Dane’s eyes grew wide. A lump formed in his throat. He swallowed hard but couldn’t move it. Why would he ask me that?
He cleared his throat again and forced a laugh. “Where would I possibly meet someone? I never leave the house.”
Ryan continued dusting for another ten to fifteen seconds, then placed the duster on a nearby table. “I think I might take a break,” he said, and without even glancing at Dane, he exited the room.
Dane watched him leave, his arms limp by his sides. “Damn,” he hissed.
It had been the perfect chance to tell Ryan how he felt. Perfect because he wouldn’t have had to say anything directly. A simple “Yes” could have changed their relationship from business to personal in the space of a single syllable. Was it too late? Perhaps if he went after Ryan, he could salvage the situation. Save himself from his own stupidity.
He hurried out of the room. “Ryan,” he called.
There was no reply. Dane searched the house, looking in every room, even his own, but Ryan was nowhere to be found. Then, as he turned the corner into the kitchen, he caught a shimmer disappearing into the ceiling, and the word “gazebo” came to him.
Dane hated going outside in the sunlight. It hurt his eyes and brought on headaches, but if that’s what he had to do, then he’d do it.
The bright light seared into him, even though he was looking down through squinted eyes, and shielding them with a hand. The brightness made his brain throb and his forehead, where he’d hit it in the car accident, ache. As he approached the gazebo, fortunately shrouded in the shade cast by the leafy branches overhead, he felt dizzy. He pushed on, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. As he stepped into the shade, the screaming in his brain eased and the ache behind his forehead began to decrease in intensity. He removed his hand from his brow and stood, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dimmer light.
“You made it,” said Ryan.
Dane stepped into the gazebo and took a seat opposite him. “I almost didn’t.”
“I know. You looked a bit unsteady there for a few seconds.”
Dane offered a polite half-smile. “Listen, Ryan, I’m sorry for what I said back there. It was a flippant remark said mainly because I was caught off-guard.”
Ryan’s lips parted in readiness to reply, but Dane held up a finger and shushed him before he could speak.
“The answer to your question is ‘yes.’ Yes, I think I am in love with someone at the moment.”
Dane stared into Ryan’s eyes from the other side of the gazebo, waiting almost breathlessly for a response.
“Is it…” Ryan swallowed. “Is it with me?”
Dane felt a sudden well of emotion build up inside him. His eyes watered as he nodded. “Who else?”
As Ryan stood, Dane stood, too. For a moment, they continued staring into each other’s eyes, then suddenly, simultaneously, they fell into each other’s arms, kissing as though it was their last day on Earth. Their hands slipped up and down each other’s backs, holding, pulling, caressing. Their bodies moved together, their hips pressed hard against each other.
Then Ryan, keeping his lips on Dane’s, began to undress. Taking his lead, Dane did likewise. Only when the time came to remove their pants and shoes did their lips part, but it was barely a minute before they were once more in each other’s embrace, their lips together.
With his powerful arms, Ryan had no trouble lowering Dane to the floor of the gazebo, his body protected from the bare boards by their discarded clothing. Dane noted the care with which Ryan laid him down, gently manoeuvring his legs apart and taking up position between them. Ryan’s body felt heavy upon his own more slender frame, but it also felt exhilarating. There was no question Ryan was in charge, and Dane needed to do no more than relax and enjoy the sensation of being with such a fine specimen of masculinity. A big bear of a man. The type of he-man he always conjured up in his mind while lying in bed waiting for sleep, in the hopes he would join Dane in his dreams.
And when Ryan entered him, more easily than expected, Dane thought he would die of happiness. A warm feeling flooded his body, yet he couldn’t say whether it was from his own overwhelming joy, or heat from the erect organ buried deep inside him.
“Everything okay?” asked Ryan, his voice low and tender.
“Yes,” was all Dane could manage.
