The Wells Brothers: Luke (15 page)

No maybe about it, she’d prodded
him a bit too much.  Talk about poking the angry hornet’s nest - or in this
case, one sexy man with a wicked streak a mile wide who was now focussed on
her.

Just how far was he going to take
this?  Or maybe he was just messing with her, making her believe he could
really be interested in…um...sorting her out.  Her heart bumped unevenly, a
tingle sliding with delicious decadence through her even as she tried to
reassure herself that yeah, he was just messing with her.

Another glance over her shoulder
only to meet his slow, wicked grin, a flash of white teeth, the glint in his
eyes.

Oh boy
.

~*~

Papers in hand, Luke circled the
ruined garden.  Yep, this was the garden that had featured a pond, the remains
were beneath the choked weeds.  Once upon a time it had held goldfish, right
now it held a hell of a lot of weeds, dirt and not much else.  It had been
years since the pond existed for the purpose it had been built.

Tapping the pencil thoughtfully
against his chin, he narrowed his eyes as he looked into the distance, his
thoughts running around inside his head.  Would Elspeth still want a pond?  If
so, how big?  What would the law require in regards to safety?  If she was
going to want a pond, it’d be better to have one similar to the original to be
more authentic and match the photo she’d decided she wanted blown-up and put on
the wall of the entrance.  Having everything looking as authentic as possible
would be a big draw card for guests.

Then again, if she wanted
something different he could still make it look like the era of the mansion
with the way it was built and the material used.

As he mused, he observed three
trucks drive around the corner.  Looked like Bernard Yorick had arrived to
start packing up the paintings and furniture.  His gaze drifted to the front of
the mansion to see Elspeth come down the steps followed by Mikki.

Ah, Mikki.  Now there was a woman
who had turned out to be a surprise.  Total surprise.  Who knew she could kiss
like she’d kissed him the day before?  One minute she’d been teasing him, then
daring him, and man, when she’d suddenly gotten all wary and uncertain, those
big green eyes going wide, that had fired up every predatory bone in his body. 
Hell yeah, he’d just loved backing her up to the wall, leaning over her,
watching her eyes go from a little worried to hot.

He could still see the change in
her, feel it, the way she’d suddenly grabbed his shirt and simply helped herself
to his mouth.  That sweet little mouth on his had fired up his veins sure
enough.

But then he’d known he was going
to kiss her, had known it as soon as he’d met her teasing with a challenge. 
Known it because really, he’d just been waiting for an excuse.  Ever since that
time in the library he’d been running a little heated for her, wanted to feel
more than just her body against his.  Wanted to kiss her, taste her, savour
that smart little mouth.

He’d savoured her all right.  That
kiss had been scorching enough to melt his sneakers to the ground.

The outcome of that kiss, he knew,
would bring him to one of two decisions - that the sexual attraction he’d felt
for her in town was fleeting, or that the sexual attraction was way more.

Turned out it was way more.

One kiss wasn’t enough.

His gaze wandered over her lush
body clad in a pale pink t-shirt topped with an open blue-checked  shirt with
the sleeves rolled halfway up her forearms, a pair of pale blue slacks with a
hole patched in the knee, and the bright pink sneakers.  Those clothes covered
a perfectly lush body, all boobs and rounded derriere.  The sun caught the
golden glints in her red hair, today caught up in some kind of messy bun atop
her head.

Kissing might not be enough. 
Hell, he was pretty sure kissing only
definitely
wasn’t enough. Nope,
kissing only wasn’t enough.

Sticking the end of the pencil
between his teeth, Luke’s eyes narrowed as he studied her, marvelling at how,
in such a short time, he went from finding her annoying to finding her
desirable.

No use arguing it.  He’d done that
last night, especially after Mikki had insisted she’d heard something in the
bushes, could feel something watching her on their midnight trip to the
graveyard.  Her nutty Aunt had gotten all excited and next thing she was
running around with something called an EDI Meter, trying to get a reading on
both temperature and changes in the electromagnetic field or some such shit,
buggered if he knew, really.  Mikki had looked around searchingly, peering
through some kind of camera with night vision in the hopes of catching sight of
something ghostly.  It had taken Luke awhile to convince them that nothing was
there, and eventually Elspeth had given up as the instrument she held showed no
changes.

He sure as heck knew that nothing
ghostly was around those graves.

