Page 89 of The Haunting of Lockton

“Me either.”

He slid one hand under the back of my coat, and a smile tugged at his lips as his fingers found the dangling strings of my corset. He then took a step back and gave me a once-over, blowing out a soft breath. “Wow. That’s pretty fucking hot.”

“T-Thanks.” The corset wasn’t as confining as the ones women wore, but it prevented me from slouching even if I’dwanted to. “Madison helped me fasten it. I was clueless. I should’ve thought about how I was going to take it off.”

Mischief glimmered in his eyes. “I think I could help with that.”

Images flooded my head of him pressing me against a wall and undoing the bindings.

“Ghost got your tongue?” he asked when I hadn’t said anything.

And just like that, he obliterated my composure. I laughed. He always found a way to do that to me.

“Fuck, I love that sound.” Skyler brought me back to his chest. “I get the feeling you don’t do it much. Laugh.”

“Not with other people.” I wound my arms around him too. “Well. Breathing ones.”

“Ah. Alan makes you laugh too, huh? My rival.”

My body shook with another low rumble, and I rested my face on the side of his hair. The strands were slightly cool from being in the crisp night air. “Don’t let this go to your already big head, but you don’t have a rival, Skyler Knox. You’re unlike anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Yeah.” He swallowed hard and tightened his hold on me. “I could say the same about you.”

A silence stretched between us as we stood like that, holding each other in front of the willow tree. How fitting that in the place I felt so at peace, Skyler would find me.

“Did you guys go to Lockton tonight?” I asked.

He nodded. “Julian wanted to go when there was still daylight, so we headed over around five. We just used our phones to record, not bothering setting up any cameras.”

“Anything happen?”

“Not really,” he answered. “Julian tried reaching out to Roy with no success. We saw a faint apparition in the basement, but it fled when we shone our flashlights that way. That’s a normalpart of investigation though. It’s unrealistic to expect a ton of activity every time.”

“In the basement?”

“Yeah, in the solitary wing. Other than the occasional footstep and faint humming on the second floor, we didn’t catch anything.” He yawned and shook his head. “Sorry. It’s been a long day.”

“You should be in bed, then,” I said. “Not wasting valuable sleep time talking to me in a graveyard.”

He smirked. “But I like talking to you in graveyards.” He angled his mouth over mine. “I like kissing you in them too.”

When our lips touched, my throat wobbled. I was falling for him hard.

“Come home with me,” I whispered. “I need help getting out of this corset.”

He arched a brow. “Wow. That was kind of smooth.”

“I learn from the best,” I said with a grin.

We left the cemetery and found our vehicles in the small parking lot. I followed him to Redwood for him to drop off the SUV and keys so Julian wouldn’t have to wait on Skyler tomorrow if he wanted to go anywhere. Call it a hunch, but I expected Skyler and I would be staying up late that night. Very late. Doing things I hoped and prayed Alan would tune out.

Skyler then hopped into my car, and I drove us to my house.

It didn’t take long for us to come together once we’d walked through the front door. We kissed and groped on our way upstairs and then sealed ourselves inside my bedroom before the touches became heavier.

“I fucking love you in these clothes,” Skyler murmured against my lips, moving his hands down the front of my corseted vest. “It’s like I’m banging Lestat.”

I choked on a laugh. “I’m just glad you didn’t say a certain member of the Cullen clan.”