Jason paused again, not certain how he should answer the question. What was going on with Sabrina was so new, he didn’t think he was at the introducing-her-to-the-family stage.
As a matter of fact, he knew he wasn’t there.
“I was just hanging with a friend of mine. So what did you want?” Reid chuckled. “Female, I assume.”
He sat upright in his chair. “How the fu—”
“I can hear it in your voice, man,” Reid answered, laughing harder. “Who is she? Is it serious?”
So much for keeping it quiet.
“Her name’s Sabrina. I like her.” A lot. But some barrier he didn’t know how to break down kept them separated. He felt it in odd moments when they lapsed into a companionable silence. He sensed it at times when they made love. He didn’t think it was just a matter of voices or schizophrenia or whatever it was that troubled her.
Something else stood in the way of them and he just didn’t know how to identify it. She refused to acknowledge the rift whenever he mentioned it. Although, maybe she didn’t feel it the way he did.
“Listen, don’t say anything to anyone,” Jason said after another pause. “Things are still new.”
“You took a week off to be with her, right? What’s the problem?” Despite the fact Reid couldn’t see it, Jason shook his head. “It’s not that there’s a problem, exactly—”
“Which means there is a problem,” Reid interrupted.
“There isn’t… I mean…it’s no big deal. Well, there are a couple of things…that aren’t problems, exactly.”
“You said that already.”
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He was rambling. He knew it. “Let me ask you this, then.” He paused again, not certain how to phrase it.
“For Christ’s sake Jason, spit it out!”
“What do you think… Well, have you ever dated someone who isn’t white?” This time Reid paused before he spoke. He sounded bored. “Is that all?” Not by a long shot, but for the moment, it was the only thing on the list he planned on sharing. “Have you?”
“No, baby brother. But not because I wouldn’t. Simply because it hasn’t happened.” Jason let the “baby brother”, a throwback to when they were in high school, slide.
“Yeah.”
“Listen, you said you like her. I won’t press for details because obviously you’re not ready to give them, but get with the times. Don’t let something so trivial stop you from being happy, okay?”
“What do you think Mom and Dad would say?”
“Mom and I only want you to be happy. That’s all that matters.”
“Yeah,” he repeated with a sigh, almost managing to ignore the way Reid forgot to mention their father.
They talked a few minutes longer, two brothers keeping in touch, before disconnecting. Since Teddy’s passing, they made a habit of it. Kind of like an unspoken rule. A full week didn’t go by without one contacting the other. That it almost had was a clue as to how much Sabrina’s presence in his life had affected him.
He just wished she would talk to him. Not the things they laughed about, or even the hushed whispers during sex, but whatever kept him from reaching her.
The prescription for her medication sat folded in his wallet, another reminder of another barrier. The voices hadn’t come back yet that he could tell, but they would. And what then?
* * * * *
Sabrina balled up the stupid piece of paper and hurled it across the room.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened.
The chair fell backward, hitting the carpeted floor with a soft thump when she stood. The candle flame flickered, but didn’t wink out. Thad stared out from the photograph, his false smile mocking her attempts at doing something nice for Jason.
Once again she wondered if Thad really was dead. She knew enough about automatic writing to understand the mechanics. God knew she could communicate with the dead. So why not when she wanted to? Why was it always on their terms?
Maybe Jason needed to be there. With no true link to Thad to speak of, she reached blindly into the dark, hoping to grasp his hand. When other spirits tried to speak to her, usually they had some message or some business on the earth they needed to handle. If 63
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Thad recognized he needed to move on, if nothing tethered him to the world of the living, she could spend the next twenty years of her life trying to reach him to no avail.
That’s what she feared most. Having to tell Jason that his brother was lost to him forever when she’d already given him some hope there might be a way to contact him.
Okay. She could do this.
If automatic writing wasn’t the medium Thad would respond to, perhaps she needed to focus on what would work. Focus on speaking with Thad like she would any of the other dead. Of course, that brought with it some risks. The risk of others finding her and crushing her beneath the weight of their voices.
