Ghost Walk

by Cassandra Gannon

  “I’m not killing anyone, Jamie.”

  “But he’s only going to wake up and cause you more distress. If you were to…”

  “No.”

  He made a face at her. “Fine.” Problem solving had been a lot more permanent back when he was three-dimensional. Letting Robert live was just asking for trouble. It seemed obvious to Jamie. Still, he could tell that Grace wasn’t going to listen to reason. “Call the constables and let’s do this the hard way, then.” He sighed.

  “What am I going to tell the cops? That I used a spell on him? Not even I think that’s true and I frigging know it’s true!”

  “The man reeks of bourbon, Grace. You’re going to tell them he arrived here drunk, attacked you, and somehow managed to knock himself out.”

  “You think they’ll believe that?”

  “What else are they going to believe?” Jamie got to his feet and shot her a triumphant grin. “That you defeated him, using nothing but the ghost of a dead pirate and a magical spell?”

  She winced. “Yeah… Good point.”

  Chapter Nine

  June 24, 1789- Around town, they say JMR has a treasure buried somewhere around here. Gold, silver, and gems! All of it hidden away until the Pirate gives it to his bride.

  I’m wondering if I can convince him to lend me a few diamonds, while he waits for her to show up.

  From the Journal of Miss Lucinda Wentworth

  The police did indeed believe Grace’s story.

  What other explanation was there, really?

  They carted Robert off to jail, with a lecture on locking her doors and a yellow pamphlet on restraining orders. Grace figured her ex would be out again by morning… assuming he woke up, at all. That menstrual cramp magic really packed a wallop in large doses. She was a little concerned that Robert would stay unconscious until some handsome prince kissed him awake or something.

  Spells always seemed to go wrong.

  “We should have made sure he couldn’t come after you, again.” Jamie repeated for the hundredth time. It clearly drove him crazy that the cops didn’t execute Robert right there in her apartment. He paced back and forth in front of the bedroom door, like he was afraid someone might try to break in again. “I donea like that he’s still breathing.”

  “He’s in a cell for the night, Jamie. You can relax, for now.”

  “What about for later? Turns out your ‘husband material’ candidate is a fucking maniac, love. He will be back.” Jamie’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “We need to buy a musket.”

  “I’ll put it on the grocery list.”

  He didn’t appreciate her sarcasm. “You should pay me more attention. I told you he wasn’t a gentleman, but you didn’t listen and now this happened.”

  “Yeah, but you also told me you weren’t a gentleman, which was a total lie. So, you’re still not batting a thousand in that department.”

  Jamie looked confused. “I’m not a gentleman.” He made it sound like she’d accused him of being a sex offender. “I sometimes have half-hearted gentlemanly impulses, which I try to ignore, but…”

  “Yes, you absolutely are a gentleman.” Grace interrupted, climbing up onto her bed again. She’d changed into clothes before the police arrived, but now she back in her fuzzy robe. “You just saved my life, Jamie.”

  “You saved your own life. I did what I could to help, because you’re mine.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “That’s not it, at all. You didn’t even know me when I went back in time and you helped me then, too.”

  Jamie gazed at her for a long beat. “I would always know you, Grace.”

  Her insides dipped at his quiet words, but she kept going. “I was completely lost and vulnerable and alone… and all you did was offer to walk me home. You tried to protect me. I don’t think any other pirate would have done that with a half-dressed, possibly-drunk girl who’d kissed him three minutes after they met.”

  He pouted a bit at that irrefutable evidence. “Well, maybe I was plotting something nefarious and luring you in.” He muttered.

  “Maybe you’re just a nice guy, under all the come-ons and craziness.” She shot him a smile. “It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone.” She clicked on the TV, tuning it to Haunted High for him. “I also won’t blab about your crappy taste in televisions shows.” She settled back to watch the thirty-something “teens” battle supernatural monsters and plan their prom.

