Good Will Ghost Hunting: Demon Seed [Good Will Ghost Hunting 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (28 page)

In the grand scheme of things he almost preferred she’d go away and stay away for good. Bera was a troublemaker. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was an associate member of The Firm by her father’s bloodline and Dodek decree, Ryan would have eliminated her centuries earlier. He wasn’t really in the mood to deal with her today. Then again, maybe it would help take his mind off other matters.

Off other people.

“Then get your clothes off and get your arse into bed if that’s what you’re looking for. You know where it’s at.” He headed for the kitchen.

A frown crossed Bera’s face. “Your foreplay is a little lacking this afternoon, sunshine.”

“You wish to get fucked or not? Don’t try my patience, woman. This is an offer with a very short expiration date. I’m not putting up with your bullshit today, so don’t bother.”

She unbuttoned her blouse, all pretense of seduction out the window. “Someone’s in a foul mood.” She walked into the bedroom.

He considered pouring himself a merlot, then spotted the bottle of bourbon and splashed three fingers over ice, downing half in a burning gulp. Bera liked it hard and rough—harder and rougher than any human lover could give her. He was certainly in a foul enough mood to give her that this afternoon.

Anything to distract him.

Anything to take his mind off
her
.

He took the glass and walked to the bedroom, unbuttoning his shirt as he went. “I’d better find your bare arse in the air waiting for me.”

Kal hummed while she cooked. Emotionally she felt better than she had in days. When she’d awoke that morning she’d also felt mentally clearer, as if filled with energy.

Okay, so maybe Will was right.

She smiled. Only three weeks with Will and it was hard to remember what life had been like without him. He was hers.
All
hers. She wanted to cook dinner for him at her place tonight, sort of like a real date. Bless his heart, he’d willingly gone along with it. And he was willing to let her set the pace easing her parents into—

The doorbell rang.

Kal frowned and wiped her hands. It obviously wasn’t Will, he’d pop in. When she looked through the peephole, her stomach nearly hit the floor. Her mother stood on the front step.

Kal unlocked the door and threw it open, her heart racing. “Mom! What are you doing here?”

Laura Martin smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Your father wouldn’t let me call ahead. He wanted to surprise you.”

Oh, thank goodness I was dressed!
Kal nodded, the blood draining from her face. “Congratulations. I’m surprised, all right. Where is he?”

“He’s parking the car. He’ll be right here.”

Kal felt the air in the apartment shift.

Oh no!
“Come on in, Mom. I’ve got dinner on the stove. I’ll be right back.”

Before her mother could say anything, Kal raced to the bedroom. Will turned, smiling, then noticed her horrified look.

“What’s wrong?”

“Shh!” She closed the bedroom door, locking it behind her. “My parents are here! They just showed up from Ohio!”

“What?”

“Shh!” Kal closed her eyes and tried to breathe. “You have to go!”

“What about dinner?”

“They can’t come in and find you in my bedroom!”

“Kal, you’re a grown woman.”

“My father is a Baptist minister, lest you forget. Please, Will, go!”

Smiling, he pulled her to him and kissed her. For the briefest of seconds she forgot her mother and father had the nerve to show up unannounced.

“You have to go!” she gasped when he released her.

“How will you explain cooking dinner for two?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Argh! All right, fine, but come in the front door. Give me about twenty minutes, okay?”

He stroked her cheek. “Fifteen.”

Her body tingled, wanting him. She wondered if she’d ever find the courage to stand up to her father.

Will disappeared and she took a deep breath, walked into the living room—

And nearly choked at the sight of her father carrying luggage.

“What are you doing, Daddy?”

“I’m bringing in our bags. What, no hug?”

Kal remembered dinner cooking on the stove, but her mother was already seasoning it. “Mom, no, please don’t—”

“Kal, we are staying two weeks.” Her father put the bags down. “I took the time off. I want to make sure you’re okay and hopefully talk you into coming home with us. I really wish you’d give up this nonsense.”

“You can’t stay here.”

