One frame has a picture of Liam and what I think to be his brother and sister as I remember him telling me he’s the baby of the family. His brother looks a lot like him in the way of facial features with his hard jaw and full lips. But he has hazel eyes that hold a bit of contempt within them. His sister is very pretty, looking much like their mother, but she, too, has hazel eyes. At least she looks somewhat happy. It seems Liam was the only one to acquire Beth’s tropical colored irises and I’m glad. It makes them that much more special to me knowing that they’re rare. There’s another picture of Liam standing with a freckle faced boy and a wide smile lined with braces, both dressed in soccer uniforms holding up a large trophy. I gather it to be his friend Will when I recall the story Liam had told me. I smile at the expression they both wear – they’re clearly ecstatic with their win. On the other nightstand is just one lone picture. I walk around as curiosity prickles to look at it and then freeze.
In this frame is a picture of a girl. A girl with soft flowing honey hair pulled back into a ponytail and eyes the color of the sky. Evie. I pick up the frame with shaky hands and stare at it. She’s standing in front of a structure I don’t recognize and in the background I see the words London Theatre posted on a plaque mounted to the front of a wall lined with brick. I refuse to let the feeling of betrayal and hurt take over me. I remind myself that Liam was still very heartbroken over her when he’d decided to leave everything he knew behind. When he made the decision to partake in the exchange program, he was still hanging on to her and so it makes sense that he would still have a picture of Evie next to his bed. I put it down and turn around – turning my back on the feelings I’m trying to ignore, and turning my back on Evie. I close my eyes, forcing myself to focus on anything else but her. Liam loves me now and I will hang on to that.
I open my eyes after counting to twenty – ten wasn’t enough – and see that across from Liam’s bed is a good-sized desk with a large white computer monitor illustrating multicolored swirls on its black background as it plays music from the iPod plugged into its side. That’s when I notice a guitar nestled in the corner of his room and I recall that Liam had told me he used to play. He’d made it very clear that he no longer does and I wonder why that is. So many questions I have for you, Mr. Francis, I think. On another wall are numerous trophies all lined on mounted shelves. I gaze over them and see that they are all for soccer: MVP, championship wins, best team player, and a National’s trophy. I am in complete amazement. Liam has always been so modest whenever I’d asked him about his soccer expertise before.
I hear a door open and when I whirl around to see, I lose my breath. Liam steps out, bringing a steam cloud with him, wearing a pair of jeans that rests low on his hips and nothing else. He’s using a towel to dry his wet, messy hair and he still has remnants of shower water running down his flushed skin. He lazily walks over to the computer and pushes a button, changing the music to something else while I marvel at the sight of his sculpted back. I drink in the way the tendons in his arm flex with the movement of him drying his tussled hair. I stare at his biceps tensing and un-tensing as he reaches down to button up his undone jeans. I feel my cheeks get hot when I realize just how close I was to seeing Liam without clothes.
He still hasn’t noticed me and I try to decide if I should be stealthy and sneak out or let him see me standing motionless like an idiot ogling over him. It will have to be the second option because I can’t seem to get my legs to move.
He turns around. “Oh, hey.” Liam says as he tosses the wet towel into his bathroom. “I didn’t see you standing there.”
“S-s-sorry,” I mumble. “I didn’t mean to intrude.” I look down at my Converse, feeling completely moronic and slightly shy. “The door was cracked open… and I didn’t see you… so I…”
“Breckin,” he says, walking over to me. Oh, he smells amazing; somehow woodsy and slightly sweet, a new scent I’ve never smelled on him before. “Are you embarrassed?”
“No,” I whisper. “Okay, maybe.”
Liam places a finger underneath my chin and lifts my face to his. He looks at me through thick, black lashes and his eyes could burn a hole into my soul. My heart is pounding in my ears and I involuntarily place a hand to his damp chest. His skin is hot under my touch and a few small water droplets that have been left behind are making their way down his body. When I trail my fingers down the length of his chest and then his stomach, his breath hitches. Liam grabs my wrist when I reach the waist of his jeans and returns my hand to his chest. I stand on my tiptoes to better reach him and he automatically lowers his face to mine. He stops with his lips just touching the rim of my mouth and when I attempt to close the distance between us, Liam backs up slightly, teasingly. I pout, but that’s when he reaches down suddenly, picking me up and sweeping my legs around his waist. I squeal and wrap my arms around his neck. Being I’m taller than him for the moment as he carries me, I lower my face to smell his damp hair.
I hear his door shut and then so quickly I’m unsure how I got there, Liam has lowered me onto his bed. He lays over top of me, keeping his weight suspended on his arms so that I can’t feel any of it, and finally lowers his mouth to mine. I feel the same need to be with Liam bubbling up toward the surface and if I’m not careful, I’ll lose my hard fought battle with my brain and my body. My brain is telling me not now, and my body is screaming right now! But he’s making it very near impossible as his tongue grazes my lips, parting my mouth, and causing my breath to become immeasurable with its frantic pace, to win any kind of body-brain battle. Liam gently lowers his body to mine and then rolls me over to rest on top of him. He moves one hand to the small of my back and discovers the skin there while slipping the tips of his fingers under the waste of my jeans. The other hand he’s let weave into my hair as he continues to kiss me in a way that makes me lose any and all focus I have left.
