SmokingHot (4 page)

Adrenaline made my body shiver and I felt it course a silver
trail through my veins. Was it Arthur from the monster box? No. It was Roxy
Morton with her surreal eye pressed to the crack of the door. One bright eye
blinked, but she didn’t seem to see me seeing her. She was watching us fuck.

I put my head down, pushing myself back to take all of Sean.
His hands roamed my “spectacular” ass and he made the noises of appreciation
only a man in the process of getting laid can make. “Sean?”

“Shh, I’m worshipping this ass,” he said and gave me another
swat.

My pussy gripped tight around him and my belly rolled with a
nervous thrill and I forgot to care that Roxy was watching us. I actually found
it really kind of hot that she was spying. And if she wanted to end her days
watching some stellar sex, then who was I to get in the way. It was only one
eye pressed to the door crack, anyway. How much can you really see with one
little eye?

Sean palmed my bottom again, his skin stroking over my skin
and I felt my cunt grow tighter still. God, I was going to come again. All this
adrenaline, plus handsome guy, plus gather-ye-rosebuds-while-ye-may mentality
had pushed me to the point of over-the-top arousal. “Oh, god,” I said.

“Amen.” He laughed softly. He leaned over me, his body
pressing along my spine. “I can feel it in there. That orgasm. And I want you
to give it to me. With the view I have at the moment, I’m pretty far gone, and
I want us to get off together. Do you like the sound of that?” he said softly.
I wondered if Roxy could hear him and shocked myself by realizing that I
really, really hoped she could. Oh, I was a dirty, dirty girl. Who knew?

“I do. I do. I really, really do,” I sort of chanted. I
threw my head back and caught sight of a pale face pressed to the door. My
nipples grew tighter and tingly, my stomach sizzling like I was full of
electricity. She could see us. Really well.

“Then touch yourself for me, Vanessa,” he said the end of my
name with intent.

I didn’t correct him.

I worked my hand under my body, circling my wet clit with my
fingers, pressing just enough that my body hummed with an urge to release that
instant. I teased my own engorged flesh, flicking the tiny nub with the tip of
my finger so that I shuddered. “Okay, okay,” I said.

His fingers gripped me hard and I hoped that they’d leave
little purple bruises. Memorials to this horrible yet fabulous night. If they
found me dead, they’d wonder about the ten half-moon bruises on my skin. Or
maybe they wouldn’t, either way, it’d be a testament to dying happy. “Here we
go. You ready, Vanessa?”

He was enjoying that too much—calling me by my given
name—but I would let it go, what with the crush of velvety orgasm that folded
down over me. I came with him as Sean jerked against me. Tugging me to him,
repeating my name like some mystical spell. And when he draped his warm, solid
body over my back and kissed my ear I smiled.

I heard the door snick shut. “What was that?” he asked.

“What?”

“That noise?” Sean kissed my neck, reached under me to cup
my breasts in his hands. His skin was so warm, his breath moist heat on my
neck.

“What noise?” I said and then turned under him, pulling him
down. Kissing him hard and shutting him up. He didn’t really need to know about
Roxy. She’d be embarrassed. “Maybe it was our ghost.”

He laughed in my ear but then, “Um, guys? He’s back,” said
Roxy through the door. That girl had a thing with doors.

I was buttoning my jeans when she came in. I looked her up
and down and she blushed slightly. I should say something, my nature was to rub
it in, but this night had been what felt like one massive hallucination, so why
mess even more with someone?

“What is it now?” I sighed, tugging my top down. “Godzilla?
Zombies? Vampires and werewolves, oh my!”

“No. Arthur’s up and cruising for his final six souls.”

“And what will sixteen get him again?” Sean asked, subtly
kissing my neck. Not so subtly that my neck didn’t tingle and break out in
goose bumps.

“Retribution, mostly,” she said.

“Ah, no moving into the white light? No crossing over? No
butterflies and angel wings?”

