by Sam Crescent
Taking a car during the day was just stupid. She had no choice but to grab a cab and take the journey toward the same location. She paid the driver and climbed out, looking around at the open businesses. There were a few clients in each but not a whole lot.
Approaching the danger zone would only come with too much risk. She looked around and found a bench. It had been graffitied to within an inch of its life. She sat down, put her hands in her lap, and tried not to look like someone who was waiting for a ghost. She had to look odd to people.
Jenny stared at the house and thought about her brother. She wondered if it had been easy for him to keep this big secret or if it really upset him. She had an eight-year-old niece and hadn’t known.
Anna.
Clasping her fingers together, she waited.
“You shouldn’t be here, honey,” her grandmother said.
“This is coming from the woman who raised me and taught me not to ignore the people no one else could see.”
“I also taught you better than to make it appear like you’re talking to yourself.”
Rolling her eyes, she reached into her jacket and pulled out her cell phone.
“That’s good, dear. You’re lucky, back in my day, I didn’t have any such luxury.”
She smiled, wishing once again that her grandmother could hold her. “Did you know?”
“Yes, I did. It’s why we could help and protect her. Our abilities are so limited, especially in this world.”
“The ghost world.”
Her grandmother nodded. “The moment I saw your energy, I just knew. That little girl was our blood. We could take care of her. It’s also because of her that you can be hurt as well.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“It’s complicated.”
“Grandmother, I have no one else to talk to about this. You can’t keep me in the dark forever.”
“Spirits can hurt you if they’re related to you in blood and because of blood. Anna is part of our blood, so she can reach out to you.”
“And the other reason is if someone you’re close to, like in marriage, kills them, you can hurt them?” she asked, thinking of her mother.
“Yes.” Her grandmother reached out, putting a hand on top of hers.
“I don’t feel it.”
“But you can see it. You know it’s there.”
“So, anyone that my husband or my family hurt who hasn’t accepted it can hurt me.”
Her grandmother nodded. “It’s unfair, but I think that is how they use balance. We can see what others cannot, but there is always a price. There is a price for being a wolf, and there is a cost with this gift.”
“All of them suck.”
“That’s why it’s a curse as much as it is a gift.”
“I don’t see any part of this being a gift. Not a single bit.”
“You get to see and talk to me. You met your niece yesterday.”
“I didn’t know it was her.”
“But you got a chance where your brother and father will never know. You have that gift. Believe me, there are people close to you who wish they can talk to me.”
She frowned, glancing over at her grandmother while still holding her cell phone. “Like who?”
“I shouldn’t tell.”
“Grandma,” she said.
“Fine, fine. You know how I am with secrets. I don’t think any good ones are worth keeping. Your brother Danny misses me a lot. Wishes I was there to offer him advice. Your father. He misses me and your mother. I hear him whispering his pleas that I take care of her, and you.”
“He does?”
“Your father loves you very much. It’s hard for him because of the hair and how you’re so much like your mother.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Sorry, I shouldn’t cry.”
“You should cry. It’s good to get it all off your chest. It’s not good to keep things locked up tight.” Her grandmother sighed. “Your husband.”
“Liam wants to meet you?”
She nodded. “In case you didn’t know, I’m pretty awesome, but yes, Liam would like to talk to me, to ask his questions. He’s worried about you.”
“Me?”
“This gift scares him and he doesn’t want to lose you.”
“He won’t lose me.”
“Your mother said the exact same thing to your father.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to argue, but just then, she heard the unmistakable sound of a giggle.
Glancing over toward the building, she saw Anna, dancing around the debris as if it wasn’t there.
“You’d have really liked her,” her grandmother said.
“I do like her.”
“Go say hi.”
Getting to her feet, with her cell phone next to her ear, she doubted with every step that she took she was fooling anyone. She crossed the street and got toward the building.
“Hello, pretty lady.”
“Hello, Anna.”
“You know my name.”
She nodded.
“What’s your name?”
She couldn’t be sure if she’d told Anna her name or not. “It’s Jenny.”
“That’s a pretty name. My dad said my name. He loves my name.” She pointed to her chest right next to her heart. “He has it right on his chest. He said I was going to stay with him forever.”
Overwhelming grief swept through her.
Touching the gate, she dropped the cell phone back into her pocket. There was no reason to keep on pretending. Let people watch. This was her niece.
“Did your daddy ever tell you about your family?” she asked.
Anna stopped, putting a finger against her lips and nodding.
“What did he say?”
“I have an uncle who is really short and moody.”
Jenny laughed as she thought about Danny.
“An auntie who has a really special gift. She can talk to herself.” Anna tilted her head and frowned. “Are you my auntie?”
Jenny was about to nod when a voice interrupted.
“She is your auntie.”
Tears filled her eyes as she looked at the spirit of her brother, Lewis.
“Daddy!”
