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Chapter Four

Harry

What did I even say to that? I’d never had anyone speak such things to me before. After my parents abandoned me, I’d kept my emotions hidden away, never wanting to be hurt like that again. And then there was the fear. I’d been so scared to put myself out there, expose my wants, and have someone reject me or hurt me physically.

Instead, I’d gone into a life of service. Being a butler had been a rewarding career for me, and with Willowhope Manor, I’d found my home. A place that made my soul sing. I’d thought that was enough. That protecting the innocent from the evil that had tried taking over, and then getting the opportunity to be here with the current owners was enough.

But had I been wrong? Did I want a chance at more? An opportunity to have a real relationship? Someone to take walks around the property with or take a relaxing day off? I’d never really done that before. Even when I was alive.

Is that why I’d let Buck stay? Funny, insolent, unruly Buck. This man who’d followed me around like…well, like I’d hung the moon since the minute he’d come into the house. I’d thought he was just kissing up to me so that I wouldn’t make him leave, but maybe I’d been lying to myself.

All the occupants of the B&B had embraced and accepted him just as much as he thought they cared for me. And I knew they did, didn’t I? It was one of the reasons I’d stayed when Mr. Chance freed the others to cross over. It felt good to be useful and like part of something again.

Buck’s arms tightened around me. “Harry?”

Looking up into his concerned gaze, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Of course, I liked Buck. More than liked, honestly. I’d let him stay because the thought of eternity without him near me felt dark and gloomy. I hadn’t allowed myself to see it because I’d never found my own person in life, so why would I ever expect to in death?

“Will you kiss me?” I blurted.

Buck smiled, slow and sweet. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”

He lowered his head slowly, brushing his mouth against mine. I’d worked out how to be as human as possible decades ago, even being able to touch, but I’d had limited experience in how that would work with another apparition. If anything, it was better. I’d been kissed a time or two, had one-offs in the still of the night during my years as a mortal, but they’d been nameless men who were as nervous as me.

Not Buck. His lips moved tenderly on mine without hesitation or fear. The limitations of flesh weren’t present as we melded together. I felt the pressure, the way his tongue tangled with mine, but it was more. He pulled me closer as he licked into my mouth, and it was as if the fragments of our soul combined.

Buck’s hands slipped down, snaking under my bottom, and he clutched my cheeks. Feeling free, I jumped up, wrapping my legs around his waist. He pulled back a fraction of an inch. “I can feel the pressure of holding you, like you’re solidly in my arms, yet weightless,” he said, sounding awed.

“I know. It’s…”

“Everything,” he growled, fusing us back together with a hunger I’d never known.

Everything I’d experienced in the past was about two men wanting to get off, to satiate a need. But this was desire like I’d only witnessed before. Since the minute Chance and Jetty started giving into their carnal pleasures, I’d thought them ridiculous with how they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. I understood it now.

Knowing that Buck wanted me, feeling his arousal brushing mine, the heat of his body setting me a flame, even though we were never hot nor cold, but just existing, it was intoxicating. Magical . I wanted more. “Buck, please.”

He held me securely, bumping and rubbing against me like he held me against a wall. But there was nothing there. Only air, and yet he rutted into me, and I felt secure, safe. How was this happening? He couldn’t even change his clothes without doing it like he did as a human, and yet—he slammed against me, and I cried out. His cock was as thick and meaty as his butt, and I was here for it. I wanted it in me—whether my mouth or my ass, I didn’t care.

He trailed kisses up the side of my jaw and nipped at my ear. “If you’ll allow me, Harry, I’m going to take you to bed tonight and make such sweet love to you. But right now, I want to make you come. Can I do that, love? Please.”

Love? My eyes prickled with tears. In all my years on Earth, no one had ever made me feel special in this way. “Yes. Yes to that. Both of those.”

Buck growled, moving me up and down so that our dicks rubbed against each other through our clothes. With a blink, we were naked from the waist down, and his hardness pulsed against mine. “Wh-what?” I stammered.

