Outback Ghost (32 page)

He couldn't control himself around her. He shouldn't want to take her up against the wall after the crazy things she'd put into his head. Especially not while her daughter and possibly the ghost of his little sister lingered in the next room, but that's exactly what he wanted. Maybe even needed. And the good thing? Stella appeared to be on the same page.

‘Oh. Adam.' His name left her throat on a pant as he lowered her down to the ground. Her feet had barely touched the floorboards before she was tugging his shirt out of his jeans and yanking it up over his head. He assisted, hurling it somewhere behind them and then removing her top just as quickly. He undid the clasp of her bra, hoping he wasn't being too rough, but unable to help himself, as he tore it from her chest. The most perfect breasts he'd ever laid eyes on spilled free, her nipples pert and begging for his lips. He took the first one in his mouth, groaning at the sweet taste of her skin, while his hands worked quickly at the zipper of her shorts. There wasn't room for even one scrap of material between them.

Within seconds she stood naked before him and he lifted his head to see her smiling down at him. ‘Take off your jeans,' she ordered in an authoritative tone. He liked it.

‘Why don't you?'

‘Okay then.'

But he didn't make it easy for her. While she fumbled with the button at the top of his fly, he ran his hands over every nook and cranny of her body. As his button popped open, he slipped his hands between her legs and pressed a finger upwards. She thrust herself against his hand, moaning as her fingers fell from his waistband. How could he not smile at the feel of her hot, wet and ready? He wanted to make her moan and squirm, wanted to make her cry out and come over and over again. Everything about her – the softness of her skin, her real-woman curves, her scent – had snuck under his skin and he wanted to be the one to bring her pleasure.

He worked hard, although it wasn't a chore, and neither was it long before she began to tremble against his fingers. Her hands landed on his shoulders, steadying herself against him as the most beautiful sound ever spilled from her lips. He felt like the cleverest, luckiest man on the planet. Even now he could die happy with the knowledge he'd been the perpetrator of such intense pleasure, but he was greedy. He wanted more. Desperate to hear that sound again, to feel her shudder in the most intimate way possible, he walked her backwards until she collapsed upon the bed. Her chest heaved as she lay like a contented fairy sprawled across the covers.

He was rock hard for her and only the desperate need inside him gave him the wherewithal to do what she hadn't been able to achieve. Kicking off his boots, he stripped his jeans and jocks down his legs so they were both naked.

‘You make me want to take up life painting,' she breathed, her hair wild around her head and her eyes hot for him.

‘That's the best compliment anyone's ever given me,' he said, before joining her on the bed, lowering his body over hers and giving them both exactly what they wanted.

Two hours and more orgasms than she thought she could achieve in one night later, Stella lay in Adam's arms wishing she could hold onto this fantasy just a little longer. Resting her head against his chest, enclosed in his hot, naked embrace, dreaming about the things they'd just gotten up to, might just be the best feeling ever. If only they could live in their lust-fuelled bubble and forget about all other responsibilities for a while. Not that she wanted to forget about Heidi – her world revolved around her daughter – but Adam had awakened parts of her she'd all but buried under the responsibilities of motherhood and it felt amazing to dust off those parts and give them a workout.

‘What did you and Heidi get up to today?' he asked and she once again blinked, wondering if he had a direct line to her thoughts.

‘Um,' she took a moment to recover that thought. ‘Well, we saw a snake.'

‘What?' He pushed her up slightly so he could see her face. ‘Why didn't you tell me?'

She laughed. ‘You kinda didn't let me get a word in until now.'

He pulled her head back to rest on his chest, absentmindedly playing with her hair. ‘Okay, but where'd you see it? You know you could have called me. You should have called me. Was it near the cottage? What did you do with it?'

‘Out in a paddock near some trees. I know but I didn't want to bother you. I let it be, grabbed Heidi and ran away faster than I've ever run in my life.'

‘Thank God you're both okay.' He kissed her forehead.