As Ryan began thrusting into him, Dane moaned. He didn’t care if the whole neighbourhood heard him. He’d never felt this good. Ever. Ryan’s breath burst against Dane’s ear as he nuzzled the skin beneath. His lips and tongue, warm and wet, worked together to plant small kisses on the sensitive skin of Dane’s neck, kisses that sent tiny but powerful shivers coursing through his body.
For several minutes, all Dane was capable of doing was moaning, writhing beneath Ryan, and enjoying the pleasures Ryan delivered to his body. Then he realised there were more pleasures he could take advantage of. He cupped Ryan’s firm, meaty buttocks, grabbing them and kneading them as well as he was able. He began kissing and tonguing Ryan’s shoulder, and when Ryan raised himself on his fists, arching his back and thrusting into Dane even harder, Dane sucked on Ryan’s nipple, flicking it with the tip of his tongue while his lips held it in place.
Ryan moaned as Dane continued working the nipple. Dane moved his hands off Ryan’s buttocks and slid them up and down Ryan’s muscular back. With each downward thrust of Ryan’s hips, he bucked his own hips upwards, feeling Ryan go deeper into him.
Then suddenly, the ligaments in Ryan’s neck became taut. “I’m getting close.”
He lowered himself, his lips finally returning to Dane’s. As their kisses became frenzied, their breath becoming one, Ryan began thrusting harder and faster until finally he closed his eyes and stopped kissing. His lips hovered above Dane’s, his breath bursting against the back of Dane’s throat, as his hips remained pressed against Dane. After one final thrust, Ryan went limp on top of him.
As far as Dane was concerned, their lovemaking had reached its conclusion. His heart was still racing, and the area between his legs throbbed and tingled. He was both surprised and excited when Ryan removed himself from inside Dane and crawled off, taking Dane’s erection in his mouth and sliding his lips down the stalk to the base.
Dane immediately began to writhe. One hand found his left nipple and he began massaging the tiny erect nub between his fingers. The other hand rested on Ryan’s head, rising and falling with it as Ryan tended to his cock with firm lips and a dextrous tongue. When Ryan touched a fingertip to the tender skin of Dane’s arsehole, Dane lost control. The fingers of both hands now twisted and squeezed his nipples.
“Oh, yeah,” he cried over and over. “Oh, yeah.”
And when Ryan pushed the tip of his finger inside him, Dane exploded in Ryan’s mouth. He thrust up, unable to stop himself. His hands flew from his nipples to Ryan’s head, holding it on his cock in case the man should decide to remove his lips. Only when the final spasm died did he take his hands off, allowing Ryan to lift his head. Immediately, Ryan’s lips were on his, his passion, obvious.
After several minutes kissing Dane, Ryan rolled onto his back. “So…”
“So what?” asked Dane, staring dreamily at the beams of the gazebo roof.
“We did it.”
Dane grinned. “Yes, we did.”
A gentle breeze made the curtains of the gazebo dance and Dane watched, entranced, as they rose and fell on invisible currents. It felt cool against his body and it carried with it the sweet scent of the surrounding garden—the strong perfume of the many flowers mixed with the scent of lawn, and of moist soil and leaf litter.
If Dane had ever been happier, he couldn’t recall when.
They spent the rest of the afternoon kissing and caressing each other. They made love once more before they picked up their clothes and walked through garden to the house. It wasn’t until they arrived inside that Dane realised his head wasn’t aching, and he still felt an unbelievable sense of joy.
/> They dumped their clothes on the dining table, and Ryan followed Dane into the living room. Ryan sat first, pulling Dane onto him. After adjusting themselves so that Dane was between Ryan’s legs, his back resting against Ryan’s chest, Dane spoke.
“I guess this changes things a little.”
Ryan kissed the top of Dane’s head. “How’s that?”
“I can’t expect you to clean my house after what just happened.”
“Why not?”
“It’d feel awkward.”
Ryan crossed his arms over Dane’s chest. “I don’t see why. I don’t pay any rent. I don’t pay any bills.”
