Haunting With A Ghost: An MM Paranormal Romance, page 9
I just hoped my lips would hold the warmth from the lamp.
Across the street, Landon’s light blinked once, then twice, and I leaned forward to watch. I would have gone with him, I hadn’t been to Jeremiah’s house in so long that I was curious about the state of it, but I wasn’t able to leave the property. My boundaries had been made clear in the days following my death when I’d made multiple attempts to leave my family’s land to travel across to watch Jeremiah and his family. There was a sort of invisible wall keeping me tied to this property, to the very core of the house itself. I had contented myself instead with watching my family over the years, always close by but not able to touch or communicate as Death had promised me.
Landon’s light across the street streamed through the windows, swinging upwards and downwards as he looked around the home. He was in the study now, where Jeremiah and his siblings played piano and violin, their mother insisting upon lessons for each and every one of them. I had sat on the settee a number of times in my day, listening to one of the Sheffields play an instrument of some form. It was a favorite thing to do on Christmas Eve when our two families would get together and host a big party on the mill property. None of the instruments remained inside now, I knew. They had been taken to Toronto when the Sheffields moved on and that knowledge left me with a strange sense of sadness inside. A longing for the days that were so far in history that I couldn’t recall them clearly anymore.
There was a melding happening in front of my eyes as I watched Landon, in the present, wander through a house that held so many of my treasured memories. A sense of past meeting present, and I was folded in the middle of it all, out of place on both ends. I was never meant to live as long as I had, and I wasn’t meant to be here now in this moment, years removed. I was out of place. An anomaly the universe hadn’t counted on yet was dealing with all the same. Sometimes, I’d look out the window and wonder if I was the only one that remained in the whole world or if there were others haunting other houses in other cities. I had asked Death once, but he’d admonished me softly with a reminder that some information isn’t meant for me. I’d taken that to mean that I wasn’t the only one in the world lingering in a ghostly form, but now I wasn’t so certain.
I closed my eyes for a brief moment, head reeling with memories and anticipations at the same time, of lingering in the present in a body made of smoke and wisp and of being in the past where I had lived a half life full of sickness and a future I hadn’t been promised. And of Landon, across the street combing through history for things stuck in the present, just like I was. He wasn’t going to find anything, I knew. Nothing lingered in the darkness over there as much as he seemed hopeful. It felt a bit raw to be waiting for him to return and kiss me as I desired him to when I knew that I was the only one who could give him what he desired more than my lips.
I could give him me.
All of me. Not just my body, but what I was. A ghost. An entity lingering outside the boundaries of a timeline set in stone. Had I not been certain that doing so would upend my entire existence, I would have given it willingly. Landon was leaving in mere days, but I was lingering behind as always, and that had to be considered, but still, listening to him talk about how he was set to lose everything because he couldn’t find a ghost had hit a place inside me that made me feel a bit selfish. Every time he mentioned that he was looking for clues about the house and the people that had lived there, I cringed a bit inside knowing that with one small admission, I could give him everything he needed to save his career.
Movement across the street caught my eye, breaking me out of my reverie, and I watched with anticipation as the light outside grew closer. Landon was crossing the street now, his flashlight swinging as he moved fast across the pavement. When he was outside the front door, I put the lamp down on the bedside table, hoping that it had warmed my lips enough that I wouldn’t cause him a chill but unwilling to touch them with my cold hands to be certain. Instead, I headed for the door, coming to the bottom of the staircase as the front door opened, Landon stepping inside. He clicked his flashlight off, and I smiled at him, hesitating for a moment before taking a step closer and tilting my head up to his, offering him my lips as a reward for his safe return.
Landon made a noise at the back of his throat, and I closed my eyes as he stepped towards me, but instead of his lips on mine, I felt his fingertips brush against the chill of my cheek. I resisted the urge to pull away, forced myself to stay knowing full well his fingertips could feel the cold that I was created from. He didn’t say anything about it though, instead he gently, so very gently, cupped my cheek and drew me to him.
A moment of touch passed, only a brief speck in the timeline, before soft, warm lips brushed mine, and I made my own noise of content. Where I thought he would stop, the kiss having been achieved, Landon pressed harder against my mouth, his lips firm as he parted them, gently flicking his tongue against my own. I parted willingly, moving with him in this moment, letting him caress my tongue with his, feeling the shivers of his body as warm met cold.
I couldn’t make sense of what was happening, but it didn’t matter, all I knew in this moment was Landon’s lips on mine, his tongue in my mouth and mine in his, hands groping at my waist and one on my cheek still. A thumb brushing my cheekbone. Warmth as I’d never felt it before. I felt myself growing hard in my pants, though I still had not figured the mechanics of it, and I moved my lower half away from him so as not to intrude but he followed me where I went, reaching behind me with a hand to cup my buttock and giving me the tiniest press forward. A strangled noise left my mouth as Landon owned me with his kiss, his hand insisting I not move, that I stay pressed against him where my hips were pressing me forward, my cock aching for touch, for friction.
