Restless Spirit

by Sommer Marsden

Genres: Contemporary Romance; Erotic & Steamy Romance

Synopsis

Tuesday Cane walks out on her life and her abusive man when she inherits her grandmother?s house at Allister Lake. There she finds plenty of distractions to take her mind off her loss with her sexy neighbour and handyman Shepherd, former TV star Reed and her old flame Adrian. But , as time passes, she senses that something is not quite right with her new life.  And no amount of steamy sexual encounters can hide her anxiety. Surrounded by so many interesting men and erotic enticements, Tuesday has no intention of committing to one man ever again. But the more she insists she's nobody's girl, the more she wants to be somebody's girl. Will she continue to be a restless spirit and run from love or will she be won over?

Release date: February 16, 2012

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 289

Sample

Prologue

He pulled me to him. Really pulled me. I slid across the crisp white sheets on my belly, randomly grabbing at folds of cloth as Stan pounded into me.

‘Stay with me, Tuesday,’ he said.

I knew he didn’t mean keep up, or come with him, or fuck with the same enthusiasm. He meant don’t go and don’t go wasn’t something I could consider.

‘Shut up, Stan.’

I felt it curling like a flame in my belly, my pussy, my thighs. The flashing, pulsing heat that always means I’m going to come. When Stan got behind me and manhandled me, fucked me hard but said sweet words, it always worked me up. When his fingers dug into the meat of my hips and he moved like a man possessed, my entire being seemed to thrum with the pulse in my neck and my belly.

‘Don’t tell me to shut up,’ Stan said, laying a hard blow on the flushed skin of my ass. But it only made it worse. It only made me worse.

I shoved my hand under my body, finding my clit with slippery fingers. I rubbed hard, way harder than I normally would if anyone were watching me. I thrust my body hard against my hand even as I tried to toss myself back against him. Impaling myself on Stan’s big cock. Throwing myself back into his strong hands. The sexual version of the Nestea plunge, just giving up and hurling myself back into empty space. The unknown.

My pussy started to seize up around him and he grunted, ‘Not yet, girl,’ and pulled free of me.

I made a noise like something feral, but the world turned suddenly and he had me on my back. The bulk of him, six foot three-ish of huge man, hovering over me and prying my legs wide. Stan settled himself between my thighs, finding my slippery slit with his fingers and then his cock.

His mouth came down hard and sweet and needy. ‘Don’t leave, Tuesday,’ he said again. ‘Or take me with you.’

‘Shut up, Stan,’ I said again. And to help him shut up, I wrapped my legs around his thick waist, opened my body to him, tightened my cunt muscles and as an afterthought, I turned my head, sucked his big finger into my mouth and licked it like I always licked his cock.

Stan, good old Stan, hissed like a scalded cat and whispered, ‘Christ.’

‘Fuck me, Stan,’ I said this time and he buried his handsome face in my neck and set about doing just that. His stubble scraped my flesh raw, his fingers bruised my skin, his bulk crushed the air out of me and it was perfect.

It was what I needed. To forget and to get lost. To open my body and close my mind and feel Stan’s broad slippery cock ramming into me like he was punishing me, but in the most delicious way, for leaving him.

When he pinned my wrists down by my sides and damn near smashed me flat with his 200 plus pounds. When he sucked the whimpers and the moans off my lips and swallowed them down. When he ground his hips in that way he has and rocked from side to side. That’s when I came.

‘You’re leaving me, Tuesday, aren’t you?’ he said.

‘Honey, we were never really together,’ I told him.

He sighed, his finger running over my dusky nipple making it stand up like some well trained thing.

‘I know.’

‘I know you do.’ I brushed my fingers through his reddish brown hair and he flared his hand over my belly so the muscles twitched.

‘Why, Tues?’

‘I’m too fucking damaged, Stan.’

He didn’t argue. Stan had been fucking me for months. And we’d been having this post coital back and forth for almost as long. He didn’t argue because for the most part, Stan knew I was right.

When he left he threw his final say over his shoulder on his way out the door. ‘You’re not damaged, Tuesday. You’re restless.’

Chapter One

Where I live it seems they frown upon a woman sticking up for herself. My ex, Phil, is the size of a tree. An angry tree. We tangled more than once and at first, the fucking and the danger and the thrill was enough to let me overlook the occasional drunken swing he’d take at me.

When he connected a bit too hard one Saturday night, I went to get checked. The white-haired, kind, emergent care doctor applied a butterfly bandage over my right eye where the skin was split and said softly – almost conversationally – ‘You know, bad things don’t usually get better.’

I’d swallowed hard and made up my mind. Fucking and danger and a tiny bit of thrill wasn’t worth this. Because Phil was just going to get older and broader and angrier, probably. And the hits would get harder and the instances more often.