Anna ran across the dirt, throwing herself into her dad’s arms. Even as spirits they could touch one another.
Her brother was dead right now. Pain exploded in her chest as she looked at him.
“Lewis?”
He held Anna’s hand as he came toward her. “It’s not what you think. They didn’t kill me.”
“But you’re right in front of me dead. Oh, my God, what happened?”
“You need to get to the hospital. We were in a car accident, Jen. I wasn’t wearing a seat belt. I was thrown from the car. My head hit the pavement.” He turned and she gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. “I was dead instantly. I waited long enough to see the ambulance take Liam. He’s in bad shape, but you can make it.”
“You came back for her.”
“I saw Grandmother. She told me Anna was waiting for me. I’m not letting anyone hold my girl hostage.”
“I’ve got to go.”
“Go.”
Jenny looked at her brother and his daughter again, wanting to stay and make sure they were happy and safe away from the bad man. But Liam had been in a car crash.
Lewis yelled the name of the hospital where she was supposed to be.
As she pulled out her cell phone, she was already calling her brother Danny, trying to get a lift. Anything that would take her to the hospital faster.
There was no way she could lose her husband, not when she’d just found him.
The curse said she was the one who was supposed to die. She could handle that. What she couldn’t handle was if her husband was the one to go.
A cab arrived first, and she told them where to go, calling Danny to let him know to meet her at the hospital.
She felt sick to her stomach.
In the back of the car, her grandmoth
er appeared, her hand touching hers. It wasn’t enough. She’d spent too much time with the dead. She needed the touch of her husband, not anyone else.
Clasping her hands together, she tried to pray for whoever was listening not to take her husband.
Chapter Nine
A few days later
“I am fine,” Liam said, watching as Jenny plumped up the pillow.
“You’re not fine. You were in a car accident and had surgery.”
“Which I didn’t need because my bones were already starting to knit together.” He reached out for his wife, trying to grab her hand and pull her down.
He was completely fit and healthy. For the last two days, he’d been playing on it because he loved his wife’s attention. Also, while she fussed about him, she didn’t think of the fact at the end of the week, they were going to have to go to Lewis’s funeral. He hadn’t bound Lewis’s hands. The man should have put a seatbelt on.
Liam cupped her hip and stared into her eyes. “You need to stop fussing.”
“I was so scared I was going to lose you.” She stroked his cheek.
“I asked you to stay here. I know you left.”
“I had to go back. I had to go and see Anna, and it’s where I saw…” She stopped talking as tears filled her eyes. “Lewis came. He came for his little girl and he was dead.” She pressed her face against his chest and started to sob.
He stroked her hair, holding her. His heart broke with her pain. He couldn’t stand for her to be in any kind of pain and knowing she was killed him. Kissing the top of her head, he closed his eyes, trying to get her as close to him as possible.
Liam moved her so she straddled his waist, her arms wrapping around his neck. It was completely the wrong time, but being this close to her, he felt the heat of her pussy. He closed his eyes, trying to gain control, but it had been four days without fucking his wife now and he was desperate.
Running his fingers down her back, he traced the curve, knowing he would give her all the time she needed.
After pushing her hair out of the way, he placed a kiss against the side of her neck. She released a moan.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
Jenny cupped his face. “Don’t apologize.” She slammed her lips down on his and he sank his fingers into her hair.
She slid one hand down, going past his chest, down toward his stiffening cock. A greater man might have had more physical restraint, but he wasn’t a great man. She pushed beneath the band of his pants and captured him in her hands. He released a groan and pulled back to look into her eyes.
“Jenny?” he asked.
“I need you. I need you inside me to take the pain away.”
Without waiting for her to change her mind, he grabbed the edge of her shirt and pulled it off her body to discover she wasn’t wearing any kind of a bra. He didn’t have a problem with that.
Cupping the generous mounds, he pressed them together and leaned forward, tonguing the hard nipples. She cried out his name, arching closer. After sucking one of the buds into his mouth, he bit down, causing just enough pain.
She ground down on his cock.
It wasn’t enough. With her hand wrapped around his length, he needed more.
Together, they tore off each other’s clothes until Jenny grabbed his cock and aligned the tip against her entrance. She slid down as he took hold of her hips and pulled her down hard and fast, slamming balls deep within her.
They both cried out, the sound echoing around the apartment.
Sliding his hands up, he wrapped her hair around his fists, tugging slightly so she had no choice but to tilt her head back and expose the delicate column of her neck. He flicked his tongue across her pulse, going down to her tits and circling a nipple before sucking her into his mouth.
He felt her cunt tighten around him. She was already so wet for him.
Liam let go of her hair to hold her hips again, keeping control of her where it mattered. Using his strength, he showed her exactly what he wanted, getting her to ride his cock.
Her hands went to his shoulders, holding on to him as he fucked her down onto his dick. Lifting her up, he stared at where they were joined. His length was already covered in her arousal.
