Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

LILITH

After going back and forth with Bram for five minutes about whether or not me staying with him is an imposition, I am sitting in the passenger seat of my rental car as he drives us to his cottage on the other side of the cemetery grounds. Unlike Crowden Manor, there’s an entire street that separates his home from the cemetery itself.

“It’s not much,” Bram says as he pushes open the door. “But the cottage comes with the job and it’s just me and the cats anyway.”

As soon as we step inside, we are greeted by little meows below us. Three all black kittens cry for Bram’s attention as he walks in. He chuckles lowly, stepping over them with my suitcase that he insisted he carried in.

“Hello, ladies,” he says, his voice soft and gentle. For the first time in hours, the tension in my body dissipates. I am fully aware he wasn’t talking to me, but the tone of his voice basically turned my insides to complete goo. Turning to me, he continues, “I probably should have warned you that it’s not much. You can take the bedroom for as long as you need to. I’ll just crash on the couch.”

“Absolutely not,” I tell him. “You’ve already done so much. I’m not kicking you out of your bed too. I will sleep on the couch.”

“You’re not kicking me out of my bed,” he counters. “I offered. In fact, I insist.”

Since this is an argument neither one of us are seemingly willing to budge on, I ask him if I can use his shower. I don’t think either of us will be going to bed any time soon. We can figure out the sleeping arrangements later.

“Yes, of course.”

He leads me down a small hallway, dropping my luggage down into what I can only assume is his bedroom. Across the hall, he reaches his hand inside and flips on a light switch. As he pulls open a small cabinet space built into the wall, I half hear him say something about extra washcloths and towels. The truth is, I’m too busy admiring the empty clawfoot tub in the middle of the room.

“I would sell my soul to take a bath in this tub.”

I don’t realize that I’ve said my thought aloud until Bram leans over, and turns the water on.

“There will be no need for soul selling today, darling.” He flashes me with a grin as he walks past me, back to the cabinet in the wall, and my pulse quickens. “I mentioned that I had a sore back a few weeks ago and my mom showed up with this bath salt. I never used it, but it has clove, peppermint, and eucalyptus. It’s supposed to relieve tension in muscles and joints.”

I am completely transfixed by the man in front of me as he pours bath salts into the tub. If you had told me at five o’clock this morning, he would be readying a bath for me after coming to my aid because the house I am renting is haunted by a ghost that may or may not be my relative, I would have laughed in your face. But, lo and behold, here we are, in Bramley Wilde’s bathroom.

“If you think you’ll be alright, I’m going to go do a quick walk through the cemetery,” he says. “I won’t be long and when I come back, if you’re still awake, I’ll whip you up something to eat. We can go to the grocery’s after we go to town hall tomorrow.”

I thank him and assure him that I’ll be okay. I don’t tell him that I doubt I’ll be going to sleep anytime soon. Between sleeping most of the day and the events this evening, I’m pretty wired up. He studies me for a moment before he leaves the bathroom without another word.

I don’t know if it’s because he was in the right place at the right time and then selflessly opened up his home to me or because the way his bright blue eyes look at me and make me feel like I’m the only person he sees in this world, but there’s something different about Bram. The way I feel when I’m around him is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. Maybe it’s because our lives have almost been connected in a way since I was five, but I feel completely at ease with him. I mean, minus the fact he makes butterflies flutter in my stomach and say my thoughts out loud.

Stepping into the tub, I wince slightly at the heat. The water is just hot enough to a shock to your system, but not hot enough to burn you. I know it’s going to feel so good, so, slowly, I ease into the tub. The water comes up just above my chest as a slide into a comfortable position. As the eucalyptus works its way into my muscles, my body begins to decompress. Tipping my head back on the edge of the tub, I close my eyes.

A vision of Bram, towering over the tub, watching me comes alive in my mind. It’s so real, I pop my eyes open, in the hopes I willed it, but disappointment settles in my stomach when I see he’s not there. With the thought of him still fresh in my mind, I allow my hand to trail down my body until it finds the source of aching desire. As I slide a finger inside myself, I imagine it’s Bram’s. A moan escapes me as I work my finger in and out. I panic for just a moment until I remember he said he was going to make sure everything was okay across the street.

The more I envision him, the higher I climb, closer to combustion. As I push myself over the edge, I call out his name. Sated and much more relaxed than when I climbed into the tub, I look around, remembering that I followed Bram into the bathroom without bringing a change of clothes with me.

Stepping out of the tub, I dry myself off, and wrap myself in a towel. I just need to get from here to across the hall. Easy peasey.