“It’s kind of fun.”
“Do you see more spirits when you’re drunk?” Gabby asks.
I glace about the room and frown. “I don’t think so. It’s just the normal amount of dead people.”
“Oh good,” Callie says. “Hey, I wonder if there are spirits at The Odyssey?”
“There are,” I reply. “But they’re harmless.”
She swallows hard and takes another sip of her drink. “I think I liked it better when I didn’t know for sure.”
We spend the next hour laughing and talking, enjoying our drinks and each other. I had no idea that friendships like this, with a whole group of women, were possible.
“Beau got me a kitten,” I say. “I forgot to tell you. He’s soooo cute!”
“Awe, a baby,” Van says with a sigh, her eyes glassy from too many cocktails.
“What time is it?” Gabby asks and stares at her phone. “Holy shit, we’ve been here for four hours!”
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” I murmur.
“I should call it a night,” Van says. “I have work to do in the morning.”
“We all do,” Charly reminds her. “But you’re right, I can’t drink anymore. I’ll be on my ass, and I’d rather be on my back while Simon takes advantage of me.”
“Atta girl,” Lena says with a laugh.
“I’ll see if Beau can come get me,” I murmur and send him a text.
Can you come pick me up?
A few seconds later, he replies: Of course. Where are you?
I tell him and look up to find that everyone is texting someone for a ride home, except Lena.
“Lena, we can take you home,” I offer.
“I have my car,” she says with a smile. “I only had one drink. I’m sober.”
I nod and sling back the last of my fourth cocktail just as Beau walks in.
“Hi,” I say with a smile. “You must have been close by.”
“Well, hello there,” he says. “I live just a few blocks away. How are we?”
“Drunk,” I reply, then giggle. “I have to tell you something.”
“Okay.”
“You’re lovely.” I cup his cheek in my hand and love the stubble as it scratches my palm. “Like, really pretty.”
“I’m a man, sugar.”
“Yes. You are. I’ve seen all of your man parts.” That last part is said in a whisper, so the others can’t hear.
“Ew,” Gabby says. “We weren’t going to talk about him naked, remember?”
“I whispered it,” I say in my defense.
“No, you didn’t,” Beau says with a laugh. “It looks like girls’ night out was a success.”
“It was.” I nod and rub my nose. It’s the only part of my face that isn’t numb. And it’s itchy. “And I have to tell you that I like you. Like, I really like you.”
“I like you too, drunk girl.”
“No, I mean, like, I like you like you.”
“Got it.” He brushes my hair behind my ear.
“I wonder if she likes him?” Charly asks. I turn to her, nodding.
“I really do like him.”
“Maybe she should use a different L word,” Van says, tapping her lips with her finger.
“Like Loser?” Gabby asks.
“Maybe he’s a Lemon,” Charly suggests.
“No, he’s lovely,” I reply and kiss his cheek. “And I like him. Like, a lot.”
“Now that we’ve established that you like me, I think I should take you home,” Beau says.
“Your smile is ridiculous.” I frown and watch his face. “Your whole gene pool is just ridiculous. Why are you all so pretty?”
“She’s ready to go home,” Lena says. “Keep an eye on her. She doesn’t have as much control when she’s this drunk.”
“I’ve got her,” he says and takes my hand, leading me out of the bar.
“My handbag,” I say.
“I have it,” he says.
“You do have it,” I reply just as he opens his car door. “You have all of it. My bag, my heart. Just don’t break it.”
“Your bag?”
“No, my heart.” I lean back in the leather seat and close my eyes, suddenly so tired.
“Don’t fall asleep, sweetheart; we’ll be home in a few minutes.”
“I’m just resting my eyes,” I reply. “Talk to me.”
“Did you have fun?”
“So much fun.” I smile and rub my itchy nose again. “I love your sisters. They ask a lot of personal questions.”
“Of course they do,” he says with a laugh. “I’m glad you like them.”
“Yeah.” I sigh, sleep tickling the edges of my mind. “I almost spilled the beans and told them I love you. I mean, I’m not ready to say that to anyone yet. But my mouth runs away with me when I’m drunk.”
I feel the car stop, and Beau’s hand on my leg.
“We’re home.”
“Okay. Good. So tired.”
“Come on, baby. Let’s get you into bed.”
“Always trying to get into my pants.” I giggle and bury my face in his neck when he picks me up and carries me inside the house and up to my bedroom. “I like it when you’re in my pants.”
“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” he says. “But for tonight, you’re going to just sleep.”
“Only if you’ll be in my pants tomorrow.”
“Deal.”
Chapter Seventeen
~Mallory~
“It was nice of Gabby to invite us out for dinner,” I say as I fasten an earring in my left ear. “I haven’t met Rhys yet.”
“You’ll like him,” Beau replies. He slides his wallet into his back jeans pocket, and rolls the sleeves of his blue button down to just below his elbows, showing off the muscles in his forearms.
“You have great arms.” His gaze whips up to mine. He gives me a slow, wide smile that would melt the polar ice cap. “Don’t smile at me like that. We don’t have time for any hanky panky.”
