GhostLover Read online

  Ghost Lover

  Marilyn Campbell

  Book two in the Crystal Island series.

  “’Til death do us part,” Hope and Ryan vowed on their wedding day, and honeymooning at the Davenport Hotel on Crystal Island made it a dream come true. That dream was shattered by Ryan’s tragic death. However, not even death could break their bond or dampen desire that continued to burn.

  To celebrate their anniversary, Hope returns to the hotel with her ghost lover. Under a magical full moon, they wish for one night together. In the middle of an erotic fantasy, Ryan becomes corporeal and they revel in the miracle.

  But a night of pleasure is only one of the surprises in store for Hope. After all, on Crystal Island, anything can happen.

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing

  www.ellorascave.com

  Ghost Lover

  ISBN 9781419935947

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Ghost Lover Copyright © 2011 Marilyn Campbell

  Edited by Grace Bradley

  Cover art by Syneca

  Electronic book publication August 2011

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

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  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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  Ghost Lover

  Marilyn Campbell

  Chapter One

  “Happy anniversary, Mrs. Partridge.”

  Hope smiled up at Ryan as they continued their stroll along the Crystal Island beach. “And which anniversary might that be, Mr. Partridge?”

  He slapped a hand over his heart and looked stricken. “Only the most important of all. I can’t believe you forgot.”

  “Considering how many different anniversaries you insist we celebrate, I should be forgiven if I miss one. I’m guessing tonight marks our one-week wedding anniversary.”

  Ryan gave her a smug smile. “Nope. Anyway, I think that would be a weekiversary. What I’m talking about happened sixteen years ago.”

  It took Hope a few seconds to do the math. “Oh, I’m so sorry. How could I possibly forget the first day of second grade?” She got a smirk and a head shake for her guess. A lazy wave spilled over her bare feet and she giggled as her toes sank into the wet sand.

  “Okay, one more hint. Kevin Johnson said I threw like a girl.”

  She pretended she hadn’t thought of that day in ages instead of the fact that Kevin, as Ryan’s best man, had just related the story at their rehearsal dinner. “And I knocked him on his ass for picking on a little kid.”

  “Which made me look like even more of a wimp.”

  “And then you asked me to marry you. You’re right. The day we met and the first of all the times you asked me to be your wife does make it a legitimate anniversary. So where’s my gift?”

  He stopped, lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers. That was all it ever took for her to want more of him. Immediately. He may as well have stroked her clit with a wet finger. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him for a deeper kiss…and wasn’t at all surprised to discover he was semi-aroused. The familiar tickle in her core made her shiver and she rubbed her belly back and forth over the gift hiding in his shorts. “Why don’t we go back to our room so I can unwrap it?”

  He gave her a firm, quick kiss. “Let’s walk off a little more dinner.” She pouted but he gave her a nudge forward. “Trust me. You won’t be disappointed.”

  As they resumed their walk, she ignored the dampness between her legs by focusing on another body part. “I think that might have been the best meal I’ve ever eaten.”

  “You said the same thing last night,” Ryan said with a chuckle.

  “And last night I meant it, but tonight’s dessert really was the most incredible thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.” She knew where his mind had gone the instant the words were out. She winked at him and squeezed his hand. “Besides that, of course.”

  When they had walked quite a distance away from the hotel, they were surprised to see an egg-shaped rock, nearly as tall as Hope, rising from the sand. Beyond that was a thick patch of woody plants with big, round, rubbery leaves, making it nearly impossible to go any farther. Hope ran her hand over the rock’s rough exterior. “How weird. It’s really warm. Shouldn’t it cool off at night?”

  Ryan shrugged and placed his hand on it. “It feels like the outer part of one of those big crystal geode halves we saw in the hotel’s Amethyst lounge. I think I read something about all the huge rocks and crystals on the island. Apparently there’s a big mystery about how they got here. Wonder what’s inside this one?”

  “Well, they must call this place Crystal Island for a reason.” She circled the rock and found a long crack down the side facing the ocean but it was too dark to tell what sort of crystal, if any, might be hidden inside.

  She turned toward the sea and sighed. The crescent moon didn’t offer enough light to see where the water ended and the sky began. The impression of endlessness was positively captivating. “Can you imagine what it would be like to live here? To wake up every morning and watch the sun rise over the ocean? I like living in Orlando but this view takes my breath away.”

  Ryan moved close behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I already wake up every morning to the most beautiful view on the planet.” He leaned down and kissed the side of her neck.

  She giggled. “I wasn’t digging for a compliment, but thank you.” She leaned her head back against his shoulder and sighed again. “I just feel like I’m in a dream. A lovely, perfect dream.”

