“What do you think?” Nora asked as she slowly backed the car out of the driveway. “Normal or paranormal?”
“I hope it’s normal,” I huffed as I adjusted my seat belt, “but, with my luck, it will be paranormal.”
“We really need to work on your attitude lately,” she scoffed.
I shrugged. She was right. I’d been incredibly moody and negative since we’d escaped through the portal and returned home. It was more than the mess with Lance and Killian. I knew that, but I just couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
Staring out the window at the row of shabby and ill-kept homes, I went over my life in my mind. My childhood was something that I considered normal. I had no recollection of being taken from my birth parents and transported into the future to my new parents. College was so normal as to be considered dull. The fact that my life was so blatantly average was actually the reason I became a private investigator. It seemed exciting and full of peril. I thought that it was until I met Lance and developed a new definition for peril.
“Why so quiet?” Nora asked as she turned onto the main street that would take us to our side of town. “Did I upset you?”
I shook my head.
“I was just thinking about things,” I said with a wistful note. “I used to think my life so daring and dangerous. Then, I met Lance.”
My head slammed against the windowpane for the brief time that her emotions got the better of her and she lost control of the car. Fortunately, she quickly regained it.
“Will you please watch where you’re going?” I bellowed as I cupped my forehead with my hand.
“You do blame him for it all,” she said while sucking in air. “I knew it.”
“I don’t blame him,” I protested. “I’m just saying that since I met him, things changed.”
“Did you ever stop to think that they might have changed anyway?” she asked with angst. “He didn’t put those supernatural abilities inside you, after all. It was probably destiny. He just happened to show up at the same time.”
“You think I’m supernatural?” I chuckled. “Wow.”
“You open and close portals and can shoot tiny energy balls that look and burn like fire from the palms of your hands,” my friends said with a roll of her eyes and a hint of sarcasm. “I wouldn’t say that was natural.”
“So, I’m a meta-human?” I giggled.
“Well,” she said as she turned onto the street that would take us to our house with more concentrated effort than she’d shown the entire time that she’d been in control of the car, “since meta denotes something beyond the norm, I guess you are. At the very least, you’re meta-normal.”
“I’ve never heard of meta-normal,” I mused.
“I just made it up,” she said with a tiny burst of laughter.
I joined her in laughing as the car traveled home with no more near mishaps.
Lance watched us from the portico with his rich chocolaty eyes as we pulled up the drive. Seeing his lean, handsome figure resting in such a charismatic, nonchalant manner against one of the thick, white columns as if he hadn’t a care in the world made me think of the male models in magazines like GQ. With his good looks and physique that clothes seemed to be displayed at their best on, he could have easily been one of them. I prompted Nora to bypass the garage and park the car on the circular drive in front of the house.
His sexy physique quickly came to life.
“I understand you two were out assessing a new client,” he drawled as he opened my door and extended his hand to assist me out of the car.
His brilliant white teeth glistened behind lips that were just made for kissing. They were in stark contrast to his sun-kissed flesh. My body gave a slight tremble with ecstasy as I slid from the car and stood close to him as he closed the door with a swift and steady movement.
If he noticed my reaction to his nearness, he made no indication of it as he looked across the top of the car at Nora. “Well, Miss Nora, so you’ve become a private investigator? How daring of you.”
“Your southern accent is quite pronounced today,” Nora teased as she walked around the car to join us. “Going back to our roots are we?”
With a broad and jovial smile, he took in the grandeur of the old house with his blue eyes and said, “I can think of nothing I’d like more than to go back to the time when this old house was at its finest.”
“I don’t know,” Nora said as she moved toward the front door. “I think it’s pretty grand now.”
“Ah,” he said with a nod. “This old gal will never lose her grandeur. She’s just not shining with the brilliance she had a few centuries ago when she was filled with the bustle of life. I do believe these old walls thrive on that.”
Nora’s nose wrinkled as she turned to enter the house. Just before she disappeared through the door, she playfully tossed over her shoulder, “I forgot what an old man you really are.”
His hand flew to his heart as he sucked in air and gave her a look of mock dismay. I slipped my arm through his and leaned my head on his shoulder for a moment. It was nice to see how well he and Nora got along. They were two of my favorite people, after all.
“It doesn’t matter to me that you’re as old as Rip-Van-Winkle,” I teased in a low tone. “I love you anyway.”
“Just for the record, you happen to be my age,” he said with a chuckle. Then, with a puzzled look he added, “Rip-Van who?”
Ignoring his remark about my age, I urged him to start walking into the house as I murmured, “I thought that you kept up with the times as you passed through them.”
“I kept up with it enough to be able to fit in while I searched for you,” he informed me. “Who is this Rip fella?”
