Haunted

by Merrill, R. L.

  He smiled with his eyes closed and rolled over on his back to stretch. The sheet slid down to reveal the waistband of his jeans. The top button was undone.

  “Did you sleep ok," I asked a little nervously.

  He nodded and opened an eye again. “I did. How about you?”

  I nodded and smiled at him. Suddenly, I realized I hadn’t brushed my teeth, my hair was probably a mess, and I hadn’t put on a sports bra last night under my thin white t-shirt. I scrambled back off the bed.

  Devon sat up quickly, looking worried. “What’s wrong?”

  I covered my chest. “Uh, I need a minute.”

  His eyes got big and then he smiled and sat back. I hurried into the bathroom.

  “No fair, I haven’t brushed either,” he called out as I closed the door. The door to the adjoining room was closed but I heard voices coming from there. Just what had Sherry been up to last night?

  I had just pulled on a sports bra and was pulling my t-shirt over my head when Devon walked in. He smiled slyly at me and walked over to his cabinet. He pulled out his toothbrush and toothpaste and then motioned me over to the sink. I held out my toothbrush to him and he pasted it for me. We stood side by side brushing and watching each other in the mirror. He spit first, leaning down to catch a mouthful of water from the faucet. He stood, gargled then spit it back out. He smirked before grabbing for a towel. There was no dignified way to do this so I went for the spit and rinse and then snagged his towel from him. I wiped my face and went to climb back in bed.

  Devon followed me, crawling under the covers. We were still staring at each other like we did last night.

  “I should probably go help Star get breakfast ready.” I so didn’t want to get up, but the shoulds were getting to me. I should get out of this bed before I...

  “Don’t get up.” He gave me a small smile. “Stay.” He snuggled down further under the covers. I did the same. He pulled the covers over our heads.

  “So how long are we going to hide under here,” I asked with a giggle.

  He smiled back, but his eyes were still wary. “As long as it takes,” he said in that husky voice.

  I looked at him questioningly. “For what?”

  He smiled that devastating smile. “As long as it takes for you to talk to me.”

  I raised my eyebrow at him. “About what?”

  His smile never faltered. “Everything. About you. About your drawings. About us.”

  “Where do you want me to start?”

  He reached out and pulled me to him. I instantly curved into his body. We fit really well together. The last thing I wanted to do was talk with him this close, but I was the one who set the rules and I couldn’t expect him to respect them if I didn’t.

  “How about you start with you? Tell me about you. If I needed to know one thing about you, what would it be?”

  “Wow, start with the heavy ones, geesh!”

  He squeezed me tighter and kissed my hair. “Not heavy, it can be anything you want.”

  I blew my bangs out of my face and he groaned. “You’re killing me. Do you have any idea how adorable that is?”

  I blushed. “I can’t help it, you get me flustered! And who are you to talk? When you get frustrated you put your hands on your hips and it, um, accentuates things. That does things to me, too.” I couldn’t believe I said that out loud but since we were making confessions...

  “What kind of things?” He narrowed his eyes and that damn bottom lip of his poked out. I rolled my eyes at him.

  “Do I have to spell it out?”

  He rubbed at his soul patch, something else that drove me nuts.

  “That doesn’t help either.

  “What?” His innocence was too much.

  “What do you mean, ‘what’? You! All of you! Don’t play innocent with me! I’ve heard the stories, I know you’ve had women chasing you your whole life. I can see why they would.” He seemed surprised by that.

  “I don’t know what you’ve heard. I never had girls after me. I was really nerdy in high school. I wasn’t a jock. I didn’t go out much. I was either working at the restaurant, working on my car, or playing music with these guys.”

  “What about in college?”

  He frowned. “I went out, but never more than a couple of dates. Then I came home.”

  “So no girlfriends? Just a few dates? That had to be lonely.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t lonely. I never really got lonely until I went to L.A. There I was always surrounded by people, but they were all so empty.”

  “That sounds unpleasant. How were you able to write music in that environment?”

