Seduction of Souls (23 page)

With her body still humm
ed from her climax, she watched as he moved up her body and kissed her greedily, searing her from the inside out.  When his erect cock thrust into her, a new climax sent her whirling.  Screaming loudly now with her latest release, she struggled to breathe, certain she would die of pleasure.  Moments later his shout of release echoed off the walls as he collapsed beside her.  His breathing sounded just as ragged as hers did.  

She couldn’t speak for a long while afterwards.  She stroked his hair back
from his temples, feeling the dampness.  She released one button of his shirt, then another, so she could slide her hand over his hot, bare skin.  Wanting him all over again, she turned the tables on him and nipped his hard male nipple.  Delighting in his gasp, she began to work over his sensitive nipples with her tongue.  This was going to be fun!  She moved her lips down his muscular chest until she teased his navel with her tongue.  Her hand skimmed over his erection like a butterfly that wouldn’t quite land.  Her pleasure, she was sure, was much more intense than before.  As if marriage and a sense of belonging were an aphrodisiac in themselves.  She couldn’t imagine a greater happiness than what she was feeling now.  The power she felt over Ryker’s body heightened her arousal, while every moan and twitch pushed her to new heights.  His cock was hard and throbbing as her lips felt the pulse of his passion. 

“Please
, baby, I can’t take any more.” He grabbed at her shoulders and tugged her up to meet his lips.

She plastered a searing kiss on his lips while grinding her hips
to his.  She broke the kiss and slipped over him, allowing her burning hot sheath to consume him.  When she rode him she did it hard and fast, now just as desperate for release as he was.  With each gyration of her hips her love for him reached new heights until her frantic release shattered them both.  She wasn’t sure who yelled louder as their voices rose as one into the universe.  Her limp body lay on his torso while his hand caressed her back, his breathing labored while he sighed with contentment.

“I love you, Mrs. Whitcombe.  You rock my world, baby.  I had no idea how empty my life was until I met you.  Thank you so much for giving me a second chance.  I promise I won’t ever let you down
again.”  She kissed his lip gently while struggling to fight back the tears that threatened her eyes. 

“I love you too, Ryker.  With all my heart and soul.  I promise to do my very best to make you happy each and every day.  I confess
, I was a little afraid to marry you, but once I saw you standing in front of the judge I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life loving you.”  She had to stop talking or she was sure to make a spectacle of herself to her new husband.  Her head lay on his chest, and she fell asleep to the music of his beating heart.

A
gentle rocking motion brought Ryker awake gradually but persistently.  Was RayeAnn having a bad dream and shaking the bed?  When his eyes opened they nearly popped out of his head.  The entire bed was airborne and swaying from side to side a good six feet in the air.  Twirling in circles a few times, it tilting dangerously to the side.  With one arm he clutched her tightly to his body as the other hand grabbed onto the brass headboard to keep them both from falling to the floor.  The breeze from the small tornado had extinguished all of the candles, and their wax oozed toward the floor. 

“R
yker, you’re holding me too tight.  I can’t breathe.” 

“Sweetheart, hold onto me, tight, and open your eyes.” 
He knew the instant she did so, because her entire body stiffened in his arms.

“Reach over me
, grab the headboard with both hands and hold on.”  As the winds picked up, everything in the room that wasn’t nailed down began to viscously hurl through the air as though aimed directly for them.  He rolled his body over hers to protect her, gritting his teeth as objects pummeled his back.  The roar of the wind made talking nearly impossible, let alone breathing in the now fetid air.  It smelled of death and decay. 

Without warning the bed slammed to the floor, bouncing once before coming to a standstill.  The other airborne objects followed suit, some still landing on his back as he fought for his breath.  After a few moments of silence they sat up in the disheveled bed, taking in the damage done to the room.

“Ryker, do you think Lillyanna is all right?  What if he found her at …?”

He put his hand over her mouth.  “Don’t even think the words.”  He snatched his cell from the floor where it had landed. 

“Damn, broken!”

RayeAnn
plucked the landline phone out of the debris, but the buttons had all melted together into one useless blob. 

“Downstairs, quick!  Try the phone in the library.”

Together they dove for the door.  Frantically, they moved the shattered furniture from the door, just enough to slip through the narrow opening.  By some miracle they made it down the stairs without breaking their necks.  Both of them stumbled and clutched the railing for support.

Ryker clutched the door jam of the library as he swung around the corner.  His free hand grabbed for the phone. 
Finally, a dial tone.
  He punched his mother’s number into the phone.  He ran a hand though his hair while RayeAnn paced in front of him.  After what seemed like an eternity his mother answered sleepily.

“Hello.”

“Mom, it’s me.  Is the baby all right?”

“Son, I love you, but you do realize it’s three o’clock in the morning, right?”

“Yes…but could you just check her for us?  It’s really, really important.”

“Did your new bride screw you silly?  Of course she’s all right.  Tim and Bryn are sleeping in the same room with her.  I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Check, Mom.  Now.  Please.”  He allowed the anger and fear to seep into his voice hoping that would get her moving.  He heard the squeaky hinge creek as she eased the door open
.

Her loud gasp made his heart stop. 
“What, Mom?  Tell me what you see.”  He heard the phone rubbing against fabric, someone fumbling with it and then Tim’s voice was suddenly on the other end.

“Yeah, Ryker, he was here
, too, but we’re all okay.  Lilly is fine, thank God.  She was a little fussy, so Bryn had brought her into bed with us.  The room’s a disaster area, but other than that we’re fine.  Tell me what he did over there.”

“Sounds similar to what he did here.  This time
, though, we were airborne for a while.  He’s getting stronger and more violent.”  He looked down at RayeAnn who was snuggled firmly against his chest and listening to their conversation.  Deciding there was strength in numbers he asked Tim if he would bring Lillyanna and his mother home.  Now.