‘We were looking for a tree,' she said, trying to distract herself from the way what he said made her feel. She couldn't allow herself to get lost in a fantasy of this – them together – being more than it was.

‘What?'

She explained her need to keep Heidi occupied today, that keeping her busy kept her mind off Lily-Blue, and that they'd decided to find and decorate a Christmas tree. ‘You may have seen all the paper chains and origami things we made when you walked through the house?'

That got her a raised-eyebrow. ‘Stella, you could have repainted the walls psychedelic yellow and fluoro pink and I wouldn't have noticed. I only had eyes for you.'

She blushed, glowing at his words but felt the need to deflect his attention. While they were messing up the sheets, she adored the way he looked at her, but when they were just talking she didn't know what to say in the face of his compliments.

‘How'd your chat with Constable Noble go?' she blurted out.

His arms tensed around her. ‘As predicted, I guess.'

‘He didn't believe you?'

‘Whether you, me or Drew believes what Heidi says is irrelevant,' he said sadly. ‘He's right that Missing Persons or Major Crime or whatever department deals with stuff like this isn't gonna come and investigate without solid evidence.'

Stella sighed. What exactly had she been expecting? Truthfully, she wasn't surprised but she couldn't help being disappointed and sad. Heidi had been better since Stella had promised to help Lily-Blue but she worried about what would happen now. She realised Adam had said something more and she hadn't heard a word of it.

‘I'm sorry, can you say that again?'

He chuckled. ‘Crazy, hey? I can't believe I spent all day actually contemplating it. But it's a bit like the whole ghost thing. When you first told me about Heidi talking to someone here, maybe my sister, I thought you needed to see a shrink. It had to be the most insane thing anyone had ever said to me. I was so angry that you could play with my family's pain so glibly, but once I calmed down, I knew that wasn't your intention at all. Even if logically I don't believe in ghosts, I couldn't stop thinking what if. But that was all hypothetical. What Drew suggested is real. What if I dig up the tree and find nothing? Or what if I do find something and the discovery pushes Mum over the edge?'

Stella listened to him weighing up the pros and cons and realised Drew had told Adam to take matters into his own hands. ‘What are you going to do?' she asked eventually.

He shrugged. ‘Part of me wants to grab a shovel and go out there now but I don't think this is the kind of thing I should do without serious thought. There's a day until Christmas and for the first time ever Mum is looking forward to it. Really looking forward to it. She's got her first counselling session via Skype next week and is seeming more like the woman I vaguely remember from my childhood than ever before. Maybe it's better to let sleeping dogs lie.'

But what about Lily-Blue? And Heidi?
Stella bit her lower lip to prevent herself from voicing her thoughts. Instead she said, ‘I need a drink of water. Can I get you one?'

She was halfway out of bed, when he said, ‘No, thanks. But I suppose I'd better be going.'

Stella paused in the doorway, listening but not turning around to look as he gathered his clothes and started to dress. Although she'd needed a breather from their conversation, her heart pulsed with pain at the thought of him leaving after all they'd shared tonight – the sex, but maybe more so the companionship. She hadn't known how much she'd been missing out on until she'd lain in Adam's arms and felt his warm, delicious breath against her skin. Going back to an empty bed that would soon grow cold without him didn't appeal in the slightest. She wanted to sleep with his arm draped over her body or their limbs intimately entwined and she wanted his gorgeous, chiselled face to be the first thing she saw when she woke up in the morning.

But that was a romantic fantasy.

However much she wanted to ask him to spend the night with her, doing so would not be sensible. There was Heidi to think of. What would Stella say if Heidi woke up in the middle of the night and found Adam naked in her bed? Her daughter didn't need that kind of confusion on top of everything else that was worrying her little head. And there was Adam. If she went all needy and desperate female on him, he'd no doubt run a mile and she'd never experience the delicious friction of his skin up against hers ever again. Yet, no matter how dire these possibilities, they weren't the worst of it.