  “It’s no dream, Hope. After all the years of waiting, our future has finally become the present. If you want to live on the ocean, we’ll make that happen. All I care about is being together.”

  “Forever?”

  “Forever and ever. I promise. But for now, there’s something I’ve been itching to do for hours.” His fingers skimmed up over her breasts and found the strings that held up her sundress.

  Hope’s nipples puckered instantly at his light touch but her entire body tensed as he slid the straps off her shoulders and eased the stretchy bodice down to her waist. She felt the warm breeze waft across her naked breasts a moment before his palms covered them.

  “I love you more than life itself,” he whispered and the warmth of his breath made her shiver. Other than the involuntary reaction, she held as still as possible while he thoroughly teased one ear with his tongue and teeth then moved to the other while his fingers never stopped playing wi
th her breasts.

  She could feel his muscular frame tightening around her, his cock stretching and hardening against her lower back, yet he seemed to be in no hurry to move on. She, however, was finding it more and more difficult to be patient with his leisurely foreplay. As always happened around Ryan, her greedy little pussy was already demanding attention.

  Covering his right hand with hers, she directed it downward as her left hand gathered up the loose skirt. His knowing chuckle vibrated through her back, making her smile. He had just wanted to see how long she’d wait. She was always ready for him. Always wanted his hands on her. Always wanted to feel him deep inside her.

  His hand delved beneath her thong and straight between her shaved lips.

  “Oh,” she moaned as he slid two fingers right over her swollen clit to dip into the cream below and spread it upward. She could barely breathe as he pinched the little bud then dove down for more again and again until his fingers and her whole cunt were slick with her response. She reached between their bodies and rubbed his erection. “Ryan. I want you inside me.”

  “Not yet.” He stroked the center of her sex up and down, switched to a circular pattern, then back to long, straight strokes.

  “Maybe we should go back—”

  “What would be the fun in that?” he teased gruffly against her ear. “Let it go, Hope. Come in my hand.”

  Her response was a loud gasp as his fingers abruptly started rubbing her clitoris so rapidly her entire being seemed to be centered between her thighs. A moment later he went back to the slow circles. Her knees felt rubbery but she trusted him to hold her up until he was finished playing with her.

  “Ah, babe,” he murmured. “You know this is the only gift I ever want from you. There’s nothing I love more than feeling your pussy cream for me. I could keep this up all night.”

  She tilted her hips opposite the direction of his fingers and increased her own pleasure. “But if you really loved me, you’d let me suck on your cock and get it ready to play hide and seek with my very, very wet pussy.” Her plan to push him into giving her what she wanted worked instantly, as she knew it would. When it came to nasty talk or a naughty, role-playing sex fantasy, Ryan was completely defenseless.

  Ryan’s fingers went back to up-and-down strokes, quickly picking up the pace. As she felt her clit swelling in response, her nails dug into his hips behind her. The wonderfully familiar climbing sensation began, like going uphill on a roller coaster, where knowing the crest is approaching doesn’t lessen the thrill of going over the peak. She trembled as her body gushed its orgasm over Ryan’s fingers. And, as always, he held her tightly until the ride came to a bumpy but ever so satisfying conclusion.

  When she caught her breath, she murmured, “Have I ever told you how much fun you are?”

  He laughed. “I think you’ve mentioned it before. But now it’s your turn to show me how much fun you are.” In a flash, he tugged her dress and panties down to her ankles.

  “Ryan!” She instinctively crossed her arms over her breasts and glanced from side to side.

  “No one’s around,” he assured her as he shed his own clothes almost as quickly as he’d undressed her. “C’mon.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the water, his rigid penis leading the way.

  “Maybe there are no people…but what about the ghosts?” By the time she had her question out she was already chest-deep in the ocean.

  “Ghosts, schmosts,” Ryan said, clutching the backs of her thighs and wrapping her legs around his waist. “If any of those stories were true, we would have seen something weird by now. But we haven’t. The Davenport is just a normal, very old, very expensive hotel on an exclusive island. There’s nothing mysterious about it. So, are you planning to join this party any time soon or do I have to do all the work?”

  Hope laughed aloud and repositioned her hips so that her cunt was perched at the top of his cock. The warm water swishing between their bodies added a new sensation to the old action. One more little adjustment and her vagina swallowed his shaft as smoothly as if it belonged there.

  Ryan groaned and buried his face in the crook of her neck. He squeezed her bottom as she raised her hips and lowered them again. The buoyancy of the water made it effortless and soon they were creating their own waves in time with Hope’s up-and-down movements.