“I know she’s safe
, but I need to see her for myself.”

“Sure, I understand.  Do you want to talk to your mother?”

“No, just bring her along.  I’ll feel better once everyone is under the same roof.  Just leave everything there.  We’ll worry about it later.  How’s my mother taking all this?”

“Trembling but not hysterical.  Not very talkative.  Poor thing must have slept through all the noise.”

“You know, on second thought, let me talk to her for a minute.”  He heard Tim’s words as he explained that her son wanted to talk to her again.

“Ryker?  What the hell’s going on?”  He let out a relieved sigh.  Yep, she was going to be just fine.

“We’ll explain everything when you get here.  Pack a quick bag, Mom.  Tim and Bryn will bring you and the baby back here.  I’ll come help you clean up the house later.”

“All right, son.  See you soon.”  He hung up the phone while
RayeAnn latched her arms tightly around his waist and buried her face into his hairy, hard chest.

“Ryker, what are we going to do?  How can we keep Lilly safe?  What if…”

“Shhh.  That’s not going to happen.  I won’t allow it.  I’m calling Everett again, and I don’t give a damn what time it is.  This has got to stop.”  Looking up to the ceiling, he yelled to Gideon.

“You hear me
, you bastard?  You will not win this!  In the name of God you will not win this!”  Anger made his cheeks heat as he shook his fist skyward.  Now he hoped Everett could help him back up his claims.

When he hung up the phone after waking Everett, he found RayeAnn in the kitchen making coffee and some crustless snack sandwiches.  The pile of crusts looked like busywork to him. 
When in doubt, feed everyone
.  He chuckled to himself as he put his arms around her waist, kissing the top of her head while she continued to fuss.

“Baby, you know I love the look of your body, right?”

“Yessss.  Why?”

“Well, as much as I love to look at you, I thought it might be a good idea for you to put something on before everyone else gets here.  I don’t know if you noticed or not
, but you’re naked from the waist up.”  She looked down and laughed, putting one hand over her face she blushed a beautiful shade of pink before heading upstairs.

When she came back downstairs she was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt that stretched snugly over her braless breasts. 
Sexy as hell
.  With a chuckle she tossed him a pair of shorts and shirt of his own.

“Look down, ace.  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.”

He glanced down at his nakedness and chuckled a deep baritone laugh. 

“My mother’s seen me naked before
, you know?”

“Yes, but Bryn hasn’t.  I don’t want to see her start drooling worse than Lillyanna does.  Besides, Tim might get jealous.  I don’t even want to guess what Everett would think.”

“Yes, dear.  Anything you say, dear.”  He spoke the words like a robot.

“I don’t know who programed you
, but I like what they did.”  She kissed him as he bent to pull up his shorts.  As he straightened he pulled her into his arms and deepened the kiss, leaving his shorts mid thigh.

Just at that moment everyone walked into the house.  She reached her hands down and roughly tugged up his shorts without breaking the kiss.
  Thank goodness they were behind the kitchen counter.

CHAPTER 25

With Everett’s arrival a few minutes later, they settled the baby into her crib and sat around the large library table to discuss their next step.  Tim and Ryker told Everett about the happenings at both homes earlier in the night.

“What happened earlier in the day to piss him off?  Anything new or out of character for anyone?”  Everett asked as he looked around the table.

“RayeAnn and I got married down at the courthouse.  We came back here and had lunch.  This was the first time that Lillyanna has slept over at my mother’s.”

“Congratulations!  This is just an outside hunch…did you take any pictures?”

“Yeah, on my digital camera.  I haven’t downloaded the pictures yet.  Do you want to see them?”  RayeAnn offered.

“Yes.” 

She moved over to the computer and grabbed her camera off her desk.  Turning the monitor around so everyone could see, she inserted the memory card from the camera into the drive.  Pictures taken at the courthouse came to life on the screen as she slowly scrolled through each one.  When she got to the first picture taken at the house, everyone let out a collective gasp.  Staring back at them was an evil, menacing image of Gideon Meriwether super imposed over everyone’s face, taking up the entire space.  His features were transparent but readable…and he was pissed.

“He doesn’t look very happy about the wedding, dear.  Did you forget to send him an invitation?”  Ryker tried to make light of the situation, masking his revulsion and anger.

“Apparently.  I didn’t know a picture of a ghost could be so detailed.  I always thought ghosts just appeared as a fog or dark shadow.  I can practically count the eyelashes on this sucker.”

The next picture showed the same thing as the last
, with one exception.  In the upper right corner there appeared to be additional entities.  RayeAnn turned over the computer controls to Ryker as he zoomed in on the other images.  Clearly there were two additional spirits, but who were they?  Their images were just too blurry to make out.

“What are you thinking, Everett?”

“Let me just think out loud here.  One difference from the last time Gideon visited is that this time he only destroyed one room in this house.  Last time the entire house was wrecked.  Another is that Lillyanna has been added since last time.  When he did this in the nursery, he left Lillyanna alone, right?”

“Yes…I guess.  Her corner of the room where her crib is wasn’t touched.  She was sleeping in the crib at the time, though.”

“When he attacked at your house, Darcy, where was Lillyanna at the time?”

Tim jumped in to answer.  “She was in bed with Bryn and
me.  She had been a little restless, so we put her in bed with us.”

“Was her crib wrecked along with the rest of the room?”

“Yes.  Everything except our bed.  She was safe in bed with us.”

“No, actually, I think it’s the other way around.  You were safe because you were in bed with Lilly.  My guess is he can’t touch her
, for some reason.  Almost like there’s a force field protecting her.”  Everett paced the room now, deep in thought while everyone stood by and watched.  No one said a word for a long while.  RayeAnn finally asked the first question.