Page 4 of Ayden (House of Frazier #3)

Selma knew that she was being strange, but she didn’t know what else to do. Brandy had taken her aside last week and told her that she’d saved her life by giving her a bit of magic. Not asking her if that meant that she could see the ghosts around, she nodded and told her that she’d try things out to see what it gave her. So far, it had only been the ability to change her clothing and to see the ghosts, of course. She’d rather have to change her own clothing than to see the others that seemed to be around everywhere.

“What do you mean when you say you can see ghosts?” She glared at Ayden, wondering how else there was to see ghosts everywhere she went. “I’m sorry. I don’t know…tell me what you mean, and I’ll try to help you. I guess the next question would be…I’m sorry. I’m not sure what I can do to help you out with this.”

“Do normal people see ghosts? Don’t answer that.” She looked out the window that was in his office and asked him what he saw when he looked at her. “I mean, do you see this freak or something?”

“Okay, you’re not a freak. If you can see ghosts, it’s something that we deal with. No name calling even if it’s you that is doing that.” She nodded and looked at him, her eyes filling with tears. “If you cry right now, I’m going to be a mess. I want to help you with—did you tell your mom? Or anyone else?”

“Harley knows. Nobody else. I wanted to tell Brandy. She said that when she saved me that I might get something, but since she didn’t say I’d see dead people, then I didn’t go back to her. Could this be from her?” He said that all he knew was that she’d been shot in the head by her father and that Brandy had given her magic. “What do I do with this?”

“Do they bother you?” She said the ghosts were all right, but seeing them wasn’t. “I’m assuming that they look like they’re dead.”

“What?” He shook his head and told her that he was trying. “I know. Right now, there is a woman standing next to you, and she wants me to tell you thanks. I didn’t ask her for what because I’ve not spoken to any of them, but she said that you helped her.”

“But you can hear them?” She nodded, and when her sister joined her in the room, she felt better. The connection between the two of them had gotten stronger since she had left her home for the last time, and she wanted her nearby all the time. “Do you suppose they have questions too? I mean, you’re not answering them, right? What do they say to you? You know I don’t know what to do about this. Maybe we should tell your mother—”

“Not yet.” Ayden nodded. “She’d freak out, and I’m not ready for the two of us to be freaked out. You’re not yet, but I’m worried about your eye twitching like it is.” She watched as he covered up his eye and smiled at her. “That’s not as reassuring as you’d think right now.”

“Okay. Let me make notes.” She wanted to roll her eyes at him. He was forever making notes but didn’t say anything to him. “You can see ghosts, and you’ve not spoken to any of them. All right, good. Do they ask you questions?”

“They want to know what happened to me all of the sudden. Like the bullet that Aunt Brandy saved me from.” He made a note, and she nodded. Maybe this note thing was better. Harley asked her what she wanted from the ghosts. “Nothing. I mean, I don’t know them, and I don’t know that I want to know them.”

“Are they messed up?” She had to think about what Harley was asking her and nodded when she realized that she wanted to know if they were like they had died. “Okay. That’s good to know. I mean, you can look at them—the ghost you said was with Ayden? What does she look like?”

“She’s all cut up. Not so she’s falling apart, but she is missing her right hand.” Ayden looked at her sharply. “I didn’t do it.”

“No, I know you didn’t, sweetie. But can you please ask her if she was part of the restaurant? I think she’ll understand what I mean.” Selma told him that she was nodding. “She was part of the murders at the restaurant that night. The bodies that we found.”

“Tell him please that I’d been missing for several weeks, and when he found us, my parents knew that I didn’t run off and leave them. Him finding my body, at least most of it, gave them a story behind why I was missing.” She told Ayden what the woman was saying to her. “Tell him there are others that want to thank him as well. But I was voted the least scary for you to talk to.”

“Can she hear me, honey?” Selma nodded, feeling like she was finally making some progress in what was going on. “I don’t know your name. I was never told any of them, but I’m so happy that I was in the right place to be able to solve your disappearance.”

Selma couldn’t help it. She cried when the body just faded out. It was working; no matter that he didn’t understand anything more than she did, Ayden was helping her solve the mystery with the ghosts. While her sister held her hand, Ayden made notes on the people who were in the room with them. Once he had notes on the ones that she could see, she told him a little bit about the people. And they were people he told her that just needed her to help.

