Page 106 of The Curse of Redwood

“I love you,” he murmured in my ear, not moving from inside me.

I wrapped my arms around him and nuzzled his neck, blinking back tears. “I love you too.”

“I apologize if that was too rough.”

“It wasn’t.” I held him tighter. “It was perfect.”

Unforgettable.

What if banishing Philip’s ghost helped Zeke move on to the afterlife? It was something that had crossed my mind several times over the past week. And it scared me more than anything else, including me dying. Because if I died at Redwood—as horrible as it was to consider—at least I’d more than likely become a ghost myself and be able to stay with Zeke.

But if he moved on… I couldn’t follow him.

“If you had the chance to move on, would you?” I found myself asking before I could stop it.

“Move on?” He withdrew his cock and rolled off me, slipping an arm under my head. “As in the afterlife?”

I nodded.

“Once upon a time, I prayed for such a thing,” he responded, moving his hand up and down my stomach. “My existence here has been lonely and has given me too much time to sit and dwell on my past mistakes. Each poor soul that the curse claims is another soul I have on my conscience, for it was my betrayal that caused Philip to harbor so much pain and anger in his heart before he drew his final breath.”

“So, you want to,” I said, as my chest tightened.

“To be honest, I’m not sure anymore. Do I want the other spirits to be set free? Yes. More than anything. But…” He turned my face to his and traced the edge of my brow with his thumb. “The thought of leaving you pains me more than I can ever say. We’ve had many wonderful days together, yet not nearly enough. There’s still so much I want to know about you. So many laughs we haven’t yet shared.”

The tears I’d blinked back earlier surfaced again. “Yeah. I feel the same about you.”

Zeke kissed one that fell from my eye. “Dry your tears, sweet boy. We have a full day ahead of us.”

“You can eat and drink today, right?” I asked, sitting up in bed. When he nodded, I smiled. “Let’s get dressed and go into town.”

“And what shall we do?” He returned my smile, though his appeared more mischievous.

I bent to kiss his lips before whispering, “Anything. Everything. Live life to the fullest. But we’ll start with breakfast because I’m starving.”

“You have an insatiable appetite,” he said, as we got out of bed and put our clothes on. “With foodandsex.”

I shot him a grin. “Hey, I just indulge a little. No harm in it.”

“If you were a demon, you’d be Gluttony.”

“Is that right?” I bounded up to him and poked his cheek. “Then you’d be Lust. Because all I gotta do is look at you, and I wanna rip your clothes off.”

He arched a brow as he buttoned his shirt. “Don’t tempt me. If you keep saying things of that sort, I’ll have you in that bed flat on your back faster than you can bat an eye.”

My phone buzzed on the nightstand, and I walked over to grab it.

“Morning, Ben,” I answered, surprised by his call. “What’s up?”

“I had an idea, and if you don’t want to, I understand, but would you and Z like to meet Theo, Taylor, and I for breakfast?” he asked. “It’d give us all a chance to meet the guy you can’t seem to shut up about.” The last bit was spoken with a smile in his voice.

“Hang on a sec.” I held the phone away from me and looked at Zeke. “You wanna meet my friends?”

He beamed. “It would be my pleasure.”

“Okay,” I said to Ben. “It’s a go for us. When and where?”

“Our usual café in say… fifteen minutes?”