Bone Island 03 - Ghost Moon (11 page)

“What?”

“Time, places, life, the world, people,” she said, and she turned to him at last. “And it is crazy. I’ve been gone so long, I haven’t seen you in forever, and many a day went by when I didn’t even think about you or Key West, or even the water and the way it feels to sit outside and see the endless dark undulation of the water at night….”

“And?”

“And when I came back, the moment I saw you…You’d changed so much, and you hadn’t changed at all, and I felt like I did that last night, that I could still crawl into your arms, and you would be there to comfort me.”

“I wasn’t exactly thinking about comforting you,” he admitted.

She looked at him, and he knew how hard he was trying to play it all cool and rational, and yet…he was melting. Everything in him was melting, burning, and
he felt the tension of desire rip through his limbs and his core, and he prayed that the longing to pull her into his arms, rip off her clothes and hold her wasn’t glaringly apparent. There was a glow in her eyes and a breathlessness about her; he thought that he could feel the pounding of her heart.

“I think I’ve been in love with you forever,” she said, and it was barely a whisper, hardly sounding above the breeze. “Oh, no! I’m so sorry, don’t take that as… I mean, I suppose I’ve always been drawn to you. If I hadn’t been quite such a good kid… I think a few of our schoolmates and friends might have been involved, but… I’m babbling, aren’t I?”

“Babble—it’s quite all right,” he managed huskily.

She burst out laughing, and so did he, and he would never be sure if he did reach out and grab her with force or if she actually turned to him, pouncing upon him. He went back flat in the sand, and she was on top of him. She stared at him a moment longer, and then her lips fell down upon his and her body stretched out atop his. For a moment they were locked in a wickedly hot, wet, passionate kiss with their tongues violent in the quest for the most intimate kiss in the world, and then they rolled so that they were side by side in the sand, still in one another’s arms, still melded together in the kiss, and yet freeing themselves to touch and pull closer and closer.

At last, somehow, she was beneath him, and his hands wandered freely over her length. She reached up to touch his face, then pulled him back, her fingertips pressing down the length of his spine. His lips touched hers again, and he felt the tremor of her heart, the rapid rise and fall
of her breath, the vibrant movement she made beneath him, arching closer, touching….

He gasped, breaking away from her.

He leaped to his feet and reached down to her. She caught his hand, allowing him to draw her up from the sand. He pulled her against him again, laughing as he whispered, “It’s private, it’s remote. It’s not that private or remote.”

She grinned, turned and kicked up sand as she ran for the house. He bolted after her, following her into the family room. She had already sped through it, on her way to the stairs.

Panting, he forced himself to pause to lock and secure the door.

She had raced up the stairs to her room, and he followed. She had jumped upon the bed in the shadows; the room was lit only by the light escaping from the bathroom. Everything in him seemed to be pulsing to a painful degree as he started toward her.

To his astonishment, she stopped him.

“The door!”

“I locked the door.”

“The bedroom door!”

He had to admit: the biology of his male mind had gone beyond thought. He stood still as she leaped back up, ran to the bedroom door and locked it. But when he would have questioned her, he never got the chance. She made a running leap to him, arms and legs locked around him, knocking him back down to the bed.

And there, breathless, they began a disorganized and frantic removal of clothing, she tearing at his buttons, he
lifting the hem of her knit pullover, both of them using their feet to try to remove their shoes. When clothing was cast away at last, they stared at one another, breathing heavily again, and then his hands were on the firmness of her breasts and she was locked around him again, fingers upon his chest, kissing against his throat, his collarbone, his chest. In a tangle they kissed and petted and explored, and at length he found himself straddling her, feverish, his longing to be a good lover waging war with his desperation to be inside her.

She dragged his mouth down to hers and wrapped her legs around his hips. He forced himself to a certain finesse as he slid slowly into her. At first he was aware of nothing at all but the incredible scent of her body, of the amazing movement, of being with her at last, forceful, his urgency matched by her own, the eager vitality and need of their lovemaking akin in an undulating motion like the ocean in a tempest. She writhed against him, increasing his arousal to a maddened frenzy, as if he were an adolescent, as if life and the state of the world rested in her touching him in return, coming to the same state of wild, frenetic ecstasy.

As if he had been waiting all of his life.