Chewing on a thumbnail, Sabrina paced and thought hard. He would be here any day now for His carnal payment. If she tried to summon Thad to her, He would drive him—and any others who might happen along—away sooner or later. Of course, waiting until later might prove to be a problem.
Though, for Jason, it was a risk she was willing to take.
“Thad Raines,” she called softly. “If you can hear me, please speak to me.” She slowed to a stop, waiting, straining to hear anything out of the ordinary. “C’mon Teddy,” she muttered. “Give me something, anything, to work with.” The scent of sulfur wafted around her. Not the enticing, warm vanilla breeze the candle was supposed to expel. This was rank. Sharp to her senses.
“Thad Raines.”
Although the central air-conditioning ran at a low hum, kicking in periodically to keep the room at a steady temperature, goose bumps erupted over her skin. Hair rose on the back of her neck, white puffs of cold air blowing out of her nose and mouth. It must have dropped a good ten degrees in the past fifteen seconds. She hoped to hell that meant it was working.
“Thad Raines.” This time she spoke with a firmer voice. With a sense of conviction.
Almost sending him an order. “Speak to me.”
It took everything within her not to wrap her arms around herself and run screaming from the room. Not just the chill, but the heavy weight of something ominous sank into her skin. The way a sponge soaked up water. It smothered her, making it difficult to breathe. And the pungent odor the candle gave off almost choked off her airway.
She smiled at the first sound of a voice.
Sabrina.
The smile eroded. This was not the sound of Thad’s voice; the sound of a young man gone before his time. The sound of Jason’s brother who came back with a message for his family.
It was the voice of Him. Him, who haunted her life. Him who she’d come to loathe.
He said her name again, and her world collapsed, the emptiness filled with nothing less than dread.
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Balancing the trays of Chinese cartons housing fragrant food in one hand while waiting for Sabrina to open the door to her apartment took skill. Jason knocked again, wondering if maybe she’d crossed the hall and waited for him at his place instead.
He wanted to see her again with a desperation that bordered on silly. Surely he could stand to spend nine hours apart from a woman he barely knew?
But that wasn’t quite accurate. While two weeks ago he didn’t know very much about Sabrina, the past days of loving and talking told him more than he thought possible. An orphan, she showed enthusiastic fascination when he told her about his family. He didn’t think of the stories of the trio of brothers as particularly entertaining, but Sabrina proved herself an apt pupil.
He probed into her past and she told him a lot. Not everything, he could tell that much, but a lot. Some things so haltingly, he wondered if she’d ever told anyone else before. With time, maybe, she’d tell him more.
His concern for her grew when he knocked again with no answer. Still doing a delicate balancing act, he turned and slipped his key into the door to his place.
Darkness stared out at him and he had to set the food on the table before flicking on a light. He scanned his surroundings, not at all comforted by the fact nothing indicated Sabrina was inside. The realization put a pit in his stomach, a gnawing reminder that she’d been attacked a little over a week ago, the matter never having been resolved. At least not in his mind. What if this mysterious
he
came back and did worse damage than before? What if Sabrina lay in a pool of blood somewhere, unable to call out for help, just like the night he’d found her?
Blood roared through his mind, a rush of adrenaline riding its wave as he tore through the apartment, opening the bathroom door, opening the spare bedroom door, opening the master bathroom door…to find Sabrina stretched out on the bed, tucked beneath the sheets. He’d almost flipped on the lights, but having flooded everywhere else during his frantic search, the fluorescent spill from the hallway illuminated her and the smile she wore in her sleep. Must be nice to be fast asleep and so comfortable like that while he slugged his way home through crowded subways and noisy streets. But if coming home to this vision is what would reward him every time he did it, well, it was worth it.
Quietly, as not to disturb her, he shucked off his clothes, all the while watching her for signs of movement. Hunger that made his stomach rumble only a few minutes ago turned into a different kind of hunger now.
Under the sheets, her naked shoulders beckoned to him. The smooth skin, the delicate structure of her bones. Beneath, the view offered him a tantalizing glimpse of 65
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her back. Of her dark hair sweeping down, caressing the curve of her spine and pointing the way down to the hidden, rounded swell of her ass. If she’d been spread completely nude, all of her on display, Jason didn’t think her pose would have been as enticing, as sensual as now.
