"I beg your pardon?” Clay asked.
"I was talking to Virginia. She wants to speak to you directly. Just take a hold of the chain and you'll be able to see her.” Anne held the necklace out toward him.
"I don't know what sick game you're playing, but it stops now. It's time for you to leave.” Beautifully sculpted lips pressed together in a straight, unyielding line.
"No way!” Virginia answered even though he couldn't here hear. “Annie you have to let me talk to him through you. Just relax, let me slip inside you, and I'll do the rest."
Anne looked at Virginia's glistening outline, tiny dots of light bursting all over her vaporous body, indicating her agitated state of mind. She nodded, not sure how Virginia would accomplish this, but willing to let her try.
Virginia slid into Anne's body. She lifted Annie's hands and wiggled her fingers. It was strange to be back in a body. It wasn't quite as comfortable as being in her own, but it felt good just the same. She scowled, or tried to. It had been a while since she'd had to manipulate so many muscles at once. “Clay Zachariah Montgomery, you are going to listen to me."
"Young woman, that's enough.” His finger hovered over the button of the intercom on his desk. “If you don't leave right now, I'll have my security remove you."
"I'm not leaving until you listen to me, Clay. It's really me, Virginia.” She knew if he called his security, they might not get another chance to talk to him. “Annie has let me borrow her body for a few minutes, so I can speak with you directly."
He punched the button and told his security to come in.
"You have a tattoo on your penis."
He paused. The door swung open. She had caught his interest she just had to keep it—to prove that she, not Annie, was talking to him before he had his man throw her out.
"That's common knowledge.” He looked at the man entering the room. “Miss Kemper is ready to leave. See her to her car."
"Maybe it is common knowledge, but I doubt the reason they are there is.” Virginia leaned forward in the chair. “It was a dare. You won.” Her challenge to have entwined hearts on his organ had been her response to his marriage proposal. “I agreed to marry you if you had two hearts tattooed on your cock ... on the right hand side."
His head snapped around, and his gaze narrowed on her. “Philip, give me a few minutes and make sure that we're not interrupted."
The suited muscular man nodded and then moved toward the door. He cast a glance in her direction before he left the room.
As soon as the door closed, Clay rose out of his chair and moved around his desk. “Miss Kemper, I don't know how you found that out, but I'm going to."
"Clay, you won the challenge. In fact, I was humbled when I saw the hearts.” She grinned. “And it took a lot to humble me back then."
Clay studied her. Then, as if he couldn't stay still, he pushed out of his chair and walked around the desk, his eyes boring into hers. A deep crease formed between his dark, straight brows. He hitched onto the desk. “My gut is telling me I'm talking to Virginia, but my eyes are seeing Anne Kemper."
"Trust your gut. You did win that night, Clay.” At the guarded look spreading across his face, her heart contracted in pain. The more he controlled his expression, the more deeply he was affected. “I left the club and drove straight home that night ... the night you showed me your tattoo ... all I wanted to do was pack a few clothes, then drag you to the justice of the peace. I didn't know it at the time, but someone was waiting for me. They hit me with something hard, crushing my skull, then they buried my body in the basement."
"Then, how was it, a week after you walked out on me, I received a letter from London telling me that you'd changed your mind?"
"I didn't write it.” Virginia got out of the chair, immediately reaching for the desk to steady herself. This body might fit like a glove, but it would take a little getting used to balancing again. She hadn't moved in physical form in thirty years. “I loved you. I still do, and I always will.” She could see the struggle sliding into his gaze. Part of him believed her, but he was still looking into Anne's eyes. “You still aren't sure it's me, are you?"
He shook his head.
