I tapped the heavy flashlight against my leg and tried not to think about how much I just wanted to pull her to me. To comfort her or kiss her—I wasn’t sure anymore. “It was a good tour. Almost a perfect night. Are you—”
Her hand touched my chest, pushing me until my back hit something solid.
“Ginny…” Her name was a growl in my throat, and an obvious giveaway that her rapid change was affecting me.
“You’re so determined to be good.”
Oh, she had no idea. The tears were long gone, vanished in the night, and I almost wondered if I’d imagined the whole thing. Something clicked into place in my head, years of psychobabble from Social Services. She was deflecting.
“I know how much you want to be bad,” she whispered, close enough that I could feel her breath against my jaw. I felt the faint brush of her lips on the underside of my jaw, and then on my neck.
Okay, she did have an idea. Maybe too much of one. She was definitely deflecting, but she was also damned good at it. I almost laughed.
Instead, I clenched my teeth and tried to remember to breathe.
“Evan.”
Her lips brushed mine, just a ghost of a kiss, a feather-light touch. But I could feel the moisture on her lips and wanted so much to respond. I didn’t like being used, but would it really be so bad?
Her tongue flicked out, tasting my bottom lip. My hands squeezed tight, and I could almost feel Ginny smiling. I could almost feel her entire body. So close. So very, very close.
“Just let go, Evan.”
Lord Almighty, I wanted to. This close, smelling of sunshine and sweetness, the barest touch of her lips on mine, the moisture and heat of her breath. I wanted it, wanted her, wanted to do what she asked and just let go.
The trolley bell rang, calling us back.
Ginny’s hot breath spilled over my neck with a breathless laugh. “Saved by the bell.”
She backed away, but I could still see her grin in the darkness. Biting her lower lip, she cocked her head and walked away.
The breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding blew out in a rush. I shook my head and followed before I lost her to the darkness and mist.
Chapter Six
My dreams were full of heat and sweat. The feel of Ginny’s touch lingered on my skin long after I fell into sleep, coloring my visions. In them, she wasn’t my employer’s daughter, the forbidden fruit, or someone who had more issues than I wanted to deal with. She was just the girl whose touch drove me mad, and there, I could do to her what I wanted, what every touch of hers drove me to want in the waking world. Strip her bare and cover her burning skin with my own as I buried myself in her. In my dream, the heat twisted and scorched up our bodies until it was almost unbearable.
At least until I woke sputtering and doused in cold water.
Not. Right.
Of course, the fact that my bed was on fire was even less right.
“What in the fuck?!”
I scrambled out of my burning bedding in time to see Ginny running out of my bathroom with another load of water. “Hush up, Evan! Just help me put it out!”
I tossed the unburned end of my comforter onto the fire to try and smother it, while she poured more water on top. The flames sputtered and jumped as I beat at them frantically, and Ginny dumped a third round of water. This time, they hissed and spit, fading. I yanked everything off my bed, bundled it up tight, and then threw the whole smoking pile in my shower and cranked on the spray.
Ginny and I stood and stared at the mess, blackened bits of cotton and fluff floating towards the drain.
I turned around and walked back to my half-soaked bed to sit. The bottom sheet was streaked with black, but otherwise intact. My groin ached from my dreams, and my feet felt slightly singed from the fire. My head just sat there and spun.
“What. The. Ever. Loving. Fuck.”
“Keep your voice down.” Ginny sighed and slumped against the wall. The empty vase in her hand rolled to the side, forgotten.
“My bed was on fire.”
“I’m well aware.”
“On fire, Ginny. Fire.”
“I know.”
“Fire!” I threw my hands out, indicating my bed.
She glared at me. “I got it, Evan! Now will you stop shouting before someone wakes up?”
“But…” I ran both hands through my hair, trying to wrap my head around it and not scream in the process. “How? Good God in heaven, why?!”
“Look, darlin’…”
I rubbed my hands down my face as the full reality of it sank in. “And how in hell did you know?”