Her father frowned. “What? Of course we can. Don’t you want us here?”

Not really.
“Daddy, I only have one bedroom.”

“You can sleep on the couch. You do have a couch, don’t you? Your mother has been so worried about you.”

Kal shoved aside her wraith-worthy surge of rage. “Daddy, I have to work. I cannot spend two weeks babysitting you. I have a job and responsibilities.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. “Sweetheart, you have a responsibility to your family. Jeff was asking—”

Kal broke free and threw her hands in the air. “Stop it! I am not, repeat
not
, interested in Jeff! I am not, will not be, never have been. So cut it out.”

“Who were you cooking for, sweetheart?” her mother asked.

Kal wished she’d let Will stay and take care of them. It would mean angering her parents, but in thirty seconds they had transformed her from peaceful and strong to “ripping her hair out” crazy. Her own personal friggin’ Kryptonite.

She took a deep breath. “I have a date tonight.”

Her father frowned. “You’re letting a man into your apartment, alone?”

“No. I thought I’d invite the film crew in to document it. Of course alone!”

Her mother gasped. “Kalyani Martin, that’s no way to talk to your father. I raised you better than that.”

Cripes, now her mother was against her. She couldn’t afford to alienate her right now.
Time to toss it back at ’em.

“How could the two of you just show up without calling?”

Her father glowered, his fire-and-brimstone look. “We thought you’d be happy to see us.”

“I’ve only been here two months. Yes, I’m happy to see you, but the problem is—”
Ding dong.

So much for fifteen minutes.
She walked to the door. “I have a life, Daddy. Not to mention a very irregular schedule. You might have been sitting outside my door for two or three days if I’d been out of town on a shoot.”

Will looked handsome in a charcoal gray suit, white shirt, and a blue tie that made his eyes look like sun-bleached granite.
Day-um
, he looked good. He’d been wearing khakis earlier. He looked like an executive for a Fortune 500 company.

“Hi, Kal.” He smiled. “I’m sorry I’m a little early.” “
No, I’m not,”
he mentally added.

She fought to contain her grin and failed. “That’s all right.” “
Thank you for coming back sooner.”

“You like?”

“I love.”

He kissed her hand and winked. Then Kal remembered her parents in the apartment. Knowing they were watching and listening, she said, “Um, there’s been a slight change of plans. My parents unexpectedly arrived from out of town.”

She led him inside.

Her father glared.
Oh, boy.
“Will Hellenboek, this is my father, Reverend Kenneth Martin, and my mother, Laura Martin.”

Her mother looked like she was in love. Her father—well, fortunately, he wasn’t armed.

Maybe she should have patted him down and checked their luggage for weapons.

Will smiled and extended his hand. “Reverend Martin, it’s an honor to meet you, sir. Kal has told us a lot about you.”

Her father finally shook hands. “Funny, she hasn’t said much to us about
you
.”

Kal realized she wasn’t wearing the purity ring. She panicked, hiding her hands behind her.
“Oh, no!”

“What?”
Will silently asked.

“The ring! He’ll notice!”

Kal watched the corner of Will’s mouth twitch in an amused smirk as he extended his hand to her mom. Kal suddenly felt something on her finger behind her back.

“Better?”
“Mrs. Martin, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Her mother looked like the pleasure was distinctly hers.

“Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Hellenboek.”

“Please, call me Will.”

Kal sighed as she felt the purity ring.
“Oh thank goodness!”
She didn’t even remember for sure where it had been in her bedroom.
“I love you!”

“Lucky for you, babe, I can multitask.”
“When did you get into town?” Will asked.

Her father still glowered. “We drove here straight from the airport. We didn’t expect to find our daughter entertaining some strange man in her home.”

“Daddy!”

“Kalyani Martin, I raised you to respect your parents and do your Christian duty. Being here a few weeks seems to have turned you into a different person. You withhold information from me, you’re having men over when you’re home alone.” He turned to Will. “She has a boyfriend at
home
, in Ohio. We’ve come to take her home.”