Roxy shrugged. “I can only tell you what he’s giving me.
Which is mostly incoherent as far as thought and is more feelings. Remember, he
was killed by his sister, had no justice, and then his mother—fearful of the
haunting and the activity in the home—basically is the one who called in some
voodoo woman and had him trapped in that box in the basement for a few
decades.”

“So he’s just a crazy-ass, neglected, been sequestered for a
billion years, nut bag,” I growled.

“Yeah.”

“Awesome!” I shoved my shoes on, my body still pulsing with
little flickers of pleasure. At least I was going to die thoroughly fucked and
mildly happy.

“And what is Van going to do? What can she possibly do,”
Sean asked. God love him, he sounded super protective and entirely unhappy that
this had become some mission for me.

Roxy dropped to the bed where we had just invoked a few
orgasms and said, “Well, she was the final person in the house, like his
sister. She’s female, like his sister. She’s…um…”

“Yes, yes, yes?” I barked, rolling my hands at her in a
“hurry up” motion.

“Brash and harsh like his sister?”

“Jesus,” I said and rolled my eyes and Sean turned his head.
I think he was smiling. Rat bastard.

“And you can stand in for Marian,” she said to me. “I feel
he still has a great amount of fear for her, not to mention hatred. But the
fear is stronger. So if you can act out as her and cow in him into letting them
go and maybe crossing over, we can all get the hell out of here.”

“Hmph,” I said noncommittally.

“What do you do for a living?” Sean asked.

I blinked. “Why?”

He shrugged. “Curious.”

“I am a waitress,” I said.

He grinned.

“An unemployed waitress,” I added.

He grinned more.

“What! What? A waitress is a perfectly respectable wonderful
career goal.”

He laughed out loud then. “I know. I was just wondering.
Your demeanor says you deal with the difficult every day. And you are a bit—”

“Brash?” I growled.

“Sometimes,” he said. He bent and kissed me. “But I like it.
I like to be a little scared and on edge when I’m getting laid,” he said right
in my ear and I snorted with laughter. I couldn’t help it.

“Shut up,” I said with no real heat.

“And you know…I actually need a waitress at the bar,” he
said and mussed my hair like I was a kid.

“Hey!” I smoothed it but then said, “Really?”

“Yeah. Really. And if I’m your boss, you can’t bark at me.”

“Don’t be so sure,” I said.

“Could you guys do career day after we get the fuck out of
here?” Roxy asked. First time I’d heard her sound annoyed. Good for her.

“Sure thing, scary ghost boy whisperer. When do we do this
thing?”

“Now is good,” she said. “He’s cruising for souls.”

I stood. “Are we all sure we haven’t ingested a huge amount
of drugs or possibly toxic fumes and aren’t all sharing a massive crazy
hallucination?” I asked with great hope in my heart.

They both shook their heads in unison. “Nope,” Roxy said.

“’Fraid not,” said Sean.

Damn.

So after Roxy filled me in a bit I took a deep breath and
walked out into the hall. With my fucking luck, I’d not even get a word out and
Arthur the black smoke monster from the box would munch me right up and I’d be
gone before I could even try our sneaky—asinine—plan.

Sean was close on my heels even though I kept waving him
off. “It’s me who has to do this. You need to be…not here,” I said.

He gave me a patented cop stare and said, “Yeah, good luck
with that. Plus, you should get used to taking orders from me since I’m going
to be your boss.”

I rolled my eyes at him and gave him the finger and he
laughed softly. So what if I’d been burned about a million times in the man
department. So what if most of them had been total selfish jerk-wads. Sean
Tierney seemed totally different and he made my heart go pitter-patter and I
might even tell him that if a ghost made of black smoke and bad childhood
memories didn’t eat me.

“Hey, Arthur, you weak baby! Where are you? You need to
knock it off!”

I have to admit. The plan that Roxy laid out for me seemed
about as intelligent as starting a barbeque with a can of gasoline and a really
short match, but who was I to judge? She seemed a bit cuckoo but wouldn’t you
be if you spoke to dead folks.