I went home to pack. He made a deal of it. I dealt with his temper tantrum with calm determination. Phil decided I needed a lesson. He actually said that, ‘You need a lesson, Tuesday fucking Cane.’

I grabbed my baseball bat from grade school and gave him a good whack in the knee. When he didn’t’ stop, I did the other – just to even things up. Then I left.

I’d moved into the local boarding house while I decided what to do. A lot of the locals in our sorta-big-but not-big-enough-to-be-a-real-city-suburbs thought I was a rogue. Thought I’d taken the law into my own hands. Funny, but no one thought twice about Phil waling on me if he saw fit. But what can you do? Most people are fucking crazy.

I hooked up with Stan for several reasons – he was pretty cute, he stuck up for me with the gossiping busy bodies, he was hopelessly gaga over me and he was a wall of man who’d provide good muscle should Phil come sniffing around.

I ended up deciding to drive to Allister Lake and take care of my grandmother who’d been in failing health. She’d been asking forever, I’d been putting it off. I made up my mind to just do it, and then she died. A sudden heart attack had taken that option from me. My nan was gone. Her house was mine. And I had a chance to start a brand new life.

I threw the last of my clothes in the suitcase on my final night at the boarding house and looked up to see Annie in the doorway.

‘So, you’re really going then?’

‘I am.’

‘Stan looked pretty upset.’

‘Stan was pretty upset. But Stan wasn’t my knight in shining armour.’

‘He wanted to be.’ She compressed her already thin mouth into a hot pink lipsticked line to show her disapproval.

‘They all do until they take a swing at you for being too loud or wearing a too-short dress.’ I zipped my bag.

‘They’re not all like that,’ Annie said.

‘Enough of them are.’

I kissed her wrinkled cheek, smelling of powder and lavender toilet water, and off I went. Into the wild blue yonder. Just me, a beat to shit black and tan ’76 Grenada, and my overstuffed duffle bags.

‘What will you do out there?’ she called after me from the front porch. The sky was whipping itself up into a sudden August storm.

‘Whatever I can,’ I yelled, pulling out. ‘It’s not like waitressing at Dom’s Diners is anything to beat.’

‘You gonna write?’ Her dyed red hair whipped back from her too-thin face. Annie had been dropping weight. It worried me. She smoked like a chimney.

‘I’m gonna try. Thanks for everything, Annie!’ I yelled. ‘You know I love ya.’

She waved me off but at the last minute she yelled, ‘I love you too Tuesday Cane … you lunatic.’

I hit the road. I had a three hour drive before I hit Allister Lake. It rained cats and dogs the whole damn way.

Allister Lake is huge. The surrounding town not so much. The locals who own the original plots around the waterfront refuse to sell of any of their lots for new building. What survives is the original layout from the 50s. With the exception of a few in-law houses and guest homes that locals had added on over the years, looking at original photos of the town you see pretty much the same landscape. Very odd, very rare and very cool.

I pulled into Nan’s gravel drive feeling that twinge of guilt that came when I thought of her. All the shoulds crushed down on me. How I should have visited more often, how I should have made up my mind sooner to come stay with her, how I should have come immediately. Nan had been my only family left barring some distant relations and now she was gone too.

‘Orphan. Fucking orphan,’ I said to myself.

I saw movement in my headlights but couldn’t make it out and then it was gone. The white light painted abstracts on the A-frame home that I remembered fondly from my childhood and teenage visits.

‘Home sweet home,’ I said to my car and climbed out.

I dragged my duffle bag in and found the key on my ring. The lawyers had sent it along, but it didn’t matter, I had my own from once upon a time.

The last time I’d been here I’d been eighteen and had managed to snag three locals before traveling back home. I remembered them vaguely. Big corn-fed men who did things like hunt, fish and swim in ‘cricks’ to cool off. I snorted and rolled my eyes.

‘Let’s try not to do that this time, Tuesday,’ I said. ‘But then again,’ I sighed, dragging my bag behind me, ‘What the hell.’

‘What the hell what?’

I jumped, screamed and dropped my keys. I took a swing at the guy before he could dodge and ended up cuffing him good upside the head.

‘Jesus, Tuesday, your nan would spank you if she saw you hitting your friends.’

‘Wha–’

He held something up and I saw it was a small lantern. It had sorta kinda been behind his bulk when I clocked him.

‘Hey, Tuesday.’

‘Adrian!’ I yelped and threw myself into his arms. Those three local boys I’d mentioned? Adrian had been one. Tall and leanly muscled like a street fighter, he stood about a head taller than my five foot ten. His shoulders weren’t broad but strong as hell and the lantern lit up his brownish red hair and his dark brown eyes.

‘Kiddo.’

‘You’re the same age as me,’ I said.

‘Three months older.’

