Body Temperature and Rising - Book One of the Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy Read online

  She pulled a heavy sigh, lay back on the pillows and settled in for a nice morning diddle while she recalled the driving lust of the dream and how amazingly real it had felt. Back home her dreams had all been about failing, or being fired, or being publicly humiliated in front of the senior staff. She could get used to having luscious wet dreams of sexy men as her unconscious’s tool of choice.

  After an orgasm that nearly shook the mattress off the bed, she had a quick shower and made tea and toast for breakfast, adding a bowl of juicy strawberries in her efforts to eat healthier. In her wildest dreams, she never could have imagined so much sex could happen to her so quickly. Last night’s dream alone was better than anything she had been able to manage in the sex department for several years now. Surely it was a good omen.

  She had just settled in to enjoy her breakfast, when she heard a crash coming from the stables. She jumped and nearly spilled her tea. There was another crash. A horse whinnied. And the fire from last night raged up through her belly nearly doubling her over before it calmed. Then she heard a gruff man’s voice.

  ‘He’s going to be so angry. Hurry, if he finds us this close to his horse, he’ll never help us.’

  There was a harsh groan and some bumping and banging about and another man’s voice came from right beneath the kitchen window. ‘But we didn’t do it! It wasn’t our fault.’

  ‘Well, he’ll never believe us, will he? You know how he is.’

  Neither of the voices sounded like Tim Meriwether’s. Marie rose and moved to the window. Tim’s mare shifted skittishly around the end of the paddock. But before she could focus too much attention on the mare, she heard a muffled grunt, and her eyes caught upon the two men directly beneath her window, both dressed like farmers, both with their trousers down over their hips. There was another grunt as the taller of the two shoved his straining cock up the arse of the other, who was bent over holding himself open. He groaned, ‘It won’t be enough. It’s never enough.’

  ‘It’ll have to do, won’t it? Besides, now she’s here. Maybe she can convince him.’ The man behind thrust hard then reached around to stroke the formidable cock of the man he was fucking.

  ‘Tara said leave her alone. Tara said she’s off limits.’

  ‘Tara’s just scared, that’s all. She’ll change her mind,’ the man doing the humping said with a hard thrust.

  Marie barely managed to stifle a gasp and hop to the side of the sink, before the burn between her hips flared again. Clutching her stomach, almost absently, she moved as far out of view as she could get and still watch. God, she could have never imagined she would be moving into a voyeur’s paradise when she rented Lacewing Cottage. Yesterday Tara and Anderson, this morning two strange men going at it in full view. OK, she wasn’t exactly an innocent, but she’d never seen two men fucking al fresco before. And what did they have to do with Tara anyway? She craned her neck for a better view.

  The man behind, pulled out his cock, spat on his hand and rubbed saliva the full length of his erection, then he spat into the man’s gaping hole and shoved back in. ‘You see? It’s good, isn’t it?’

  ‘It won’t be enough,’ the man bent over in front said, caressing his balls and pressing back hard against the thrusts. ‘It’s never enough. Damn it, why won’t he help us?’

  ‘Stop whining. It’ll be all right. You want to come in my mouth? I’ll let you when I’m done. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

  There was another loud crash, and a shout. ‘How many times have I told you, stay away from here. I don’t want you here. Now get out!’

  Marie quickly stepped away from the window, heart pounding in her chest. She recognized Tim Meriwether’s voice. She would have never thought Tim to be gay, nor could she figure why two strange men would be going at it in his stable yard. Clearly Tim wasn’t happy. What the hell was going on?

  ‘Look what you’ve done. Get out of here before you cause more trouble.’ Then things went quiet, except for the nervous whickering of the mare and Tim speaking soothingly to her.

  Cautiously, Marie stepped out on the porch. In the paddock in front of the stable, there was now no sign of anyone but Tim trying to calm the skittish mare. The stable door gave a hard slam on its hinges in a sudden chilled gust of wind that caused them both to jump and the horse to shy sideways. Tim cursed under his breath, then everything went still again.

  ‘Need a hand?’ she called out before she had a chance to think that she might be catching him at a bad time.