Forced to use his imagination and a near-perfect memory, he mentally visualized her fleshy globes, her long legs leading to manicured toes. He thought of how often he stifled the urge to bite her ass, to lick her dark hole, to plunge his cock inside the rosette opening. No doubt. He was an ass man through and through. And his temptress often invited him to give in to his desires and he’d yet to do it.
Until now.
He found the lube hidden away for these rare, treasured times and placed it on the nightstand, just in case this evening she proved to be as receptive to allowing the kinky treasure. Sliding beneath the sheets took a little more finesse, but he pulled them back, his gaze focused on her bottom, and exhaled slowly as he lowered himself beside Sabrina. She stirred, a soft sigh that interrupted her deep slumber, reminding him all too much of the little sounds she made when aroused. He would have loved to see the expression on her face, to see if her mouth rounded into the little o-shape she made while they fucked. Maybe next time.
Jason traced his hand over the curve of her waist, over her hip, caressed her ass. He dipped his head, followed the decadent trail with his teeth.
Sabrina screamed, rolling away from him. “No! No!” Startled by her reaction—and a split second later realizing his approach probably wasn’t the best—Jason threw his hands in the air. “Whoa, baby. It’s me. Just me.” Her eyes were wild, scanning over him. Through him. “Not from behind…never from behind.”
“I’m sorry.” The terror that gripped her was almost palpable. “Baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
She whimpered, clutching the sheet to her chest. “Never from behind,” she repeated softly.
Approaching her on his knees, he kept his voice gentle. “Never again. I’m sorry.” By the time he pulled her into his arms, she was trembling. Again, the image of a fragile, injured bird came to mind as he held her. He kissed her cheek, soothing away the fear still wrapped tight around her. He kissed her jawline, her lips. He touched down on her neck, the little dip at the base.
She smelled like Ivory and his fabric softener. Like the sweet taste of strawberries.
He slanted his mouth over hers, breathing in her scent, his tongue curling with hers and tasting the remnants of her slumber.
“I didn’t mean to scream.” Her eyes were still wide. Still held terror within them.
But her hands, her lovely hands traveled over his chest, over his abdomen. They grazed his erection, slowly rising to prominence again between them.
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“Shh…I wasn’t thinking. I shouldn’t have surprised you like that.” God help him, he shouldn’t have been turned-on, but she grasped his cock, sliding her hands up and down until his hips bucked, the blood rushing from his brain to answer the call below.
Her mouth slanted in a half-smile. “So, did you have something in particular in mind?”
“No,” he replied innocently, his hands reaching to cup the heavy swell of her breasts. “Not me.”
On her knees still, Sabrina’s kneel widened. “Oh. That’s good to know.”
“Are you okay? Really?” As turned-on as rubbing the swollen points of her nipples made him, he had a hard time believing the one-eighty she pulled from only minutes ago.
Sabrina kissed him. When she pulled back, she looked into his eyes, her face serious. “I’m fine. Really. I should have known better than to think… I was just startled, that’s all.” As if to prove her point, she trailed a finger around the base of his cock, stroked down his thigh before using her hand to embrace his testicles. With her unique, delicate touch, she rolled his balls, coaxing a groan from him.
Jason threaded his fingers into her hair, pulling her closer for another kiss. Her mouth moved over his, drawing it out as if the idea were hers and not his. He pushed into the cavern of her hot mouth, his tongue colliding and stroking hers. He would have spent forever kissing her, but he remembered what drew his attention before they’d started their embrace.
He guided her to lying, his mouth grazing over her breasts, her stomach all the while. She moaned when he inhaled the scent of her sex. When he nudged her thighs farther apart with his face. When he lowered his mouth and tasted her cream.
The hint of Ivory he smelled on her greeted his taste buds first, but then the unique musky flavor of his woman exploded onto his tongue seconds later. She rolled her hips, her hands pushing into his hair. Her cries spurring the way he worked his mouth, tasting, feasting, needing her.