  It didn’t matter that she had just climaxed, the feel of his cock sliding in and out, rubbing against her nerve center as it almost withdrew then filled her completely, had her fully aroused again in seconds. She tried to remember it was his turn to be pleased, but when it came to sex with Ryan, she was terribly selfish. Luckily, that trait made her irresistible to him.

  She squeezed her vaginal muscles and tilted his face up to hers. “Ready or not, here I come.” Her lips pressed hard against his and he sucked her tongue into his mouth as the rise and fall of her hips sped up.

  A heartbeat later she felt his cock throbbing inside her and she took his groan of release into her mouth.

  When the waves inside and outside her body calmed, Hope realized why he had insisted they extend their walk and she chuckled. “You really are incorrigible, Mr. Partridge.”

  He kissed her nose. “I promise to stop being incorrigible the day you stop enjoying it quite so much, Mrs. Partridge.”

  Chapter Two

  Six Years Later

  “Table for one?”

  Hope wanted to say no, her husband would be joining her. He was just running late. That was what she had said the last time she was here. “Yes, please. A table over there if possible.” She pointed to one in particular.

  The tuxedoed maître d’ led the way past the twenty-foot-high rock formation in the center of the room to the table for two tucked cozily between potted palms and flowering, orange bird-of-paradise plants. The waterfall gushing from atop the miniature mountain effectively muffled the intimate conversations going on at tables along the way. With its glass-domed ceiling, the Davenport Hotel’s five-star restaurant gave the impression of being outdoors under the starry sky, only with air-conditioning and no mosquitos. From experience, Hope knew dining on a southeast Florida beach in late August looked far more romantic in photographs than the real thing. Tonight the full moon added a silvery illumination to the candlelit interior.

  She was now very glad she had made the effort to get dressed up. Her curly auburn hair was pinned high up on the back of her head with ringlets hanging in purposeful disarray…just the way Ryan liked it. She had worn the same slinky black cocktail dress and strappy high-heels the last time she was here, exactly one year ago…but the man she’d bought the outfit for had failed to show up.

  The maître d’ held out a chair for Hope and she accepted the leather-bound menu he offered. When he started to clear away the second place setting across from her, she stopped him. “Leave it, please.” He nodded as though he completely understood the reasoning behind such a request.

  I’m pretty sure I won’t be needing any of this.

  Hope smiled across the table at Ryan. She still loved his sense of humor, even after all these years. “You said I could have anything I wanted for our anniversary.” His glance toward a passing waiter reminded her they were not alone. She repositioned the menu to hide her mouth and lowered her voice to a whisper. “You promised.”

  Hope, this isn’t good—

  “Hush. Not tonight. Please, just for tonight, let me pretend you’re really here.”

  The psychiatrist she went to after Ryan was killed had diagnosed her with a clinical term that basically meant her memories and imagination were behind the ghostly visits. He was sympathetic but nothing he said or prescribed made her visions stop. At first she wondered if it would have been different had there been a child for her to focus on. Unfortunately, even though they had stopped using contraceptives right after the wedding, she had never gotten pregnant.

  The spiritual counselor she visited at least accepted the possibility her late husband was still with her as a disembodied spi
rit. Although the psychic had not been able to see Ryan or explain why Hope could, she had suggested he might have some unfinished business on the Earthly plane. But when Hope had asked Ryan about it, he insisted the only thing unfinished was the life they’d planned together. And that wasn’t so much unfinished as cut short.

  Exacting revenge wasn’t the answer either. They knew who was to blame—a thirty-two-year-old attorney who was too busy typing a text message to notice the red light. He murdered Ryan with his car and turned himself into a quadriplegic. But his punishment didn’t end there. The man had a wife and baby whose lives were also irrevocably changed because of his negligence. Hope often wondered if he ever wished he had died in that accident instead of Ryan.

  “May I help you select a wine?”

  Hope’s unfocused gaze shifted to the sommelier standing beside her and she ordered a bottle of wine—the same wine she had ordered one year ago, here at this same table, to celebrate their fifth anniversary. Ryan had insisted the fifth was almost as important as the wedding day itself so he’d made reservations for them to spend that night at the legendary Davenport Hotel on Crystal Island, where they had spent their honeymoon.

  Their honeymoon. The memory of it was sometimes the only thing that kept her going. She smiled at Ryan and his grin turned lascivious, as though he sensed where her thoughts had drifted. Oddly enough, during the brief periods when they’d left their room that week, they had kept an eye out for ghosts or any other spooky weirdness to justify the hotel’s reputation of being haunted. Though their honeymoon had been heavenly, nothing supernatural had occurred.

  And now she was back with a ghost of her own.

  Hope studied the menu for several minutes before saying, “I remember I was going to order the filet mignon but I’m more in the mood for lobster tonight. What do you think?”