“But I think we need to tell your mom. This isn’t a secret that I’m comfortable with keeping.” She said she understood. “If you want to do it while we’re all together, I’ll get her and give her a heads up so she’s not freaked out like you said.”

Ayden left them there with a kiss on their heads. He was like that, always holding them, hugging them just when they needed it. He’d talk to their mom, and things would be all right. She didn’t know why she felt that way, but she did.

“I think we should think about calling him Dad all the time. He’s been better to us since we moved in than our real dad was all our life. We don’t have to do it, but I’m going to think about it.” Harley squeezed her hand and told her that she was smart in doing this. “I hope so. He didn’t look too freaked out, did he?”

“No. He’s nervous, I think. And yeah, we should call him Dad. You’re right, again, on him being good to us. But he’s really good to Mom, too.” Harley told her that she loved her. “I really do. And as much as I love you, I’m glad that I don’t have this thing. I’d be rude, and they’d be banging at my door all the time, wanting me to say I’m sorry for something that I said.”

It made her laugh. Something that she’d not done since she’d been able to see the first ghost. Harley had always been the best sister in the world, and she could make her laugh more than anyone. Glad now that she had told her, she asked her what she thought of the man in the barn.

“I’ve been thinking about him. How he’s not allowed to come into the house. I think that he might be his dad.” She asked her sister why she’d think that. “You said he had a hold in his chest and that he looked nasty like he didn’t bathe all the time?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” She thought of the man and his anger. He was really mad about Ayden all the time and wanted her to get their uncle Lica to come and see him. “I think you might be right. I know that I can make him go away, but I don’t want to do that unless Ayden…Dad tells me to. He might have something to say to him.”

The more she thought about it, the more she believed that Harley was right. That the man was the father of the Fraizer boys and that he had something to say to them. She knew that Dad’s mom was in prison, but she didn’t know what either of them looked like. Thinking about it, she was happy when her mom showed up with Ayden, and she looked all right.

“Ghosts, huh?” She nodded, her eyes filling with tears again as her mom sat on the desk in front of her. “Ayden said that you don’t talk to them, but I have a feeling that you have been. The other night, you were arguing with someone in your room. Is that right?”

“He’s one of the men that were killed about two weeks ago. He wants me to make him live again. I don’t know that I can do that. I mean, dead is dead, right?” Mom told her that was right, but if he got mean with her, to send him away. “I can do that. I haven’t yet, but I can.” She looked at Dad. “Your dad is here too. Not here but in the barn. I won’t let him in the house anymore.”

“Did he hurt you?” She said that he screams at her all the time. “That sounds like him. You can send him away if you want. I have nothing to say to him.”

“He wants to talk to Uncle Lica.” He seemed to be startled by that and then nodded. “He said that you all owe him, and he wants you to kill my uncle so that he’s on the other side with him. I don’t think that would be a good idea. He looks mean mugged all the time.”

“I’ll talk to my brothers and see what they want to do. You did well in not letting him in the house. I don’t know what he’d do to any of us, but you were brilliant for not letting him near us.” She said that she was finding out all kinds of things dealing with the dead. “I bet you are, honey. And I’m so sorry that you’re having to deal with this. If Brandy knew, she’d still save you, but she’d feel bad about it.”

It was only about ten minutes later when they were all meeting in the barn. The man was still there. She and Harley had decided that they weren’t going to call him grandda but just the man. Uncle Edmond asked her to ask him what he wanted.

“You tell them that they’re to kill off Lica.” She told him that no one was going to do that. “You little bitch, you’ll do what you’re told, or so help me, what I gave them boys of mine, you’ll think it was a walk in the mall.” She corrected him. Telling the others what he was saying.

“Why does he hate me so much? Can you ask him that, sweetie? He’s had it out for me since I was born.” Since the man could hear them speaking, Selma just looked at him. “Tell him too that all of can—” She told them that he could hear them and that all he had to do was to talk to them. “Good. Old man, you leave my niece alone. What do you have against me? It’s not anything to do with her.”

