Page 74 of The Curse of Redwood

“Yes.”

Where I started to sweat from the exertion, his body stayed cool and dry. The contrast never failed to remind me of how different we were. But those differences hadn’t stopped me from falling head over heels for him.

Zeke sat forward and licked up my damp chest before swirling his tongue around my nipple. The extra stimulation drove me even more wild with lust. I not only needed to come, but I needed him to as well. I wanted this beautiful man to crumble beneath me as pleasure took control of him.

As I began to shudder, he flicked his tongue faster on my beaded nipple. My orgasm crashed into me like a tidal wave, the intensity strong and overpowering. I heard myself mumble through my release, though I doubt I said anything coherent.

Zeke lightly chuckled before joining me in ecstasy. He fell back to the bed as his cock pulsed. I stared down at his blissful expression and rolled my hips, drawing from him every ripple of pleasure.

He tugged me down afterward and cradled me against his side. My heart beat so heavy that I felt the thumping in my entire body. I was sure he felt it too.

“I apologize for not saving you from Jasper,” Zeke said, resting his face at my nape. “When William told me about it, I flew into an irrepressible rage. I confined Jasper to a room on the third floor, so he won’t bother you again.”

“You confined him to a room? That’s possible?”

“I’ve locked away many dangerous spirits,” he responded, gliding his fingers up and down my bare side. “That’s why I told you to never journey to the third floor. I can confine them to a single room, though some still manage to break loose.”

“Jasper called you his master and said you had forbidden any of them to hurt me. Is that true?”

“Yes. A lot of good that did you.” He kissed my shoulder. “You will never know how sorry I am. Being so close to losing you… I cannot even think it.”

“But wouldn’t I just be with you forever?” I asked, turning my head to look at him. “If I died here, I’d become a ghost. Like you.”

“Do not speak such a thing,” he growled, grabbing my chin. “I care for you too much to condemn you to a life of torment.”

“It wouldn’t be a torment if I was with you.” My throat tightened. Was I serious? Was that really what I wanted? To die and become a damn ghost?

“I will not hear another word of this,” Zeke said as his eyes darkened. “Promise me you will not do anything foolish.” I started to argue, and his hold tightened on my chin. “Promise me.”

“I promise.” My eyes watered as I felt the impossibility of our situation.

Ben and Theo made it work because they lived in the same house. They also didn’t have dozens of other ghosts living with them, many of them sinister and dangerous. Would someone eventually buy the mansion? I couldn’t sneak into the place for the rest of my life.

“Tell me more about the curse,” I said, rolling over to face him. “How did it start?”

“That’s a long story.”

“I’ve got time.” I nestled in the crook of his arm and shoulder, twirling a strand of his blond hair around my finger.

“I don’t know where to begin.”

“Think of it like a book,” I said, then smiled when his eyes flashed to mine. “How would the story start?”

Zeke frowned as he pondered his words. He smoothed his hand along my skin. “I suppose… the story begins with a boy.”

“What was so special about this boy?” I asked, finding comfort in playing with his hair.

He stared deep into my eyes, and within the depths, I saw a raw pain that cut me to my core. “Everything.”

Chapter Fourteen

“The first time I saw Philip, he was wearing hand-me-down clothes that had tears in the seams,” Zeke said. “We were men of eighteen, though I still felt like a child in many aspects. I hadn’t yet experienced the world outside of Father’s wealthy acquaintances and the private all-boys school he insisted I attend. Philip came to the estate and asked for work. Any work. He’d visited several other wealthy families and asked the same. All had rejected him.”

“But you didn’t?” I asked.

“How could I? He was dressed in rags and looked as though he hadn’t eaten in days. I pitied him. Father wished to turn him away, but I convinced him to allow Philip to be my manservant. My former one had grown too old, you see, and the position was available.”

His words played like a movie in my mind. But more than that, I felt a connection to those words. As if a part of me already knew the story.