“Hanky panky?” he asks and slowly walks to me, like a predator stalking his prey. Except, I love it when he catches me. He can catch me all damn day. “We have a little time.”
“No.” I giggle and hold my hand up, but it doesn’t stop him. “We really don’t, Beau. We have to get on the road or we’ll be late.”
“Then we’ll be fucking late,” he says as he cages me in against the wall, that sexy as fuck arm pinning me in place. “Do you have any underwear on under that skirt?”
“I guess you’ll just have to investigate and find out.” I cock a brow and every nerve ending in my body is on high alert as he squats before me and glides his fingertips over my ankle, up my calf and the backside of my knee, which makes me bite my lip.
There’s a new erogenous zone.
They keep climbing up my inner thigh, and then brushes over my naked lips, almost making my knees buckle.
“Oh my God,” I gasp and grip onto his shoulders for support.
“Well, look what I found,” he says, looking up at me with pure mischief and lust. “No panties.”
I shake my head, unable to release the death grip my teeth have on my lip.
“This is a big turn on, sugar.”
Yes. Yes, it is.
“Should I fuck you, or should I eat you?”
That question, added to the music his fingers are making, almost sends me over the edge.
“Answer me,” he says. His voice is quiet, but stern.
“Want you inside me,” I manage to say just before he stands, unbuttons his pants, then spins me to face the wall and pins my hands above my head.
My skirt is around my waist, legs spread, and I’m expecting him to be inside me any moment. The wait is killing me.
“Do you know what you do to me, Mallory?” Beau whispers in my ear.
“No.”
“No?”
I shake my head, and sigh when he drags his nose along my neck.
“You make me crazy,” he says, then p
lants a wet kiss just under my ear. “You have totally disrupted my life, in every way possible.”
“Not sorry,” I mutter, and he chuckles, sending shivers up my arms.
“I’m not sorry either,” he replies. “And I’m not sorry for this.” He bites my neck. “Or this.” Slaps my ass. “And definitely not this.” Finally, quickly slips on protection and slides inside of me, and without pause, fucks me blind, right here against the wall in the middle of the day.
I can’t think. All I can do is feel the way his free hand roams over my body, through my clothes and then under my skirt. He reaches around to plant his finger on my clit, and that’s it. That’s all I can take.
I cry out as the current of the orgasm pulls me under.
“Yes, that’s it. Come for me, baby.”
As if I could stop it even if I wanted to.
Which I definitely don’t.
Just as the tremors start to settle, he grips my hips and pushes hard, just one more time, and comes, whispering my name.
After a few moments of catching his breath, he slips out, lets my skirt and hands fall, and moves away from me.
“Now we can go.”
“No, now I need to clean myself up.”
He smirks and slaps my ass one more time. “Make it quick, or we’ll be late.”
“Smart ass.”
***
Thirty minutes later, we’re zooming down the interstate, driving out of town and toward Inn Boudreaux.
“So, you made this commute every day?” I ask, watching the swamp move past us in a green and brown blur.
“Yes,” he replies. “I could make the drive with my eyes closed.”
“Well, let’s not do that.” I grin and reach over to take his hand in mine. “But I will borrow this hand.”
“You can borrow anything you like.”
“We haven’t been to your house in a while. How’s it coming along?”
“Great.” He smiles, his eyes lighting up. “I should be able to move in by the end of the month.”
“Oh, Beau, that’s fantastic. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. I’m ready.”
“I bet you are.”
“I’ll be closer to you, too.”
“True, your new neighborhood is only a five minute drive from my place.”
“I actually wanted to talk to you about the living arrangements,” he says cautiously.
“Okay.” And just when we’re getting to the good stuff, my phone rings. “Oh, sorry. It’s Miss Sophia. I should take it.”
“Of course.”
“Hello?”
“Hi, darlin’,” she says. “Is this a bad time?”
“Not at all, but I might lose my signal in a few minutes. Beau and I are on our way out to Inn Boudreaux for the evening.”
“Oh, how nice,” she says. “I just wanted to check in with you and make sure you’re okay.”
And that what happened at the cemetery hasn’t happened again.
“I’m great,” I reply honestly. “Everything has been business as usual.”
“Good.”
“And how are you?”
“I don’t have anything to complain about. I’ve gathered some information about our project, so if you’d like to come over for dinner in the next few days, we can go over it together.”
“Oh, that would be wonderful. I’d love to have dinner with you. You and Lena choose a time and I’ll be there.”
“We will do that. Stay safe today, baby girl.”
“I’m safe every day,” I remind her. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
As I end the call, Beau pulls up to the inn, and I’m struck again by how beautiful the property is, with massive oak trees surrounding the pretty white plantation house.
“This is such a lovely place.”
“I think so, too,” he says.
“You wanted to talk about something before that call came through.”
“It’ll keep until after dinner,” he replies and exits the car, then walks around to my side to open my door. “I’m a very patient man.”
“That’s a virtue I don’t have much of.” Rather than walk to the house, I walk into his arms and hug him close.
“What was that for?”