“You tell him what I tell you.” She told him that she wasn’t going to cuss. “You will, or I’ll slap you around, too. I can do it, too.”

“I’m not afraid of you. And if you don’t want me to send you away, you’ll be nice to me or else. I won’t cuss. My momma raised me better than that, and Dad here, he’s the best person in the world for taking care of me and my sister. My mom is happy, too.”

“Old man?” The ghost looked at Lica, and she could almost feel his hate coming from him. “You never knew this, but the six of us could shift. We played you like a fiddle, and you never knew.” The ghost lunged at Lica, and he must have felt something because he laughed. “Still have nothing, do you? I’m so happy that you’re dead and gone.” Uncle Lica looked at her. “You can send him on or whatever you need to do, honey. There isn’t a thing that I can say to him that would make any of us feel any better other than to tell him that we’ve been able to shift since we were eight years old.”

“You tell that bastard that he’s to die right now.” She stared at the man who had six of the most well-respected and loved men around. Looking at her uncles and her new dad and all she could think about was that she was safe from men like him thanks to her mom having Dad in her life. “Did you hear me little shit? Tell him that I want him to pull out a gun and blow his brains out so I can talk to him over here.”

“No.” He sputtered for a bit, then told her that he was going to make her life a living hell. “No, you won’t. And you know why? On account of you not scaring me. Not one bit.” She looked at her family, all of them. “I bid you gone from here, never to return.”

It sounded like he’d been sucked into a tube and spit out the other end when he disappeared. Looking at her family again, she told them that he was gone and he’d not be back. It was Brandy that told her that she was sorry for giving her this magic.

“It’s all right. It wasn’t before, but it is now.” Taking her sister’s hand, she held it tightly. “Harley and I are lucky to have you all in our family, and we’re safe from people like him. Dead or alive. They can’t hurt us now.”

Selma felt relief. Not in that she was free of the ghosts, they were still hanging around, but because she didn’t have to keep it to herself anymore. Not only that, but none of them freaked out and talked to her like it was no big deal in being able to see them. Once they were in the house again, it was cold outside, so she went to her room. It was time she wanted to get things working instead of being afraid all the time.

“I told them.” The elderly man nodded and told her that she’d done good. “I don’t understand why they’d not want to know you’re around. I’d think that they’d be happy to know that you’re here to help them. I think that Grannie Frazier would be.”

“She would be, but I’m not at a point where I can talk to her yet.” She nodded, not understanding but doing as asked. “You’re a good girl, and I don’t mind a bit in helping you with this. But as I said, I’m not ready to let them know that I’m around.”

“He murdered you, didn’t he?” Selma watched as he nodded slowly. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore. He won’t bother them or you.”

“I know that.” He looked at the door to her room, and she asked if he wanted her to open it. “No. Not just yet. That sister of yours is coming, and you tell her that no one will think any less of her because she’s not able to see me. They’ll love you both equally.”

“I know that.” He nodded, and his eyes widened when Grannie Fraizer came into the room. “She knows you’re around, Grandda Frazier. I didn’t tell her, but she knows. She told me once last week that she could feel your loving arms when she’s having a rough day.”

“Oh, Brogan.” She helped them in a way that only she could. When they spoke to each other, as if they could hear, she left the room. While she was sure that they’d be all right, Selma knew too that Grannie Frazier wouldn’t join her husband until she was nineteen. That was something else she could do, tell when someone was going to die.

~*~

Summer was so happy to have their own place. The tree in the living room was the first thing that they’d put together. It wasn’t a real one, not this year, but she was about as happy with it as she’d been with anything else in the house. Even the girls were happy to have the beautifully lit tree up so soon after moving in.

Having money this year made her feel better about spending so much on the girls. They both had their own room, and they had kept it nice, even with all the other things going on, and she wanted to reward them. She might not be able to afford to splurge next year or the years after, but this year, she was going to go all out. They were a family, and she couldn’t have loved them anymore. Especially Ayden.

He’d taken to being a partner to her with all that he was. Once the girls started calling him Dad, they seemed to do it with gusto. She couldn’t have been more proud of them either. She had a family now, and there wasn’t anything going to come between her and hers. Not even the Fortrights were trouble anymore.