Kal gritted her teeth. “
This
is my home. Jeff is
not
my boyfriend. He’s not even my friend, I barely know him. You love him so much, you date him!”

“Reverend Martin,” Will quickly interceded, “I’m sorry if I’ve given you the wrong impression. We weren’t going to be here alone all evening.” Will smiled. Kal was almost positive her mother let out a content sigh.

Kal snapped her head to look at Will. “We weren’t?”

“Aidan and Gery are supposed to meet here with us in an hour. Or did you forget the production meeting?”

The fact that he could remain so calm and think clearly under pressure only intensified her feelings for him. If she couldn’t get him alone and boink him silly in the next twenty minutes, she’d lose her mind. “I did forget. I thought we were meeting them at Gery’s later.”
Okay, under the circumstances, God will certainly forgive me that fib.

“Then why is the table only set for two?” Her father still glared, but his tone didn’t sound as certain.

Will eased a step closer to Laura, his eyes on her. “Because I made the mistake of teasing Kal the other day. I bet her she couldn’t cook better than me. I cooked dinner the other night for a staff production meeting. She was reciprocating.”

“Dang, you’re goood.”
“That’s right. Aidan and Gery had dinner plans already.”

Laura was obviously totally enamored with Will. She stared at him with wide eyes. “Kenneth, I think we should leave them alone.”

Her father’s turn to be startled. “What? Are you crazy? We just got here. I didn’t travel all this way to—”

Laura mooned over Will. “Kenneth, they don’t have enough to feed us. She’s right, we shouldn’t have come without letting her know first so she could tell us her schedule. It was very rude of you to plan to do this. Kal is a grown woman. We can go to a restaurant and let them work. This is her job, dear. Goodness knows, you ran her out of your study plenty of times when she was a child so you could work on a sermon.”

Kal smirked. “Got
that
right.”

Before her father could protest, Will turned to him. “We should be done by eight thirty, if that’s not too late? Or I can call the others and reschedule.”

Laura took over. “No! Don’t do that, we don’t want her to get in trouble. Take all the time you need.” She hugged Kal and grabbed her husband’s hand. “Come on. We’ll go out to eat. We’ll be back no sooner than nine.”

Her father looked like he wanted to protest, but Kal’s mother dragged him out the front door.

Kal watched the door shut behind them, collapsed in a chair, and bawled like a baby.

Will held her. “It’s okay. Family can make you feel crazy.”

“Crazy? I left crazy in the dust ten minutes ago. I cannot
believe
they’d do this! Wait, it’s my father. I
can
believe it. I just never thought he’d stoop to something like this. I swear, I honestly think he’s lost his mind over the past few years. His behavior is just totally going downhill. I couldn’t write a book about this and have people believe it. He’s nuts!”

Will squeezed her shoulder, then walked to the kitchen and shut off the stove. “Dinner smells good.”

She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. “Not as good as you.”

He moved the pans off the burners and turned to face her, his arms around her. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s no big deal. I’ll wait until they go to sleep to come over.”

Horrified, she frantically shook her head. “No, you can’t! I can’t risk them finding you here. They’re sleeping in my bedroom.”

“Why not tell them to go to a hotel?”

“They’re my parents. I can’t. You don’t understand.”

“Then you come over to my place.”

She glared at him like he’d suddenly turned stupid. “Will, how would I explain it? We’re under a forced fast for the duration unless we can sneak quickies.” His amused looked irritated her. “What?”

“‘Forced fast?’”

“Yeah. I mean, two weeks, we can survive that long not sleeping together.” She tried for what she hoped was a seductive tone and knew she missed it by a country mile. “Just think how good it’ll be when they leave.”

“Wouldn’t want to make Jeff jealous,” Will teased. She shoved him. He laughed. “He really wants you to marry that bozo, doesn’t he? I thought you were exaggerating.”

She rolled her eyes and dished out their salads. “You have
no
idea. I never even dated him. I barely know him. He’s standoffish, probably an asshole. As far as I know he’s never dated. Believe me, I have zero interest in him.”