He didn’t know how many minutes went by; time was meaningless. He didn’t know where they were anymore, nor did he care. He moved and moved, and felt as if he moved deeper into her with each touch, and it seemed that his heart and limbs would explode in a savage burst of fire that would consume the world. He refused these feelings in his mind, refused in his soul to let go, until he felt the eruption in the softness of her
body, the sweet feminine cry in his ear…and then climax wracked through him with a vengeance.

Ripples, afterquakes, seemed to rip through them both as they lay panting, no words coming to their mouths, and still, he knew, if he tried to speak, he would be too breathless to do so. He didn’t want to speak, to think of time gone by, of the distance that lay between their real worlds. It was best just to take these moments, the darkness and shadows around them, and pretend that the feeling could last forever.

In time, she stirred. “Liam, I didn’t mean…”

“That was pretty good if you didn’t mean it,” he teased.

She laughed, lying against him, her fingers then playing down his chest. “I didn’t mean that…that I expected anything from you, you know.”

“Oh?” he said, heart thundering.

She laughed. “I didn’t mean it that way! I meant…things like that are so easy to say. I’ve always cared about you, and I think we
would
have, and…”

“I think so, too. And it was really a long, long time for all that tension to build up!” he told her.

She was so relaxed. It was homecoming as it should have been.

Homecoming to him.

No sadness, no fear.

Just the easy laughter and honesty that been theirs once when they’d been so young.

“Liam—”

He pressed his fingers against her lips. “Let’s take tonight, hmm?” he queried softly. Tenderly now, and
with time and care, he pressed his lips to her forehead, to her throat and to her lips. “It was a lot of tension, you know. Tons of tension, and…”

She didn’t seem to mind. She was slow and lazy then, just as he pressed his point in an achingly slow and thorough manner. She did the same. He explored the length of her body, luxuriating in the perfection of each limb, the incredible sleekness of her skin, the wonder of her breasts, belly, calves, thighs and everything in between. And she in turn teased with an erotic touch that was equally slow and taunting, with whispered words against his flesh, until neither could bear it any longer and they became entangled in one another’s arms again, her legs locked around him, his heart thundering to a roar and his breath as frantic as a man deprived…for years.

He never stirred from the bed. He wasn’t about to suggest that he go home.

She never seemed to think about him leaving, either.

The moon was full out; it was what they called the wee small hours of the morning.

And still, of course, it was Key West. Some places were just closing. There were still those stumbling around on Duval Street. Workers—servers, managers, musicians—many cold sober, would be annoyed at those who drank themselves silly and had to be carried home by others.

Soon the sun would begin to rise.

In another hour or so, the early crew would be out. There wasn’t much of it. The docks would get busy
quickly for the morning fishing charters, dive boats, snorkel boats and sightseeing trips. Restaurant personnel who worked breakfast venues would be struggling up, and the earliest coffee places would start to prepare for the day. Those on the night shift at the desks, bell men, bouncers, security workers and others would be bored, idling away their time in this strange in-between hour that came to Key West.

Time meant nothing to him, and everything. He embraced the darkness.

And yet, he enjoyed functioning, totally hidden within himself, in all the brilliance that the sun could possibly bring.

He stood for a moment, simply enjoying the time of the day. Enjoying where he stood, the sight, the memory, the scent.

He looked over at the house. His enjoyment faded, and he felt bitterness well inside him.

So now that prying bastard, Liam Beckett, was staying there, with her, in her room, sleeping with her.

It didn’t matter. He was protected, and they were all blind, and it was euphoria to watch them all, having no idea of all that went on that they didn’t see.

It was no matter, truly. The house was still his, and he needed Kelsey Donovan. There was no way that Beckett could be there all the time. Beckett was a cop. He had to go to work. He had to do things.

He smiled. He liked being in the house, and he would be in the house again. And it would be amusing because Beckett would be sleeping with her, and he’d changed
the locks, and he was so self-confident, and he would never know.

Maybe something could happen to the cop.

He calmed himself. He inhaled.

And he inhaled the scent of death.

Ah, yes, different, but the expression was still there…. Of course, they were idiots. He’d thought they would have found the last victim by now.

He was too good at what he did.

It was more time to enjoy the expression on his victim’s face, more time to savor the kill….

