Snowbound With Ghost

by Ani Gonzalez

"Well, they do say that chocolate is an aphrodisiac," she murmured.

  Sebastian snorted, then rolled off her and stood up.

  "It's not the chocolate," he said, pulling her to her feet. "It's the snow." A mischievous smile crossed his face. "Or maybe it's the devil monkey."

  She laughed as he led her to the bedroom.

  "Face it, Sebastian. Life is better with chocolate."

  "My trainer is ex-Special Forces and can kill a man with his bare hands, so I'm going to take the Fifth on that. But the brownies were good and the sex was fantastic and, for that, I'm going to give you a special privilege."

  "I like that." She leaned close, running her hand over his naked hip. The bed was enticingly close. "What exactly does the 'special privilege' consist of?"

  "First dibs on the hot water." He glanced at her hopefully. "Unless you upgraded the water heater?"

  "In two weeks? Are you kidding me?" She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the bathroom. "Tell you what, I'll be generous and let you share the shower."

  He glanced at the door skeptically. "Have you even seen my shower?"

  "Don't worry," she said, smilingly wickedly. "Tight spaces are my specialty."

  She raced him to the bathroom, laughing, and they squeezed into the tiny room. The bath had not been part of Lily's remodel so the floor was still vintage brown linoleum, the walls were pine paneling and the tile was amber-colored hideousness. A lone light bulb hung from a frayed cord. Sebastian pulled the plastic shower curtain out of the way and turned on the water.

  Satisfied with the temperature, he turned and bowed.

  "Your bath awaits m'lady."

  She stepped inside and winced. "Hot" would a huge misrepresentation. The water was freezing and she shivered under the spray. But she grabbed the soap and rubbed it over her stomach. Wonder Lily wouldn't let a couple of melted ice cubes stop her, would she?

  No, she would not.

  "Care to join me?" she purred, as she rubbed soap over her breasts.

  "Well, you do look like you could use some help." He stepped into the shower and took her soap, lathering her slowly.

  She ran her soapy hands over his skin, and raised her lips to his. The kiss was wet and sweet. She wrapped her arms around his neck, enjoying the feel of Sebastian's arms and naked body, losing herself in the sensation. It was like warm brownies and fresh paint, new and familiar at the same time. It was past and present melding together.

  Her ears rang, which was very appropriate. Yes, the kiss was explosive.

  It was also tragically short. Sebastian pushed her away roughly and she frowned. He turned off the water and bent his head, as if listening intently.

  "What was that?" he asked.

  Another explosion rent the air.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  FOR ONCE, WPRV was all business. The new deejay was a throaty-voiced female with an authoritative attitude, and her voice rang out loud and clear.

  "The lake substation is being repaired and Fire and Rescue kindly requests that everyone stay out of the area. The following areas are affected: Stuckeyville Estates, Witchduck Road..."

  Sebastian turned away from the radio. He didn't need to wait for their street to be called. He knew they'd be affected.

  He reached for his clothes. Lily stood by the kitchen, heartbreakingly beautiful with wet hair and wide eyes, wrapped only in a blanket. It hurt to leave her, but with the substation gone, their heat situation could get iffy. They wouldn't get electricity back for a long time.

  "I'm going to get more wood." He put on his pants. "Can you hand me a t-shirt?"

  She went to the bedroom and came back with a piece of clothing. It was bright yellow and bore the legend "Franco Pizza - The Best Pie in Town."

  "Well, that's a blast from the past," he said, taking the shirt from her. It was old and soft, with faded letters. It was also the tackiest, most ridiculous piece of clothing he owned. Good thing Zach had taken over the family business and rebranded it. It sorely needed it

  She watched him get dressed, a disappointed expression on her face.

  "I'll be back soon," he reassured her. "Keep the radio on and check for updates."

  She made a face. "WPRV updates?"

  He laughed. "I know, they don't sound like they'd be a competent emergency system." He pulled on his socks. "But they're actually quite good in a crisis, if a bit dramatic. It must be all that zombie apocalypse prep stuff they do."

  He grabbed his boots and sat on the sofa.

