She didn't look at Sam but heard the rustle of clothes, then a zip. He picked up the flashlight before he walked over to a metal box in one corner, then immediately after a click the bare light bulb suspended on a wire overhead came on.
Deb stepped into view at the top of the stairs. “Anne?"
"Hi, Deb. The power went out, and my neighbor, Sam, arrived just in time to help out."
Deb started down the steps, then paused about half way down. Anne flushed, aware of the musky scent of sex still suspended in the air. Speculation lit her eyes, and her lips twitched, promising a ribbing later.
"Sam,” Anne said as she turned toward Deb who had reached the bottom of the stairs. “This is Debra Armstrong, my friend."
"The one who was coming to clean?” He extended his hand toward her friend.
"One in the same. Although, it looks as if Anne has most of it finished."
"I can still find a floor or two that needs scrubbing,” Anne returned, starting to feel like her world was returning to normal. “But first why don't we have a mug of coffee and some of the donuts Sam brought over?"
"That would be great,” Deb replied, squinting as she looked past Anne. “Why is that section bricked in?"
Anne turned. “I'm not sure. The real estate agent said that it used to be a cold room, but he wasn't sure why the previous owner had sealed it off."
"Maybe there's a dead body.” Deb's eyes shone with mischief.
"More likely a crack in the foundation,” Sam said. “You should probably take a look just in case it is and so you can have it seen to."
Virginia leaned against the wall and watched as Anne's tawny-skinned friend came down the stairs. She felt stronger than she had in year. Not since randy teens had made love several times in one night on the bare living room a decade ago had she felt this powerful. The force of their explosive climax had fed energy to her, just as Anne's coupling with her sexy neighbor had.
She moved toward the trio, willing them to look toward her resting place, where her murderer had buried her alive. The real fun could only begin once her body, or at least when what was left of her body was found and Anne took possession of the necklace that held her here on the mortal plane.
Instead, the mortals climbed the stairs, their laughter trailing behind them. Frustration nipping at her hopes, Virginia watched them go but didn't go after them.
Soon, she promised, soon....
Chapter Two
"How about if I order pizza for our demolition party,” Deb offered as Anne put their three coffee mugs in the dishwasher a few minutes later.
"Demolition party?” Anne asked as she straightened.
"The brick wall in the basement,” Deb responded. “Don't you want to know what someone hid behind that wall?"
Anne suppressed a smile, suspecting her friend's interest in the basement had a lot more to do with Sam than curiosity about what might have been hidden downstairs.
"There could be a crack in the foundation,” Sam added. “If that's the case, it should be seen to right away."
A tingling slid over Anne's skin. She had an uneasy feeling something important was behind that brick wall, but she wasn't sure what. “Okay, let's get to it."
"I'll get a sledge hammer,” Sam said. “Be right back.” He grinned then strode out the back door with a long legged stride.
Anne watched him disappear, a slow flush creeping along her cheeks. Less than an hour ago, she'd seen them in their muscled glory, had felt the impact of each primitive thrust as he buried himself deep inside her. He was Belgium chocolate for the body, sweet, satisfying and highly addictive.
"Lord, girl, when I came in, you could smell the marvelous, musky scent of sex in the cellar. Girl, I'm proud of you."
Anne looked at Deb, wishing she could suppress the heat spreading across her cheeks. “I can't describe what happened. It was like another woman woke up inside me. One minute we were going downstairs to check the electrical panel, then I tripped, he caught me, and the next thing I knew we were naked and having the best sex I've ever had in my entire life."
"Remind me to take a tumble when we're headed down the stairs. He's such a hottie. I wouldn't mind taking him out for a test ride.” Deb winked. “That is if you don't have any plans for him."
"You are incorrigible!” Anne laughed softly. “And no, I don't mind."
Strange as the thought might seem, what they'd shared had been gratuitous and glorious physical satisfaction—no strings attached—at least for her. For the first time, she understood the difference between having great sex and making love, and she hadn't had either with Mark.