“Breckin,” he murmurs. His voice, I notice, is low and rough. His wanting and desire coming to the surface as he struggles to fight the same battle I am; the fight to behave.
“Hmm?”
I take advantage of being on top of him and move my lips to his neck and then to his collar bone. When I work my way back up his neck with my mouth reaching below his ear, I give it a little nibble with my teeth. He moans, making it sound more like a growl, and then earnestly takes my face into his hands so that he can look into my eyes. Intense aquatic crystal rimmed in sapphire is all I see. I have only witnessed Liam’s eyes so alive and passionate a few times before, and every time I do, it leaves me feeling both amazed and dumbfounded at the same time. The turquoise color of his eyes is so concentrated that I still silently gasp to the sight of them. Deep pools of a craving I have yet to experience; a feeling I don't quite understand yet as my body tingles with anticipation and I become a little light headed.
I sit up, slightly stunned and can’t help do anything but stare at Liam’s sculpted chest and stomach. I want to trail a finger down the line of his abdomen and hook my finger in the waist of his jeans. He leans up to rest his body on his elbows and chuckles quietly to himself.
“Aah, Breckin. You know how hard you’re making this?”
“Making what?” I ask breathless, refocusing on his eyes.
“I keep telling myself that I’ll behave. But you’re making that next to impossible.”
“Is this how you imagined our first night together?” I blurt out. My concentration is so shaken, that as usual, I don’t censor what I’m going to say.
“No,” he says, shaking his head. “It will be much better, I promise. Of course that is if you… want…” he trails off.
The electricity in my body intensifies then. I feel my heart beating against my chest and hear the pumping of my blood echoing in my ears. When he notices my shaky breathing, Liam reaches a hand to my chest and lets it rest over my heart. I sit silently on his lap, still straddling him, gazing into his eyes. When it appears that our moment has fizzled out, he surprises me by sitting up and taking me i
nto his arms.
We’re face to face making it very easy to get lost in each other’s presence. He kisses me slowly and fervently and I tangle my hands into his wet hair. I let my hand explore his shoulders and down his back. I’m dizzy and tingly. I am completely drunk with him.
“Breckin,” he whispers again against my lips.
“Yes?” I whispers back.
He kisses me some more. His lips move down the length of my neck and then he trails kisses along my jaw line.
“Do you know how much I love you?” he asks with lips grazing my skin.
“Mm-hmm.”
“I don’t think you do,” he murmurs as he returns his mouth to mine.
“No,” I say softly, “I do.”
I feel him shake his head underneath my lips. I pull back and firmly grasp his face in both of my hands. He tenses under my touch and I know where his sudden mood change has taken him.
“Why would you think that?” I demand.
“Because of what I’ve done to you,” he murmurs as his expression turns sad. “I broke you so completely and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to show you just how much you mean to me. You’re my whole world and I love you more than anything else, and I know it impossible to ever be without you again. But I also realize that trust is easily broken and not so easily regained.”
I softly put my lips to his and hope that this will reassure him just a little as to how I feel. “You love me,” I say, stating what he’s just said.
“I do.”
“And I'm here, aren’t I? I don’t want you to always worry about what happened between us. That’s over now and we’re going to move on from all of this. No need to drudge up the past. It only makes you feel guilty, and I don't want that. Just know that I love you, too, and you’re the most important thing to me.”
Liam smiles to that and I can see him relax a little.
“Okay?” I say then.
“More than okay,” he responds, shifting into a smile. “But I’d like to make you a promise.”
“What’s that?”
“I’d like to show you something after dinner. A part of our home you haven’t seen yet.”
“Okay, so what’s the promise?”
Liam eyes me like I’m missing something very obvious. And then all too soon, we’re interrupted and he doesn’t get to answer me.
“Keep focus, Breckin.” Sera says, suddenly appearing out of thin air the way she always does.
“You have impeccable timing,” I bite back sarcastically. Liam raises an eyebrow. “Sera’s here now.”
“Hello, Sera.” Liam says as he wraps his hands around my waist to set me on the bed. He gets up and disappears into what I assume to be his closet. I smile to Liam’s acceptance of her. He really has moved on from his insecurities and fear of knowing a spirit is in the same room and I’m glad to see that he’s comfortable with Sera’s presence.
“Sera, I haven’t forgotten why I’m here. Have you found out anything new?”
“As a matter of fact, I have. I need you to ask Liam what time of day the accident happened.”
I look to Liam as he walks out from his closet buttoning up the shirt he’s put on. “What’s Sera have to say?” he asks, coming over to join me again.
“She wants to know what time of day the accident happened.”
I am suddenly very hesitant that Liam won’t be able to keep his calm demeanor while talking about this, but he proves me wrong. He makes a contemplative face clearly trying to remember, and then answers her. “It was quite late actually, or early depending on how you look at it. It was around one o’clock in the morning. The police report said one-seventeen a.m.”