“You’re just my favorite person, and I wanted to hug you.”
His eyes soften as he tucks my hair behind my ear. “Mallory—”
“You’re here!” Gabby exclaims from the front door. “Come on in. It’s getting cold out there.”
“It’s going to be a chilly night,” I agree and lead Beau up the steps of the wide front porch. “It’s so pretty out here, Gabby.”
“Thanks.” A tall, broad man joins her. “This is Rhys.”
“Pleasure,” he says, reaching out to shake my hand. I pull my walls more tightly around me and am relieved when we touch and I don’t feel anything but welcome and the love this man has for his family.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Where are the kids?” Beau asks as we walk into the main living area of the house.
“With Mama,” Gabby says with a wink. “We get a whole evening without the kiddos. The guests have been fed, and they’re newlyweds, so they’ve already gone back up to their room.”
“That’s sweet,” I reply with a smile. “This would be a great honeymoon location.”
“Well, they rented out the whole inn for the week because they wanted privacy,” Rhys says.
“Wow. Good for them.”
“Would you like a glass of wine?” Gabby asks.
“No, thanks, I’m still detoxing from the other night. I’ll just have some water.”
“We can do that. Your shoes are fab.”
I glance down at the blue ballet flats I bought at Head Over Heels and grin. “Your sister is a shoe goddess.”
“And thank the lord above for it,” Gabby replies. “I hope you’re hungry because dinner is pretty much ready.”
“I’m starving. I’ve been waiting all day for this, so I didn’t eat much.”
“A woman after my own heart,” Gabby says with a wink. “The guys are always hungry.”
“Guilty,” Rhys says and kisses his wife’s cheek. “And you’re an excellent cook.”
“Thanks, babe.”
The dining room table is already set, and Gabby begins bringing hot dishes in from the kitchen.
“How long have you lived here, Rhys?” I ask and ignore my growling stomach.
“For a couple of years now,” he replies. “I’m Kate’s cousin.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
He nods happily. “She suggested I come down here to the inn for some R&R, and it turns out it was the best thing I ever did in my life.”
“So you enjoy it, then?”
“I do. It’s different from where Kate and I grew up in Denver, but it has it’s own charm. There’s plenty to do, and Gabby’s family is here. It made sense to relocate.”
“How do your parents feel about that?”
Larissa, the spirit I spoke to during the séance, has walked into the room and is standing in a corner, watching me. She’s not speaking.
“My parents both passed away when I was very little. Kate’s parents raised me.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” I reply, keeping Larissa in my peripheral vision. “I also lost my parents when I was a baby. My grandmother raised me.”
“Interesting,” Rhys replies. “Well, Kate’s folks live in Ireland now, so it’s just Kate and me here in the states.”
“And you have each other here, with a wonderfully big extended family.”
Rhys and Gabby both smile widely. “That’s a beautiful way to put it,” Gabby says.
“I need to talk to you, Mallory,” Larissa says, but I try to ignore her. Tonight is about Beau and his sister, spending time with them. I don’t want to have to deal with this tonight.
Not today, Larissa.
She shakes her head adamantly. “It’s important.”
&nb
sp; I take a bite of a Brussels sprout.
“Mal?” Beau says, frowning down at me.
“Yes?”
“I just asked how the Brussels sprouts are.”
“Oh, they’re good.” I can’t taste them. Larissa is agitated, and won’t go away.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, just as my phone rings. Lena’s calling, probably to talk about dinner with Miss Sophia. I send her to voice mail and do my best to smile at Beau.
“Nothing. I love Brussels sprouts.”
“What do you see?” he asks, setting down his fork.
And then he’s gone, along with Rhys and Gabby, and the food on the table. Only Larissa is here with me.
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “It just feels different now.”
I frown and turn my head, listening. Despite coming in here with my walls up and door shut, I’m seeing and hearing more than I ever have before. I can hear a man’s voice, calling from behind the house.
“Do you hear that?”
“Oh, yes,” Larissa says. “He’s been calling out for as long as I’ve been here. That’s normal.”
“Do you know who it is?”
“No.” She shakes her head and looks around the room, as if she’s expecting someone to walk in. “Sometimes I think it sounds like my Douglas, but it can’t be him.”
“Why can’t it be him?”
“Because if it was him, I’d be able to see him, wouldn’t I?”
I blink rapidly, not sure how to answer. I don’t know.
But I want to help her. And if it’s Douglas outside, I want to help him, too.
“I’ll go see.”
“Be careful,” she says. “It’s different today.”
“Can you leave the house?”
“I can only go out to the back steps, but I can’t go further.”
I nod and stand, heading out the back of the house toward the loud voice of a man, yelling. I can’t make out what he’s saying.
I walk through the back door, and Larissa is still with me. She stays on the steps, wringing her hands at her waist as I walk down the path lined with oak trees toward what I assume is the old slave quarters.
“Hello?” I call out. There are several spirits here. Two children are playing hopscotch on the sidewalk. An older woman is rocking in a chair on the porch of one of the small slave quarter buildings. Her dark skin is wrinkled, her hair white and standing up on end.
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