“Ah. That feels good. I hoped we were connected enough right now that I’d be able to—”

I slammed my mouth to his, shutting him up. We’d be having a long conversation later about how he’d managed to disrobe us, seemingly without thought, when he’d deliberately and consistently ignored my wardrobe suggestions for a butler at the manor. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he’d been tricking me.

But I didn’t care. Buck’s casualness was part of what drew me to him. And I was so, so drawn to him. He slipped his large hand between us, wrapping it around both our cocks and began to stroke quickly and furiously. His touch consumed me, and I was certain we’d both flare out of existence as our release barreled down on us.

We both erupted at the same time, and I swore that our spirits became one. I felt his pleasure and his joy. The truth of his words, that I was his cup, that he considered me his great reward, was so clear within me that it was like they were my own thoughts. It was fascinating. Overwhelming. I needed a minute to think. I wished for more right now.

“Oh, Harry,” Buck groaned out. “You really do like me.”

If he saw into my heart and mind like I’d seen into his, then he’d seen the truth. The one that I barely knew how to process for myself, much less admit. But that was good. He’d give me time to come to terms with this. I knew it as surely as I knew my own name.

Carefully, Buck set me back down on two legs, and I was back in my trousers before my feet touched the ground. “Did you…” I trailed off, embarrassed. In my dalliances in the past, we each took care of cleaning ourselves. Scurrying away from each other as fast as possible.

Buck’s sweet smile returned. “I cleaned us both up as I redressed us.” His grin widened. “I’ve been practicing on myself in case you ever gave me a shot.”

I felt my face heat again. Did that mean he’d masturbated and then… Of course that was what he meant. I’d never thought of myself as prudish, just uncaring of the living’s desires of the flesh. I guessed it was different when I thought I was past having anything like that in my life again. I found myself equally embarrassed and aroused at the thought of Buck touching himself, then practicing this little trick, all so he could use it with me.

To cover my awkwardness, I narrowed my eyes at him. “So you do know how to do more than you originally said? Like you can change your clothes into something brand new?”

He shrugged balefully. “Sure, I can. It’s not like I left the hospital and found my way to the property in a hospital gown.”

I rolled my eyes, but then we both laughed. Holding out my hand, I asked, “Would you be so kind as to walk me back to the house?”

His whole face lit up. “Really? You don’t want to just poof back?”

Shaking my head, I said, “No. I think you’re right. Maybe it’s time for me to slow down and smell the roses.”

He beamed, and I found myself smiling back. “Woah,” came a voice from beside me. When I looked over, an older deceased woman pointed at me. “I didn’t think your lips moved like that. You’re always such a sour puss.”

Her words went right over my head as I realized what we’d done, out here in front of all these spirits. Buck winked at me. “I hid us in an air pocket, so no one saw.”

“Oh, good,” I said, relief washing through me. No, wait. “A what?”

Buck smiled mischievously, grabbing my hand. “You’ve been stuck in that mansion for so long that I might just have a couple of things to teach you, love.”

Running my gaze down his beautiful form, I zeroed in on his crotch. “I sure hope so, Buck.”

He threw his head back, his gigantic laugh booming through the yard.

Buck

“Where did you two come from?” Kingston asked, startling Harry so badly that he jump-floated ten inches off the ground while clutching his chest.

Reaching up, I grabbed his elbow and pulled him back down next to me, tucking him into my side. Since I’d created the air pocket that I’d hidden us away in, I’d noticed Kingston as I released it. “Hey, what are you doing?” I asked, hoping to distract him from the fact Harry and I were canoodling. That wouldn’t work with any of our other friends, but Kingston tended to get lost in his own head.

Taking the bait, he lifted his arms to encompass the fire pit area that he was standing in. “I came out to see if anything jumped out at me.”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked as he walked over to Kingston. Like a puppy on a leash, I followed right on his heels. If he thought I was up his butt before, he hadn’t seen anything yet now that I’d finally gotten my hands on him.