“I have a package coming in the next several days. Well, a lot of packages are coming, but don’t open them. I’ve been having fun.” She knew that it was for her, just the way that Ayden had said for her not to open it. Once she told him that she’d not, he kissed her on the mouth and moved to his office. That was another thing that she wanted for Christmas, sex with her husband.

Going into the office, she was surprised to see how organized it had been. Having only just moved into the house the week before, it looked like they’d been living there forever. Ayden was still working, so he’d had to set things up quickly, but she’d been lazing around the house, enjoying being a mom for a change, and now it was time for her to be a wife with all that it entailed. She also had to tell Ayden that she loved him. Because she did, with all her heart.

“The girls are with your grandma. She’s taking them shopping for the two of us. Is that normal?” Ayden laughed and asked her if she’d just ask him if something was normal. “I guess you’re right. Nothing has been normal since I met you.”

“Tomorrow, there is a school function, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it is. Is that when the girls go to the school to figure out what grade they’re going to be in?” She told him that it was also the Christmas pageant as well. “Oh. Yeah, I did forget about that. They’re not in the pageant, are they?”

“Yes, but they don’t have any parts in the play. I think they arrived too late for them to be able to get one.” She sat on the chair across from Ayden. “I just heard from Brandy. She wants to go to Easton to spend the day with the kids. I don’t know if I’d wander that far from home with her being as big as she is. She’s not even due for another month yet.”

“The doctor told her that she’d be fine so long as she didn’t overdo it. I’m thinking that she’s had this date with you guys planned before you became a part of the family. She told me that once, that she couldn’t wait for us to have mates so that she could have friends. I’ve been told, and I don’t know whether to believe it or not, she’s not any good at making female friends.” She told him that she thought she was great. “I guess most women are intimidated around her. She does have a tendency to be a little pushy.”

“Only a little?” They both laughed, and she slipped out of her shoes. “I’ve been thinking about things with us. I know that we’re married and all, but we’ve never really talked about what that meant.” Ayden shut off his computer and asked her if she wanted to talk now. “Yes. Do you want other children than the girls? Do you mind that I’m not working but staying here all the time? Just questions that have been going through my head. Also, would you like to have sex with me?”

“Yes. I would love to have other children with you. So long as you’re all right with it. Yes, I love having you home all the time because it makes you happy. And more than anything, I’d love to make love with you. Not just sex, but making love.” He leaned back in the chair that he’d picked up new today. “Is this why the girls are spending the day with my grandma? Because you wanted to make love?”

“I didn’t think of that when she called here for them, no. But I’ve been thinking about how much I love you, and it seemed natural that we have sex. Or make love as you said.” She didn’t move from the chair when he put his computer on the floor. “What are you doing? You’re not working more, are you?”

“No. Come here so that I can taste you.” She nearly fell out of the chair. “All I’ve thought about all month is what you might taste like. Eating you here on my desk sounds so good to me that I can barely think of anything else. Would you like that?”

“Yes.” Her voice sounded husky, and she stood up only to sit back down. “There are people in the house. What if they hear us?”

“They won’t.” He was so sure that she believed him. Going toward him, she sat on the desk, just realizing why he’d put his computer on the floor. Putting her feet on either side of his chair arms, she leaned back on the desk. “Can you see how hard I am? It’s all for you.”

He didn’t open his zipper, but she had no trouble seeing how hard he was. Even as he sat there, adjusting his cock, all she could feel was need. Even when her pussy felt wet, she knew that this was going to be more than she could have hoped for in making love with this man.

She moved her feet over him even as he took her hand and rubbed it against his shaft. Wrapping her fingers around him as he’d done and squeezed him. He jumped in her hand. When his free hand moved behind her neck and brought her close, she moaned again when she felt his mouth nip at her neck.

“Strip. Take your clothes off and let me taste you. Christ, I want to fuck you with my tongue.” His hands were everywhere, and her clothes were torn from her even as she felt his mouth on her breasts. “Feed me, Summer. Feed me your nipples while I fuck your hand.”

