Double Dating with the Dead by Karen Kelley (best fiction novels to read .txt) 📗

“I think I’ll go to bed. It’s been a long day.” She stood and started toward the door.

Oh, yeah, like he wanted that vision in his head. Selena in bed. Did she wear pajamas or sleep naked?

He bumped the floor of the wooden porch with the toe of his shoe to set the rocker in motion and let his fantasy take over. Now that he’d seen her naked, it didn’t take much of an imagination to picture her lying in bed, the sheet down to her waist, her breasts exposed.

He gripped the arms of the rocking chair and drew in a deep breath, reining in his thoughts before draining his glass.

Yeah, she was good all right.

But he was better.

“Hey, there,” a woman called out to him.

He jumped, then realized it wasn’t a ghost, only a neighbor walking around the side of the hotel. Apparently, there was a gap somewhere in the fence.

“Hello,” he responded.

“For a minute I thought the ghosts were stirring.” She was motherly, a little plump. She wiped her hands on the floured apron she wore and smiled. “I was fixin’ Hiram’s dinner and saw you out the window. You can call me Matilda. You gonna be stayin’ here a spell?”

“A couple of weeks.”

She nodded. “Be careful you don’t make Dixie and Wesley mad. They can be flat ornery if you’re not careful. I just wanted to say hello. Just bein’ neighborly and all. I best be gettin’ back to Hiram. Nice to meet you.” She waved and left.

Trent wondered how much Selena had paid her to drop by. He laughed. She’d even called the ghosts by name. As if that would convince him they were real. Selena’s little plan wouldn’t work.

He stood and went inside. After taking his glass to the kitchen, he went upstairs, but before he opened his door his gaze strayed down the hallway. There was no light showing from beneath her door. Was she already asleep and dreaming up new ways to make him believe in ghosts?

“Let the games begin,” he said softly beneath his breath.

For a second, he thought he heard a soft feminine chuckle. Now who was letting their imagination run away with them? He shook his head and went inside his room.

After changing into his pajama bottoms, he took out his black notebook and began to write.

I think Selena might truly believe in ghosts. Either way, she’s feeding the public lies, and she has to be stopped….

He continued to write for a few more minutes, then put away his notebook and climbed into bed.

She was going to despise him. That caused a twinge of regret which he quickly tamped down. He couldn’t let himself think like that.

Sleep, that was what he needed. Nice, restful sleep. Everything would look clearer in the morning.

Selena had made him ache to slide between her legs, but he’d be able to restrain himself from pouncing on her luscious body. And in the end, he would win because he didn’t lose. Not anymore.

“What are you doing, Dixie?” Wesley asked from somewhere behind her.

“Damn it, Wes. It’s an unwritten law you’re not supposed to scare another ghost.” She turned and glared at him. He even looked good dead. If she’d had substance, her heart would be pounding right now. Just like it had when she’d been alive.

She missed the way he’d held her in his arms. The way he’d made love to her all night long.

“Seems to me like you’ve come up with a lot of unwritten laws since you got shot,” Wes broke into her thoughts.

His timing was really off, though. “Did you have to bring that up? I’d just as soon forget about the night we were killed.”

He chuckled. “Kind of hard since you’re a ghost.” He nodded toward Trent, who was sleeping. “What are you up to?”

A delicious swirl of heat swept through her. “They like each other. What would be the harm?”

“You’re messing in people’s lives again. You always get into trouble when you do that. Remember the last time? When those kids sneaked in here and began making out? You scared them out of their wits when you started moaning.”

She shrugged. “Couldn’t help it. The energy they produced was so…so nice.” She closed her eyes, remembering the intensity of the moment. Just as quickly it flitted away, leaving her feeling unfulfilled and wanting…needing more.

“Don’t you miss it?” She floated over to him, a hazy mist swirling around him.

“You know I do.” His voice cracked. “I miss it every damn time I see you, but getting inside someone else’s head, into their thoughts and dreams, well, that just ain’t right. And if you’re thinking they might loan us their bodies, then I’m thinking you’re probably getting your hopes up for nothin’.”

“It could happen. That one couple almost let us borrow theirs.”

“Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel! His breath smelled worse than I did after I’d been dead a few weeks.” He raised his eyebrows. “And did you really want to crawl inside her? The woman was cross-eyed, didn’t have a tooth in her head and weighed at least four hundred pounds.”

“But I need to make love!”

“You know as well as I that you can’t enter someone’s body unless they let you…at least not for longer than a few seconds, and that alone will drain you for a good hour. You’d only be more frustrated.”

She hated it when he was right. “I’m not the only one who’s going to be frustrated.” She faced Trent. The sheet was down to just below his waist. What she wouldn’t give to be alive for an hour. Damn, he looked good enough to eat.

She raised her hand and blew across her palm. Pale pink light spun around him. Trent shifted his body and moaned. A smile curved his lips as he snuggled the extra pillow to him.

“Dixie…” Wesley began.

“I’m only having a little fun. You can’t complain about that.” She disappeared in a huff.

Her next stop was Selena’s room where she did the