Making love with Lance never ceased to be a special and exciting experience. Just the mere touch of his hand would send tiny electrical currents through my body that extended far beyond my erogenous zones.Like a typical male, he’d always fall asleep almost immediately afterwards. I didn’t hold it against him. I had the idea to research why men did this years ago when I got offended by my partner continually falling asleep right after sex. I learned that men release a cocktail of brain chemicals, including norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, nitric oxide, and the hormone prolactin during their orgasm that makes them tired and sleepy. I wasn’t able to find research stating that women released the same type of cocktail, so I forgave the opposite sex for what appeared to be a lack of romance long ago.I listened to his steady breathing as I lay next to him. Peering through the darkness, I focu
It wasn’t until I felt the thick carpeting of the first step beneath my bare foot that I realized how profoundly affected I was by the news that Lance intended to take me back to his time. My legs trembled like they were made of rubber and my knees threatened to buckle beneath my weight. Worried that they wouldn’t hold me, I held tight to the railing and pulled myself up. First one step and then another. Looking up at the steep and seemingly never-ending climb awaiting me, it felt like a daunting task.I instantly regretted getting out of bed to investigate what was happening downstairs.“You’re pretty affected by this news, my sweetheart,” Killian whispered as he swept me into his arms.I rested my forehead against his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his neck as I weakly protested, “Put me down.”“I will just as soon as we reach the top of the stairs,” he replied.
“Bloody hell, what am I seeing?” Anton bellowed.“You know what you’re seeing,” Nora snapped over her shoulder while glowering at me.It was at that moment that I fully understood the term, ‘If looks could kill.” My dear friend was clearly furious with me.I let out a small squeak while pushing at Killian’s chest. If he was aware of the commotion about him, he made no indication of it while he continued to seek his second climax. He must have been on the verge of it when Nora opened the door because after just a few more thrusts I could feel his release inside of me.Shuddering with orgasmic satisfaction, his body collapsed against mine and I pushed all the harder.“Killian,” I said in a harsh tone that was still kept low to avoid waking Lance while I aggressively slapped his shoulder. “Get off me, now.”Eyes that always reminded me of a cle
“What about Amy Whitehall?” I asked as I slathered butter onto my toasted blueberry bagel. “We accepted her case.”“You’re more worried about her than you are your parents?” Nora said with surprise.I shook my head. “It’s just that I plan on coming back and I don’t want our reputation tarnished because we didn’t work a case that we’d contracted for.”“I’ll work your case for you if it means you’ll come back,” Killian said as he entered the room. Sauntering over to the coffee pot, he grabbed a nearby mug from the mug tree and filled it with the rich, black liquid. Grabbing the free half of my buttered bagel before I could slap his hand away, he took a quick bite.With his mouth full of my coveted bagel, he asked, “Is the case normal or paranormal?”“We don’t know yet,” Nora offered. &
It was almost noon before we ceased making plans for our return to the past. Lance was far more understanding about my desire to maintain a good relationship and reputation with my clients than Nora had been. So much so that he offered to wait for us to return to the past until I’d solved the case. When Anton entered the room and explained to him the entirety of Jason’s evil doings, he quickly changed his mind.“You beat me to telling him,” I said with a nervous chuckle once he and Anton finished their conversation.It was the truth. I’d intended on informing Lance of Jason’s nasty doings myself. In fact, I was just formulating my explanation as to why we needed to go back right away and I’d have Killian act in my stead where Amy Whitehouse was concerned when my cousin of old entered the room.I don’t mind saying that I was filled with relief over being spared discussing Jason wi
Nora and Killian sat, side-by-side on the ugly yellow sofa in the servant’s quarters as Lance, Anton, and I clustered together in the foyer at the foot of the grand staircase.“Is this enough to keep us out of the way?” Nora asked.“You should be good,” Lance said with confidence. “Although I cannot guarantee you will appreciate what you see.”“I found it fascinating the last time,” she replied.“And… how did you say it? Creepy,” he said. “This could prove to be even more creepy to you.”She turned to Killian. “Have you seen something like this before?”He nodded. “Not in a long time, but I have.”“Is it creepy?” she timidly asked.He shrugged. “I didn’t think so. It really depends on the mindset of the person.”After a moment’s thought, she took a
Extraordinarily little had changed with Viviane Northrup since I’d faked death and escaped to the future. She was still lovely to look at, stately in action, and very much resentful of me.With the date of my return being only a few years past the date that I’d escaped back to the future, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Even though I’d been through dimensions while in servitude to Marduke and traveled back in time with Lance, my rational mind still had difficulty accepting and absorbing the concepts at times. This was one of those times.As with everything that was going on with me at that point, I accredited my inability to truly grasp what I was in the middle of to the fact that I’d traveled from one century to another without the use of a portal. This had to be the reason my body was not feeling its normal self. Traveling through portals was something that I’d grown accustomed to. I
I was surprised at how tired I was. Rather than give my body fuel to pursue activities for the afternoon, (like hunting down my rotten brother-in-law, Jason, and wringing his neck for promising my parents to that demon lord) I felt all the more exhausted after eating the light fare. I attributed it to the fact that my body simply didn’t appreciate the way I’d transitioned from one time zone to another without the use of a portal. As with all dis-ease of the body, my remedy was to rest. So, I allowed myself the luxury of going back to sleep.Since the heavy drapes were kept drawn to keep out the afternoon sun’s burning rays, I had no idea of the time when Lance finally settled his lean, sexy form on the bed next to me and gently kissed me awake.“You have slept the day away, my love,” he cooed.Rubbing my eyes and giving a long, loud yawn, I asked, “What time is it?”“It is dinner time