“Landon.” I gasped when he finally let me free and I looked at him with bleary eyes as his hand at my butt pressed me forward again, my length rubbing deliciously on the seam of my pants.
“Is this okay?” he whispered, leaning in and nipping at my earlobe. My earlobe! Never before had I ever considered that piece of the body to be sexual, but as he nibbled again, I moaned softly. He rocked my hips forward again, and I stifled a cry against his shoulder, burying my head there and pretending I could smell the fresh linen scent of his shirt. “Ben?”
“Yes,” I whispered, clinging to his shirt, my fists balled in the fabric as he captured me there in the entryway in his strong hands. I should have said no, but I had never felt like this before in all my years and I was desperate for more.
“I was thinking about you,” he murmured, guiding my hips forward with his hand and holding me there where my erection rested on his thigh. “About this. It was a waste of a trip because I couldn’t stop thinking about coming back over here to you.”
“I am sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“That was an excellent first kiss,” I offered, hoping I wasn’t coming across as a fool while my head spun and my body reeled of the press of him against me. His heavy-lidded eyes met mine and I swooned, my knees quivering and quaking where they held me aloft.
“How do you feel about two firsts?” he murmured, glancing down to where our bodies pressed against each other, one warmer than the sun and one colder than the grave.
“Two firsts?”
He pressed forward against me, and I caught on to his meaning entirely, thankful that I couldn’t produce much color in my cheeks because I was certain they’d be brilliant red at this point. I hesitated a brief moment, considering if what he was suggested was even possible given my current form, before deciding that it was worth a test. I nodded carefully, those butterflies I thought wouldn’t ever fly again crashing around inside me.
Landon smiled before leaning forward and capturing my lips again, my soul singing in my chest as he swallowed the surprised squeak that burst from between them. My hips pressed against his thigh, and he moved backwards swiftly, taking me with him until his back hit the wall beside the door. He pulled away from the kiss for a moment, and I wondered what he was doing until his thigh landed between my legs again, firm and unyielding. I glanced down to see that he’d braced himself on the wall and bent his leg forwards, giving me a place to... rub? As he pulled me forward again, my length pressed against his thigh, and I moaned low in my throat.
Yes. A place to rub indeed.
I closed my eyes and pressed my face to his shirt as my hips canted forwards then backwards, each drag against his leg feeling more and more like something perfect. Something special. His big hands cupped my butt, pressing me forwards every time I pulled back, insisting I keep moving and setting the pace. A soft noise left my throat again as pleasure rippled down my spine, and I closed my eyes, giving myself over to it entirely.
“Feel good?” Landon murmured into my ear, and I responded with a grunt or maybe it was a groan. Some unhinged animalistic noise, that much was certain. I was close to… something. An orgasm as I’d experienced in life at my own hands, but this felt like more, and I was growing desperate for it as I rocked against his thigh. Landon suckled at my earlobe again and I felt it building inside me, this pull to the edge of whatever was happening inside my form.
“Let go,” he whispered, and I responded by rubbing against him harder, faster, my hips working a pace even he had not set. I chased my orgasm against his warmth, my soul pulsing inside me as I tilted my head back and let it wash over me like a tidal wave.
“Landon!” I cried out as I came, hips thrusting against his body wildly, hands bunched in his sweatshirt and his lips on my ear.
I shivered as the moment ended, the aftershocks leaving me drained and weak as I slumped in the entryway with his hands still on my form. I could feel myself fading a bit as I trembled against his body, his warmth and comfort holding me in place, and I casually brushed my hand over the electrical switch behind his shoulder, feeling the suck and pull of becoming full again.
“You all right?” Landon murmured, holding me against him.
“I am,” I admitted, feeling his body shiver at my coldness. “I’m sorry I’m so cold.”
“It’s all right.”
And I knew in that moment, it was.
13
Landon
I had half a mind to drag Ben upstairs and throw him in a bathtub of warm water. I had never experienced a cold like the one that clung to his entire body, seeping through even the fabric of the clothing he wore. He was like a block of ice where he pressed against me, and though I was shivering, I wasn’t about to make him move out of my arms. Not yet anyway. Instead, I contented myself with leaning into him as the shivers rippled between us, mine from his chill and his from his orgasm. I grinned as his body jittered again, the sound of his pleasure still ringing in my ears. I hadn’t imagined that a kiss would end up like this, but I hadn’t been able to help myself when I’d felt his hardness press up against mine.
“Oh,” he murmured. “What about you?”
“I’m all right,” I responded with a shrug as he stepped back a little bit from me and looked down at the crotch of my pants. I was harder than ever after watching him fall to pieces in my hands, but I was fine if he wasn’t able to reciprocate. My hands weren’t strangers to helping me out when it was necessary and part of me was cringing a bit at the thought of his cold hands, cold lips on my cock, though I’d never admit as much to him.
“Are you?” he asked, looking up at me with concern in his eyes.
“I am.”
