Ghost Hunter

Chapter 29

THEY WAITED IN THE ALLEY UNTIL THE LONG, DARK CAR arrived. Two hunters dressed in khaki and leather got out and loaded Benny and Joe into the backseat.

One of the pair nodded respectfully toward Cooper.

"Mr. Wyatt says to keep in touch," he said.

"I'll do that," Cooper said.

Elly was still feeling shaky from the aftereffects of adrenaline when she unlocked the back door of her shop a short time later.

Cooper followed her into the fragrant back room and turned to rez the lock. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yes." She headed toward the stairs with Rose and the Jordan herbal. "But I could use a nice hot cup of Harmonic balm tea."

"I was thinking of something a little stronger, personally."

"All I've got is some leftover white wine."

"Not exactly a real Guild boss drink, but a Guild boss is nothing if not adaptable. I'll take it. Remind me to pick up a bottle of First Generation whiskey tomorrow, though."

He was certainly making himself at home, she mused. She paused halfway up the stairs and turned to study him over her shoulder. "Are you sure you're all right?"

He looked grimly amused. "Don't worry, I'm not going to lose control and climb all over you. I just summoned a little stray blue and green energy tonight. Didn't even melt amber."

She glowered. "I wasn't thinking about sex."

"Huh. I must have been the one thinking about it, then."

"Enough with the teasing, Boone." She went on up the stairs and into the kitchen, put Rose on the floor, and reached for the kettle. "This isn't the time."

"Whatever." He opened the refrigerator and took out the half-empty bottle of white.

"Herschel, one of the local neighborhood ruin rats, mentioned that Griggs occasionally hired a freelance team to take him down into the catacombs," she added. "Now I know why. Griggs was looking for Jordan's Jungle."

"Tomorrow I'm going to chase down more information on the florist. He's the key to this thing."

She spooned the tea into a mug. "A dead key, unfortunately."

"Okay, I admit that's a problem." Cooper grabbed a glass out of a cupboard and sat down at the kitchen table. "But we've got a couple of other angles to work here."

"Such as?"

"I'm still waiting for another shoe to drop at The Road to the Ruins. Now that Griggs is dead, I don't think it will be too much longer before we find out what our blue freak had planned for that stash of dope he hid in the club's basement"

The kettle whistled. She picked it up and was not surprised to see it tremble a little in her hand. She poured the hot water quickly into the mug.

Rose hopped up onto the windowsill and hunkered down beside the green flower. Cooper took a long swallow of the wine and watched the dust bunny.

"I guess things haven't gone quite the way you planned since you arrived in Cadence, have they?" Elly asked, carrying her mug back to the table.

"No." He drank more wine and lowered the glass with a reflective air. "They haven't."

He did not offer anything more.

"What about your other business?" she pressed cautiously.

He looked at her. "Other business?"

"The business that brought you here in the first place." She motioned with one hand. "You know, the private business you said you had here in Cadence."

"Oh, that." He exhaled slowly. "Well, I hope to get around to that eventually."

She blew on her hot tea. "Cooper?"

"Yeah?"

"Mind if I ask you a personal question?"

"Depends on the question."

"I just wondered if the reason you haven't had a relationship with anyone else in the past six months is because you were too busy."

He raised his brows. "Here's a flash for you, Elly. Men who like sex are never too busy to have it. Where there's a will, there's always a way."

"I see. You like sex."

"Oh, yeah."

"So, why haven't you had any for the past six months?" she asked.

"Eight months, five days," he corrected. "And the answer is that I didn't consider our engagement terminated."

"I don't understand. I gave you back your ring. What was your interpretation of that move?"

"Figured we'd just put things on hold for a while. I thought if you had some time away from Aurora Springs and all the pressures of your situation there, you might change your mind about marrying me."

"I see."

No "I love you desperately and I can't live without you," or "Please come back to me; I'll do anything including give up my job as a Guild boss for you," she thought.

Cooper was still locked into his fully focused executive mode. At the age of nine he had set out to become the chief of the Aurora Springs Guild, and he had stayed on track until he had achieved his objective. Eight months and five days ago, he had concluded that she would make the perfect wife for the head of the Aurora Springs Guild, and he was still pursuing his objective.

"I've got a question for you," he said.

"What is it?"

"I get the feeling that you haven't gone to bed with anyone else during the time we've been apart."

"I've been awfully busy," she said quickly. "Running a small business is extremely time-consuming."

"Try again."

She put her mug down, got to her feet, and went to stand at the window. Maybe it was all they had been through together in the past few days. Or maybe it was late and she was weary and her guard was down.

Or maybe it was because he hadn't slept with anyone else since she had left Aurora Springs.

Whatever the reason, she decided to tell him the truth.

"Ever since the day I met you, I haven't wanted to go to bed with anyone else," she said quietly. "But in Aurora Springs you didn't seem all that interested. And lately, well, you haven't been around."

There was no sound, but suddenly he was behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders.

"I'm here now," he said.

She caught her breath and turned to face him, her hands flattening on his shoulders.

"Cooper."

He kissed her, taking his time about it. She closed her eyes beneath the waves of emotion that swept through her.