‘Wow. Ancient.’ I unlocked the door and before I could do it, he stooped to grab my bag. ‘What are you doing out here in the dark?’

I flipped the light inside the front door and nothing happened. Shit.

‘I was in the barn and saw your car.’

‘Why were you in the barn? And where are my goddamn lights?’ I growled, getting frustrated. I flicked the switch again as if I could magically pump power into the house.

‘Your nan’s lawyer hired me to be the caretaker until the house was occupied. Out here at the lake, damn, the critters move in fast.’

He moved past me in the dark and I felt the brush of his hard body against mine. A surge of lust rose up in my belly as I remembered our few nights together. Naked, sweaty and rolling around in the oddest places. An unfinished house, the bed of his pick up, under Nan’s apple tree out back. Heat flooded my cheeks and when I said, ‘Where you going?’ my voice sounded funny.

‘I’m gonna go flip the breaker so you have juice. I had to shut the place down but for the sump pump. No use in paying for electricity that no one’s using.’

He opened the cellar door and turned at the last minute. ‘And Tuesday?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Sorry about Nan.’

‘Yeah, me too,’ I said around the lump in my throat.

‘Be right back.’ Then he was gone like a hero in a horror movie. His big fine self, his kind smile and his lantern. And me standing in the dark.

‘Hurry,’ I whispered.

I heard him moving around below the wide planked floors like the world’s largest rodent. I shivered. Way to freak yourself out, Tues … My mind had conjured images of rats and mice, water bugs and spiders. All the creepy crawlies that came with shut up cabins and lakeshore living.

‘OK!’ I heard Adrian call but nothing had happened.

‘OK what! There are no lights!’

‘Flip the switch again,’ he yelled and I heard a deep chuckle that slithered to the pit of my belly making me feel horny.

‘Great,’ I growled. I flipped the switch and my grandmother’s sconce lights lit up her living room. Correction – my sconce lights.

‘Work?’ he said from the doorway.

‘As you can see.’

‘Good deal.’ He walked into the kitchen and I followed, leaving my bag by the entertainment centre in the living room.

The thing about A-frames is they have very few vertical walls. The walls tilt and it can be unsettling at first. But the main room was big and wide and open, with ceilings that arched way over my head. I passed the small nook on the left that my grandmother had used for an office and then I was in the kitchen, a fairly open space split into an eating section and a cooking section by an island.

I sat in the wicker rocking chair while Adrian checked the pilot light and the stovetop. He made sure I had candles and matches and turned the water back on in the sink.

‘If you need anything, you let me know. I’m still out in the barn. I guess I’ll be moving out soon, though.’ he said and smiled.

‘Do you have somewhere to go?’ I asked softly. The economy had been shit. I imagined it was the case even in a small place like Allister Lake.

‘Not at the moment.’

‘Then stay as long as you want,’ I said. ‘It’s not like I need the barn.’

He took my hand and said softly – in a tone reserved for lovers, or at least former lovers –’Stand up, Tuesday. Let me see you in the light.’

I stood and he studied me. My cheeks grew hot, my pussy wet, my belly buzzed with nerves. Nothing quite compared to the feel of a man’s intent gaze on you. Especially one as good looking as Adrian Weston.

‘You look damn good, kid.’ Then he kissed my forehead and turned to go. ‘There’s some wine in the pantry. Some hard stuff too. Tons of canned and packaged food. You know your Nan, always stocked for an–’

‘Event,’ I finished. ‘Weather or social,’ I laughed. My grandmother had believed in being prepared food-wise for any event, whether it be a blizzard or an impromptu dinner for eight.

‘Right.’

At the door he turned and pinned me in the cage of his arms. My back was pressed to the green front door, his sinewy arms planted on either side of my head. ‘Damn, you look good.’

‘You too,’ I said swallowing hard. My body insisted I hadn’t just had sex with Stan. My body insisted that I hadn’t had sex in months … nay, years!

‘I’m right over there if you need me,’ he said and kissed my lips.

It was a soft and proper kiss. Just enough to get my body revving like a muscle car engine. And at the very last second, he slipped his tongue between my lips to touch it to mine and I shivered.

‘Night, kid.’

‘We’re the same age,’ I whispered as he loped across the big lawn to the barn.

Great, how was I going to fucking sleep knowing that Adrian – hot, talented, willing Adrian – was asleep on my property? I had no idea.

Chapter Two

The upper room that had been my grandmother’s was now mine. The walls tilted in and at first it threw me off. I felt a bit off balance, but then it all came back to me – my love for the A-frame. Looking out of her upper windows to see bright sunlight throwing diamond shards of light off the lake water. Hearing geese and ducks when the weather warmed.

I stared at Nan’s bed and sighed. ‘It’s going to be weird.’