As true as that was, keeping Ryan on as his house cleaner and maintenance man sat uncomfortably with Dane. It wasn’t as if he paid any bills. The house was completely his, but all the bills—the gas, the electricity, the land and water rates, the fees for his grandmother’s care—were automatically taken out of his aunt’s bank account, which was now his.
“I don’t know,” said Dane.
“Well, I do. Besides, where else are you going to find someone as good as me?”
They both laughed.
“You’ve got me there,” said Dane.
Chapter 5
The days and nights that followed were spent in blissful happiness. Ryan went about his business as usual, and wouldn’t hear of quitting, and Dane followed him around like a puppy, happy to be in his presence whether they conversed or not. And he’d taken to leaving little presents around the house for Ryan to find—a flower on his pillow, or an “I love you” note on his dusting rag.
The only thing marring this idyllic existence was the frequency with which Dane saw shimmers. And they were getting bigger. He’d catch them out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look at them face on, they’d disappear.
“What are you?” he asked the darkness, but always too late.
Then one evening, he was lying in bed after making love to Ryan. Ryan was already asleep, and Dane’s eyelids were growing heavier and heavier. At one point they flickered open for a fraction of a second, but it was enough time to catch something moving in the shadows at the corner of the room. Suddenly, he was wide awake. He watched a dark figure move from the shadows to the door.
He waited till it disappeared into the hallway before slipping out of bed to follow.
“Hello,” he called as loudly as he dared. He didn’t want to wake Ryan.
With his heart pounding, he followed the figure as it glided down the hallway, through the kitchen to the sunroom. He watched it through the open French doors as it took a seat, waiting for him.
He stopped at the doors and peered into the dark room, lit only by the faintest scrap of moonlight filtering in through the glass of the outer windows.
He wasn’t the slightest bit afraid. He felt no threat. “Who are you?”
“I realise it’s a bit difficult to see in this light, but who do you think it is?”
The voice was completely familiar. “Aunt Beatrice?”
“Of course it is.”
He heard her laugh as he rushed to hug her. “But how? I mean…how?”
She laughed again. “It must be rather shocking from your point of view. Take a seat and I’ll explain.”
Dane dropped into the nearest seat, his eyes fixed upon her dark figure.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on you. And on that nice young man you’re sleeping with.”
Dane blushed. “Well, I didn’t…”
And again, she laughed. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m happy for you. It’s about time you found some happiness. You’ve worked damned hard for it and you have my full blessing.”
Dane stuttered, his mouth and tongue stumbling over a whole slew of words that wanted to come out. “Um, er, thank you.”
“Quite all right,” said Aunt Beatrice. “I’m pleased to see you’re taking care of the house.”
“Oh, don’t thank me. Thank Ryan. He’s been doing all the work.”
“I’m aware of that. I was being polite.”
Dane really didn’t know what to say this time, until he heard his aunt chuckling. “Aunt Beatrice! You almost had me there.”
The laughter quietened. “Let me get to the reason for my visit. My time is short. I’ve dilly-dallied about too much. It was enjoyable being here with you and Ryan, being back home again. I quite forgot the time and have—uncharacteristically, I hasten to add—left things to the last minute.”
“That sounds—”
“Please don’t interrupt. I need to get this out.”
Dane pressed his lips together and sat back in the chair.
“I don’t really want to bring up the car accident, though as it’s an important part of what I have to tell you, I must.” She cleared her throat. “There is no easy way to tell you this, but as you seem to have no idea about it yourself, it has fallen to me to draw your attention to it.”
Then get on with it.
He’d always been a patient man. Caring for another human being developed that quality in a person, whether they liked it or not. But sometimes, he wavered.
“I was not the only person to die in the accident,” she said.
Silence.
A crease formed between Dane’s brows. “I don’t know what you mean. There were only two of us in the car.”
“Precisely.”
Dane’s forehead started to ache. “Precisely,” he repeated, trying to comprehend what his aunt was trying to tell him.