  He looked up with a start and offered her a pained smile. ‘You OK around horses?’

  ‘Don’t know. Never tried. But I’m not scared of them, if that’s what you mean.’

  ‘Close enough. Can you open the stable door for me? As you can see I got my hands full. The mare’s pretty spooked.’ He nodded to the stable.

  From her first day on Lacewing Farm, Marie had taken comfort in the earthy smells of horseflesh and hay. Even the pungent bite of animal dung, which sometimes made her eyes water, reminded her that she no longer lived in a world sanitized of everything that didn’t involve money and greed. No, horses didn’t frighten her at all, not after what she’d lived through in the business world. She slipped in behind the man and the mare and opened the door then stood aside while Tim led the now calming animal into her stall. In no time, he had her quietly munching grain.

  ‘There, that’s better, isn’t it?’ He scratched the mare behind an ear and the horse whickered softly. Then he turned his attention to Marie. ‘Thanks for your help. She was really spooked. She’s never been this bad before when … She’s usually very calm.’

  ‘Not a problem. What were those guys doing in your paddock anyway? I mean really, that’s pretty nervy, isn’t it? Maybe you should call the police.’

  Even in the dim light of the stable she could see the colour had drained from his face. With fingers suddenly unsteady, he fumbled with the lead he’d taken from the mare’s halter and dropped it on the floor. He didn’t bother to pick it up as he turned to hold her gaze.

  ‘What? What’s the matter? I mean I don’t mind, or anything. It’s none of my business if there are men having sex in your paddock, or even if you’re – ‘

  ‘I’m not! Gay. If that’s what you mean. And they’re not my friends.’

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.’

  ‘You saw them?’

  ‘Of course I saw them. It was impossible not to. They didn’t seem to mind at all having a shag right in front of my kitchen window.’

  He shoved a hand through sun-bleached brown hair, badly in need of a trim, and shifted from foot to foot. ‘Come here.’ He motioned for her to follow him out into the paddock. ‘Where did you see them?’

  She moved to the edge of the stable wall, where it was closest to her window. ‘They were standing right here. They were scuffling around and arguing, something about it wasn’t their fault, but you’d be mad – at least I assume they were talking about you.’

  Tim grunted. ‘Oh they were talking about me all right.’

  She continued. ‘Then the one pushed the other one up against this wall, and the next thing I know they’re under my kitchen window and … Hold on. Something’s not right.’

  He said nothing, only watched her.

  ‘There are no foot prints, no sign of scuffling. Look.’ She lifted her feet and set them down a couple of times as though she were doing a strange rain dance. ‘The paddock isn’t muddy, but it’s soft. Look, you can see my foot prints, and I can see yours even from here. But …’

  He came to her side. ‘But you can’t see anyone else’s footprints, right?’

  She shook her head and felt a tremor run up her spine.

  ‘Bless you, Marie Warren!’ He surprised her by scooping her off her feet into a bear hug. When he sat her back down, she grabbed for the wall to keep from losing her balance.

  ‘What?’

  ‘God, I thought I was losing my mind.’ He began to pace back and forth in front of her.
‘I mean those crazy women told me that this would happen. They told me they could help me, but they wouldn’t let me do anything, and I told them to sod off because they’re all completely mad and I thought I was getting that way too. This is such a relief. I mean if you can see them too, then I’m not the only one, and maybe it’s not as bad as they say.’

  ‘Tim, what on earth are you talking about?’

  He turned to face her, his blue eyes glinting silver in the intense morning sunlight. Then he took a step closer, the smile disappearing from his face. ‘You did see them, two men. Two men … having sex.’

  ‘Of course I saw them. Like I said, how could I not?’

  He moved another cautious step closer, approaching her as he had the spooked mare only minutes before. ‘Marie, no one else has ever seen them.’

  The warm morning suddenly felt icy. ‘What do you mean no one else has ever seen them?’

  ‘No foot prints, no sign of them, one second they’re here then they’re gone. Think about it.’ He took another step closer. ‘They’re ghosts.’

  ‘Ghosts?’ She found herself pressed back against the wall, suddenly cold, suddenly trembling.