  "Fine, but if they start talking about how the devil monkey blew up the substation, I'm turning it off."

  "First." He pulled on a boot. "The devil monkey doesn't exist. Second, even if it existed," he pulled on the other boot, "it would need an Uzi to blow up the substation."

  He stood up and kissed her. Her mouth opened greedily and the blanket opened in silent invitation.

  Uh, maybe they didn't need the extra wood after all. Her arms wrapped around him, bare breasts pressed to his chest and the blanket fell to the floor.

  They were already snowed in and the woodpile was a couple of meters away. He could walk there anytime. Anyway, he had a pair of emergency snowshoes in here somewhere.

  He pressed Lily to him and deepened the kiss. Her hands dug into his hair, pulling him closer.

  The lights in the cabin flickered, then died.

  She pulled away, blinking. "What?"

  "It's the generator," he said, frowning. "Probably needs to be pumped out. I'll go restart it. I should've checked it earlier but I was..." He cast a glance at her temptingly naked body.

  Lily picked up the blanket and wrapped it around herself. "The generator is like a car engine, right?"

  "Don't start," he warned as he shrugged on his coat. The last thing he needed was a lecture on their mythical devil monkey colony and its unnatural love for warm engines.

  "Maybe you shouldn't go right now." She hugged the blanket tightly around her shoulders. "Wait until tomorrow."

  "You mean until the mythical monsters disappear." He kissed her lightly on the forehead, already missing her embrace. "Don't be silly. I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

  Lily looked at him with wide, liquid eyes, making him feel rather like a Spartan, running off to fight Xerxes' army.

  "Don't worry, Lil." He opened the door letting in a blast of frigid air. "If I see a small furry creature with blood dripping from its fangs, I'll tell it you said hi."

  A small, tasseled pillow flew through the air. He ducked, narrowly avoiding the missile, and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. He scanned the yard. Snow fell relentlessly on the ground, and the woodpile was now covered in several inches of the white stuff. Getting the wood would be a giant pain in the ass.

  But, first things first, time to fix the generator.

  He walked toward the shed, legs sinking knee-deep in the snow. Oh, yeah, carrying wood through this crap was not going to be fun.

  He was pulling open the door to the shed when he heard a familiar trill, the opening bars to "Wayward Son." He pulled out his phone with a sigh.

  He'd ignored his agent's calls, his publicist's e-mails, and Ariel's various texts. Hell, he hadn't even returned his mom's calls. He wanted to switch off the ringer and ignore this one as well.

  But he couldn't.

  This was Zach's ringtone and Zach's calls frequently involved emergency room visits or bail money. One simply didn't ignore a Zach Franco phone call. It would be like trying to ignore Armageddon.

  He picked up the phone.

  "You waxed everywhere?" His brother's lighthearted tone reassured him. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to snowshoe his way to the police station tonight.

  "I don't want to hear about it." Sebastain made a quick calculation. "Wait. You saw the movie? How?" His brain, taking into consideration Zach's natural talent for stupid stunts, came up with several nightmare scenarios. "Did you go out in the snowstorm?"

  "I wish," Zach said, profound longing in his voice. "I hear Caine and the
guys are having a great time chasing mutant raccoons. But no, I'm at Mom's, she had trouble lighting up the furnace. But, thanks to the internet, I got to enjoy the sight of your denuded privates. Well, maybe enjoy is not the right word. In any case, congrats, your wax job is trending on Twitter."

  "Shut it, infant. Is Mom okay?" Sebastian fought down a twinge of guilt. But, dammit, he deserved a break and it was about time Zach shouldered some responsibility.

  "Oh, yeah, the parents are fine." Zach paused. "You're the one who's not fine. Ariel's having an affair? Why didn't you say anything?"

  So the pictures were out. "How bad is it?"

  "A photographer took a couple of pictures from behind a tree."

  "Yeah, that's what I was I told." That didn't sound so bad. Maybe the situation wasn't as dire as his publicist had warned.

  "But that's not all. The magazine also hacked into Ariel's phone and published her personal pictures and a bunch of smartphone videos. The stuff is everywhere and one of the videos appears to be an extremely boring amateur porn movie."