When nothing happened, I dropped my bag and kicked off my boots. I shimmied free of my dark grey jeans and unbuttoned my plaid shirt. In panties and a tank top, I wandered Nan’s room, remembering sitting on the small bench at the foot of her bed while she did her make-up at the vanity.

Out in the dark night, on her big plot of land, was the potting shed she’d loved so much and the barn. I saw a light in the potting shed and froze. Then it winked and was gone. That couldn’t be right. Adrian was in the barn. And if Adrian was in the barn then who was in the potting shed?

I craned my head, pushing my forehead to the cool window glass so I could see a bit of the barn. A light burned inside.

Weird.

‘Maybe it was a reflection, you goof.’ I was too tired to worry about it. I climbed into bed and stretched my arms and legs to work out the tension built up from the drive. My body made a lazy starfish shape in the bed. I reached as far as I could, groaning, releasing all my stress from being behind the wheel and from my life in general. Then I cut the bedside lamp off and waited to fall asleep.

And waited.

After an hour of listening to every creak and pop and groan of the old house, I considered a night cap. But laziness won out and I lay there waiting for my nerves to calm and my body to relax and my fatigue to take over.

I shut my eyes remembering my times with Adrian. His warm lips on mine – thin but soft lips that made him look like he was angry sometimes when he wasn’t. But when he smiled it touched my heart and my belly … and my cunt, to be honest. That grin of his showed the true nature of the man – good-hearted, funny, ornery and sexy.

Willing the image of his hands on me, I shimmied free of my panties and dropped them to the floor. My fingers slipping coolly over my clit made me shiver and I pressed a bit harder as I circled the swollen nub.

Adrian had done this thing where he clamped my nipple between his sharp white teeth and tugged, drawing the rosy tip out and away from my body. Biting down until it felt like too much, like the pain was too great. Then he’d release it and bury his face between my thighs, licking my pussy, sucking my clit, all the while his capable fingers stroked the tender nipple he’d just caused to throb.

I slid my fingers deep in my cunt, grinding my clit to the palm of my hand as I moved them. Slowly, fucking myself and rocking my hips up just enough to give myself deeper pleasure.

He’d had a talented tongue and he’d loved to drive the rigid tip into my wet slit until I bucked and danced for him and then he’d slide his hands under my ass and concentrate on my swollen clitoris. Licking with the flat of his tongue before tickling with only the tip. When he’d push his fingers deep inside of me – much like I was then – and suck hard and I would come. Fistfuls of hair clenched in my greedy fingers as my body shivered.

I came, a long slow slippery orgasm that unwound lazily in my pussy and curled up into my belly so the muscles trembled. But I wasn’t done. I flipped on my stomach, remembering how Adrian would roll me. He’d fuck me, face to face, prying my thighs wide, then he’d flip me on my belly and take me from behind. His fingers – strong from working outside and fishing and hunting – would dig into my flesh and I swore I could feel my flesh bruising. And then, just when I was about to come, he’d roll onto his back and make me climb aboard.

I thrust my fingers deeper and rolled my hips, back and forth, to grind my tender clit to my palm. Pretending I was astride him. Calling up muscle memory and mental images of his tan hands on my pale breasts as I rode him. And just at that crucial moment, he’d pull me in, kiss me hard and suck my nipples until the resounding pull was felt from breast to cunt and I’d come.

And I came again, against my hand, my face pressed to the pillow.

I rolled to my back, tired and spent, but now considering running over to that barn and trying to find out if he was still as talented between the sheets as he was once upon a time.

Fatigue won. I was asleep before I could sit up and find my pants.

* * *

Allister Lake was a greenish blue mirror. The clouds reflected in its nearly still surface and sunlight twinkled like tiny fairy lights. I sat on Nan’s deck with a cup of her coffee, so fucking strong that even I couldn’t water it down by using less grounds. The first few sips made me grimace but then I started to enjoy the in-your-face bold flavour.

‘So you’re the infamous Tuesday?’

I jumped, coffee splashing my black sweater. Thank God it was black. I hadn’t heard him sneak up on me – and by the size of him that was a fucking miracle.

‘Jesus, who are you?’ I gasped. ‘I mean, I’m sorry–’

Clearly he was a neighbour of Nan’s.

He smiled and it did something strange to me, I felt bristly and flirty and too hot in the face. He was about six foot six, the size of a small tree to be honest, and his dark brown hair was just long enough to technically require a cut. He sported a beard that hugged his lean face and it was shot with grey and silver.

Older man, yum …

I shook the thought off when he said ‘Sorry. I’m Shepherd. I live next door. Well, as next door as that is,’ he said, pointing to a white A-frame similar to mine but with huge mirrored windows that made me think of blind eyes.

Dark brown eyes regarded me and he grinned when I opened my mouth but managed to say nothing. My words had gone right of my head as I studied hi. . .