Page 46 of The Haunting of Lockton

He stared at the weeping willow, his expression unreadable. “I may not be book smart like my brother, but I like to think I can read people fairly well. But you’re different. One moment, I think you want to kiss me, and the next, you’re storming off or throwing up walls to keep me out.”

I could say the same about him. He baffled me too.

“It’s more like closing a door,” I said. “A wall implies being completely sealed off. Doors can be opened again.”

Skyler shifted his weight toward me on the bench. It brought him closer to my face, reminding me of when we were pressed together in the corridor of Lockton.

Ihadbeen so close to kissing him that night. So close to shutting off the part of my brain that second-guessed everything and just letting myselffeelinstead. Letting myself do what felt right, any future consequences be damned.

“I guess I slammed that door shut last night, huh?” he asked. “When I put my foot in my mouth.”

I couldn’t answer.

“What will it take for me to unlock that door?” Skyler’s warm breath whispered across my lips. The moon passed behind a cloud, casting a shadow over his face.

“I never said it was locked.” My gaze fell to his mouth. Maybe it had been stuck there for a while. I didn’t know anymore. “No key required.”

“How about a donut, then?” The edge of his lips curved. “One with sprinkles?”

We shared a smile.

“Only if there’s coffee involved too,” I said.

“You want a coffee date?” He pushed his head forward just a little bit, enough for me to feel the heat coming off his skin. “I think we can make that happen.”

Skyler Knox destroyed my brain cells, like my thoughts were those candies on the game he loved to play. He crushed them one by one, smashing all sense of reason and stripping me down to my baser instincts.

Like right now.

I slanted my head down to his. Our lips touched but didn’t fully connect. His exhale fluttered over my skin and sent tingling heat down my neck and into my bloodstream. One kiss. It couldn’t hurt anything, could it? It wouldn’t be enough for me to catch feelings for this sexy-as-hell, burger-loving ghost hunter.

“We don’t have to,” Skyler whispered. “I get it if this isn’t—”

Our lips finally connected. And with that connection, a soft groan worked its way up my throat. The echo of it seemed to reverberate in his too. His lips were a bit dry from the chilly air but still soft, just as I’d imagined them to be. He slid his hands up my chest and grabbed the collar of my coat, deepening the kiss.

I felt hot. Charged, like an electric current surged through my bloodstream, the voltage turned down low but humming with each pressing of our mouths. When Skyler pushed his tongue past the barrier of my lips and swirled it with mine, that humming in my veins intensified.

I had kissed several men in my life, but Skyler was on a whole other level. His warmth. His taste. The way his silky tongue slid against mine. All of it consumed me.

Our kiss broke as I chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Skyler asked.

“Nothing more romantic than making out in a graveyard.”

He snorted a laugh before kissing me again. And again. I felt him smiling with each one.

As the seconds passed, I found a rhythm with Skyler. All my life, I’d often felt like I was on a different frequency than everyone else. But maybe Skyler was too. Maybe his frequency matched mine. We were total opposites but somehow found common ground. We’d found a connection that was only growing stronger as we kissed on that bench in the middle of the cemetery, surrounded by rows of gravestones and the smell of late autumn.

A low wailing then filled the air, soft and mournful.

“Holy shit,” Skyler whispered, looking over my shoulder. “Is that…?”

I turned just as a white glimmering figure glided behind the willow tree. The bottom of the tattered gown brushed over the grass.

“The Weeping Bride,” I said. “Or Mary, as I know her.”

It wasn’t the first time I’d seen Mary. She often visited the tree when I stayed late after the tours. I had tried speaking to her once, but unlike Alan, she didn’t seem to have the ability to escape her grief enough to communicate. Instead, she drowned in that grief.