She knew her panties were soaked from almost having an orgasm while standing right there in the middle of the store.
When they were standing out back with the door closed behind them, she took a deep, cleansing breath and stretched her arms skyward in an attempt to slow her racing pulse.
When she refocused on him, he still intently stared at her.
“On your desk?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
She nodded as her eyes involuntarily dropped to his zipper. Yep, he looked hard.
And big.
She forced her gaze up again. “You ate chocolate recently?” she asked.
He nodded. “I ate a chocolate bar on my way over.” He ran his hands through his hair as he slumped against the building’s back wall. “What the hell was that?”
She felt relief to know he’d experienced it, too, whatever it was. “Where’s Ellis?”
“He’s at work. He doesn’t know I’m here.”
“How’d you get here?”
“I walked.”
“That’s…” She remembered their address. She’d looked the house up on Google to see the property from satellite view. “That’s like six miles.”
“I know.” He finally looked at her again. “I’m not crazy.”
She nodded. “I know. I know I’m not crazy, and I know what just happened between us.” She tried not to smile as he reached down and adjusted the bulge in his jeans.
“We can’t tell Ellis about this,” he said. “He’ll want to take me to the VA right now and get me another CAT scan.”
“What did you want to talk about?” She needed to get this conversation back on track, and fast. She couldn’t even begin to try to process the freaky little psychic love fest they’d just experienced. She’d left poor Mina alone behind the counter.
And I need a fresh pair of panties.
“Julie talks to me.”
She blinked, now not so certain how she felt about the cutie. “What?”
His smile faded. “It started while we were down in Tampa. On…” He cleared his throat. “Last Thursday afternoon.”
Mandaline didn’t know how to respond to that.
“She’s not the first one,” he said. “I’ve never said anything to Ellis about this, either.”
“He told me you can’t lie.”
He nodded.
“Then how’d you get around not telling him about that?” She felt her voice rising in agitation.
He shrugged. “He didn’t ask. He asked me what I see in the house and I told him. I didn’t even know it was Julie’s voice I keep hearing until yesterday when we were here. I thought her voice sounded familiar but I couldn’t place it until I saw her…her memorial.”
He meant the urn.
She turned away from him and tried to get her thoughts in order. She felt seriously torn between believing him and calling his friend to come get him and take him to the VA right then.
“She said to tell you about the zen garden.”
She wheeled around, her mouth agape. No one knew about that except herself, and now Matt and Sami.
He slowly nodded. “She said she was the one who wrote in it. ‘It’s not his fault.’ She said that’s what she wrote.”
Mandaline took an involuntary step back. She held a hand up to him. “I didn’t tell anyone else that.”
He thought about it. “She says you told Matt and Sami.” He frowned. “Who are they?”
She clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her cry. She stared at him, at his sweet brown eyes. After a moment she let her hand fall to her side and she straightened. “Why did you come here today?”
“I told you. I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”
“What did you do to me in the store back there?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t do it. It happened to me, too.”
“Are you trying to get me into bed with you?”
His face turned beet red. He jammed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, his gaze on his feet. “I’m attracted to you, yes,” he mumbled.
“Is that why you came here today?”
“No. I wanted to tell you about Julie. Because I knew you’d believe me and that you won’t tell Ellis.”
She turned away from him again. She felt faint, dizzy. She squatted down in the gravel of the parking area and closed her eyes as she took several deep, slow breaths. “You…you said you’ve heard other voices?”
“Yeah. It started after the accident. When I was in the hospital. I never believed in psychic stuff before. I’m not claiming I am psychic. I just…hear things. Sometimes. People. Not all the time. Sometimes certain voices sound louder than others. Like I’m on a different wavelength than everyone else now.”
“What did Julie call my cat?”
“Damien.”
She let out a sob and clapped her hand to her mouth again, her eyes squeezed tightly shut against the flood of tears she wanted to cry.
There would be one surefire way to prove it beyond all doubt. “What happened to her rings? The police didn’t include them in her personal possessions.”
She looked over her shoulder at him. He frowned, then looked at her with his head cocked in confusion. “She says you know full well she never wore rings. But she says her crystal pouch is on the bedroom floor, under a nightstand. He ripped it from her neck and the police didn’t find it.” He hesitated. “And that if Sami wants it, it’s okay to let her have it.”
“What was her favorite stone in it?”
He cocked his head again, as if listening. “A piece of fluorite you gave her three years ago for her birthday.”
She fell back onto her ass as she stared at him in shock. “Julie?” she whispered.
An afternoon thunderstorm had built west of town, moving toward them. A distant rumble of thunder broke the silence as a few drops of rain pattered down on them.
He held out his hand, palm up, and stared up at the sky.
“She says you like to dance in the rain but that Mina needs you right now.”
The back door flew open. Mina appeared. “Mandaline, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I’m slammed again and the others are still busy.” Mina disappeared into the store, leaving the door open.
Mandaline sat there and stared up at Brad as he walked over and extended his hand to her. “It’s okay,” he quietly said. “I’ll wait. I have all afternoon.”
She took his hand, relieved and disappointed that there wasn’t another sexy flash, and let him help her to her feet.
Chapter Six
Brad took up a comfy chair in the far corner and closed his eyes.
“She’s scared,” he mentally said to Julie.
“I know. It’s okay. Give her time.”
“You aren’t here for long, are you?”
“No. Just long enough.”
He watched customers come and go from the store, the rain apparently not discouraging them. He watched Mandaline as she worked, her gaze repeatedly darting to where he sat patiently waiting for there to be enough of a lull they could talk again.
The initial incident when he’d arrived and shaken hands with Mandaline had scared the crap out of him, quite frankly. He knew if he kissed her it would feel the same as in their freaky little interlude. That she’d taste the same. That her panties were pale yellow with little blue flowers sprinkled all over them.
That her body fit perfectly against his.
He’d never had a hallucination like that before. Voices? Sure, okay. Seeing things at the house? No problem.
But he’d nearly creamed his briefs. He knew if he went into the bathroom he’d likely find a wet spot inside them.
Even the thought of repeating their embrace made his cock ache and strain against his zipper.