Page 56 of Hot Ghost Summer

His teeth grip the metal zipper, and he tucks his chin to tug it down. But with the massager pegging his prostate, and me pinning his hands, he can’t do it. Valiantly, he attempts to contort himself and gains another inch. I increase the intensity on the toy, and he cries out, the zipper falling away.

“Shhh,” I console. “I know, so desperate for release now that you’ll willingly do the impossible. But where is this compliance when I ask for something simple, hmm?”

That fire in his red-rimmed eyes returns. He’s beautiful.

I crank the toy up another notch. “Give me the gun, Theo.”

He ruts up into me and his eyes cross.

I grind down. “Close out the séance, Theo.”

Panting hard, he fights through whole-body tremors to try to free his hands, and I discover I can vanish my clothes in an instant if I want it enough. Naked against me, Theo writhes as he searches for friction.

“Who’s in charge here, Baby?”

“You.” But he says it like he’s in pain.

I coach him. “Who do you ask for permission for something?”

“You.” Unfocused eyes trace my face.

Now that I have his undivided attention, I ask, “What do you want?”

He sobs, then bites it back. “T’ come. I need it.”

“Ask me nicely. What do you want, Theo?”

A wave of clarity washes over him, and he uses that sculpted strength to push up so high from the bed that his lips brush my ear when he states, “For you t’ ruin me, Sir.”

Our orgasms are instant and simultaneous.

A static buzz fills the air, and the flashing blue crackle of electricity strobes the inside of my eyelids.

I didn’t expect that to be so… potent. But Theo calling me Sir…

Breathless, I rest my body weight on him while I recover.

Theo’s not said a word. Pushing up onto my elbows, I check him over. “That your first real orgasm, brat?”

He doesn’t speak, not with words. But the way he’s looking at me…

Slick with sweat, and in the dying heat of the moment, Theo pulls his arms free. Wordlessly, he reaches between us and strokes two fingers through our combined release on his abs before then painting it onto his tongue. “Now I belong only t’ you.”

I lift all the way off him, and instantly wrap myself back in my ExorSquad uniform like it’s some kind of armour. This whole time I thought I was the one in control, but somewhere along the way the lines blurred.

When Theo brings those same two fingers to my lips, I vanish back into his circuitry and remind myself that I hate him. I hate that we just did that—the way we did that. But mostly, I hate myself because I immediately want to do it again.

The way he fights is exquisite, but the way he submits sets my soul on fire. I want more.

Which also means that Theo is right: we need to figure out how to resolve my unfinished business, because this… whatever this is between a ghost and his human, can’t be what happens. It’ll promote an ugly fixation, and I’ll become like the wraith I just vanquished.

eighteen

Theo's Rules

Theo

Roughing the towel over my shower-wet hair—and with another tied at my waist—I saunter through to the living room, and freeze in the doorway. There, sitting in a chair at the table and working on his laptop like he isn’t dead, is Hollis.