Ghost Stalker (15 page)

His warm flesh melded with hers in the exquisite and torturous contact that could never be close enough. Her fingernails raked his back, causing him to arch in pleasure. She wanted him to kiss her everywhere.

He smiled at the specifics of the instructions as if he heard her speaking, yet all about them were only the calls of birds and the drone of the bees.

Nick followed her directions to her lovely plump breasts, kissing and suckling as she moaned her delight. She could not keep still beneath him now, for her longing burned too bright.

She lifted her hips and he took the opportunity to slip the sheath of lace away, removing the last barrier between them.

Her mind cried out for him. He did not need her mental urging to know what she craved, for she grasped his hips and pressed herself wantonly against his sex.

Jessie rubbed seductively against the long length of him, the slick juices from her body moistening his erection. He closed his eyes in an effort to resist her, for he wanted to bring her to orgasm before taking her.

He moved down her body, kissing the soft flesh of her stomach and savoring the scent of musk that emanated from her sex.

She writhed in an attempt to bring him back to her as her mind cried out her displeasure.

For the first time he ignored her, but her insistence that she would disappoint him rose in his mind. This eavesdropping was a challenging sport.

He took hold of her hips as he buried his face in her silken curls. As he stroked her with his tongue, probed the inner recesses of her cleft, he heard her objections fade. Soon her thoughts were a disjointed jumble, spiked with quaking excitement that built with each caress. He knew exactly which of his tricks she liked best from
her wild breathing and the encouragement she silently sent him.

But as she neared her climax, he recognized that he would feel it, as well. Her excitement was his excitement, and for the first time since he was a boy, he knew the cold sweat of fearing he would spill his seed before entering her.

She gasped as she climbed up the final peak and then cried out. The clenching, rippling excitement that rolled through him was like nothing he had ever experienced. He went still and found himself arching with her pleasure.

Jessie grasped his shoulders and pulled, dragging him up to her. She spread her legs wide and guided him into her slick cleft. He slid deep into the warm flesh that still rippled with her orgasm.

It was too much. He pumped hard as she gripped his hips with her strong legs. Her fingers raked his back as she murmured encouragement he did not need.

As he felt himself reach his climax, he reared up on his arms so he could see her face. She stared at him in shock and he knew she felt it, too. She felt the rush of heat and pleasure and this triggered another rippling contraction within her. They came together, staring in wonder into each other’s eyes.

As the pleasure ebbed, his muscles grew weary and he collapsed beside her, still joined at the hips.

“What in the name of heaven and earth was that?” she asked.

Nagi did not understand it. He had taken possession of thirty men and used them to copulate with their
women. Five of them were already with child, since he easily upset their primitive methods of contraception.

But not one of these women had borne
his
child.

Both Niyan and Tob Tob had fathered a Halfling race. True, they did not require possession, having more corporal bodies. Was that the problem?

He went to Tob Tob, on the guise of asking his advice about the running of his circle.

Nagi found the great bear loping through the Spirit World, catching salmon at a sacred river.

The bear could not speak, but Nagi understood his thoughts.

They greeted each other and Nagi posed his mundane questions. The bear sat heavily on the bank, quite taken back. In all the centuries, Nagi had never sought him out, but he did his best to answer, reminding Nagi that his expertise was the care of those who walked on four legs, not two.

“Well, my ghosts don’t really have legs anymore.” The conversation lagged. Nagi made his excuses, and then, as if in an afterthought, he turned back to Tob Tob.

“I ran into one of your Halflings on earth, an Inanoka named Sebastian. He’s a fine boy.”

Tob Tob looked confused. The bear was not the brightest in the Spirit World. Finally he brightened.

Yes, I recall a time when I walked the earth and was attracted to human females. Long ago now. My children still walk the earth?

“They do, as do their descendants. They follow
the path of their sire and protect animals from the intervention of men.”

Tob Tob bellowed his approval.
I taught them this. I am pleased. They still follow my teachings.

“How did you do it, exactly? Sire them.”

Took human form, of course, and courted them. They have to love you, as I recall—the humans, I mean. A race, you say? I shall have to look into that.

Nagi saw his blunder. He had gained the knowledge he sought, but now the oaf was curious.

“Well, they’ve gone on for centuries without you. And you like it best here. No hurry.” Nagi pointed a wispy appendage toward the stream. “There’s a big one!”

Tob Tob turned back to his fishing and did not note the shadow’s disappearance.

Nagi slipped down the Way of Souls and back to his dark circle.

Love, he had said. The female would have to love him to conceive. Or would she only have to love who she believed him to be? Nagi shimmered in anticipation, for he loved a loophole.

N
ick gripped Jessie, dragging her to him. What had he just done?

In his madness, he had revealed to Jessie and any of Nagi’s sentinels just what this woman meant to him. The truth was, she meant more to him than even he had realized.

“Jessie,” he whispered.

She startled awake and he read her thoughts. First, there was her fear of danger and then the realization that she lay safe in his arms. Her contentment at herself in this position tightened his abdomen and he felt the stirrings of desire again.

Great Spirit—his soul mate.

He had known she was special, even recognized that he had stupidly fallen in love with her. But now
he understood that she was not a woman he could ever leave behind. She was
his
woman,
his
destiny.

He felt unworthy. All the other women had seen only his human form. Only his mother knew the truth and the knowledge made her hate him. How could Jessie love him when even his own mother had not?

The truth of it burned him to ashes. He was unworthy of this woman, any woman.

He released her, breaking the connection between them, and rolled to his feet, calling the energy to transfigure into clothing and boots.

Jessie frowned, sitting to retrieve her shirt and drag it over her head. Then she scrambled into her jeans.