  ‘Come on.’ He folded her hand into his and gently guided her back to her house. ‘I’ll explain everything, or at least as much as I can -- over a cup of tea, maybe?’

  Inside her kitchen, no one said anything until the kettle had steamed and they were both seated across from each other staring into their respective cups. The remains of Marie’s breakfast sat untouched, forgotten with the morning’s events and Tim’s revelation.

  ‘How can they be ghosts,’ she asked at last. Her voice sounded thin and wispy.

  ‘What do you mean how can they be ghosts. They’re dead, that’s how.’

  ‘But I’ve never seen ghosts before. I’ve never even had any déjà vu or anything like that let alone seen ghosts. Have you always seen ghosts?’ She would have preferred to sound a little less hysterical, but she couldn’t quite manage it.

  ‘No. I haven’t always seen ghosts.’ He held her gaze, then he released his breath slowly. ‘It all started a little over three months ago. I had taken the mare out for a ride and I had just put her back in the stable when I heard a commotion behind the barn. When I went to check it out, I found two people … two people shagging under a tree. Later, the woman approached me and gave me this.’ He dug in his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a battered card identical to the one Tara had given her last night, but the name on it was Fiori Numan. ‘She told me if I’d seen what she was sure I had, then I would be needing the help of the Elementals soon.

  ‘For the next three nights, I had what I thought were incredibly arousing dreams. I’d wake up and there’d be people in my room, people … masturbating,’ he spoke the word through barely parted lips. ‘And they’d want to watch me masturbate.’ He forced a laugh, ‘something I was more than willing to do.’ He took a large gulp of tea and looked down at the card laying on the table. ‘When I started seeing them while I was awake, I realised something wasn’t right. They were always either masturbating or having sex with each other, like the two blokes in the stable yard. They always seemed to be frustrated. They were always asking me for help.’

  She leaned closer, heart pounding in her chest at the thought of her own real-as-life dream. ‘Did you go to the Elementals?’

  He nodded. ‘They explained to me that I was seeing ghosts, ghosts who knew I could help them, ghosts who needed my help.’

  With trembling fingers, she pushed the card Tara had given her across the kitchen table toward him. She held his gaze. ‘Yesterday I had a similar experience.’ She didn’t tell him about her sexy encounter with Anderson afterward.

  ‘From Tara? That’s a surprise.’ he said, looking at the card. ‘And she wants you to go and see her?’

  ‘Why?’

  The muscles along his jaw tightened and relaxed, and he avoided her gaze. ‘I don’t know. She just never seemed very social, like she never wanted me around.’

  ‘She seemed fine to me,’ Marie said. ‘You said they told you that the ghosts needed your help. Just what exactly did they want you to do?’

  ‘Because I can see them, supposedly I can be taught some sort of spell that will give them …’ He blushed hard. ‘… will give them sort of temporary bodies so they can have sex.’

  ‘Have sex?’

  ‘Yeah you know.’ He paid an unwarranted amount of attention to arranging and rearranging the two cards on the table. ‘A physical body is necessary for sex, and that’s the only way they ever get any satisfaction.’

  ‘Then they have sex with each other?’ she nodded to her kitchen window to indicate the two ghosts going at it earlier.’

  He shook his head, still refusing to look at her, but pointed a callused finger at the two business cards lying next to each other on the table. ‘Sex magic, Marie. They’re practitioners of sex magic.’

  ‘Jesus,’ she whispered. ‘You mean those two wanted you to …’

  ‘To have sex with them.’ He heaved a shaky sigh. ‘Them and any other horny spirit who shows up at my door.’

  ‘Jesus,’ she whispered again. ‘But you have to learn the spell, don’t you?’

  ‘Among other things, yes. Until I do that, until I’m properly trained, I can’t give them what they need.’ His jaw set tight as he picked up the card, and she noticed his knuckles were white. ‘And Tara, who was she with?’

