot since she’d been around Lucian and his Damien-laced desires, but this was a different kind of melting. A more normal one.

  But just as damn potent.

  Just as frightening, too, because nothing should have felt that strong, that intense for a man she hardly knew.

  “You can’t want this with me,” Olivia insisted, and she didn’t give him a chance to respond.

  She walked across the room to his computer, at first to give herself something to do. Something other than reach for Lucian, that is. Then, she spotted the photos peeking out of a manila folder. When she opened it, she saw they were the same shots that’d been on his laptop in his office.