  He pulled at his soul patch again and I bit my lip to keep from groaning. Thankfully, he was thinking and didn’t see my struggle.

  “I had a lot of time to write, it was my only outlet. The only people I talked with much were Maggie and Marcus, maybe the other guys. I was lonely and that came out in my music. I was also angry about how things were going. I never bought into the scene there. I started drinking, I guess, to kind of turn it off when I was with others. If I wasn’t drinking, they would bug me until I did. If I did drink, I didn’t have to talk to anyone and most of the time they would leave me alone.”

  Sadness seeped into our little sheet fort and I wanted to chase it away. He apparently did, too, because he turned the tables on me then.

  “You succeeded in changing the subject, Miss Charles, but I’m not letting you off that easy. Not until you tell me about you. What were you like in high school?”

  I snorted. “VERY nerdy! I’m sure my nerdiness was nerdier than yours. I hung out with the art kids and the emo kids. When I say hung out, I mean I had friends at school, but I didn’t go out. I went to the movies, but that was by myself. I loved to go hide out in the theater and get lost. I probably went at least once every weekend. Sometimes I’d sneak from picture to picture just so I wouldn’t have to go home.”

  He chuckled. “I did that once, I saw three movies in one day before they caught me and kicked me out.”

  I looked up at him and grinned. I felt a new kind of bond growing between us. It wasn't just about his grief anymore. We were relating to each other on a different level. I curled up into his chest so I could hear his heartbeat. I needed to know this was real.

  “Anyway, I made sure I had dates to the major dances. My art friends were capable of dressing up every once in a while. They made a pact to go to all the high school stuff so they could sit back and laugh at how the other kids took it so seriously. Me, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on anything. I kind of looked at it through the lens of my future counselor self. I loved watching how others interacted. I did a lot of people watching back then. And drawing.”

  He was rubbing his chin in my hair and every once in a while he would kiss my hair. “So then how did you end up here? It’s a long way from home for you.”

  I sighed and snuggled closer. “I came here once in college during spring break with some guys from the shop. They were doing a convention and I thought I would tag along. I hadn’t done much travelling so I wanted to see it. I was immediately sucked in. New Orleans had it all for me. The architecture, the people to watch, the music...Oh, the music moved me! I ate and ate and ate. We stayed at the Maison Dupuy and I would sit on the balcony every morning and evening and the drawings were coming out of me like crazy. I always knew I wanted to come back here. After my father died, I just knew it was my opportunity. I wanted a fresh start and I got it. Best move I ever made.”

  “I would have to agree, best move you made.”

  I looked up at him and he kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes and breathed him in. His scent was enough to make my mouth water. I swallowed and tucked my head down so those lips wouldn’t be tempting me anymore.

  “So what now? You’ve found the place you are meant to be. What now?”

  I looked back up at him, confused. “What do you mean, what now?”

  He shrugged. “I don
’t know. Are you going to stay here? Is there some place else you have wanted to check out? I’m just trying to see the future for you. Guess I’m not as good at it as Mage.”

  I giggled. “Does he think he can see the future, really?”

  He shook his head. “No, but if anyone could, it would be him. He’s really in tune with people and he reads them well.”

  “If you must know the future, then this is it. I opened my shop and I love what I do. I have no plans to do anything else. Well, I didn’t before coming over here. This was totally out of my norm. The whole situation has been an adventure. Not one I would have seen myself doing, but I’m glad I did.”

  This time he wasn’t letting me hide. His hands turned my face up to his. “I’m glad too, chère. I’m so glad our paths crossed.” He kissed me softly and I couldn’t hold back a sigh. He smiled against my mouth and then he was kissing me deeply, his hands moving over my back and hips. He moved his knee between my thighs and I squeezed. This felt too good.

  “Devon, I’m sorry I was so difficult yesterday. Please know it was never that I didn’t want you. I just couldn’t see that you’d want me, too.”

  He pressed his forehead against mine.