She shrugged. “Just be grateful I did.”
“That’s not an answer. God’s sake, tell me you didn’t set it in your sleep!”
“Of course not! I smelled smoke, okay?”
“What am I going to tell your mother? She’s gonna kill me!”
Ginny’s eyes flashed. “Nothin’. You’re not going to tell her a good goddamned thing, Evan Richardson. You and I are going to take care of this, and then pretend like it never happened.”
“Dammit all to hell, Ginny! Someone just tried to kill me!”
“Well they didn’t, so hush your mouth before you wake the whole house!” she hissed.
I stared at her, the wheels in my head slowly turning. “You know who did it.”
“Evan…”
“You do. I can see it in your face. You know. You’re covering for them.”
Silence and a sideways look. Dear Lord in heaven.
“Tell me. Now.”
“Just drop it, Evan. It doesn’t concern you.”
I threw my hand out to the side again, indicating the soaked black streaks. “Fire, Ginny. Your whole precious fucking house could have gone up in flames!”
She looked away. “Look, just… Good Lord. You’re fine, all right? Please let it go. It won’t happen again.”
“How do you know? How can you possibly be sure it won’t happen again?” I stared at her, fuming, and suddenly remembered the note I’d found when I’d gone to bed. “Lord Almighty.”
I lunged for the trashcan, but it wasn’t there. It was just gone, vanished. Hell, maybe burnt up with my bedding.
“Shit.”
“What is it?”
“The note. There was a note. When I came in tonight, it was sitting on my pillow. I thought it was from you, or from your mama, until I opened it…” I shook my head, remembering the angrily scrawled writing, and the threatening words. “I threw it away. But it’s gone.”
She looked confused. “A note? Evan, honey…”
I dropped to my knees and scrambled under the bed to see if it was there. “Yeah, a note. In an envelope.” More like a warning, actually.
“What kind of note? What did it say?”
Shit. Way to open your big mouth, idiot. I pulled myself out from under the bed. It wasn’t there. “It said, ‘Stay away from her. She’s not for you.’ Something like that.”
In the dim light, Ginny looked suddenly white. And then she laughed, a nervous titter that wasn’t at all convincing.
“I’m sure it was just someone funnin’ you.”
“It’s not here anymore, Ginny. Why wouldn’t it be? That’s too much coincidence, with the fire and all.”
“I’m sure it was nothin’.”
“Ginny—”
Her polished mask slipped with a quiver of her lip, and a single tear. I sighed, wondering if I should let it go for now. It was late. We were both too tired to make sense. And I was sitting there in nothing but my boxer briefs, with the still-aching remains of a major boner. I shifted, suddenly uncomfortable.
“Must’ve been some dream you were havin’,” Ginny said with a ghost of her usual smirk.
I grunted and glanced away. She smiled. The memory of her naked in my dreams was warring with my panic over almost waking up as a burnt marshmallow.
“Look,” she sighed. “I don’t want to worry Mama. So please, just don’t say anythin’. We
’ll go out first thing and replace your bedding. I’ll leave a note lettin’ her know I borrowed you for errands. She won’t care.”
“She needs to know, Ginny. The whole place could’ve burned down.” I didn’t mention I was on the verge of calling the cops. But without the note, they wouldn’t be able to do much. And what if she was right, and it was just a coincidence? Still. The whole bed on fire thing.
“She doesn’t. It didn’t. We’re full up now, Evan. She has enough on her plate. Just help me out here?”
I didn’t answer. I wasn’t ready to let it go, even if she wanted me to.
“Please, Evan.”
I sighed. “Fine. For now.”
She sighed a thank you.
“What time is it, anyway?”
Ginny’s mouth turned up, smirking again. “About four in the morning.”
I grunted. “Guess I’m sleeping on the floor for the rest of the night.” The wet floor. Ugh.
Full on smile, and the trouble was back in her eyes. “You’ll sleep in my room. Just for the next two hours, until we can leave.”