More time to relish the scent of death that was like a teasing whisper on the air, mingling with the salt sea breeze. There and not there…

He inhaled deeply, and looked toward the house.

He would have his time with Kelsey Donovan.

“K
elsey, what do you want us doing about the packing crates and boxes?” Katie asked. “Some of them have been opened, but there’s packing stuff all over the place.”

“You should go through them all carefully,” Liam warned, making a face as he noted a pile of strawlike packing material sitting on top of a box. “Cutter might have had tiny things packed in with big things.”

“That’s true,” Kelsey said. She looked across the room at Liam. The Merlin house was alive as it hadn’t been in years. The cleaning party had arrived, and they were a dedicated crew. Heads had been dusted on the wall, floors had been swept and swabbed, carpets had been vacuumed and surfaces cleaned, shined, scrubbed and polished.

“Maybe we could just organize them all better,” she said, not sure what to do herself. She hadn’t had a chance yet to go through Cutter’s office and his desk, something that had been first on her agenda. But she’d felt obliged to join in with the cleaning crew. Katie was a whirlwind, while David and Sean followed her directives
for moving heavy furniture. Ted and Jaden had taken it on themselves to work with the more delicate collectibles and art pieces in the house, dusting gently. Jonas and Clarinda had appointed themselves cleaners of the floors, and Liam had worked with Vanessa and Kelsey, trying to manage the organizational part of the work.

All of them were aware that Kelsey and Liam were acting like a couple, but no one said anything about it. They just all smiled to each other.

“How about if we move them all upstairs to the guest room?” Katie suggested. “There’s nothing up there but a bed and a dresser, and we can stack them around the walls. They’ll be out of the way, and then I can go through them one by one.”

Sean groaned softly and then laughed. “Up the stairs.”

“Oh!” Katie said. “That’s a bad idea.”

“No,” Liam told her firmly. “It’s a fine idea. Everyone will be very careful on the stairway. And it’s perfect. Most of them have a number or some kind of title on them. We can leave the identification sticking out, and you’ll know what’s in everything.”

“Yeah. I’ll dust up the packing down here,” David teased.

“Wait—the broom is in my hands at the moment, and I’ll be keeping it!” Vanessa said.

“I will follow around behind you to make sure nothing is dropped,” Jaden said.

“Works for me!” Ted told her.

“You’ll head right on over there and pick up those boxes, sir!” Jaden told him.

“Which box?” Ted asked Liam with a sigh.

“Let’s get started with the boxes and crates here, closest to the stairs. Then we can move on to the office,” Liam said.

He and Ted picked up one of the large boxes, Sean and David went for the next and Jonas determined he could take one of the smaller ones on his own. Kelsey stood by the stairway, her heart in her throat for several minutes, until she felt Katie’s arm around her shoulder. “They’re going to be very careful, Kelsey. It’s fine. Let’s put some of the snacks out—we can all run down to the beach for a few minutes to cool off and dust off and do some munching before firing up the barbecue. Come on.”

Kelsey nodded and turned away. They were all young, strong, and in good health. They could handle the boxes. And, once the boxes were organized, the task of going through them would not seem so daunting.

In the kitchen, she scrubbed her hands for the umpteenth time that day and delved into the refrigerator for dips and chips, cheese cubes, veggies and the other appetizers she had purchased. Katie started carrying things out the back door, setting up on the long picnic tables she had found in the family-room closet. By the time the boxes were moved and the last of the packing swept up, the backyard was set up. Kelsey was about to walk into the house when David and Katie came running out, screaming something about the last one in being a truly rotten and tough old conch.

They’d all worn bathing suits beneath the jeans, shorts
and T-shirts they’d donned for cleaning, so clothing went flying as they raced for the water.

The beach itself wasn’t more than fifty feet, but there was a good sand bottom for a stretch, before the entangling mangroves and foliage began to take hold to the west, and the little peninsula curved back toward the mainland on the east. There was plenty of room for a group of ten to run in, splash, swim and torment one another.

“Am I dust-free yet?” Jaden asked, rising in four feet of water.

They all laughed. She still had a splash of black on her nose. “Grease!” Ted announced, walking over to rub his thumb over the top of her nose. “I got it, I got it, I got it—nope, nope, it’s on your cheek now!”

“Hey!” she protested.