"I was always better with actions than with words. Let me show you what I did the day you showed me the tattoo.” She dropped to her knees in front of him. “The furniture wasn't as fancy that night. You'd just opened the club.” Mentally apologizing to Anne for what she was about to do, she pushed open his suit jacket, reached for the fly of his pants, then slid the zipper down. She didn't have a choice. Making sure he learned the truth was just as important, perhaps even more important, to her as finding out who murdered her. “You tried to look casual when you said that I'd have to marry you and you had the license. I said you'd have to prove it, and I took matters into my own hands ... literally.” Virginia smiled slowly remembering those precious moments. That night, she'd actually fractured Clay's formidable self-control.
"Look, Miss Kemper, I don't know how you know this, but I think it's best if you leave.” Clay was retreating. Strong emotion was about the only thing that made him truly afraid enough to bolt. If he accepted she was Virginia, he would also have to accept the woman he'd loved, then no doubt hated, hadn't betrayed him, but had been brutally murdered.
"Like I said, Annie has stepped out for a few minutes, so that we could talk. Let me show you what I did that night.” She parted the fly opening and drew his partially aroused penis out of his silky, black boxers. She felt Annie's body respond. Clay had aged well. His body had lost the leanness of the late twenties, but he was still a virile, attractive man. The wings of silver in his wavy hair only made him more striking.
The moisture collecting at her labial lips, and the ache of need blossoming in her pussy was real, and she savored the sensual sensations. Time had dulled the memory of how an arousal moved through a body, the hunger weighing her breast, and her heart beat thrumming out an accelerated beat in the swollen lips of her sex. Thirty years was a long time to wait for satisfaction, but she would have Clay one last time.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Miss Kemper ... Virginia ... stop.” Tension tightened his voice. “Now!"
"Not on your life, Clay. Not until you're convinced, it's really me.” She curled her hand around his organ. “No one else would know that the last time we would be together, I pumped you until you were hard.” She grinned. “So hard, in fact, that I could easily see the hearts on the side of your rod."
She slid her hand up and down his penis. It grew rigid under the firm strokes, the little hearts became visible. She bit her lip. This moment by moment recounting of the evening was bringing back memories and feelings that were ripping her apart, but she had to continue. “I kissed both hearts, licked a drop of pre-cum from the tip of your cock.” As if on cue, a clear bead of pre-cum formed at the slit of his swollen organ. Virginia slid the top of her tongue across the purplish head, catching the salty drop, and earning a smothered groan. “I pushed you backward on the desk. You didn't put up much of a struggle if I remember correctly.” She remembered how in that moment his guard dropped, and he had grinned, his sky blue eyes sparkling with merriment. For the first time, he had allowed himself to believe that someone loved him and to let her know that he loved her. His vulnerability had only made her love him more.
"Virginia?” he whispered. He gasped when she ran her fingertip along the slit, dipping into the opening.
"Yes, in spirit, if not in my own flesh.” Another clear drop of fluid leaked from the slit, and she curled her hands around the rigid pole that was warm and soft, and yet still hard. Virginia flicked her tongue across the top and he twitched in her hand. I milked you with my mouth until you begged for mercy, then rode you until you came. It was the best...” Virginia swallowed the knot of emotion caught in her throat. Hot tears blurred her vision. “And the last sex I ever had."
Her hands went to his belt buckle. Impatiently, she undid it then pushed his trousers off his hips. He lifted his b
ody enough so that she could push them the rest of the way down his legs. “This can't be happening,” he murmured.
"Clay, just trust your instincts and close your eyes.” Virginia curled her hands around his shoulders and pushed him backward until he rested on his elbows. She climbed onto the desk, straddling him, stroking his shaft with her body, slick, wet folds curling about him. “I tormented you for a while,” she said, then took the head into the, lubricated vaginal opening, enclosing the head in her warmth. “Taking you an inch at a time, until you got impatient.” She edged a little further down his shaft, barely able to stop from sliding over him until their bodies met.
"And I grasped your waist and ended the torment.” Just as he had three decades ago, he grasped her waist, forcing her down, impaling her on his pole until their bodies met and his shaft was completely hidden inside her. Anne's golden pubic hair blended with his dark curls.
