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“You scared, love?” I asked, leaving no empty space inside the bag.
“No.”
I worked the zipper. “You sure?” The place was creepy, especially in the middle of the night. It took me a few shots of liquid courage to come here alone last time, but I’d never admit that to her.
She cocked her head. “I don’t get scared, especially of ghosts.”
“I wouldn’t say that too loud. You’ll hurt their feelings.”
I laughed as Mia’s eyes bulged, and she shoved my shoulder.
Fuck, was she beautiful, even surrounded by death like a wilted rose in the winter.
I patted the side of the bag before standing and filled the hole back in.
Our feet made quick work of high-tailing it out of there and disappearing into the woods. The moon wasn’t our friend on our way back, and I depended on the little light put out by the flashlight and a sense of direction. It took us over an hour to find the door, which we’d left open, but now it was closed and airtight. “Shit.”
“Don’t say shit,” Mia whispered from behind me.
“Fuck,” I uttered in a breath, working the handle again.
“What?”
“The wind must’ve closed it shut.”
“So, open it.”
“I can’t.” I dropped the bag and planted my palm over the stone wall for leverage as I tried again.
“Ollie …”
“I’m serious, Mia. The bloody thing is stuck.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I knew it. You’ve gone and pissed her spirit off,” she huffed beside me, “What do we do now?”
“Plan B.”
“Which is?”
“Camping out.”
“You meaning to tell me, you show me our beautiful home today, and I’m spending my night in a cemetery.” Mia groaned, but I couldn’t see her anymore against the pitch-black night. “And I have to pee.”
“You’ll have to hold it, love. It’s illegal to urinate on sacred ground.” And I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth.
“But it’s perfectly okay to hide forty-three thousand dollars beside a famous dead novelist?” She gritted out in a whisper-yell, and I was sure her hands were flying, and I could only imagine her expression. “Is anything we’re doing right now legal, Ollie?”
Her tone only meant I was in trouble. “All right, you’re right,” I pushed my hands through my hair and turned in place, “pop-a-squat, princess.”
“Here?”
“I would rather you do it here than back at a grave.”
She shone the flashlight on my face. “Okay, don’t look.”
“Mia, I can hardly see my own hand.”
“And plug your ears.”
Chuckling, I turned and hung my head, thinking maybe I should ring Travis to rescue us, but remembered I’d left my mobile back in the car. Mia shuffled inside her jeans, and a tree limb fell. I jerked my head around. An owl hooted overhead. The taunting night wasn’t on our side. “Mia, are you finished?” I was ready to get out of the choking vegetation and back under the moon.
Another twig snapped. I whipped my head around.
“Mia?”
The silence screamed, playing tricks on me. I sca
“Dammit, Mia. Answer me!” A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I twisted in place to see Mia jump from behind with the flashlight in her face, giggling. “Christ,” I let out a breath and clutched my hammering heart. “That’s not fu
“What’s wrong, Ollie? Are you afraid?” She laughed.
I shook my head and scooped the bag from the ground. “No.” Yes. But only of losing her.
We walked back through the thick, overgrown brush to higher ground, Mia trailing close behind. We couldn’t have been out here for more than three hours, which meant sunrise would come in no more than two. Tossing the bag at the nearest headstone, I took a seat and leaned back against the rock looking up at her.
The wind hadn’t slowed and only blew more fiercely against her, sending twisted chocolate-brown strands to stick to her chapped, rosy-tinted lips. But the wind didn’t throw her off-kilter. It was as if she summoned it, and nature followed her. The force in the air snatched dead leaves from the ground, floating and swirling around us, dancing right in her hair.
A night’s spell.
I pulled my knees up and dropped my head back, mesmerized as she spoke, entirely captivated with the way her lips moved, the way the moon complimented her. Her black jeans hugged her hips so tight it could rip the skin. And I had to tear my eyes away to prevent myself from stripping her bare under the moon. We were probably already going to hell, and fucking her in a cemetery would grant us a one-way ticket.
Plus, Mia was the kind of girl to take your time with. An art. A canvas that deserved a Da Vinci. But I was weak against her, already gone. I reached for the flask I’d hidden with the money from the duffle, needing a shot of some booze—brilliant idea at the time, finally serving a purpose to calm the raging hormones Mia tended to call upon whenever she was near. I unscrewed the cap and felt the burn.
Mia tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Are you even listening to me?”
“Honestly, no. I can’t hear anything over all that sex appeal.”
Mia’s shoulders relaxed, and her lip turned into a simple smile
“Come sit down,” I offered, pointing to the space between my legs, and she eyed me skeptically, taking the flask from my hand. She twirled in place, drinking from the antique bottle, then stopped in front of me and pushed her thumb to the corner of her mouth to catch a drip. As if she were snow, Mia drifted between my legs and anchored her hands to my thighs, her head falling back against my chest.
It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep. It also didn’t take long for the sun to rise and fight through the clouded skies and canopies. I wanted to stall a little while longer. And I held on to five more minutes of her in my arms before waking her and gathering our things. Sleepy, Mia sluggishly walked behind me through the brush and back to the secret door.
When we reached the stone wall, my gaze followed the length until they fell upon my secret door—wide-open.
I turned to face Mia, who had confusion painted over her face. “I thought you said it was stuck.”
“It was.”