  Jamie glanced at the screen, his mouth curving when he saw she’d remembered his favorite show. “For you, I wish I was gentleman.” He murmured, looking back at her with a soft expression. “I wish I was so many good things for you, Grace.”

  “I like you just the way you are. And I’m going to save you.” She made it a vow. The possessiveness he felt towards her was contagious, because she was coming to think of Jamie as hers. She’d do her very best to clear his name, no matter what it took. Besides, focusing on solving the murders was a lot more rewarding than talking about her scumbag ex. “The key to proving your innocence is the blood from the crime scenes. I’m sure of it. If we can find evidence from the other murders, I think I can go back and stop them.”

  Jamie hesitated. “I was thinking just the opposite, really.

  “The opposite?”

  “Maybe we should stop this investigation, before…”

  “Stop it?” She interrupted. “Are you kidding? I just figured out how to clear your name and you want to just quit?”

  “If it means you’re not placing yourself in danger, than yes. We should quit.” His expression was grave. “I would not have you risk yourself for me, Grace. I would not have you risk yourself for anything.” He gestured to the bedroom door. “I’m not likely to soon forget that you nearly died right in front on me! Do you think I want to take a chance of that happening, again?”

  “I’m doing this.” She insisted. “I have to, not just for you, but for me. Don’t you get it? I thought this… ability took everything from me, last year. But, really it’s giving me a chance to help people. To stop murders before they happen. I need to see it through. It’s the only way I’m ever going to get my life back. This will get both our lives back, Jamie.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not worth the risk.”

  “You’d rather be hanged again?”

  “Yes.” The word was unequivocal. “I will gladly fade to nothing before I see you harmed.”

  Grace stared up at him, processing the intrinsic nobility of the man. He might think a pirate couldn’t be a gentleman, but she knew better. “Did you mean it earlier?” She asked abruptly.

  Jamie’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “Mean what?”

  “Did you mean it when you said you could… um… bring me to… completion, if I gave you a chance.”

  He stared at her for a long beat, blinking rapidly at the non sequitur. “You’re just trying to distract me.” He rasped, but his eyes drifted down to the opened V of her bathrobe.

  “Kind of maybe a little bit. …But I’d also like to know how you could do such a thing, when no one else has even come close.” Unable to withstand the penetrating blue of his eyes, Grace glanced over at the TV, where Liliana-the-banshee-girl was shopping for her prom gown. “Ew, she’s not really going to wear that hideous purple one is she? Sebastian will hate that.”

  Jamie disregarded Haunted High, which no doubt showed his high level of concentration. “You truly haven’t come a’tall.” He sounded like he couldn’t imagine such a thing. “Not even once in your whole life?”

  Grace flushed and shook her head, wondering if this was such a great idea. Her body told her it was the best plan ever, but it was embarrassing to discuss this so openly, even with Jamie. Especially with Jamie. He looked more fascinated with her lackluster sex life than he had with the discovery of actual time travel.

  “Why?” He pressed, seemingly baffled.

  “My therapist concluded I had ‘unrealistic expectations about intimacy.’” She muttered, hoping he’d just drop i
t. “Or, if you want to listen to Robert, I’m just semi-frigid.”

  “Bullshit. There’s nothing wrong with you, Grace. Not a blessed thing.”

  Grace bit down on her lower lip. “Why has it never happened for me, then?” She asked before she could stop herself. “It happens for everyone else. Why not me?”

  “Well, I think that should be obvious.” Jamie smiled like he knew the answer to every dirty question ever asked. “You just hadn’t met the right man.”

  She snorted. “Let me guess: You’re the right man.”

  “Yes.” He sounded certain. “I told you, I can make you happy.”

  Some heretofore dormant, pizza-tramp-y part of her brain cheered in anticipation. Grace shook her head again, trying to think. “But you can’t actually touch me, remember?”

  “I donea have to touch you.”

  She blinked, desperately curious about what he was planning. “...You don’t?”