He glanced down at the front of my pants again, his eyebrows furrowing. “I don’t know… how to do it. Anything, I mean. I’m not… I have never.”
“Ben,” I responded, tilting his head up so that he would look right into my eyes. “It’s okay. I’ll be all right.”
He slowly nodded, offering a sheepish smile as he stepped away from me a tiny bit more. “Will you handle it yourself then?”
My entire face heated as I burst out in a laugh. Ben grinned at me, his eyes sparkling, and I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll handle it myself.”
“Will you do it now?”
His grin doubled as I sputtered another laugh, the sound echoing in the room around us. “Maybe later on. We should go get you cleaned up though, that’s gotta be uncomfortable for you.”
“What is?” he asked, cocking his head to the side like he really didn’t know what I was talking about.
“Your pants? Don’t you… um… need a shower?”
“Oh! Um. Yes. Yes, that would be nice. I think I’ll go have a shower.”
Ben gave me a quick smile before taking off up the stairs, his feet carrying him far faster than I’d seen him move before. I had meant to go with him, to hop into the warm water and hold him against my skin to skin, maybe even see if I could draw a second orgasm out of his body and show him how good it really could be without being stuck into the confines of fabric, but the sound of the shower starting reminded me that what we’d done in the entryway was Ben’s first experience with someone else and he likely needed space to think. My phone ringing also put a stop to my going upstairs to join him, and I grimaced when I glanced at it and saw Steph’s name on the screen. I didn’t hear from her often, so this had to mean something and that settled into my gut like a lead weight.
“Hello?” I murmured as I answered the call, wandering into the parlor across from the entryway and settling down on the plush couch there.
“Hey, you,” Steph’s friendly voice said from the other end. “How’s things?”
“Going all right, but I don’t think that’s the reason you’re calling me. What’s going on?”
She inhaled a deep breath then let it go on a sound that reminded me of a sad sigh. “I think I’m leaving The Haunt.”
“What? No. What’s going on?” Steph was one of the big draws of the channel with her gaming series to keep us going between hunts. If she left, I had no idea what to put in her place to keep eyes on us. Combined with our lack of ghost footage, that would sink us entirely.
“This isn’t fun anymore,” she confessed. “When I applied to join, it looked like such a great time, and it was. But… it’s not anymore.”
“Is it because we can’t find a ghost? Because I swear, I’m working on that, Steph. I promise I’m doing my best to dig through and find us what we need to keep this channel going.”
“Oh no. I know you are. I trust you, Landon. It’s just… I can’t work with Kev. Not if he’s going to be like this. It was all of us working together but now it’s not, and I don’t like feeling like I have a boss all of a sudden, y’know? I liked it when I could say something and be heard. It’s a bit better when you’re here because you listen, and Noah and I can usually manage when you’re gone, but this time it’s something else entirely. It’s a bad scene, dude.”
I parsed through her words quickly in my head but there was clearly something she wasn’t telling me, and I needed to know. “What’s happened?”
Steph went silent for a moment before she sighed again. “I overheard Kev on the phone with someone, I don’t know who, but he was talking about a deal of some kind, and he mentioned The Haunt.”
“And?”
“He… God, I don’t even know if I should be saying this, but he told the person that after the next episode, The Haunt was folding and he was ready to sign on with them.”
I almost dropped the phone in shock as my heart started thudding hard in my chest and my ire rose within me, coupled with sheer confusion. “Signing on with who?”
“I don’t know,” Steph offered. “But he’s being an asshole, and I just want out before he does whatever he’s going to do to tank us.”
“If he wants out, he can always leave.” It wasn’t a lie, he really could. Sure, we’d have to figure out the money details and there would be paperwork with the business license, but he could leave if he wanted to.
“I think it’s more than wanting out. I think he wants us gone entirely so we can’t compete.”
I took a deep breath and considered that information. It seemed absolutely ludicrous to consider that my best friend, the one who’d started this whole thing with me, would be actively looking to shut us down completely. The Haunt was our baby and we had raised it into what it was today on a combined effort based on our friendship. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Landon,” Steph said, sounding a bit sad. “I know he’s your best friend. Noah and I both know that it’s been you and him since you were teens or something, but he’s different now. All he cares about is money and clicks. Do you really think he doesn’t have it in him to burn the channel down so he can jump ship elsewhere?”
“Where would he go?” After the channel failed, if it did, who would take a chance on someone in his position? Seemed risky to me to hire a ghost hunter who hadn’t captured a single piece of ghost footage.
“I don’t know, but I’m done, Lan. I can’t keep going if it’s not fun, and if we’re done anyway, I don’t see any reason to stay.”
“Will you come for Hadley Mill?” I asked, scrambling to keep her involved while I figured out what was going on.
“Yeah,” she responded, and I could picture her nodding, her usual ponytail flapping behind her as her head moved. Steph was one of my favorite people, even if we didn’t connect as often as we really should have before. Maybe if we had, I’d understand more where she was coming from and be able to trust that she wasn’t misconstruing something she heard. “But it’ll be my last one.”
