RayeAnn continued her research at her desk in the library, grunting occasionally or scratching her head and looking perplexed.
Ryker sat and watched, bored out of his mind yet restless and unable to settle anywhere for any length of time. He tried reading, only to realize he had stayed on the same page for the last fifteen minutes but had no idea what he’d read. With a huff, he smacked the book shut abruptly, causing RayeAnn to jump once, then settle back into what she was doing.
He paced the room restlessly, wondering what was wrong with him. He was usually a pretty calm person, a of roll with the punches kind of person. Today he was edgy, like he could jump out of his skin, and quite a bit more hot tempered than usual. Everything aggravated him.
“Ryker, you’re driving me crazy with all your pacing and sighing. Why don’t you get out of the house for a little while? I’ll tell you what, I haven’t gotten the mail in a few days, why don’t you walk to the road and get that for me.”
“So now you think you have to find little assignments for me to keep me busy,” He frowned. “like some kind of little kid or something? Trying to keep me going with busy work?” The anger in his voice blasted at her like a strong wind gust.
“Forget it.” She stood abruptly and headed for the front door, waving her hand in the air to dismiss him. Grabbing her jacket, she thrust her arms roughly into the sleeves, angry at both Ryker and herself. She didn’t like people hovering around her when she was trying to work. What made it even worse was the fact that it was Ryker. He unnerved her, as if they were connected by an electrical cord she couldn’t unplug. Because of him, now she was in as bad a mood as he was. She should have just left him alone instead of trying to give him a break by getting him out for a little fresh air. My mistake, thinking he would enjoy the break. Instead, he’d jumped down her throat at the mere suggestion. No good deed goes unpunished.
She sat on the porch, flipping through the mail and trying to shake off the mood and enjoying the sunshine that warmed her. A letter from Jonathan Chase, Esq. caught her attention immediately.
What now? Had he suddenly realized his mistake? Was it all going to be taken away from her just as abruptly as it had entered her life? The thought made her heart sink to her feet. She loved this house and all the surrounding property, ghosts and all. From the minute she had walked through the door it had been home to her. No adjustment period had been necessary, even for Bryn. It just felt right.
With shaking hands she carefully opened the envelope. Inside she found another envelope with her name written on the front with little curly cue’s around her name. Definitely feminine handwriting. Maybe Mr. Chase’s secretary wrote her name on the envelope.
She carefully opened the second envelope, noticing it wasn’t overly thick. Certainly not a bunch of legal papers. She pulled the pieces of paper out and unfolded them carefully, sending up a little prayer that everything was all right.
Blinking a few times, she observed a handwritten letter. A very shaky, feminine penmanship graced the page.
Dearest RayeAnn:
I hope this letter finds you well. I’m very sorry we never got the opportunity to meet in person, but I felt it was best to handle things this way for now. Imagine me trying to explain Charity Meriwether’s presence to you in person. Surely you would have had me in a mental facility for the rest of my days, thinking I was a total loon. Maybe I should have been, considering all the years I spent trying to help her and Nathaniel reunite.
My dying heartbreak is that I was not successful. Now, I’m afraid, the challenge is yours to continue, my dear. Let me tell you the story as told to me by my grandmother many, many years ago. I warn you, you best have a tissue handy, for it is a sad tale for sure.
When Charity was a young woman she met and fell in love with a very handsome, virile blacksmith’s apprentice by the name of Nathaniel Buford. He had been orphaned at the age of twelve and taken in by the local blacksmith and his lovely wife. Having no children of their own, he was treated like a son. They even had plans to give him the business once he attained the age of twenty one. He was very well liked by the townsfolk and had young women practically standing in line to get a look at him. His future was secure, but he would always be a working man, able to make a living but by no means wealthy.
Charity’s father was a tyrant, but a very wealthy and influential man. Frankly, my grandmother thought him quite a bully. You see, he never hesitated to point out his wealth and social standing, using it to get his way in everything. More than once my grandmother recalled seeing poor Charity’s skin marred by his temper.
When Mr. Meriwether stumbled upon Charity and Nathaniel in the stables, in a rather indiscrete and awkward position, he exploded in anger. First he beat Nathaniel to within an inch of his life, only stopping when one of the hired hands at the farm pulled him away.
He then grabbed Charity and a nearby horsewhip, and began beating her. He used such force that her dress was ripped to shreds and blood soaked her entire back. When she regained consciousness she was locked in her room and the maid was tending to her wounds. She was not allowed out until her father had arranged a hasty marriage to an elderly man willing to overlook her tarnished virtue. A Mister Harold Bremmer, if I recall correctly.
Heaven help her, Mr. Bremmer was old enough to be her grandfather, but he was wealthy and hoped to have an heir to leave his fortune to. In those days women were not allowed to own any property or have any personal wealth of their own. But I digress.