Nick leaned down and retrieved the pink circle of lace, extending it to her on one finger.

She accepted it gingerly, careful not to touch him, and stuffed the panties roughly into her pocket.

“Why did she loathe you so?”

He frowned. “What?”

“Your mother. She despised you.”

Nick absorbed the blow that took away his words.

“How do you know that?”

“You were just thinking it. I heard you.” She stood before him, her breathing coming in fast, frantic pants. “Nick, what’s happening to us?”

“More than just a new challenge, he said,” murmured Nick.

“Who?”

“Tuff. He knew, the bastard. Why didn’t he warn me not to touch you?”

All his life women had tried to cage him and he had
avoided their snares with the grace of his kind. Now he’d stepped in a trap far more dangerous and he’d never suspected a thing. How could he have guessed that with one simple touch everything would change? There was no hiding his feelings now. She knew them, felt them as surely as she felt her own.

Instinct took over.

He was already on the opposite stream bank when she called to him. He paused and watched her as she ran down the bank, her bare feet flashing against the green grass. She was lithe and graceful. She would have made a fine deer.

She splashed through the shallow water, threw her arms about his neck and wept. His emotional chaos ignited with her turmoil and they broke apart.

She wrung her hands before her as tears streaked her cheeks. “I knew you couldn’t be so cruel. I knew you weren’t like your father. Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

The tragedy of their love broke his heart. She drew away, carefully severing the contact between them.

“If they’re watching, they know,” she whispered.

He nodded. “I can’t leave you now. It’s not safe.”

He wanted to hold her but feared this bond forged at contact and so held himself back.

“I’ll protect you, Jessie. They won’t hurt you. I swear.” Her eyes streamed tears, and he flicked them away with a thumb, feeling the sizzle of contact. “You know what this means?”

She nodded. “Soul mates.”

“Yes.”

“This changes everything,” she whispered.

He couldn’t deny the truth. They had found each other and there would be no breaking their connection. Together or apart, it existed. Their bond would be hard on her, very hard. He felt guilty for what her love would cost her.

His friend’s wife had managed only because she did not know what she was until after she loved him. So alien were the ways of her people that she found it easy to reject them outright.

But Jessie was a member of her community, and until she met him, she was the perfect Spirit Child citizen.

Her association with him would shatter all that. That was assuming he could keep her alive long enough for them to find out.

J
essie glanced at him repeatedly as they climbed the bank and headed back toward the barn. As they walked, her mind raced ahead. She understood everything now. At their first touch, her confusion had melted and fused into understanding at what Nick was trying to do, his cruel rejection just a ruse to protect her life and keep her from shame. It only made her love him more.

He was the last man on earth she would have chosen, yet fate had intervened. She would not reject the gift the Great Mystery had given her. She was not afraid to face his enemies as long as he was with her.

Apple Blossom, her black-and-white paint stood at the rail of the pasture fence, craning her neck and whinnying. Jessie smiled.

“I have to see to the horses.”

“I’ll help.”

They reached the barn and Nick loaded the bale of hay onto the utility vehicle as she measured the oats. They rode side by side to the hayrack. But despite her shaking the grain bucket, the mares stayed at the far side of the pasture.

“What’s gotten into them?” she asked.

“Maybe they smell wolf.”

Her jaw dropped in understanding. Of course they would. They knew what Nick was even if she had forgotten.

“Maybe if you leave the pasture.”

He swung out of his seat but hesitated.

“You’re shivering,” he said.

She hadn’t realized she was cold until he mentioned it. But her jeans were soaked from the knee down from her romp across the stream and her boots squished when she walked.

He dragged off his shirt and gave it a shake. “Take this.”

The shirt had been transformed into a hooded leather sweatshirt, just her size.

She accepted the offering, shrugging into the soft folds that still held his scent and his heat. Jessie smiled up at him. “Be right back.”

He zipped up the jacket and lifted the hood, covering her head, then gave the cords a sharp tug. “Call if you need me.”

She took the opportunity to watch him walk away. Her heart ached in her chest. He was such a beautiful man.

“Great Mystery, I’m the luckiest woman alive,” she
whispered, shaking the grain bucket with more force than necessary.

Her mares watched her break apart the hay bail. Apple Blossom came first, as usual, leading the others. But she stopped well away from the hayrack.

Jessie glanced back at Nick and he lifted his hands up in a gesture of resignation.

Jessie poured the grain into their three buckets, knowing Apple Blossom would finish first and then bully the others, usurping any leftovers. She often put the boss mare in her paddock for dinner, but not tonight. The other two would just have to eat quickly or settle for hay.

Nick had a foot up on the bottom rail and his arms were folded on the top one. He cast her a smile that thrilled her.

She glanced toward her mares. The light was fading, but she could see the three standing still against the far side of the fence. Only their tails moved, beating back and forth in a steady rhythm to discourage the flies.

“Dinner,” she called, rattling the buckets again.

The herd remained where it was.

“For goodness’ sakes,” she muttered.
Must be Nick,
she decided. They could likely smell him from there. She set out with the grain, walked toward them beside the low roof of the extension that had once housed chickens.

Something hit her from behind with enough force to drive her to the ground. There was a deep throaty growl and something seized her head.

Across the pasture the horses began to scream.

The creature shook her, trying to break Jessie’s neck. She could feel its fangs and smell the fetid breath. The stink of rot and decay made her gag. And all the while her horses were screaming.

She felt a shuddering vibration the same instant she heard the thud of impact. The creature released her. Jessie dragged her legs beneath her, every muscle of her back and neck throbbing from the assault.

Run,
shouted the voice inside her head. She succeeded in standing and then turned toward the sound of struggle to see what had thrown her so violently to the ground.