  "Well, that's just lovely." No wonder he had so many texts from Ariel. She must be frantic. Her paparazzi friends had betrayed her. She'd banked on a couple of leaked pics and got something far more serious instead. Thankfully, he'd never indulged Ariel's taste for sex recordings and naked selfies. But how did Zach know that Ariel's sex tape was boring? No, on second thought, he really didn't want to know the answer to that question.

  "And, um, you don't seem to be the guy in the movie."

  "I'm not," Sebastian confirmed, carefully avoiding asking how his brother knew that information.

  A long, awkward silence ensued.

  "Aw, man." Zach paused, as if searching for something to say. "At least you found out about the infidelity before you married her."

  Sebastian smiled, if a bit tightly. Zach would find a silver lining, wouldn't he? His family had disliked Ariel mightily. He had accepted it, after all, his family had not changed much and their lives still revolved around their small town and the family pizzeria. Sebastian's Hollywood life was very different, and Ariel had been part of that Hollywood life.

  But now Hollywood seemed very far away. He knew he should care about the pictures, the video, the scandal and the effect on his career, but, frankly, he just didn't care much anymore.

  Right now he cared about pumping the generator, bringing wood into the cabin, and making love to Lily in front of the fireplace.

  "How's mom taking it?" he asked.

  "She wants to kill Ariel, of course. But I think she's relieved it's not your naked ass all over the internet."

  He smiled. Score one for Lily Holroyd.

  "She hasn't seen your depilated ass yet, though," Zach mused.

  "Yeah, and I have my way, she never will."

  They both laughed, but Sebastian wasn't kidding. The special effects team had reassured him that there was enough explicit disembowelments and graphic beheadings to keep his mom far away from this movie.

  "So, um, are you sure you want to be alone?" Zach asked quietly. "I can't get there in the snow, but I think Caine and the gang are near the lake searching for..."

  "I don't need company," Sebastian interrupted. The last thing he wanted was the local paranormal posse turning his cabin into the headquarters for their devil monkey expedition. "I'm okay, really."

  And he was. It had only now hit the news and his brother had only just heard about it. But Sebastian had had several months to get over Ariel's betrayal.

  He was done.

  "Fine," Zach sighed. "I'll give you your space. But if you don't come down by Friday, I'll go up there and drag you back home."

  "Try it, infant," Sebastian growled into the phone. "I have some new moves I'd like to try out."

  Zach laughed and hung up.

  Sebastian put the phone back in his pocket and headed toward the generator. The past is the past. A lo hecho, pecho.

  Time to move forward.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  "IT DOESN'T need an Uzi. All it has to do is pull two cables and touch them to each other. Kaboom!"

  Lily rolled her eyes at the radio caller. She stood in the cabin's living room, fiddling with the radio. She was dressed in too-big sweatpants and one of Sebastian's undershirts. The shirt was silky soft and it sported a label from one of Manhattan's most exclusive stores. Was there such a thing as luxury tank tops? Apparently so, at least in L.A.

  "Whoa," the deejay interrupted her caller's vivid reenactment of the results of devil monkey sabotage. "Stop it right there. You know Fire & Rescue doesn't like it when we talk about explosions."

  "Aw, man."

  "No explosions," the deejay repeated loudly. "It's all fun and games until the station gets slapped with a hefty fine. And where were you guys during last year's Time-To-Pay-Our-Fines fund drive? Nowhere. And speaking of paying up, the end of the month is coming up and so are our bills, so let's go to a commercial break."

  No substation update, then. She looked around, trying to think of something to do. If Sebastian were here, they could do interesting things under the blankets. Where was he?

  How long does it take to pump a generator? Five minutes? An hour?

  Might as well do something useful. She picked up a full grocery tote bag that had been left, forgotten, in the corner. The thing was bright orange with a large red logo that read "K Faust Personal Training - Radical Results" and it weighed a ton. What did Sebastian have in here, dumbbells?

  She set the bag on the counter. It was full of boxes with strange labels, protein whatnots and nutritional whatsits. The fishy pasta seemed rather pedestrian in comparison. What the heck was the dehydrated egg protein for?