  “I hoped it wasn’t that. I'm glad it wasn't that," he said with a chuckle. He pushed my hair back from my face and ran a fingertip along my jaw. “I really didn’t mean to push so hard. It's just that when you finally find someone you want to be with, it sucks to sit back and wait.”

  I looked up at him, tears in my eyes. “I want that, too. But how do you know? Have you ever been in love, Devon?” He smiled.

  “I was in love once before. She never knew it. It was in college, she worked as a receptionist in our dorm. Every day she’d say hello when I came in and goodbye when I left. That was the most I’d ever say to her. I tried for a long time to work up the courage to talk to her and when I finally did, it was the night her boyfriend proposed to her while she was at work.” He laughed at himself. “I watched the whole thing, how bright her eyes were, how happy she looked. I wasn’t even jealous! I was just happy she was happy. I was such a sap.”

  I ran my finger along his jaw and over his lips. “Sap or no, she missed out.”

  He smiled down at me and kissed me again before pulling back. “Have you ever been in love, Jaylene?”

  “I thought I was. There was this guy I worked with, Toby. He was a great artist, very in demand. Our stations were next to each other. For a year we sat next to each other, talked all day, even brought each other lunch. One night he asked me out to dinner and I was so excited. I thought this was it! Maybe I’d finally have a real date. It turned out that he had asked me out so he could pick my brain about our shop girl, Kristen.”

  Devon grunted. “Sounds like he was too much of an idiot to see what he was missing.”

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Seems he’d been pining for her and didn’t know what to say. Of course I helped him out and the two of them got together shortly after. She ended up getting pregnant. They got married, and moved away. I figured I did the right thing, even though I was pretty bummed out for a while. He was just another one in the long line of guys who wanted me for a BFF, not a girlfriend.”

  Devon looked down at me while his hand crept down my side and then he pulled my hips into him. “I hate to say it, but I'm really glad. I already have a best friend, Jaylene. I damn sure don’t want you for that. But I could definitely use a hot girlfriend.”

  I snickered until he slipped his hand under the waistband of my shorts and caressed my skin. I took in a shaky breath. “Oh, well then. I’m sure you’ll find one if you really work at it.”

  I was panting as his hands skimmed over my bare skin, over the curve of my ass and down my thigh. He pulled my leg over his hip and pressed me closer against him. I could feel his length hardening against me and I started to imagine just what we could get up to if we had a bit less clothing on. Then he pulled back.

  “God, Jaylene. I’m sorry. I’m trying to follow your rules, but I really just want to get all your clothes off and feel all of you.”

  Well if that didn’t just make things hotter.

  “I was just thinking the same thing.”

  His gaze was so heated and his bottom lip was swollen from kissing me, and maybe because I’d sucked on it a little.

  “Jaylene, I want you. But I want it to be right. Not here, not with those guys right outside, and not with a time limit. I want to make love to you, like you deserve.”

  He said the perfect things.

  “Devon, you’re pretty perfect, you know that?”

  He smiled shyly. “Nah, I’m not perfect. But I want this to be perfect. You make me want to make everything perfect.”

  I smiled and kissed his beckoning lips again. “And that’s why you’re perfect to me. And it will be perfect because it will be with you.”

  He kissed me harder and we were starting to get senseless again when we heard things get going next door.

  “Devon, shhh. Did you hear that?”

  He was kissing my neck and lifting the bottom of my shirt. “Hmmm, I didn’t hear anything other than you.”

  “Oh, oh, gods Devon. That’s...mmmm...”

  And then we heard something crash and we heard a male and female moan together. Devon sat up and looked at the wall. I covered my mouth to hold back a laugh. “What is going on in your bed, Devon?”

  He snickered and pulled the covers back over us. “I guess we aren’t the only ones up to no good.”

  The moaning got louder and we both giggled.

  “Who is she with in there, do you think?”

  He rubbed at his stubble. “If I had to guess? I’d say probably Marcus.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Really? I wanted better for her. He can be such a dog.”