The sound of Sam's footsteps on the back porch brought an end to their conversation. The door swung open, and he strode in. “Ready?"
"For anything,” Anne responded, and she realized that she was. “Let's go and see what's behind that wall."
The trio trooped down the bare wood stairs and within minutes, Sam's sledgehammer had made a small hole in the red brick wall. Muscles bulged with each swing and impact. Her eyes met Deb's, and her friend flashed a grin and waggled her eyebrows. Meanwhile, chunks of the wall crumbled under his assault. Anne and Deb made a pile in the corner while Sam chipped away at the uneven edges of the opening. Once it started to fall apart, it took only minutes before he'd created a hole large enough to look through.
"Where's the flashlight we used this morning?” he asked, placing his hand beside the hole, peering into the darkness.
Anne passed it to him, wondering what they would find. For some reason, she didn't think it would be a crack in the foundation, but where the thought had come from, she wasn't sure.
"Holy shit!” At Sam's vehement exclamation, both women looked at each other.
Anne moved closer. “What is it?"
"A body ... or rather ... what's left of a body."
Anne snatched the flashlight from him and peered through the opening. The pale beam of light traveled down a skeleton curled in a semi-fetal position on the concrete floor. She sucked in a sharp breath, then moved the beam along the length of the remains. Reeling from the sight, she didn't resist when Deb pulled the flashlight from her hand.
"Shit is right!” Deb turned. “I've heard of skeletons in the closet, but walled up in the basement ... that's twisted."
"Whoever it is, they've been here for quite some time judging from the decomposition,” Sam said. He placed his palm on one side of the opening, his gaze fixed on the remains.
At his deep voiced observation, a shudder bumped down Anne's spine as if a cool finger had traced a line down her spine. “I guess we'd better call the police."
Though she couldn't explain why, a part of her hadn't been surprised at the first sight of the skeleton. Instead, an eerie sense of confirmation had claimed her. Inexplicably, a part of her had been expecting to see a body with scraps of fabric and long strands of hair still clinging to the bones, but she wasn't sure where the thought had come from.
She climbed the stairs then gulped in several deep breaths when she reached the top. She moved into the kitchen, picked up the phone, but didn't dial. She sagged against the wall and closed her eyes, the weight of today's events pounding her like a storm-driven tide. She'd thought having sex with Sam would have been hard to top, but it seemed fate was out to prove her wrong.
While they waited for the police to arrive, the trio continued to chip away at the wall. As soon as the hole was large enough, Anne stepped over the small ridge of bricks and into what must have been a storage room. Rough wooden shelves lined three walls, canned goods coated in dust still stood in rows like squat sentinels. There was just enough space for her to walk around the skeletal remains. The white beam of light from the flashlight traveled the length of the body, then snagged on a gold chain on the floor. The gilt, serpentine trail led to a circular gold disc resting on a boney palm. Nausea rose in her stomach at the thought that this person might have been buried alive and endured a lingering and gruesome death. Who could have been so col
d and sick?
"I'm no forensics expert,” Anne answered as she bent down. “But judging from what is left, this person must have been buried decades ago. Probably as long as the place has been vacant."
Almost of its own accord, the flashlight pointed toward the delicately interwoven triangles, a triquetra, engraved on the gold medallion. Anne strained against the impulse to snatch it off the bed of bones but failed. It was as if her hand belonged to someone else. She could only watch as her fingers lifted it from the skeletal hand, then slid it into her pocket. Beads of perspiration formed across her forehead. Removing evidence was wrong, yet the irresistible urge to possess it hadn't given her a choice. She knew that she couldn't let the police take it away, but she didn't know why.
Disturbed by what had happened and the strange compulsion that had gripped her, Anne stood quickly and moved out of the room.
"Are you okay?” Sam curled his hand over her shoulder.
"Not really.” She shook her head, the necklace in her pocket prodding her conscience. “It isn't everyday a person literally finds a skeleton in the closet."