“Whoa, this could be harder than we thought.” Sera says then.
“Why? What would the time have to do with anything?” I ask her.
“The Eytsah has explained that if possible, to go to the Hollow Site at the exact time of the accident. The memory will be more… potent then and you’ll have a better chance of communicating with Joseph.”
“What’s she saying?” Liam whispers in my ear.
“Sera went back to The Eytsah. They seem to think that if we were to go to the Hollow Site at the same time as the accident, we’ll have a better chance of talking to Joseph.” My voice has become almost inaudible when I’ve said his name.
Liam tenses slightly at my side and his face turns unreadable. He stares at nothing for a minute, his thoughts clearly somewhere else before he speaks again. “Would it help if it were the same day as well?” he asks quietly.
“YES!” Sera shouts.
“Liam, why would you ask that?” I say, ignoring Sera’s ecstatic response.
“Well, it would make sense. If the time being exact would help, then it would seem that the anniversary of… it… would help also.”
Liam seems more knowledgeable than I have given him credit for and ever expected him to be. I remember then something he’d said before.
“Can I ask you something?” I say, turning to face him.
“Of course you can.”
“Can’t it wait? Ask him when the anniversary of the accident is!” Sera interrupts.
I turn to look at her. “Shoosh.”
She scowls and crosses her thin arms across her chest.
“You said before, that you had acquired some information about this kind of stuff. Where did you get that information?” Liam looks slightly embarrassed now. For the first time since I’ve known him, he’s blushing. “You can tell me. Don’t ever be afraid to tell me something,” I say, repeating words he had said to me in what seems like another lifetime.
“Well, I was talking to my grandmother about it,” he begins.
“You’re grandmother?” I gasp, surprised.
He swallows and then nods.
“Can she see…?”
“No,” he says interrupting me. “Nothing like that. She just knows a lot about…the spirit world amongst other things. I guess that’s why it bothered me a little at first. My entire family just thought she was crazy with all her voodoo and crystal carrying and ever incessant candle lighting. But after you told me about your gift,” I snort and he graciously ignores me, “and then after what I saw what he could do to you… I called her up one night after I’d been lying awake thinking of you and how much I loved you. This was after I… let you go.” He looks down to meet my gaze and I manage to hide how much the memory of it still burns my heart. I nod for him to continue.
“I told her what had happened and I wanted nothing more than to find a way to put an end to this. She explained that spirits like Joseph tend to seek out people like you. They’re drawn to you because they can sense your ability to help. When they discover that no one else can hear them or see them, they look for people like you.”
I look over to Sera to see if this surprises her and she shrugs her shoulders. “I guess it’s possible,” she says then.
I peer back over to Liam then with shock clearly expressed on my face. I am not only blown away by what he’s told me, but also by the fact that he’d been trying to find his own solution to the predicament we’re in.
There was a knock at the door, breaking the silence. I jump and Liam gets up to saunter over to answer it. A woman with black hair and sharp eyes, dressed in a typical black maid’s outfit stands looking like she’s been caught with her hand in the cookie jar in the hallway. She glances at me and then to Liam.
“Dinner is ready, sir.” What’s with the “sir’s”? Andrew said it and now Marjorie.
“Thank you, Marjorie. We’ll be down in a minute.”
After Liam closes the door, he walks back over to me, proffering his hand to help me up. “I wanted to find a way to protect you, but when she told me that it wasn’t possible, I couldn’t bear the thought of knowing that I could quite possibly be the reason for -.”
“Stop that,” I snap. “And it doesn’t matter now because I’m here and we’re going to take care of this.”
“You’re right.
And Sera,” he says looking into thin air. “The date is two days from now, so get all the information we need because we don’t have much time to prepare.”
Liam tugs at my hand, starting us toward the stairs, but my stomach is left back in his room.
Two days.
Two days is all I have to prepare for what I am sure will be the most excruciating pain I have ever known. For what I am certain will be the most terrifying experience I have yet to live through.
Two days and I will be attempting to convince a ghost to crossover – which is something I still have no clue how to do.
Two days and I will be face to face with pure darkness. With an empty man who terrifies me. A man I feel may kill me.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Liam directs us into the kitchen. I’m glad to see that we’ll be eating in a less elaborate setting than that of the formal dining room. I knew I’d feel like I couldn’t touch anything in that room; I’d be afraid of breaking something.
Dinner looks and smells wonderful and the table is full of food. Everything from rolls to colorful fruit to green beans that appear farm fresh, and a ham that fills the room with the scent of glazed honey lays in front of us, just begging us to indulge. I didn’t realize just how hungry I was, but to smell the food and then the sight of it all has sent my stomach into grumbled protests as I impatiently wait for the okay to dig in.
“No need to wait for formality you two. Help yourself,” Beth says as she enters, taking her seat.
“Thank you,” I murmur quietly while Liam pulls out my chair.
“Liam, what are you going to show Breckin tonight?” Beth asks as she delicately places a slice of ham onto her plate.
“We’re actually going to stick around here tonight. She and I are both pretty tired and I’d like to take her out to the stables, meet some of the horses.”
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