  Devon laughed. “All that is just for show. Sure, he’s had his share of women, but he’s had a thing for Sherry since before she became our manager. I think it was the whole unattainable thing because she didn’t fall for his crap.”

  “It sounds like she may have fallen for it.” Then I squinted back at him. “No good, huh? I think we were up to something very good.”

  He smiled at me and licked his lips. “Come here, very good thing.”

  He pulled me in for another kiss and I felt like I was melting. A very delicious ache had settled into my pelvis and his kisses and touches were pulling that ache tighter and tighter. His hands skimmed under my shirt and along the bottom of my sports bra.

  I arched my back, pushing into his touch. His large hand was cupping my breast and I had to bite his shoulder to keep from crying out. That got a groan out of him. Then his thumb slid over my nipple and he jolted.

  “Oh, chère.” His voice was tight and his face was pulled tighter. “What do we have here?”

  Oh shit. The dare. “Ummm, you know how I work with Mackenzie and she does piercings?”

  He nodded that devastating smile back and his eyes full of liquid fire.

  “Let's just say I can’t ever turn down a dare.”

  His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell back from me. “Jesus, woman. You are seriously going to destroy me. You say these things and all I can think about is...”

  “I know. That’s all I can think about, too.”

  We were both breathing hard.

  He was staring at me, playing with the ends of my hair. “So where do we draw the line here? I’ll do or not do whatever you want.”

  I sat up to look down at him and tucked my hair back over my ear. I smiled at him, feeling brave all of a sudden. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to let you see them, if you want. Unless you think we should wait.”

  He sat up, pulling at his soul patch again. He rubbed his hands together and I couldn't help giggling.

  “I don’t know if I could just look, chère. I might have to do more than that if you show me.”

  And right on schedule, there was a knock on the door. We both looked at each other and pouted.


  I whispered, “Later?”

  He nodded and fell back groaning, adjusting himself in his now too-tight jeans. It took every ounce of willpower I had to look away from him and walk to the door.

  “Hey, Star. Sorry I wasn’t down to help with breakfast.”

  He smiled knowingly. “No problem. It was just me and Mage anyway. Jade wasn’t hungry and, well. Yeah. So, can you ask Devon when we’re going to start practice? Just trying to figure out if I have enough time to get in a workout and a shower.”

  I looked over at Devon and he covered his face with a pillow.

  “He’ll be down in a couple of minutes. He might need a workout, too.”

  Star turned red and stifled a laugh. “Alright, tell him to meet me in the weight room. I’ve got some ideas I want to talk with him about.”

  “Sure, see you in a few.”

  He turned around and jogged down the steps. I closed the door and turned back to Devon. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands.

  “It’s probably for the best. One look at what you’ve got going on and I would have been done for.”

  I giggled and stepped into his arms. “Yeah. We should probably save the ‘you show me yours and I’ll show you mine’ game for another time.”

  That pained look was back on his face.

  “You weren’t kidding about me needing a workout. That and a cold shower. Come here.” He kissed me deep and I could feel my knees start to buckle.

  Regrettably, I said, “Shower time, you evil man. You run downstairs and get all hot and sweaty without me.”

  He groaned again and pulled back, eye level with my chest. He groaned louder and pushed me away from him. “I’m going to be thinking about those all day. Man, this is going to be rough. Tell me, chère. Are both of them...”

  “You’ll have to wait and see!” I blew him a kiss and stepped into the bathroom, locking the door.

  “You’re cruel,” he whined before I heard the door close.

  Cruel was the fact that I so wanted to stay locked in here with him and now I was headed to the shower alone.

  Chapter Twelve

  The shower was lonely. As the warm water and soap ran down my body, I imagined it was his hands again. They were so warm and big. He was definitely a tactile kind of guy. I could appreciate that a hell of a lot. I shaved and took my time with my hair, using a deep conditioner. I wanted to feel good for him if and when we had a chance to be close again. Hmmm, if Sherry was staying another night, perhaps we could have another sleepover!