It all made sense in a logical illogical sort of way. So if
it made the doors open and let us out of the haunted house from hell, then I
was all for it.

“Come out you chickenshit! You need to let these people go.
Are you too scared to deal with me? Just me? I mean, this is why Mom rushed out
of here every night.” My hands were shaking and my teeth wanted so badly to
clack but I refused to act afraid. I might feel the urgent need to pee myself,
but no one was going to know but little old me.

One door opened in the hallway and terrified eyes stared out
at me. Some more of our fellow housebound partygoers. I heard Sean telling them
what to do. If the doors or windows open, haul ass, we’d sort out people
missing and accounted for later. I heard something inside my head and some
stuff outside my head. With my ears, I heard a hissing rushing sound, like
water falling into a river or a crush of white noise. Inside my head I heard a
small voice. A mean voice.
You hurt me. You hurt me and you didn’t even get
punished.

God, that hurt. I shook my head but pushed the words out of
my mouth. “I mean, you are a big baby. That’s why Dad left us. That’s why I had
to act like another mother for you. How annoying do you think that was?” One
door slammed and another flew open. I saw a curl of black smoke and then a
window flew open behind me and Sean hustled the two folks from that bedroom out
onto a small roof. He whispered, “Jump if you have to. A broken bone is better
than…well, it’s just better.”

“There you go. Let them out! Deal with me! Prove you’re
brave enough to deal with me.” I heard the front door down below and then a
shriek and frenzy as people saw a chance to make a break for it.

Roxy was a few steps behind Sean and she nodded, smiling a
little. She waved her fingers like “keep going”.

I waved my hand at her. Mouthed
get the hell out of here
!
but she shook her head no.

Another window flew open and Sean pushed a girl who’d popped
out of a closet out onto that section of the roof. “Go, go!”

She went.

“Come on Arthur! You wuss!”

Bitch
, I heard in my head.

I seized that childish tone I could hear even in my psyche.

“Oh, you are in so much trouble for that. Potty mouth! I’m
going to spank your ass good, for that!”

Wind whipped down the hallway from nowhere at all and Sean
said, “Vaaaaan.” In a warning voice.

“I’m going to beat you within an inch of your li—”

The smoke crushed down around me out of nowhere. One moment
there was nothing, the next it was a black mass of evil. I heard Sean yelling
my name. I heard Roxy urging people to run. And I was swept under. A mass of
nothingness that somehow felt as heavy as a piano sitting on my chest.

Panic swelled in my lungs and I struggled to remember my
instructions from Roxy. I thrashed when I heard Sean’s voice and his own panic.
Such a stupid, stupid, nice, sweet, sexy, stupid man becoming that attached to
me so fast. I yelled for him but no sound came out of me and somehow that
scared me more than anything else.

I tossed and kicked and moved but it was like trying to swim
in oatmeal or sand. The smoke blocked all light, filled my ears so I stopped
hearing others and heard only the wild roar of my blood in my ears. When I
opened my mouth to scream, it snaked down my throat, gagging me.

What was I supposed to say? What? Think, Van! Think!

Gotcha
is what I heard in my head.
Finally
and
then and oily little chuckle that inspired a sickening shiver.

I focused my energy.
Listen to me, Arthur, I’m not your
sister.

You can’t trick me,
he said in my head.

But I have! And I’m not your sister. Now listen to me,
Arthur, you are the victim here.

And you’ll pay for making me the victim.

I rushed on in my head, focusing my mind, picturing white
light and a gorgeous crossing for him. I squashed my natural inclination to
panic and thought at him.
You were wronged and we want to make that right.
We want to help you cross over, Arthur. We want to help you get your just
reward of peace. We want to…
My brain seized up. What had Roxy said?

Don’t want it
, Arthur said in my head and I felt the
darkness suffocating me. It wasn’t so much killing me as dragging me under,
making me weak and tired.
No,
he chuckled.
No, no, no!