  “Nope.” He gave a predatory smile and eased onto the bed next to her. “Come on… You know I can do this, Grace. You’ve been waiting for me. We’ve been waiting for each other. You feel it, too. This connection between us is real.”

  She did feel it.

  “Let me show you what I can do.” Jamie shifted so his body was even closer to hers, taking her silence as encouragement. “What do you really have to lose? The worst that can happen is I’m unable to meet all your ‘unrealistic expectations.’ That would leave you right where you are now. It seems like there’s no risk and all reward.”

  Grace swallowed. “You probably tried that line with every girl in the thirteen colonies.”

  “Nope. Just the one I would have married.”

  Corny as it sounded, her heart skipped. “Jamie, you don’t have to…”

  “Take off your robe.”

  Yeah… She was totally going to take off her robe. Surprisingly, the commanding tone turned her insides to liquid. Who knew? If anyone could fix her intimacy problem, it was Jamie Riordan. The man had probably invented sex.

  Grace’s hands went to the knot at her waist, pulling it free before she gave herself time to reconsider. “Okay, but this isn’t going to work.” She warned, wanting him to be prepared for failure.

  “You truly are a pessimistic little thing. It’s quite adorable.”

  “I just don’t want you to be too disappointed, if you can’t get me… all the way. It’s like a mental block or something.” It was because she’d never been able to let go with anyone. Deep down, she knew that.

  She’d never felt safe enough.

  “You should have more faith in me, lass. Even my bad plans have a proven success rate in this room. Besides, bloodthirsty pirates have an inborn talent for corrupting the innocent…” Jamie trailed off and muttered a quiet curse, as the robe slid off her shoulders. His gaze fixed on her bare breasts and stayed there. “Holy God.”

  Grace had a hard time breathing under the intensity of his stare. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you kinda sucked as a bloodthirsty pirate.” She shrugged off the robe and tried to focus on something other than her nakedness. The past seemed as good a topic as any, so the words just poured out of her in an anxious torrent. “According to all the textbooks, you just stole from rich British merchants.”

  His gaze licked over her skin. “They had the most gold.” He murmured absently.

  “I think it’s more than that. You never bothered the helpless or the genuinely innocent. …Which, I have to admit, always seemed strange to me considering the books also said you were a crazed serial killer.” She winced. “Crap. I probably shouldn’t have brought up the homicide part, right now.”

  His lips twitched. “I do love the fact you’re a bit of an odd-duck, love. You have the most fascinating pillow talk I’ve even encountered.”

  “Well, you’re making me nervous! History helps me when I’m nervous.”

  “By all means, then. Let’s talk about my mediocre piracy.” He agreed in the world’s most agreeable tone. “After you take off your underwear.”

  Grace swallowed. “This won’t work.” She reiterated half-heartedly.

  “There’s that adorable pessimism again. It truly is becoming a turn on.”

  “I’m serious. I’ve been dreaming about you since I was fifteen, but not even you can…”

  “Fifteen?” Jamie grinned like she’d just handed him the map to an uncharted isle and --God knew-- he was man who took maps seriously. “Why that’s quite naughty, Mistress Rivera. I’m very impressed.”

  “…but not even you can do this without touching me.” She finished, disregarding his commentary. “It’s impossible.”

  Grace totally believed that. …But she still found herself slipping her panties down her legs and tossing them aside.

  “That’s it, my love.” His gaze centered on the junction of her thighs and Grace felt it like a physical touch. “That’s what I wanted to see.” His tone was reverent and territorial and it did wonderful things to her insides. “Let me get a good look at you, now.”

  She bit back a whimper, her legs obediently parting for him. Jamie liked that she followed instructs and he really liked the view. A lot. “Mine.” He whispered reverently. “Finally.”

  They were the same words he’d used back in 1789 and they turned Grace on even more. His possessiveness shouldn’t be nearly so hot. Her core was getting wetter by the second and all he was doing was looking at her. “Oh God…” For the first time, she began to believe that he could really do this.