Fire alarms went off in my head. The mess I could get into with her in two hours made my skin burn. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
She laughed quietly. “Relax, sugar. There’s a couch you can crash on. I’m not trying to get you in my bed.” The look she gave me said that wasn’t exactly the truth. I wondered if taking my chances with my mystery fire starter wouldn’t be the smarter choice.
I stared dumbly around my room and shrugged. “Thanks, then. Let me just grab some clothes.”
Her mouth twitched. “But that’s such a good look on you!”
“Exactly why I’m covering it up. You’re way too much temptation as it is, Miss Eyre.” I hadn’t actually meant to say that, but it was true. Just thinking about her was too much. I didn’t need to be almost naked. I tossed on a clean pair of athletic shorts and a shirt.
“Come on, lover,” she said, pulling at my hand. “Grab your pillow, and I’ll show you my couch.”
“Why is it that everything you say sounds like a proposition?”
“Maybe because it is? Or maybe it’s just because you want it to be. And maybe you’ll never find out which.”
A hand snaked down the front of my shirt, pushing at the fog around me. Nails lightly grazed my chest. “Wake up, sugar.”
My hand her arm, sliding gently across the soft skin. She smelled like sunshine and rain and salt and sweet flowers and coconut oil. I wanted her hand to keep circling my chest. It felt good. I wanted more.
The heat of her breath tickled my ear. “Evan.”
I shot up and pushed myself away, suddenly awake. “Lord, Ginny!”
Her laugh trickled over me. I rubbed my face and looked outside where the sun was just coming up, trying to get the blood back north where it belonged.
“Time to get a move on. I want to be back before Mama starts to wonder.”
I yawned. “Fine, let me just go clean up.”
“You’re welcome to my shower, since yours is a little occupied still. I’ve already been in.”
That sent images I didn’t need speeding through my sleep-deprived brain. Shit. “Thank you. I’ll be fast.”
I ran back to my room, grateful no one was up to see me ducking in and out of Ginny’s. I brushed my teeth, grabbed clothes without caring what they were, and darted back, all while trying not to think about the burnt bedding in my shower, or the slowly waking house. It was already beginning to creak with movement.
“I’ll just go leave a note for Mama,” she said as we passed. “Hurry.”
I didn’t stop to think about Ginny’s bathroom or how much it smelled like her. Okay, I did, but I tried not to. The last thing I wanted was for someone to come looking for her and find me instead, so I took the fastest shower of my life. I was just tossing on my shirt, steam still clinging to every inch of me, when she came back.
“I’ve decided it really oughta be illegal for you to wear a shirt.”
“Too bad it’s not.” Too bad I don’t need your brand of trouble. Monied folk don’t mix with my kind. It never ends well, no matter how much fun it might be.
She grinned. “Yes, it is too bad. Come on now. Charleston is callin’ us.”
We went down the back way and were on the road in no time. Charleston was an hour away, give or take, across rural roads and small towns. Ginny turned out to have a list of things that Ms. Catherine needed, which made me feel a bit better about the legitimacy of the trip. We shopped until I thought I’d lose my mind, talked, laughed and wandered Old Town Charleston before stopping in at a breakfast café.
“We should’ve stopped here first,” I said, guzzling half my coffee. I figured I’d be back for a refill in under five minutes, but I didn’t care. I hadn’t exactly had a restful night.
“But then we’d have been slingin’ coffee on the run, and they wouldn’t have let us into the shops with it anyway. Besides, this way I get to sit back and enjoy the look of utter bliss on your darlin’ little face.”
“I was nearly a human torch last night. I need coffee.” I chugged a few more swallows. “Thank you, by the by. I don’t know if I said that last night.”
“You mean for saving your skin? You’re welcome. You wouldn’t look half as good burnt to a crisp.”
“You can’t be serious for two seconds, can you?”
Ginny shrugged and smiled. “I can when I need to be. Right now I don’t.”
“Ginny—”
“Not a chance. I said everything I was gonna say last night. And you said you’d let it go. So let it go, sugar.”