Yes!
I roared in my head. Then it came to me and I
rushed on before Arthur could stifle me.
We want to destroy the box and help
you cross and have a ceremony!
I pushed that image in my mind. Pushed it at
Arthur like I was giving him a present. Because it’s all the spirit really wanted.
All the little boy who’d been trapped alone and angry and sad for all these
years. Recognition. Peace. Honor and a little fucking attention. Really, you
couldn’t blame him.

It will be like a party! In your honor. We’ll have a
religious figure or more! We’ll say prayers and sing songs. We’ll light incense
and honor you, Arthur. And all you went through. We’ll destroy that horrible
box and we’ll help you cross over and we’ll be there and—

Was it my imagination or could I breathe a bit more deeply?
Arthur did not speak to me but I felt a decidedly perplexed and yes, receptive,
presence in my mind and body.

We will be there to say goodbye to you Arthur and then
you will be…safe.

Safe
? he asked in my head.

Yes, safe. And I will personally tell everyone what
happened to you and that your sister should have paid.

I sucked in a blissfully deep breath and heard Sean yelling
for me. It was the first thing I had truly heard since the smoke enveloped me.
I tried to call out, but no, not yet.

Promise
? he asked, the petulant little boy voice in
my mind almost made me laugh.

Cross my heart! But now you have to do your part.

I sensed suspicion in the air. But I rushed on.
You have
to let the souls you’ve gathered go and let them feel safe too. Let them be
safe the way we’re going to let you be.

I’m coming back if you lie to me.

Damn Skippy. You come back and kick my ass!

And then we hit the ground. It was sort of like being
dropped over a banister from the top floor to the bottom. My ass hit the
hardwood with a crack and I started bellowing like a pissed-off grizzly bear.

Sean Tierney hit the ground on his knees and started
checking me over for cuts or wounds, “Where were you? Jesus Christ, where were
you?” He kept muttering and then kissing me and then muttering and then kissing
me.

Finally he let me speak and I said, “Fuck if I know.”

“How are you, Van!” Roxy asked.

“I am fine but you need to call a priest! Call a rabbi!
Hell, woman, call the National Guard. We have to give Arthur the ghost version
of a bon voyage hootenanny or he’s coming back to get his souls.” Roxy was on
her cell phone—that finally worked!—before I could get up off the floor.

“I need to get you home,” Sean said, pulling me in and
holding me to his chest. His heart was pounding so hard his chest jumped
against my cheek. People who had dropped from the smoke were weeping and one
woman kept saying, “Here’s the ground. Here’s the ground. Right here. Here’s
the ground.”

Poor thing.

“Why? To have your wicked way with me?” I snorted. I was
filthy. Covered in what looked like soot and goo. Snottish material if you must
know. Bleuregh.

“Well, first we’ll hose you down,” he asked, feline eyes
twinkling. When I punched him none too gently, he let me. “But yes,” he said
against my ear so that I trembled a little. More than me had been trapped in
that black nothingness.

“Let me guess, you want to express how upsetting it was for
you to think of this world without my sunny presence,” I snorted.

“Well, actually—” He walked me backward away from the small
throng of people. He pressed me into the corner of the hallway, partly behind
an open door. Then he dropped a kiss on my lips. “Yes. I was upset.”

This was an entirely different kind of kiss. Where the
others had been urgent and feverish and hurried, this one was almost…tender. I
know, ick! I said almost. I parted my lips to let his gently probing tongue
into my mouth and soaked up his attention. “Oh,” I said, dumbly.

We stayed that way for a moment. Me feeling utterly safe
with a solid wall to my back and Sean to my front. No black smoke was going to
suck me up again in a supernatural vacuum. Ever. Thank goodness.

His thumbs rubbed gently along my hips and he held me still,
kissing my forehead and my nose. Brave man, I was streaked in goop of an
indeterminate origin. I’m not sure how long we stayed tucked in that little
corner, kissing and murmuring to each other. Time had become elastic to me. And
then, “Hello?” said a feminine voice from below and Roxy hung her dreadlocked
head over the banister and announced, “The Unitarian Minister is here! Let the
crossing over begin!”