Kingston shook his head. “I’ve been having the same dream for a while about this fire pit. I thought maybe it would go away after they banished the girl in the pond, but…”

But it had gotten worse. I knew this because I’d spent plenty of time sitting out here on the logs with him while he contemplated what his dream meant. I think he’d hoped that he’d realize why or remember something he’d forgotten about the dream if he spent enough time out here. “Maybe there’s nothing to it,” I suggested.

Kingston frowned, and both Harry’s eyebrows rose up to his hairline. “Buck, you can’t believe that’s true. This is Willowhope, and we’re on the ley lines. Generally speaking, if something seems not quite right, it’s not.”

Kingston planted his hands on his hips, and his head fell back as he sighed. “That’s just it. I’ve had dreams before, and they always led to something. It used to be things like tombstones or property lines, and if I looked for facts in the town records, I discovered something from the past that we needed to know now or for the future. But there’s nothing to find out about this particular spot.”

“That’s curious,” Harry said. “I’ve lived here for over a century, and I don’t remember ever hearing anything special about the fire pit. I know that ghosts who don’t move on by themselves tend to gather around the pond.”

“Maybe that’s it,” I said. “Chance has been coming out every week or two and making sure no one needs help crossing over. Do you think maybe inside the logs used to be some kind of doorway to people’s great reward?”

“No, I asked Elyse what she thought about that, and she didn’t get any special read on this area. She said the spirits were drawn to the pond, but they could just as easily come up to the house, and Chance could help them from there.”

“Curious,” Harry said again. He walked around the fire pit, then popped to the other side of the logs that surrounded it and walked the perimeter. “I don’t really see anything—”

He broke off, his face going ashen as he disappeared, reappearing at my side. I couldn’t complain about that since I liked him next to me, and it gave me a little thrill that he’d sought me out, but I didn’t like how panicked he seemed. “What’s wrong, Harry?”

He pointed at the tree he’d been standing next to. It was an old blonde oak tree that had one low, thick branch that extended over the water. “Something feels off over there.”

“Evil?” Kingston asked, all signs of frustration gone and replaced with gleeful hope.

Harry moved in closer to me, close enough that our bodies began to merge. “Not evil but dark.”

Kingston bopped on his toes, giddy with the prospect of more other-worldly activity, which was really freaking adorable for such a tall man. “Malicious?”

Harry shook his head. “No. Not like that. But like a dead zone, for lack of a better way to put it. Almost blank.”

I eyed the tree in question, surprised at his response. I’d lived out here for a while before I’d moved into the manor, and my friends and I had spent hours sitting on the big branch talking about our former lives. “That’s not good. It didn’t used to feel different than anywhere else out here. Even the pond, with all its bad energy, hadn’t felt that way.”

Before we could stop him, Kingston ran straight for the tree. His long legs ate up the short distance easily.

“No,” Harry cried out.

Kingston stood still, then hung his head. “I don’t feel anything,” he mumbled.

“Well, you’re lucky,” Harry said crossly. “What if it had been some human-sucking black hole?”

Kingston’s head panned around, and he stared at Harry incredulously. I didn’t blame him. It was like our sexy times had changed Harry’s personality from the calm stoic butler we all knew and loved to a man a little more in touch with his emotions. I grinned. I’d done that.

Kingston’s gaze moved to me. “What’s wrong with him?”

Harry clucked his tongue. “Nothing. But it’s my responsibility to take care of you all. Including you, Kingston. What would Mr. Jetty say if something had happened to you?” His voice rose toward the end, and he stomped his foot.

Snorting, I hugged him and kissed his forehead. “Calm down. Everyone knows how Kingston is. Why don’t you pop back to the house and have Chance and Jetty meet us out here? See if you can find Elyse and her Mr., too.”

“Good idea,” Harry said, then he was gone, slipping from my arm like mist.

Kingston glared at me accusingly. “You never answered my question. What were you two doing out here?”

With a smug smile, I sat on one of the logs and patted the spot next to me. “Come here and let me tell you how I landed my man.”