“I said for now. And now is a different now. Nobody’s around to hear us, and I want answers. Burning to death in my sleep isn’t the way I want to go. I’m also not convinced that note was a joke.”
Ginny bit her lip, something I found absurdly sexy, but then she shot up out of her chair and grabbed my coffee cup.
I opened my mouth to protest, but she shot me that look that said, Just don’t.
“What are you doing?”
“Gettin’ us both some more coffee.”
“Um. Thanks?”
“I want something different, at any rate.”
“We’re not done here, by the by. Just so you know.”
She ignored me and walked past. Her hand slid along the back of my shoulders, lingering until she was too far away to reach. I watched her glance back with that damned smirk, and wondered if it would really be so bad to give in to her. All thoughts of the fire melted away. I wondered if her skin would taste sweet or salty, what it would feel like to hold her and have her moan under my touch.
“Now that’s the look of a truly bad boy.”
I swallowed, blinking away the image of kissing her as she set my coffee in front of me. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be!” She sat down next to me with a laugh, propping her legs up on my knee. “That’s the look I’ve been tryin’ to find from the start!”
I looked away and tried not to run my fingers up her bare leg. My hand ignored me.
“Mmm, don’t stop, darlin’. That feels lovely.”
It did. Her skin was soft and incredibly smooth under my touch. My hand felt fever-hot against the warmth of her leg. I stroked up towards her knee, and she leaned back in her chair with a contented half-sigh that was almost a moan.
God, it was impossible to think around her. And I’d be damned if she didn’t know it.
Her phone rang.
She grimaced. “Dammit to hell.”
I raised an eyebrow, but she glared at me with a look that told me stopping was an offense punishable by death. She smiled when I took the hint, then took a deep breath and answered her phone.
“Hi Daddy.”
My hand froze. Ginny glared. I raised my eyebrows and switched over to rub her other leg.
“What? Why? Daddy, I haven’t even been home a week! No, I don’t want—Dammit all, Daddy!” Her eyebrows pinched together. “I
don’t really give a shit!” The voice on the other end got a little louder. Ginny rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She hung up and slammed the phone down on the table before leaning back and closing her eyes.
“Everything all right?”
She wrinkled her nose but said nothing. I shifted a little, sliding my hand slowly down her leg, enjoying the feel of her thin ankle, the delicate touch of her arch. She sighed, and I pulled off her flip-flop.
“Mmm. I should keep you around just for when he calls.”
“You don’t get along with him?” My thumbs slid up the bottom of her foot, rubbing the tension out.
“He always manages to piss me off.”
“Divorced, right?” My fingers traced around each side of her foot, into the hollows of her heel and ankle.
“Most of my life.” I covered her arch with one hand, pulling up slowly. Ginny bit her lip. “Good Lord above, Evan…”
I smiled and switched to her other foot. “Did we pick up everything you needed from town?”
She arched her foot and bit her lip as I pressed into her sole. “He wants to take me to look at off-campus housing now that I’m not a freshman anymore. Never mind that I only just got home, or that I don’t want to go house hunting with him. I—hmm.” She whimpered a little as I slid my thumb up the outer edge of her foot and past her ankle. “Oh God, Evan, you have to stop, or I’m going to do you right here on this patio in front of half of Charleston. And Mama would find that incredibly unlady-like. Honor of the Eyre women, and all that.”
I laughed, happy to have turned the tables on her for once. But after one last stroke up her leg, I stopped.
“Damn. I was kind of hopin’ you wouldn’t listen,” she sighed. Her honey-gold eyes glowed with hunger, and I couldn’t help but be glad I’d inspired it.
“So are we done here?”
Ginny took a deep breath and let her eyes slide over me one more time, clearly undressing me in her head. “Come on, then. I’ll let you ravish me once we get home.”
I laughed and helped her up. “Sorry. No ravishing. When do you leave with your father?”
She made a face. “Tomorrow. I’m seriously pissed off. I think you need to cheer me up.”
Eyre House Page 7