As you can imagine, Charity was devastated by the forced marriage. As soon as she could she made her way to the blacksmith’s shop to talk to Nathaniel, only to find out that he had gone missing on the night they had been discovered. If anyone knew where he was, they would not tell her. Seven months later she gave birth to a son, Kade. Three months after her son’s birth her husband died in his sleep.
Years later, before the hired hand died, he admitted that he had loaded Nathaniel Buford’s unconscious body onto a wagon train headed out west. No one ever heard from Nathaniel again and Charity never remarried.
The poor child was a widow at seventeen and grew to be a lonely, bitter old woman. She died at the age of seventy two, alone, and she is buried in the family cemetery on this property. Her soul however, still wanders this house, looking for her lost love. She will never be at peace until they are reunited, and that I have no idea how to accomplish. Go through the trunks in the attic and use whatever is available, but please, my dear, don’t give up. Her immortal soul is depending on you.
My Kindest Regards,
Juliet Meriwether Harvey
RayeAnn sat there, still stunned after reading the letter for the fourth time. Her heart ached for all that Charity had endured. When she noticed the chill in the air she headed back into the house. Remembering Ryker’s nasty mood she walked up to him and handed him the letter.
“Read this. It came in the mail today from the attorney’s office.”
“Why the hell would I want to read your personal mail?”
“Maybe because it’s from my dead aunt and it pertains to Charity and Nathaniel?’
She waited patiently for him to read the letter, wondering what things her aunt had tried in an effort to reunite Charity and Nathaniel. RayeAnn found herself wishing she had met Aunt Juliet when she was alive. From the letter she sounded like a sweet little old lady. Now that her interest was piqued, she decided to not only research Nathaniel but her aunt as well.
“Well, this sure fills in a lot of the blanks for us. Are you going to look into Nathaniel more, maybe pin down where he settled?”
“Absolutely, although we’re not even sure he lived long enough to make it all the way out west. First I’ll have to research the most popular routes out west then go back and check all the major cities records. It’s a huge task if it’s done properly.”
“How long do you think it’ll take?”
“Humm, probably a few days to a week. Maybe even longer. Depends on how many sites I have
to go to and how many wild goose chases I end up taking.”
“Are you going to start now?”
“Tomorrow. I’m going up to bed. When is Jarrod due back to take over for you?”
“Midnight. Thanks again for giving me a room here at the house. Now that Bryn and Tim are doing the horizontal tango, I’ll have to find myself a new place to crash when I’m in town.”
“What do you mean? I thought you and Tim were longtime roommates.”
“We are, but I travel a lot. Tim and Jarred don’t always work every case. Sometimes it’s just a simple house cleansing that’s needed, so I just do a job like that myself. Only cases like this one, with a high level of activity, need all this technical equipment.”
“How do you feel about Bryn and Tim dating?”
“Oh jeez, here we go with all this girly, touchy-feely stuff. Do women have to beat everything to death?”
“Sorry to point this out to you, but I am a woman. A woman who’s just trying to have a conversation with a…how do I put this? Cave man.” She let out a large sigh while she moved out the door. Pretty sad that I have to point out that I’m a woman. Apparently the attraction I was feeling is one sided. Good to know before I make a total fool of myself.
Once she had put on her sleep tank, she crawled between the covers, hoping sleep would come quickly. Knowing she would have a long, tiring day at the computer tomorrow she would need all the rest she could get. As she thought about the best plan for her research she fell asleep.
Next thing she knew she was on her knees in the corner of her room, screaming filling her ears. Ryker was shaking her roughly and calling her name. Her face was wet from tears she had no memory of shedding.
“RayeAnn, wake up right now. Come on, stand up. It’s just a dream. Here, let me help you up.” Gently now he took her arm and pulled her to her feet. When she winced in pain he eased her onto the bed to check her over for any injuries. “Where are you hurt?”
“My back, oh God, it’s on fire.” She whimpered.
Without thinking twice he pulled her shirt up. “Shit. What the hell did you do to yourself? You’ve got bloody slashes across your back.”
“I didn’t do anything to myself. Last thing I remember was thinking about how to approach my research tomorrow. How did they get there?”
“My guess would be that someone put them there. Someone who isn’t thrilled with the information we got today from your aunt. Wild guess would be Charity’s father, Gideon Meriwether. As far as we know he’s the only one that kept them apart in life, maybe he’s carried that grudge over to the other side with him.”
“But why pull this now? We’ve been working on this for a while, why didn’t he just do this from the beginning?”
“Because now we have far more information, and he feels threatened. Which tells me we might be getting close to an answer. Something he doesn’t want us to find out maybe. This isn’t unusual when dealing with angry or violent spirits.”
“Perhaps you could have shared that nugget of wisdom with me before he scratched the hell out of my back.”