She gasped at the wave of sensation that rippled through her sex. She had forgotten how incredible the waves of reaction coursing through her body could be. She lifted her hips then dropped, gripping him with intimate muscles.
He gasped. “God Virginia, are you trying to kill me?"
At his strangled exclamation, tears slid off her lashes. “Just trying to show you how much I love you."
The same dialogue they had exchanged that night thirty years ago. The sob that burst through her lips was a mixture of pain and ecstasy. Her heart was breaking while the barrel of her vagina rippled in response to his thrusts. The tables had turned, and she was tumbling under his control.
Tears streaming from her eyes, she rode the wave each thrust sent rushing through her body. Each one carried her higher until a climax exploded through her body, and she felt herself being expelled from Anne's body.
"No!” she wailed, but it was too late. The powerful climax had shattered the fragile link anchoring her in Anne's body.
Anne returned to consciousness with a jolt. She was straddling Clay, impaled on his shaft with her face wet from tears. Aftershocks of pleasure from a shattering climax rippled through her feminine core. His eyes were closed as he thrust and a cry of release burst from his lips.
Anne couldn't believe what had happened in the brief time she'd been out of touch with her body. She'd been in her body, and yet unaware of what Virginia had said and done. “Virginia, I said you could use my body to talk to him, not let him use my body,” she growled.
"Sometimes actions speak louder than words. Besides, I was using his body."
"A technicality."
"She's gone, isn't she?” Clay murmured, his voice husky, tinged by the sex they'd shared.
"She's in the room, just not in residence.” Anne looked into Clay Montgomery's incredible blue eyes then bit the inside of her lip. There wasn't any graceful way to dismount or to diffuse the uncomfortable silence filling the air between them. “I ... I..."
Large hands closed around her waist and lifted her off his body. “There's a bathroom through there.” He pointed to a door. “Why don't you freshen up, then we'll talk."
"Thanks, I think I will,” she said then walked straight toward the door. She stalled in the doorway. It was the most luxurious bathroom she'd ever seen. Gold trim, ceramic tile, and crystal clear glass doors on a large shower stall.
Anne slipped inside then closed the door. She sagged back against the door, and when Virginia took form in front of her, she muttered. “Virginia, you owe me big time!"
Shimmering hands lifted in a gesture of surrender. “I do ... I do ... and I promise I'll make it up to you, but there wasn't any other way to convince him."
"Yeah, right, and I'm Bugs Bunny.” Anne filled the sink with warm water, then splashed some warm water on her face before she used a plush facecloth to removed the sticky residue left from their sex she'd, no Virginia'd, had with Clay. Mentally, she apologized to Jason. They might not officially be a couple yet, but her heart had already started to bond with him in ways it never had with Mark.
"Okay, so I might have taken advantage of the situation a teensy bit, but...” The mist enclosing her turned lavender. “Annie, I love Clay more than I thought I could ever love another living being. I think you might have done the same thing if our positions were reversed."
Anne folded the facecloth and placed it on the edge of the sink then pulled the plug. “I might have.” She thought about Jason. The feelings she had for him were jumbled, but one thing she knew for sure was that if he left, he'd leave an even bigger wound in her heart and life than Mark had or ever could—a wound that would take a lifetime to heal. “But that's a moot point. What we have to do is see if Clay can think of anything that might help us."
Facing Clay again was easier than Anne expected it to be. With his suit straightened and seated behind his desk, she could almost believe what had happened was only a dream, but the faint musky scent of sex lingering in the room declared that it wasn't a dream.
"So, Virginia is here?"
Anne nodded, looking toward the corner of the desk where Virginia was sitting cross-legged. “She appeared once I put on the necklace.” She deliberately omitted the part about having sex to help make her appear.
Virginia leaned forward, then reached out and raked her fingers through his hair. He started, then smoothed his hands over his head.
"You might not be able to see her, but she's letting you know she's still here.” Anne offered a half smile.