He pulled her all the way off his cock and pressed her to the sofa. Without waiting for permission, he settled between her spread thighs and licked. He slid his tongue across her clit, plunging inside her and drawing up to her clit, then back.
Thrusting into her tight heat, he fucked her with his tongue, exactly how he planned to do it with his dick as soon as she came. After he gathered some of her arousal on his fingers, he moved them back to her anus, stroking over the tight hole waiting for him.
He stroked her, getting her all hot and ready. He was going to claim that hole as well. There wasn’t going to be a part of his woman that he didn’t own. He looked forward to making all the right claims.
Sucking her clit into his mouth, he danced his tongue back and forth before releasing her. He pressed two fingers inside her pussy, even as his cock leaked pre-cum and he wanted to be inside her more than anything else.
In and out, he thrust into her, wanting more of her, desperate and hungry.
When she finally came, the sounds she made were reward enough.
Liam took his cock in hand and placed it at her entrance. Staring into her eyes, he slammed into her hard, going to the hilt. They both cried out.
Then he pulled all the way out until only the tip of him was present. He did this for several thrusts, taking her by surprise at the force of them. He wanted to completely own his woman. To have her begging for him during every second of every single day.
Pushing her hair back from her face, he didn’t want anything between them as he looked at her. So pretty. They were gray, giving way to the wolf that lay beneath the surface. The same one like his own, only hers couldn’t come forward.
“I can’t let anything happen to you,” he said. The words spilling out of him came from a place he wasn’t even sure about. They were part of him.
“Nothing will.” She cupped his face, kissing him, and as he held her, something stirred within him. He didn’t completely understand it, but it was there, coiling in deep.
With a final thrust, he got inside her as deep as possible and filled her, his release flooding her cunt. At this time, he didn’t care for babies. He wanted them, but being with her wasn’t about making children and more about being alive with her.
Kissing her shoulder, he collapsed against her. “You should be resting.”
“The doctors don’t know what they’re talking about.” He stroked her hair. “I meant what I said. Nothing can happen to you.”
“Stop worrying about me. Nothing is going to happen to me. Look what happened the other day. I wasn’t there and you were the one in danger, not me.” She sat back and sighed. “I know we haven’t known each other all that long, but I can’t stand the thought of anything bad happening to you.”
Liam pressed his lips together, knowing there were no words he could say to convince her that all was fine. Nothing was fine.
“You never told me what caused the accident,” she said.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve had the guys look over my car, and there’s nothing.” It baffled him. “One moment, we were driving along, the next, boom. From what they can tell, my tire blew out, and with me making such a sharp turn, I flipped the car. That’s when Lewis … you know.”
“I know.”
“I never meant to hurt him. I hope you know that.”
She touched his cheek. “Of course, I know that.”
“We don’t know what he did inside that building,” Liam said.
“Maybe I should go and talk to him?”
“No,” he said. “You said so yourself. There’s that bad spirit and all that. I’m not going to have you put yourself in danger for me. I’m not having it. We’re going to enjoy our married life. I’ve already put a call in to my dad and
told him straight. I’m spending the next two weeks with you.”
“Two weeks?”
“Yes.”
She gave him a smile.
“I know we’ve got your brother’s funeral to go to, but I’m going to be there. Your father’s arranging a burial for Anna as well. She’s going to rest beside her father.”
They had discovered that with Anna’s death, Lewis had no choice but to put Tana, her mother, into a ward to stop her from killing herself.
“Thank you,” she said.
There was nothing to thank him for. They were her family and by relation, his.
****
“You’re checking out my ass, aren’t you?”
“Guilty.”
Jenny laughed as she glanced behind her to find her husband indeed checking out her ass. “That’s got to be illegal somewhere.”
“What has? A man looking at his wife’s ass?”
“No, the way you’re looking at me.”
“And how am I looking at you?”
She smiled at him. “Like you want to eat me.”
Liam climbed off his lounger and crawled toward her. He dropped a kiss at the back of each of her thighs, pulling the bikini panties she wore tightly so he could nibble each curve of her ass. She let out a gasp as he sank his teeth into her flesh. The slight nip of pain sent pleasure through her entire body.
“You’re not playing fair,” she said.
“Since when do I have to play fair to get what I want?”
They’d been enjoying their honeymoon for a week. The only sadness had come from attending Lewis’s funeral. She had expected her brother to turn up so she could talk to him, but he’d been distant. With Liam’s constant attention, she hadn’t been able to go to the house either. There were no spirits to visit her. Even her grandmother was giving her a break.
The outside world had ceased to exist, and for now, she was more than happy for that.
In one easy tug, Liam had her panties completely off her body.
“You’re still not playing fair.”
“I’m playing exactly how I need to,” he said, muttering the words against her skin. He cupped her ass cheeks, squeezing them tightly together before opening them. She glanced over her shoulder and saw his gaze was on her anus.