He watched her struggle to get her trembling body under control. Understandably she was upset, teetering on the brink of hysterical, judging from the force of her shudders. His heart melted at the sight of her, vulnerable, scared and hurt, yet keeping it together enough to try and figure things out. Keeping his hands to himself had, up to now, been difficult. Ignoring his businessman’s internal objections, he felt compelled to be with her, help her. Sitting next to her on the bed, painfully aware of how little they wore, he pulled her into his arms and held her, being careful not to put too much pressure on her wounds. He stroked her hair, kissing her temple and murmuring words of comfort until he felt her body begin to relax.
He felt the electric current of desire as it coursed its way through his body, making his cock jump wildly. She felt softer, smelled better, and looked sexier than any woman he had ever known. The magnetic pull he felt toward her was just too strong to ignore any longer. It was the source of his bad mood earlier today, just watching her and wanting her had turned him into an insufferable ass. He needed to accept the attraction he felt for her and pray that in the end no one got hurt.
He kissed her lips gently, then deepened his kisses, slipping his tongue into her mouth and feeling as if he had finally come home. They were perfect together. His heartbeat quickened as she welcomed him further into her mouth, as her tongue answered his thrusts enthusiastically. He felt her delicate fingers glide over his back, urging him closer. Slowly he lay back on the bed, pulling her on top of his body, careful to not hurt her wounds. She ran her hands over his body, stopping only to help him remove her t-shirt.
He changed positions, laying her on her side so he could cup her breasts in his palms, feeling the heat and weight of it before closing his mouth over one already taunt nipple. Feasting on her like a starving man, he realized that nothing he had ever done with any other woman could compare to what he felt with her. This was electric. He could hear the crackling in the air, knowing by her panting breaths and heated reactions that she felt the same way he did. Words weren’t necessary. He let his feelings flow from his body to hers. His heart soared as her body answered, his soul found her soul and they mingled together as one. He knew, without a doubt, that she was and always would be the only one for him. Now that he accepted that fact, for there was no argument he could think of to change the feelings he felt for her, passion inflamed him. Unable or unwilling to suppress it, he cupped her hot, moist mound, rubbing her vigorously as she rode his hand, her hips pumping wildly while she moaned loudly. Her panting breaths compelled him forward as he dipped his finger into her liquid pool of desire. Finding her sensitive nub, he teased it mercilessly, forcing her to beg for relief through clinched teeth and panted out words.
He found himself hurling in the air, his back slamming against the wall before he hit the floor hard. Dazed for a moment from the impact, he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. Slowly the burning crept into his reality, searing pain and heat combined on his chest.
“What the fuck?” Glancing down at his torso he saw six criss-crossed slash marks across his chest, the source of the burning pain. He watched RayeAnn crawl to him on visibly quaking arms and legs, her enticing breasts swaying with every movement she made toward him.
“Oh my God, are you all right?” Tears streaked down her face as she took his face into her trembling hands, kissing him gently on the lips.
“My chest is on fire, but other than that I’m okay. Looks like someone didn’t like what we were doing.” She grinned at him. “In spite of the burning in my chest, I still want you like I’ve never wanted anyone before.” His honesty shocked him. It was one thing to think it, but another thing altogether to say it out loud.
She let out a long breath before speaking. “Thank goodness you feel the same way I do. I’ve never wanted anyone more than I wanted you. It felt magical. Like I could almost hear the electricity snapping in the air…sounds stupid, but that’s the best way I can describe it.”
“Not stupid, accurate. I felt your soul, baby. It wasn’t just physical, it was…everything in the universe aligning up perfectly. Destiny.”
She crawled into his lap, carefully avoiding his wounds, and rested her head on his shoulder, kissing his neck while he wrapped his muscular arms around her still quaking body. After a long silence she finally spoke.
“I was dreaming about Charity when my scratches appeared. Her father was beating her in the stall of the barn, she screamed in pain and I felt that pain. The man was a viscous monster. He kept beating her, even after she had lost consciousness. What kind of animal does that to another human being, let alone his own flesh and blood?” A shudder ran through her body.
“In my opinion, an evil person. I came running when I heard you screaming and found you huddled in the corner, cowering away from something I couldn’t see. Scared the shit out of me. I couldn’t get your attention until I shook you a few times
. I wasn’t sure if you were awake or sleeping.”
“So what are we going to do about it? How do you get rid of something you can’t even see?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to find out. First thing in the morning I’ll start my own research. I’ve got some associates in Europe who have dealt with things like this before. Maybe they can give us some ideas or at least point us in the right direction. Don’t think for a minute that we won’t figure this out, because now I’m pissed.” He kissed her brow. “Let’s get our wounds taken care of and try and get some sleep. We’re both going to have a long day tomorrow.”
“I’m afraid to sleep alone.” She bit her lower lip. “Can we sleep together in your room tonight?”
“Sounds like a good plan.” He helped her to her feet and together they headed to the medical supplies in the bathroom.
CHAPTER 10
After three days of unending research RayeAnn was seeing stars. She looked at Ryker and saw him rubbing his eyes.
“Too tired to look at your computer screen another moment?” She asked. She certainly was.
Seduction of Souls Page 6