She was vaguely aware of him reaching around her to pull down the window shade. The next thing she knew he had picked her up in his arms and was carrying her out of the kitchen.

She heard him de-rez the light switches as they went down the hall, allowing the small apartment to fill with intimate shadows.

The drapes were open in the bedroom. The reflected glow of the green-tinged fog illuminated the bed in an otherworldly aura.

Cooper stood her on her feet and used his powerful hands to angle her face so that he could kiss her again. There was no mistaking the force of his desire. It thrilled her senses. Maybe he didn't love her, but without a doubt, he wanted her.

All the midnight dreams and fantasies that she had tried so hard to ignore, resist, and suppress were springing to life with a vengeance.

He caught the hem of her pullover and eased the garment up over her head. The instant her arms were free, she wrapped them around his neck.

"Cooper," she repeated very urgently.

"No," he whispered. "Not so fast. Not this time. Don't get me wrong, the car sex was terrific, but it wasn't what I'd had planned for our first night together. I'd like to get it right tonight."

She tilted her head back so that she could see his face. "Wait a second. You planned our first time?"

"Sure." He found the fastening of her small, satiny bra and slipped the straps off her shoulders. "Until the day you gave me back my ring I had every move in our relationship planned down to the smallest detail."

"Good grief." She gripped his shoulders, holding him inches away from her. "And just when did you do all this detailed planning?"

He kissed her ear. "Started that first day when you came into the Guild Archives to see if your father was there. I had started working there the week before. It was the first time I'd met you."

He was cupping her breasts in his warm palms now. She shivered when his thumbs glided across her nipples.

"Wait," she gasped. It was getting hard to talk, but she needed some answers. "What made you think you had to plan things?"

"It's the way I work," he said simply. "It was a good plan, too. There was only one problem with it."

"What?"

"You." He brushed his mouth deliberately across hers. "You didn't respond according to plan."

"Maybe you should have discussed your scheme with me before you tried to implement it."

He traced the line of her jaw with his forefinger. In the emerald shadows she could see his faint, wry smile.

"I'm not used to talking about my plans with anyone else," he said. "I've always worked alone."

"Got news for you, Boone." She started unfastening the buttons of his shirt. "You're not alone anymore. You're working with me, at least for now."

"Elly."

He picked her up and fell across the bed with her in his arms. She landed on top, feeling shaky and excited. He tugged off her running shoes, and then he unzipped her pants.

She fought a sensual battle to undress him. It was not an easy task. In the end, Cooper had to sit up to yank off his boots and get rid of his trousers.

For a moment he stood looking down at her, drinking in the sight of her lying there in the light that angled across the bed. Under his intense, hungry eyes, she felt incredibly sexy and powerful in her femininity.

When he moved to come back down onto the bed, she reached up to draw him close.

He made love to her with a slow, ghost-hot passion that rezzed all of her senses. Taking his time, he found the most intimate places on her body with his mouth. His fingers explored parts of her that she had never before considered erogenous zones.

Sweet heat and a greedy need built within her. The same delicious tension that she had experienced when they had made love in the front seat of the Spectrum was back, gripping her insides in honeyed talons.

She braced her hands against his chest and tried to push him onto his back so that she could settle herself astride him.

"Not yet," he whispered, anchoring her beneath him with one heavy leg across her thighs.

"Can't wait," she panted, twisting impatiently.

"You were in charge last time. Ruined all my plans. This is my night. This time we do it my way."

"Okay, okay, as long as you hurry up about it."

He laughed softly and reached across her and down over the side of the bed. She realized that he had picked up an object, but she could not see what it was.

He loomed over her again, reaching back toward the elaborate headboard. She heard a faint click and then the soft slide of leather being fed through a belt buckle.

She opened her eyes very wide. "What are you doing?"

He caught one of her wrists and then the other. He put the end of the leather belt into her hands.

"Giving you something to hold on to when the going gets interesting," he said against her mouth.

"Uh, Cooper?"

"Just hang on tight and don't let go, not matter what happens."

"I'm not sure-"

He started working his way down her body, dropping kisses as he went. When his tongue touched her nipple she gasped, instinctively tightening her grip on the belt.

"That's it," he whispered.

He slid lower on her body, separating her thighs. When he found the excruciatingly sensitive spot between her legs she nearly screamed.

And then his mouth was on her there and he was doing something incredible with his fingers just inside her and she could see little flickers of ghost light dancing in the air around the bed and she knew that he was closer to the limits of his self-control than he would ever admit.

Energy pulsed through all of her senses. Her need was fierce and hot and compelling.

"Hold on," he ordered in a low, husky voice. "Melt amber for me."

And she did.

As the last of the shattering release rippled through her, she was vaguely aware of Cooper changing position. His broad shoulders blocked the exotic green light coming through the window.

He entered her, pushing deep.

She let go of the belt, sank her nails into his shoulders, and wrapped her legs around his waist.

"The belt thing is okay," she whispered. "But I'd rather hold on to you."

She bit him very gently on the shoulder.

He muttered something dangerously explicit and incredibly erotic.

She laughed at the sexy threat and clung harder to his powerful frame.

His release roared through both of them with the force of ghost fire.

Dancing waves of energy lit up the night.