The doorbell rang, and together they went up the stairs. Anne slid her hand in her pocket and pushed the necklace further in, a wave of protectiveness washing over her.
After taking a deep, steadying breath, she opened the front door and welcomed a uniformed officer and his partner. This was going to be a long day.
Chapter Three
Anne leaned against the wall in her foyer and watched the officer open the door. He led the coroner and the forensics team through the house to the basement. Her heart beat double time. What had possessed her? She'd committed a crime—tampering with evidence at a crime scene. The weight of the necklace in her pocket accused her of her deception. Once again, she'd acted out of character, unable to resist a compulsion to act.
She decided to move to the living room to watch the parade of uniformed people troop through her home to the basement. Nearby, Sam and Deb followed into the room, chatting easily. But then Debra usually did when she had a man she wanted in her sites. Sam was definitely worth the effort.
"If you don't need me any longer, officer, I'm going to head out. I have a date,” Sam said when the officer with his stomach dipping slightly over his belt strode into the room.
The police officer paused and looked at him for a couple of seconds before he nodded. “I have your number if I need to ask anything more."
Sam glanced over at Anne and winked. “This certainly has been the most eventful welcome-to-the-neighborhood visit I've ever experienced."
"That's for sure.” At his broad grin, heat swept across Anne's cheeks. Spontaneous, steamy sex with a near stranger and a body behind a bricked wall in her basement—definitely topped the meter for strange. Anne looked at the officer. “I only moved in yesterday."
Unexpectedly, his lips twitched in a half smile. Perhaps there was a sense of humor lurking under his serious look. “After this, unpacking boxes will seem pretty tame."
Anne felt the weight of male appreciation in the detective's gaze and an answering hollow ache deep inside her. What the heck was going on with her? If a chubby man in blue could switch on her libido, she needed to take her temperature. Heck. She probably needed a whole psych evaluation.
"Right now, tame is perfectly fine by me.” She needed time to reflect on everything that had happened today to her and to what they had found.
She stepped back as the mystery victim enclosed in a body bag and riding on a stretcher rolled through the foyer.
"Cause of death?” the detective asked the stocky fellow with coroner stamped in bold letters across his back.
"Best guess ... blunt force trauma ... with lethal force. The skull was fractured and compressed."
Bludgeoned to death. At the thought, Anne shuddered. The blow might have been lethal, but from the way the body was curled on the floor, she had a feeling death hadn't been instantaneous.
Within the hour, the detective and his associates were gone. Anne dropped on the couch.
"What a day!” Anne scrubbed her hand across the back of her neck, easing kinks in her knotted muscles.
"I'm heading out to a friend's cottage tonight for a beach party. Why don't you tag along? After today, you could probably use the distraction.” Deb grinned. “We can even go skinny dipping if you'd like."
Yesterday, heck, even this morning, she probably would have passed, but now, the invitation tempted her. “When?"
Perfectly sculpted brows arched in surprise, then Deb grinned. “Now. Go put on your swimsuit. We'll grab a bite to eat on the way."
The journey to their destination lasted only thirty minutes, but it had felt much longer to Anne who was caught in a twilight zone of disbelief as much from her own uncharacteristic behavior as from finding the body in her home.
Anne slid the gold charm back and forth on the chain as Deb pulled to a spot behind a trio of vehicles on the side of a wooded lane.
"Time to party!” Deb twisted in her seat and pulled a canvas bag from the back seat.
Caught in a jumble of conflicting emotions, Anne grasped the handle of her own bag and then opened the car door. She climbed out of the car, then followed Deb down the hard-packed dirt lane beside the line of cars.
Deb turned and said, “Mike and his significant other built this place about a year ago. I've been down a couple of times this summer. It's amazing."
Anne had heard about their parties—food, fun, and sex—no drugs allowed. Still, second thoughts dogged her steps. “Deb, I..."
Curls bounced as her friend stopped and swung around to face her. “Second thoughts?"