Kelsey leaned back in Liam’s arms as they idled in the water, laughed and realized she hadn’t had this kind of fun in ages, and she didn’t really know why.

It was Liam, of course.

Her life in California was good. She was going back to it. This kind of…day couldn’t last forever. Real life overtook you wherever you lived. She couldn’t really just pack up and come back here to live.

They remained in the water awhile longer, then one by one trailed out, grabbing the towels from the picnic tables, munching on the snacks and setting up for the barbecue. Apparently, Jonas was the head chef at the portable barbecue pit, and he liked pretending the others were all his sous chefs, making announcements on how the different meat should be cooked and snapping his fingers for plates and other dining paraphernalia.

Finally, the food was cooked, and they all sat around the tables. Kelsey thanked everyone for all the work they had done. Soon after, however, Katie, David, Clarinda and Jonas left, saying that they had to get to O’Hara’s for the night.

The others remained around the picnic tables, watching the sun begin its descent into the horizon.

Sean, straddling the left side of the picnic bench, said, “You know, we were all lucky. We have great places down here, and the property our parents purchased might well be out of reach for us—even now, with property values struggling around the country.” He grimaced. “Katie bought our house from our parents, and now I’m buying it from her, but obviously, we’re keeping it reasonable! Still, not even the Beckett house could possibly be worth as much as this place, Kelsey. What a view! You can’t see a sunset like this even down on Mallory Square, or anywhere else, for that matter. I hope you intend to keep it.”

“With all that Cutter left behind, you should be able to keep it, even if you choose not to live here,” Jaden said.

“I do love the house,” Kelsey said. “Creepy as the world chooses to see it!”

“I think it’s an absolutely beautiful house,” Vanessa said. She grimaced and glanced at Sean. “Actually, right now, it would make an amazing place to film a movie.”

Sean groaned.

“No, no, no,” Liam protested.

“Nothing bloody!” Vanessa protested. “Something psychological.”

“Shades of
The Haunting
or
House on Haunted Hill!
” Ted suggested.

“That would be a way for the place to keep itself afloat,” Vanessa said. “Renting out to commercial and movie companies.”

“I really don’t know what I want to do yet,” Kelsey told them. She rose suddenly. “The box, the casket—whatever it is. We need to show it to Jaden and Ted,” she told Liam.

He nodded. “I’ll get it,” he said.

“What—casket?” Jaden asked.

“It’s a box, like a jewelry box, with a gold filigree ball inside it. It’s just big enough to hold the ball. I
think
it’s some kind of a reliquary, but I’m not sure. I have to go through all of my grandfather’s papers, and I may or may not find out what it is when I’ve gone through them. But he was holding it when he died,” Kelsey explained.

“Cool!” Jaden said. Her eyes were bright. “I love that kind of mystery!”

“I have to admit, I’d love a shower and a nap,” Vanessa said, yawning. “Kelsey, thank you, it was a great day.”

“Thank you—the house is livable.”

“I know,” Vanessa said, grinning. “We should have gotten a lot of footage before we cleaned it!”

“Vanessa,” Sean said.

“Hey, opportunities like that don’t come along so frequently,” Vanessa protested.

Vanessa told Sean that he didn’t need to leave because she was leaving, and he admitted he needed a nap, as
well. “Work is easy—this house-cleaning thing is a real chore.”

Sean and Vanessa said goodbye to Liam as he came back out of the house carrying the bag with Cutter’s personal belongings. He waved to them and headed to the table, taking a seat again.

He produced the little casket and handed it to Jaden. Her eyes were instantly alight. “It
is
a reliquary,” she said. “Fascinating! It’s really delicate workmanship. I’m going to guesstimate Italian, early Renaissance.”

“Beautiful workmanship, absolutely beautiful,” Ted commented.

“Do you know of any special significance it might have?” Kelsey asked.

“Well, the obvious. The Catholic Church always honored saints, and to have a bit of a saint in a reliquary was kind of like…well, you know, nowadays like wearing a cross or a Star of David. Any religious symbol. A reliquary would be an extremely precious belonging to a devout believer,” Jaden said. “Was Cutter very religious?”

Kelsey thought about the question. “Actually, I think my family was originally Catholic. Cutter liked the Episcopal Church here, though. And I don’t think he particularly believed in
organized
religion. He was a spiritual man. He held the concept that man saw God in different ways, and if you looked at even old pagan religions, things somehow corresponded.”