  Jamie himself had no doubts, at all. The man’s confidence level was deep as the sea. He leaned in closer to her, his body moving over hers. “So… you read books about me, then?” He asked and she knew that he was trying to distract her from overthinking his newest crazy bad idea.

  “Some.” Energy licked through her wherever he touched. And he was doing his best to touch her everywhere. His beautiful palms couldn’t make contact with her skin, but she could still feel them all over her. Her nipples went rock hard as his fingers passed over them, her eyes drifting shut in pleasure.

  His mouth curved. “Only some books?”

  “A lot of books.” Her breath was coming in pants. “I took three semesters of Virginia history in college. You were my sophomore term paper.”

  “I can’t imagine you had many flattering things to say about a lackluster pirate hanged for murder.”

  “Nope.”

  “And yet here you are with me.” His lips hovered over hers and his hand drifted downward, towards her weeping center. “Why is that, do you think?”

  “Well,” she chewed on her lower lip, “I really wasn’t as good a student as you might imagine.”

  “Oh, I doubt that.”

  “Really. I needed a magic potion to pass geometry.”

  Jamie chuckled. “I think fate brought you here.” He corrected. “I think you were always supposed to be mine. I think no other man has been able to satisfy you, because none of them were me.”

  She thought he was right.

  All the unrealistic expectations that her therapist bitched about were embodied in this one man. They always had been. Only Grace suddenly wasn’t sure they were so unrealistic, after all. Just being close to Jamie was sending her body into complete meltdown. Rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air had nothing on the fireworks the pirate set off inside of her.

  Grace reached for him, needing Jamie more than she’d ever needed anything. Her hand passed through his back and she nearly sobbed in frustration. “Please.” Her breathing hitched, her palm moving up to grasp one of the wrought iron bars of her headboard instead. “Jamie, please.”

  “Christ, you’re beautiful.” His voice was ragged. “From the first time I saw you --both bloody first times-- I wanted you like this. Wanted to hear you say my name, just like that. Needful and dazed. I imagine it every time I look at you.”

  That shocked her. “You do?”

  “Oh yes.” It was a purr. “And now I have you.”

&nbs
p; He’d had her from the time she was fifteen. “First time I saw you was in a painting.” She got out.

  “The one with my ship?” He nodded approvingly. “I look damn good in that portrait, if I do say so myself.” One of his long, artist’s fingers slipped inside her and she gasped. “That’s it. Show me just what you like, lass.”

  “That. I like that.” Whatever he was doing, she was afraid it would stop working and she was closer than she’d ever been. “Hurry. Jamie, please hurry.”

  Blue eyes burned hot. “I didn’t propose to you when we kissed.” He got out, ignoring her pleas. “You said you thought I did, but you clearly weren’t listening. A proposal would have meant giving you an option and I’m far too much of a pirate for that. We just take the bride we want.”

  God did she want to be taken.

  “If you’d stayed back there, I would have stolen you, Grace. I’d have carried you back to my ship and claimed your pretty body in every way I could think of. And you’d have let me, because you’re not such a timid lass, after all, are you? Under that proper exterior, you’ve got a yearning for a bit of danger in your life.”

  She had a yearning for him. She always had. That’s why she would have let him have her back in 1789. That’s why she was letting him have her now. “You’re not dangerous, Jamie. Not to me.” She believed that with all her heart. He was the only one who made her feel safe.

  “No, not to you. But I would be a fucking monster if someone tried to take you from my arms. I promise you that. Ghost or man, the need I have for you is bigger than anything I can control.”

  She gulped, her body clenching at his words. “Okay, for real, I think this might actually work.” She’d never felt soooo close to something soooo huge. “Can we go faster, now? Please? I don’t want this feeling to go away.”

  “It’s not going to go away.” He soothed. “I’ll give you everything you need. I promise. But, this has got to be a team effort. So you just do what I say and this is going to be beautiful.”