When her breast was free, she lifted it up to his mouth, and his teeth sank deep into her nipple, making her cry out. When he turned her around and sat her on the desk, she whimpered when he freed his cock from her hand. But his fingers slid into her pussy made her forget everything but what he was doing to her.

“I’m going to eat you, suck your pussy until you come in my mouth. Then I’m going to lap every bit of your cum in my mouth, making you come and come again.”

“Please, Ayden. Please.” When he got down onto his knees and pulled her ass forward until her pussy was right on the edge, she watched his head lower to her. “Ayden, Please, I—“

His tongue entered her. She felt it move inside of her. In and out, in and out. When he licked her clit she threw back her head and, using her hands, she lifted up to get him deeper. She wrapped her fingers in his hair and tried to guide him to her clit again, but he wouldn’t go. Frustration was making her needy, and she wanted him to make her come with him in the worst sort of way.

When he finally took her clit into his mouth and sucked her hard, she screamed out her release. His fingers entered her, and again, he touched off another climax, then another. She lay back when he stood, his cock thick and hard before her. There was so much precum on him that she was sure that there was going to be very little left for herself.

“Watch me. Watch what I want to do when I come inside of you.” His hand fisted his cock and stroked it once twice, then a third time before he came. “Oh baby, yes.”

Thick hot cum jettisoned out from him and onto her belly, breasts, and face. He roared with each release, and when he reached down and pinched her clit she came again, screaming out his name as he rubbed his cum all over her.

He wasted no time in taking her this time. His cock filled her to her throat, it felt like, and she wanted to feel his cum. Rubbing his juices all over her, she nearly fainted when her hands rubbed his cum on her breasts. All she could think of as he filled her was that she was never going to be the same again.

“I’m coming.” She fell back on the desk, her body tight with anticipation. As soon as he bit down on her shoulder, she came so hard that she thought that she was broken. Even as she came a second, then a third time, she knew that, on some level, this wasn’t normal. This wasn’t the way that people made love. When he growled at her, his voice in her head, she came again when ordered and passed out.

When she woke, she was on his lap—it had to have been only a few seconds. His cock was deep inside of her. Almost as soon as she sat up, feeding him her breasts, she threw back her head and came again.

Nothing could have prepared her for having this kind of love, and when he pulled her to him, her clit at his groin, Summer screamed out his name and let herself tumble over into the bliss that was theirs and theirs alone.

This time, when she woke up, she was still in his arms, but her body was lying across his. He wasn’t talking, but she could tell that he was deep in thought. Sitting up a bit more, he smiled at her as he adjusted her on his lap.

“I love you.” His grin got bigger, and she told him that she loved him as well. “I want to prepare you for the magic—” But it was too late. It was rolling over her like a thunderstorm in the middle of summer.

Her body felt turned inside out. Fingers cramping up, it was all she could do to hold onto him. While he held onto her, Summer could feel her feet tightening. Her hair seemed to crackle in her mind. Even as she held onto him, Ayden kept saying that he was sorry that he had her and that she’d be all right. Passing blissfully out, she knew that this wasn’t finished, but she couldn’t take the pain any longer.

Looking around the room, she knew that she was in her bed. The room wasn’t dark, but just enough that she had to squint to see what was in the room with her. It was Ayden who spoke to her, seemingly from a long distance and told her that she was all right that it was over. Closing her eyes, she knew that if it was over, she was going to have magic that would only be revealed by Brandy and Mac. Her body was just too sore to care if she could even see ghosts like her daughter.

Getting out of bed and going to the bathroom, she didn’t make a sound as she made her way across the room. The bottom of her feet hurt, and she thought that she would have a permanent cramp in her hands as she made her way back to the bed. When Ayden lifted the covers, she got into bed with him and snuggled closer to him. The walk to the bathroom had been chilly, but she was warmer now that she had Ayden at her side.

The sun was up when she got out of bed again. There were damp towels hanging on the rack and smallish footprints on the floor from water dripping. Taking a shower and letting the too-hot water run over her, she began to feel better even as she stretched out. Her only thought was that if they made love like that again, she was going to be too sore to move. Hopefully, it was something that didn’t happen every day. Then she realized that she did want that every day and smiled. She didn’t know what to think when she found herself with the ability to dress herself with magic.