“Ah,” Jaden said.

Kelsey laughed softly. “What does ‘ah’ mean?” she
asked. She noticed that Liam wasn’t laughing. His forehead was knit in a frown, and he seemed to take the concept of the reliquary very seriously.

“Well…I don’t know exactly,” Jaden said. “I’ll start going through books and see if I can find this particular piece. It would be interesting to find out how it came to be in Cutter’s possession.”

“Take it. Let me know what you can about it,” Kelsey said.

“Great. Well, thank you. I guess Ted and I will get going now, too,” Jaden said. They both rose, Jaden carefully putting the little casket in her bag.

“We’ll walk you out,” Liam offered.

They went through the house. In the drive, as they waved goodbye, Kelsey frowned. For a moment—just a moment—she thought she smelled the scent of death again. But it was quickly gone.

“What’s wrong?” Liam asked her sharply.

She had the feeling that he was going to go into his speech on how she shouldn’t be staying at the house—
especially
if she thought she smelled death.

“Nothing! Nothing.” She slipped her arms around him. “Nothing at all. It was an amazing day.” It
had
been an amazing day.

She pulled him close to her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the simple feel of her body against his, the natural way it was to be with him. They were both still salt-sticky from the sea; he was shirtless, and she had a throwover on, and his warmth and ever-vibrant energy seemed to spill into her. She was happy just to be with him, happier to be close to him. It was exciting to tease,
to touch, and making love was, of course, electrifying. The acuteness of that kind of feeling couldn’t last forever, she knew, and yet she also knew Liam so well, even if it had been years since they’d seen one another. Ecstasy could lead to comfort, but comfort could remain exciting…. The whole thing was actually terrifying. It could be easy to find others attractive, but the excitement of sex could fade so quickly unless there was that incredible something there that made a lover totally unique, his body warm and wonderful in the morning, and his face something that you longed to see. That was Liam. But it was happening too quickly, and she wondered if he also felt they were being swept away like leaves in a whirlwind, that they needed to stop, slow down….

But his arms wound around her. “The day isn’t over,” he said softly.

She looked up at him and smiled. Laughing, he swept her off the ground and headed for the door. He started when they both heard a clanging sound from the back of the house.

Kelsey shimmied to her feet. He grabbed her hand and didn’t rush around but hurried back into the house. His service revolver was in its holster, hidden beneath his jacket, which hung on one of the pegs just inside the door.

“Liam!” she protested.

He shook his head. Still gripping her hand and keeping her behind him, he walked through the house to exit through the back.

Jonas was there, scraping utensils from the barbecue.

He looked at Liam and the gun.

“Jesus, Liam!”

“Sorry,” Liam said, clicking the safety and slipping the gun into his waistband.

“My heart nearly stopped!” Jonas told him.

“How the hell did you get back here?” Liam asked.

Jonas arched a brow. “Walked?” he said.

“We just came through…oh!” Kelsey said, and laughed. “We were walking Ted and Jaden out through the house while you were walking around it.”

“I guess,” Jonas said. “Man, Liam, you are jumpy.”

“People broke in here twice,” Liam said.

Kelsey placed a hand on his arm. “Kids, and the idiots,” she said softly.

“And I’m well-trained,” Liam said, his tone edgy. “I wouldn’t have shot anyone, but this house is set by a nest of pines and mangroves and overgrowth. It doesn’t hurt to be safe now.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s all right,” Jonas said. “I didn’t mean to startle anyone. Just thought that I’d help pick up.”

“And we didn’t expect you, because you left with Clarinda,” Liam said.

“Well, since the poor girl has to go to work and I don’t, I like to get her there and walk her home, at least,” he said. “But I didn’t want to leave this place a mess, either. Hey, you want to go down to O’Hara’s for a while later?” he asked brightly.

Liam had eased at last, Kelsey knew. She could feel him relax. He smiled. “Maybe,” he said. “But not for a while.”

Jonas laughed. “I hear ya. Okay, I’m really leaving!”

He hefted his bag of utensils over his shoulder and started to roll the barbecue over the lawn. “Give me a call if you’re interested. I may walk on down early anyway.”