  ‘She was with this guy … but he couldn’t have been a ghost because I … Because he …’ The room suddenly felt icy, but the heat below her belly flared and burned up through her, crackling along her spine. She could hear her own startled yelp at the feel of it, but it seemed a long way away. She set her teacup down hard, sloshing the contents onto the saucer, suddenly feeling as though all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Her pulse went into overdrive and began to flutter in her chest. Anderson had no scent. Anderson’s clothes were old fashioned and they never got wet. Why hadn’t she thought that strange? She shoved back the chair, nearly upsetting it in making space to lower her head between her knees as the world began to spin.

  ‘Bloody hell, Marie, what’s the matter?’ Tim was immediately on his knees by her side. She could barely hear him over the harsh flutter of wings in her ears. Anderson appeared out of the mist as if by magic. Anderson needed no compass to navigate the fog. Anderson spoke like someone from a Jane Austin novel. ‘I can’t breathe,’ she gasped.

  Tim sprung to his feet and disappeared out the door of her cottage in a flash. Great, now she’d frightened him away right when she really didn’t want to be alone. She could feel the cold sweat break out on her forehead and the back of her neck. She knew it was a panic attack, she knew it! She wasn’t going to die, but for fuck sake, it always felt like it! Maybe she was going to die, maybe she was already dead, maybe that’s how come Anderson could take her, how come she was so desperate to have him.

  She heard the crash of footsteps up the porch and from her position between her knees she saw Tim’s jeaned legs before he dropped into a squat and held a paper bag to her nose and mouth.

  ‘Breathe into this. Just breathe, Marie. It’ll be OK. Relax now. Just relax. Breathe.’

  For ages it seemed that her world was reduced to breathing in and breathing out. At some point, Tim had placed a cool cloth across the back of her neck. When at long last she sat up, he handed her a glass of water. She took it gratefully and offered a weak smile.

  His face was pale, lips set in a tight thin line. The muscles along his jaw looked tense enough to bite steel. ‘This ghost Tara was with,’ his throat rose and fell as though he were attempting to swallow something vile. ‘Did he … Did he hurt her?’

  She shook her head.

  He dropped to his knees in front of her and grabbed both her hands in a suicide grip. ‘Did he hurt you?’

  ‘No! No. He didn’t hurt anyone.’ She pulled her hands free. ‘He, he fucked her. And then …’

 
He nodded expectantly.

  She took a heavy breath as though she were about to dive into deep water. ‘And then he fucked me.’

  Chapter 4

  ‘What do you mean he fucked you? Didn’t you know? I mean how could you not know? And you don’t have the spell. He couldn’t have been a ghost. How could he have been a ghost?’ Tim, who had been so calm until now, suddenly seemed on the edge of hysteria himself. ‘Bloody hell! What did he look like? Was he big? Thick chested like a body builder? Did he carry a bullwhip?’

  ‘No! He was tall, slender. He wore a black suit and looked quite, well rakish. No bullwhip.’ She shoved him away. ‘And he was as real as you are.’ And as sexy. She felt that thought in places nowhere close her head. ‘At the time, I had no reason to suspect anything unusual.’

  ‘Damn them!’ He pounded his hand against the table and the teapot rattled. ‘I know they’re all barking, but I can’t believe they’d do this to you.’

  ‘It’s the only explanation.’

  He plopped back in the chair next to her and folded his arms across his chest with such force Marie was certain it must have hurt. ‘Why? Tell me why you think you had sex with a ghost.’ He blushed hard even as he said it. ‘I mean was he so hot you just couldn’t resist? Did he hypnotise you into shagging him? What?’ He caught his breath and straightened his shoulders. ‘I’m sorry. That was rude and out of line. I’m sorry.’

  He stood and paced once or twice. In a gesture that was surely pure nerves, he topped off the teacups with now tepid tea. ‘It’s just, well you have to understand, my experience with ghosts wasn’t ... well it wasn’t nearly as pleasant as yours seems to have been. I mean I obviously didn’t know the bloke Fiori was with was a ghost until later. He’s a local ghost. I see him around here all the time now. But he wasn’t the problem. He wasn’t …’ His voice drifted off as though he had lost his train of thought. He sat down again, this time calmer, and slugged back his tea. ‘Tell me why you think the man you were with was a ghost?’