He’d thought the journey back
would be quick, but it only made him roll his eyes.  The women had been too
busy stopping sporadically to check Elspeth’s EDI Meter while Mikki held up a
small recorder to catch what she referred to as EVPs - or, as she explained,
Electronic Voice Phenomena.  It was definitely a longer trip back to the
mansion.

Shaking his head at the memory,
Luke watched as Old Yorick got out of the first truck, his off-sider climbing
down from the driver’s side.  The two trucks behind disgorged two men apiece
and then stood waiting to be loaded.

Yorick spoke to Elspeth while
Mikki stood back, hands in her pockets, head tipped back as she enjoyed the
sun’s rays on her face.

By his side, Dog whined.  Glancing
down, Luke saw that he was gazing at Mikki longingly.

“You’d ditch me in a second,
wouldn’t you?” he observed.

Dog looked up at him, whined again
and leaned his head against Luke’s leg.

The sudden show of affection, the
leaning, softened Luke.  Squatting down, he placed the papers on the ground,
tucked the pencil behind his ear and took Dog’s head between his palms.  Dog
looked up at him, all the love in his doggy heart showing in his eyes and his
tail thumping in the dirt.

“Hey, old boy.”  Luke rubbed his
head, resting his forehead against Dog’s while looking into his eyes.  “Who’s
daddy’s boy, huh?”

Dog managed to dip his head enough
to look up at Luke from the tops of his eyes, looking so adorable, so
puppy-like, that it took Luke back to when Dog had first arrived back at his
house after the vet.  Scared, wary of being hit, cowering at times.  It had
taken Luke a lot of time and patience to get Dog to trust him, but he knew he’d
won the day Dog suddenly, for no reason, while sitting beside him, had slowly
leaned his head against Luke’s leg.  Astonished, Luke had looked down to see
Dog, his face forward, just leaning against him.

It had happened regularly for the
first several years, not so much now, but out of the blue Dog would do it, just
lean against Luke, trusting him to take his weight and not lash out.  Knowing
Luke loved him.

“It’s all right, mate.”  Luke
ruffled his ears.  “You and me, hey?”  He looked into the puppy-dog eyes.  “I’m
glad you like Red, though.  That pretty little sheila will be spending some
time with us if I get my way.  So be on your best behaviour and be a good boy
to that furry fiend she looks like she’s falling for.  That’ll be your ticket
into her heart.  Me?”  Luke grinned.  “I’ve never failed yet when it comes to a
woman, and I’m not about to start with our Red.  Okay?”

Dog gave him a sudden slurp across
his chin.

“Ugh.  Thanks, Dog.  Thanks a
lot.”  Luke gave his head one last rub, grabbed the papers and stood.

Glancing back towards the trucks,
he saw Mikki standing on the steps watching him.  Lifting his hand, he waved. 
After a second’s hesitation, she waved back before disappearing into the
mansion.

Score!
  He did a mental
fist pump.  She’d avoided him for several hours last night, had blushed a
little when she’d looked at him this morning over breakfast but he’d pretended
not to notice, keeping the conversation tuned into work, discussing further
ideas with Elspeth and leaving Mikki to eat and relax.  Phase one was working.

‘Bad to the Bone’ rang out of his
mobile.  Still thinking about Mikki, he pulled the mobile from his pocket,
flicked it on and placed it to his ear.  “Phase one is working.”

“What?”

“What?  Aaron?”

“Who’s at phase one?” his oldest
brother queried.

“Phase one?”

“You said ‘phase one is working’.”

“Oh.  Oh!”  Luke winced, then
strove for a casual tone.  “Nothing.  Work.”

“Phases are things
you
do
to win a girl.”

No fooling his brother.  “Don’t
know what you mean, mate.”

“What are you planning for Mikki?”

“What’s she got to do with it?”

Aaron was nothing if not patient. 
“Phase one with Mikki, huh?”  Not to mention eerily on-target with his guesses.

If his brother was guessing.

Luke glanced around warily. 
“Where are you?”

“In the office.”

“You sure?”

“You sound suspicious.  What are
you up to?”

“Nothing.”

“So, you and Mikki.  Phase one
only?”

“It’s only been a couple of -”
Luke stopped, adjusted his sunglasses.  “What did you ring for, Aaron?”

The silence on the other end of
the mobile had Luke picturing his brother sitting in that old brown armchair in
the corner of his office, ankle hooked over his opposite knee, that damned
thoughtful, knowing, considering expression on his serious face. 

How did the bastard
know
? 
How did he
know
that Luke was even planning on doing anything with
Mikki?  How?