  An orange binder sat at the bottom of the bag. She opened it and leafed through reams of medical data—blood tests, stress tests, oxygen tests—until she got to the workout.

  Whoa. She stared at the pictures in disbelief. Some of the poses seemed physically impossible. Surely human legs couldn't bend like that. And Bastian had to do this every day?

  She reached for a brownie and took a big bite. Hollywood glamour was highly overrated.

  "And we're back," The deejay said. "Back to not discussing explosions, kablooies, boom-booms or any other form of bang. Let's turn to safer topics. How about some juicy gossip? It appears Banshee Creek' own Sebastian Franco is single again. Yes, ladies, Ariel Henderson is having a torrid affair with her movie director, which means her wedding to our local heartthrob is off."

  Lily swallowed her brownie quickly. The pictures were out already? She had to tell Sebastian. She searched for her boots and spied a furry pom-pom under a side table. Bingo.

  "Or is it?" the deejay purred into her microphone.

  Lily stopped midstride.

  "Sources close to the faithless actress tell the tabloids that they expect a quick reconciliation."

  Lily's frowned at the radio. "Sources" indeed. She knew enough about Hollywood to know those "sources" were Ariel and her publicist.

  "The actress' friends claim that, quote, 'Sebastian knows Ariel made a mistake. His pride is hurt, but he loves her and he knows that she's the one. He misses her and will do anything to get her back.' End of quote. So what do you think, guys? Will our God of War be in a forgiving mood? I don't know. He didn't seem like the forgiving type when he was eviscerating those titans."

  Lily grabbed her boots and sat on the sofa. Was that possible? Could Ariel and Sebastian reconcile? An image popped into her head, Ariel and Sebastian cuddling on a yacht during a Mediterranean vacation. Other images followed, Ariel and Sebastian holding hands in Tuscany, Ariel and Sebastian shopping at Harrods. The torturous slide show went on and on.

  The door opened and a snow-covered Sebastian walked in, carrying a stack of wood. He dropped the logs next to the fireplace and turned to her. His gaze fell on her furry boots and his eyes narrowed.

  "No." He shook his head. "Just no. In fact, give those to me. I'll leave them outside and see if the devil monkey eats th
em, or maybe makes sweet, tender love to them all night long. I don't care, you're not putting those boots on."

  He was heartbreakingly handsome, in his rumpled clothes, his hair turning into curls, as it did whenever it got wet. The Franco Pizza shirt was a stark contrast to the designer jeans and couture coat.

  She dropped the boots back on the floor and stood up, walking over to the fireplace.

  "The pictures are on the Internet," she said quietly.

  "I know," Sebastian said. "Zach called me. They must be really something because he was shocked and it takes a lot to shock Zach. But how did you..."

  He glanced at the radio and understanding dawning.

  "I take it WPRV mentioned them." His voice was flat. "I'm actually a bit surprised. I wouldn't have expected them to have a gossip segment regarding such mundane creatures as Hollywood celebrities."

  "They don't. It was an impromptu attempt to avoid an in-depth discussion of devil monkey-assisted explosions."

  "Well, I bet it changed the subject."

  "It did. Ariel must be really upset." She watched for his reaction, but Sebastian only shrugged. How strange. He didn't seem angry or upset. Delayed reaction? Or maybe he really was over Ariel.

  "Not my problem. Not anymore," he said, adding a couple of logs to the fire. "I only have one problem right now and that is getting us enough wood to tide us over until dawn." He smiled at her wolfishly. "And then, I get to take all your clothes off and spread you in front of the fire."

  She almost sighed with relief. This was not a man who was pining over his philandering girlfriend.

  It was, however, a man who was serious about having enough wood. Lily smiled at her own infantile joke and waited on the sofa as he made several more trips to the woodpile. Finally, he set the last load on the floor and took off his coat.

  Lily waved at the tottering pile of logs.

  "Think we have enough?"

  "I hope so." He checked the fire, which was still burning merrily, and walked over to the sofa and sat down. "I have big plans for tonight. I'm particularly looking forward to the taking-off-your-clothes part of the program."