"Third, fourth and fifth.” She hitched the straps of her bag higher on her shoulder. “Sometimes it feels as if...” How could she describe the uncharacteristic lack of inhibitions that welled up inside her? “I'm starting to feel like two women. This morning with Sam, a part of me couldn't believe what was happening, and yet, I didn't want to ... I couldn't stop."
"Hallelujah!” Deb looped her arm around Anne's. “Sometimes you think too hard. Maybe it's a sexual awakening ... you just needed a kiss from the right prince or several princes to let go and live a bit."
"Ditto to that thought,” Virginia added, liking Anne's friend more and more. Between the two of them, they should be able to help Anne loosen up and sample some of life's best delicacies—men.
The burst of energy generated by her steamy union with the Viking wannabe had given off enough energy so that she'd been able to force Anne to take the necklace before it was confiscated by the hunky police officer. She couldn't allow the necklace to fall into his possession. It was her anchor to this dimension, and if it had been locked away in a box in an evidence locker, any chance of bringing her murderer to justice would have vanished along with her chance of passing over.
Another good lay should generate enough energy for me to make an appearance. Inside, she grinned. “Let's find a nice, delicious hunk to expand your horizons, Annie, my girl,” she murmured. “And help me make an appearance."
As Anne emerged from the bedroom where she'd taken off her street clothes to reveal a one-piece swimsuit. She scanned the people milling about the large gathering room. She felt over-dressed, even prudish. Most of the women wore triangular pieces of spandex that barely covered their pointed nipples and pubic triangles.
"Anne? This is a surprise."
"Jason,” she replied without turning around. Her heart sank to the hardwood floor beneath her bare feet as she turned slowly to face the man who'd offered the familiar deep-voiced greeting. She came face to face with Jason MacIsaac who was a friend of Mark's. Why did he have to be here? His distance and unnerving stares had always made her uncomfortable.
"And to think I almost didn't come,” he said.
Wishing he hadn't, Anne lifted her gaze to meet his. Instead of the scorn or derision she'd expected to find, frank and totally male admiration warmed his deep brown eyes. “Aren't you glad you changed your mind?"
>
The flirtatious words had slipped through her lips as if someone else had placed them on the tip of her tongue. Heat burned its way across her face as she watched as his dark, straight eyebrows lifted in surprise, and dimples creased his cheeks at the corners of his mouth.
"I certainly am,” he returned, laugh lines fanning out from the corners of his eyes. “I always regretted that Mark saw you first."
"What?” She pulled in a sharp breath, stunned as much by his warm smile as his statement. Never had she suspected anything lurked behind his neutral gaze other than a calculator planning his next financial venture. “I never knew."
"You weren't supposed to. Mark was one of my best friends. I wasn't about to poach in his territory, but I wanted to pump air and pound the shit out of him all at the same time for being such a jerk and then ending it with you."
Surprise startled a soft laughter through her lips. The knots of tension his appearance prompted started to ease. This man was both foreign and familiar all at the same time. Assumptions she'd made about him started to melt under the heat simmering in his gaze.
He stepped closer and cupped her elbow with his hand. “Let's get a drink and catch up."
"That would be nice,” she returned, actually meaning the words and not just offering a platitude. The dismay she'd felt at his appearance was quickly dissipating. Though she still wasn't used to a Jason who openly expressed his desire for her, he was familiar enough so that his presence felt like an anchor in a sea of uncertainty. The events of the day had turned her life upside down, and she was still off balance and not quite comfortable in her new skin, but at least Jason was familiar even though it was the first time she'd seen behind his reserve.
She snuck a glance at her companion as they moved between chatting couples in the great room as they made their way toward the kitchen. Her gaze drifted from his lips to his chest. Whorls of light brown hair followed the muscular definition of his pecs then narrowed as it followed a tempting trail to the waist of his very brief swimsuit. She'd always admired Jason's classic good looks. Admired them? She nearly snorted aloud. Jason surpassed good looking by miles. If sex appeal could become incarnate, it would be him. Only his chilly demeanor had made her keep her distance.
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