The eternal question that had
burned in Luke’s brain since they were all kids.  Aaron had
always
known.  Sometimes Luke suspected the man had ESP.  Now there was a freakin’
weird power for a freakin’ freaky bloke to have.  And Aaron freaked a few
people out by just being, well, Aaron.

“Because you give yourself away,”
Aaron murmured.

With a sigh, Luke closed his eyes.

“You’ll tell me one day,” Aaron
continued.  “Meanwhile, how’s it all going there?”

Safer ground.  Luke looked towards
the trucks.  “The antique dealer is here.  He’s picking up the paintings and stuff.”

“Bernard Yorick is early.”

“You spoke to him?”

“No.”

“You know him?”

“Not personally.”

God, Aaron could sometimes freak
Luke out a little.  Especially when he gave that quiet laugh that meant he knew
exactly what he was doing to his younger brother.

“Cut it out,” Luke growled.

“Bernard Yorick is known for being
fashionably late.  So at nine in the morning, he’s early.”

“You could have said that in the
beginning.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Looking down at Dog, Luke shook
his head.

“How is Dog?” Aaron asked.

Giving up, Luke replied, “Dog’s
fine.”

“The girls?”

“Ghost hunting at night.  Oh yeah,
and they got a kitten.”

“Okay.”

“Some bastard dumped it on the
side of the road in a box.”

“Did you get his rego?”

“No, unfortunately.  I was too
busy trying to stay in my seat.”

“Elspeth was driving.”

“My life was flashing before my
eyes.”  Luke watched two men come out carrying a carefully packed, square box
between them.  Just had to be a painting, going by the shape and size. 
“Anyway, we rescued the kitten and it’s going home with one of the girls to
live happily ever after.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Got what I needed from the
library, too.”

“You met Anna.”

“Geez.  You know her?”

“Not personally.”

Luke rolled his eyes.  “Yes, I met
her.”

“Your thoughts?”

“Man hungry.”

“And…?”

“Well...”  Growing serious, Luke scratched
the back of his head.  “She said she felt trapped.”

“How about Wally DeOvert?”

“Not even going to ask how you
know him.  He was all over Elspeth, took us to the museum and waxed lyrical the
whole time about the good old days when his dad was the butler out here. 
Apparently a lot of his family worked out here in the hey-day.”

“Right.”

Luke couldn’t help it.  Smugly, he
asked, “Want to know about the chemist bloke that Mikki met?”

“You mean Mark?”

Luke’s shoulders slumped.  “Forget
it.”

“Watch him,” Aaron drawled. 
“He’ll be sniffing around Mikki now he knows she’s the niece of the new owner
of the Willock mansion.

Luke frowned.  “Money-grabbing bastard. 
He wouldn’t want to come sniffing around here.”

“Sounding a little possessive
there, Luke.”

“Yeah, well…”

“Anything odd happen?”

“You mean apart from the ghost
hunting?”

“And being kneed in the ball bag.”

“Jason just couldn’t keep his
mouth shut, could he?”

“He couldn’t wait to tell me.”

“And
you
couldn’t wait to
tell me.”

Aaron laughed softly.

Luke couldn’t help but grin. 
Freaky or not, he knew his older brother cared for his family, loved them
deeply, and would do anything for them.  His amusement was genuine, never
nasty.

Voices sounded in the background
of the mobile, Aaron’s muffled reply which meant he’d blocked the phone with
his hand.  After several seconds he spoke clearly.  “Gotta go, Luke.  Keep an
eye on the women.”

“Always.”  The mobile cut off and
Luke slipped it back into his pocket.  “Okay, Dog, let’s go check out the
gardens behind the house.  I want to see the remains of the old green house
that used to be attached.  The photos show it was there somewhere.”

He spent the next couple of hours
scouting the grounds, checking the lay of the land, the perimeters of old
garden beds, the pathways, and some of the ruins of sheds and what was once,
he’d hazard a guess, a wash house.  It still held old, rusty sinks sunk into
the partially rotten bench.  A door led to a half caved in back room, while
another door on the left led into what he would bet was the head laundress’s personal
room.  Didn’t that happen back then?  Scratching the pencil through his hair,
he looked around.  Pretty sure he’d read somewhere that the head laundress got
her own room.  Then again, he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the block when it
came to historical facts.  He knew enough to get by, remembered bits and pieces
he’d been told or read or seen on a documentary, but that was about it.