When Virginia's hand drifted lower, toward his crotch, Anne scolded, “Not now, Virginia, we have to figure out who might have wanted to hurt you, and that's not going to happen if you distract him."
"Party pooper.” A ghostly hand skimmed over his crotch then she pulled back.
A ruddy flush stained his cheeks, then a wry grin turned up the corners of his lips. “She hasn't changed much."
"Mr. Montgomery—"
"Clay, please. I think we're way beyond formalities."
"True.” Now, it was Anne's turn to feel color wash across her face. She cleared her throat. She lifted the chain over her head and held it out toward him. “If you link your hand in the chain of the necklace you should be able to see her. It's worked before."
Clay didn't hesitate. He hooked his first two fingers into the chain.
Virginia lifted one of her hands and wiggled her fingers, glowing lavender for a few seconds. “Hi, Clay."
His gaze sobered. “Virginia."
The husky, murmured word brought tears to Anne's eyes. His love and pain was wrapped up in a few short syllables. The look in his eyes was the same one Jason had when he looked at her. The revelation stole her breath.
"We've been trying to figure out who might have wanted to kill me, Virginia said. “I know I had my share of friends and enemies, but I can't imagine anyone who would want to kill me."
He rocked back in his seat. “You're right."
Virginia turned toward Anne with a smug grin on her face. “Told you so."
There was a knock on the door.
Clay got up from his seat and opened the door. “Jason, come in."
Anne looked at Jason as he strode into the office, his square stubborn jaw and the love in his eyes, and suddenly she knew exactly how Virginia must have felt given the opportunity to have sex again with Clay ... even to touch him again. In a short march of days, her heart had wrapped itself around him without a hope of ever returning to her.
Jason curled his hand around the side of her neck and pressed his lips to her temple before he eased into the chair beside hers. She curled her hand over his. Every time they were together, he surprised her. His open gestures of affection still conflicted with the controlled man she'd first met. His gaze met hers and he smiled.
A guilty flush crept up her cheeks even though logically she knew she had nothing to feel guilty about. The intimacy her body had shared with Clay had nothing to do with her.
"Is something wrong?"
"Let's just say Virginia created a bit of a distraction,” Clay answered for her,
the humor in his eyes the only hint of emotion in his otherwise neutral expression.
Virginia waved her hand in front of Anne's face. “Hello! How about seeing if we can do a three way connection?"
"Virginia wants us to see if we can all see her."
Jason leaned forward and hooked a couple fingers in the chain of the necklace.
"Well?” Virginia demanded.
In unison, the trio turned toward her.
She grinned. “Guess it worked."
"Guess it did, though if someone had told me I'd be talking to a specter today, I'd have banned them from the club—forever."
Anne straightened in her chair. “I guess the next question would be: who could have gained from her death?"
A crevice formed between straight, dark brows as Clay shook his head. “I think the question should be who would gain from her disappearance. Whoever killed her deliberately covered up her death."
Virginia settled on the corner of the desk, her forehead wrinkling in a frown. “I can't imagine who could benefit from my disappearance."
"I can,” Clay said quietly.
The icy menace in his voice and hard glint in his eyes sent a chill down Anne's spine.
"Who?” Anne asked.
"Michael Williams."
"Mikey? He's harmless.” Virginia whipped her head around toward Clay. “You can't be serious."
"Deadly.” Clay looked from Anne and Jason to Virginia. “Who has control of your trust fund?"
"Mike."
"In the event of your death, who would inherit your trust fund?"
"You would."
"What?” Clay bolted upright in his seat.
"I changed my will a couple of days before I died. The day you proposed."
The chain slipped through his fingers, then he grasped it again. “Who knew about the change in your will?"
"Only Mike. He drew up the will.” Virginia slid off the desk and started to pace. “Clay, I just can't believe he'd hurt me. We'd been lovers off and on for years ... until I met you."
Anne mentally sided with Clay but decided to withhold comment until she'd met the man. Greed was a powerful motivator. “Perhaps I should pay him a visit."
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