“You passed away, too, my darling. Though it seems you haven’t realised it. I’ve watched you carrying on as if nothing happened, going about your business with Ryan, going for nightly walks around the neighbourhood. Have you not wondered why you haven’t eaten a meal since lunchtime on the day of the accident?”
It was true. He hadn’t. How had he not been aware of that?
“Have you not noticed you haven’t been going to the bathroom? Been showering or shaving?”
Dane felt nauseous. Now his aunt had brought these things to his attention, he began to wonder…How long has it been since the accident? How long has it been since I last did any of those things? How could I not have noticed?
The realisation chilled him to the bone. He felt as though he was going crazy. That he already had. Yet while there was a ring of truth to what she was saying, there were points to counter much of it.
“But I sleep. I make love. Hell, I can even cu—” He stopped himself, remembering who he was talking to.
“First of all, don’t say ‘hell.’ Secondly, you have the memory of those things. They feel real because you want them to be real. Muscles have memories. Organs have memories. You didn’t realise you were no longer alive and so you didn’t know you could no longer do those things.”
“Then why didn’t I pretend to eat or pretend to shave or pretend to do a hundred other things?” He could hear the irritation, the frustration, in his voice.
“I don’t have all the answers. All I know is the needs of the body pass. The needs of the mind, on the other hand, and of the spirit, linger quite a while longer.”
Then something else occurred to Dane. “What about Ryan? He can see me and touch me and make love to me.”
He could see his aunt shaking her head. “He’s in spirit, too, Dane. You really are, as he said, two lonely souls who found each other.”
It annoyed him his aunt knew that degree of detail about his time with Ryan, but there were more pressing thoughts to attend to. “They operated on me and I was in the hospital. If I was dead, I’d be haunting the hospital.”
“You died on the operating table, Dane. And if your theory was correct, I’d be haunting a roadside somewhere. We come back to what we know, especially if we have unfinished business. Or if we don’t realise we’ve passed away.”
“But you realised.”
“Yes, I realised. It was my unfinished business that kept me here.”
“Unfinished business?”
“Yes,” said Aunt Beatrice, ri
sing from her chair and walking to him. She took his hand and sat beside him. “I wanted to tell you that I don’t blame you for the accident. After all, it was an accident. The road was slippery. The dog came from out of nowhere. You did everything you could. Besides, I lived a long, interesting life. And you enriched it immeasurably.” She patted the back of his hand. “In addition to my great desire to free you of any guilt, I felt it my duty to point out your…transition. To equip you with the truth. To be of some service to you for a change.”
He could hear the smile in her voice. He sniffed as tears filled his eyes. “If I were dead, I wouldn’t be able to cry, would I?”
His aunt ran the tip of her index finger down his cheek and held out her finger to him. He couldn’t see anything other than a dark finger-shaped shadow.
“My darling, you aren’t crying. You think you are, but there aren’t any tears.”
Dane wiped the palm of his right hand across his face and could feel that his cheeks were as dry as a bone.
“I’ll have to get along in a minute,” said Aunt Beatrice. “Before I leave, I have to tell you that the way out is all around you. You’ve seen it, but because you haven’t realised you’ve passed away, you’ve only caught glimpses of it.”
“The shimmers?”
Aunt Beatrice nodded. “I think so. I can see it now, growing wider and brighter, beckoning me, drawing me towards it.”
Dane saw a faint shimmer in the corner above the potted palms, but no large, bright light such as the one his aunt had mentioned. “Where is it? I can’t see it.”
“It will take some time for all I have told you to sink in. When it does, you won’t be able to miss it.”
“What’s on the other side?” asked Dane. “Can I take Ryan?” His phantom tears streamed down his face. He was so choked up, he could barely speak. “I have to be able to take Ryan,” he said, his voice almost pleading. “I can’t have found love so late in life to have it taken away.”
His aunt stood, her hands still enfolded in his. She appeared clearer, easier to see, as if the light about which she had spoken was shining from within her. “Dane, my dear, darling, Dane, I don’t know what’s on the other side. I haven’t been there yet.”
Paranormal Lovers Box Set Page 9