She didn't trust herself to spend any more time in his company tonight without trying to convince him to do what Drew had suggested. Now that he'd put it out there, she couldn't think of anything else and she didn't understand how he planned to go about his life, doing all the normal and mundane jobs, without investigating the possibility either. Even if her daughter talking to the ghost of his sister sounded like the craziest story anyone could ever have concocted, how could he dismiss it so easily after talking to Heidi? But what right did she have to press the issue?

Argh
, the conscience tennis in her head was giving her a headache.

‘Yes. I suppose it is getting late,' she managed, forcing herself to turn around and acknowledge him. ‘Thank you for a lovely evening.'

‘Don't go all distant and awkward on me, Stella.' He stepped up to her and slipped his hands around her waist, drawing her close before she had the chance to anticipate his actions. His clever lips pressed the gentlest of kisses against her neck before he pulled back slightly to talk again. ‘I had a great night and I'm hoping we can do it all again tomorrow night. What do you say?'

Oh Lord.
What woman in her right mind could say anything but ‘sounds good to me'? Although perhaps it was questionable whether Stella
was
in her right mind at the moment, for when she waved Adam off into the night, she didn't go immediately back inside. She tugged the cotton robe she'd pulled on tighter around her body and took the veranda round the back. Leaning against the railing, she looked over to the beautiful jacaranda tree, semi-lit in the moonlight.

‘Are you really there?' she whispered to herself.

She hadn't been expecting a reply, but what happened next left her cold. The wooden door at the back of the house opened slowly. Stella turned at the sound, knowing the logical explanation was Heidi had woken up and come looking for her, but there was no one in the doorway.

‘Lily-Blue?' she whispered again, her heart pounding so loud she felt like an angry teenager was beating drums in her chest.

The lamp that sat on the hall table flickered. For a heartbeat Stella wondered if she'd blinked and imagined the action, but while entertaining this thought she felt the air shift beside her and then heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps padding down the back steps. Her hand shot to her throat and it took a long while before she managed to breathe again. Staring at the tree, leaves blowing ever so gently in the wind, a terrifying thought entered her head.

Should she dig under the tree herself?

She didn't have a shovel. She'd have to buy or borrow one. In such a small town it was almost certain someone would notice and ask her what she needed it for. And then there was the almost insurmountable problem of what to do with Heidi while she carried out the act and what any discovery might do to Adam and Esther. Despite all these obstacles, Stella knew that once the idea had lodged itself in her head, it would take a miracle to shift it.

The first thing Adam thought of when he woke up on Christmas morning was his sister.

It had been over twenty years since she bounced into his bedroom about five a.m. on the festive day and demanded he help wake their parents. He stretched his hands back behind his head and lay there a moment imagining what Christmas might be like today if she was still here. Although three years younger than him, he imagined she'd be married with a couple of kids in tow by now. Maybe he'd even have the same thing. He reckoned his parents would likely still be together. The homestead would be alive with shrieks of laughter as they sat around the Christmas tree tearing the wrapping off presents, while delicious smells wafted from the kitchen where lunch preparations would be already underway. In this fantasy, somebody would be a good cook and his tastebuds would be dancing in anticipation of the gourmet meal ahead.

‘Hah.' He chuckled sadly to himself knowing the reality would be very different. Instead, it'd be just him, his mum, Stella and Heidi trying their best to stomach whatever ghastly dish his mum decided to try this year. She'd given him a mammoth list and he'd gone into town yesterday morning to pick it all up. No doubt because they were having guests she'd give a go at doing something fancy, which would be worse than if she stuck to her traditional over-cooked roast.

It wasn't that he wasn't looking forward to spending the day with Stella and Heidi. They'd spent most of yesterday afternoon together decorating the tree he'd found and he'd loved every minute of it. He couldn't get enough of her. They'd shared food, drink, a lot of laughs and he hadn't left the cottage, or rather her bed, until the early hours of this morning. Being with Stella and Heidi was easy and comfortable on almost every level, except when Heidi went off to play by herself and started talking to what looked like thin air.