Chapter One

“Oh, yes.” Joy gripped the satin sheets as pleasure shot from the juncture of her thighs to her very fingertips. The man lapping at her clit knew what he was doing, his rhythm, with the toy moving in and out of her sheath, was the perfect pace.

When his free hand moved up to cup her breast, she held her breath knowing what would come next.

He didn’t disappoint. His fingers moved around to her hard nipple to roll and pinch it, sending her over the edge into her climax.

She arched upward, her body on fire, consumed by an ecstasy only he could give her. Her peak of pleasure continued, his mouth an instrument of erotic torture, refusing to release her.

She quivered as he held her there, at her pinnacle, her throat dry from panting, her body strung taught with wave after wave of bliss sweeping through her.

Finally, he removed the toy, as well as his hand from her breast to spread her legs wider. His tongue traveled down to her opening to lick the juices of her orgasm, the scruff on his face sending tingles of sensation across her inner thighs. His need for her taste gave her a chance to relax and revel in her contentment.

She lightly grasped his head beneath the hooded cape he always wore, the strands of his silky black hair wrapping around her fingers almost as if they had a mind of their own, their sensuality as captivating as the rest of him. He was a master in the art of sexual stimuli.

Frowning, she tried to remember his name. Why couldn’t she remember his name? He always gave her such perfect pleasure. She looked down but the hood obscured his face. She wanted to see him, remember who he was.

She tugged on his hair to have him lift his head. His dark eyes bored into her with a carnal knowledge far deeper than her own. As his full face came into view, he licked his sensual lips, one side quirking upward just slightly.

“Malcolm.”

She let her hands go lax, not wanting him any closer, but he continued to rise, pulling himself over her, his gaze holding her immobile. His face lowered, his lips touched hers, and as he breached her mouth with his tongue to share her taste, his cock speared her to its hilt.

Joy sat up in bed, her heart racing as the dream remained in her consciousness to titillate her with details. She moaned, closing her eyes again before snapping them open once more as Malcolm’s visage floated beneath her eyelids.

Throwing her legs over the side of her bed, she ran her hands through her auburn hair. She was a mess. Her body overheated and sweating, her hair tangled, and her thighs wet from her too satisfying dream. Too bad her psyche wasn’t equally satisfied.

She padded across the marble floor and into her bathroom. The air in the replica of her Scottsdale home was cool against her damp skin. Turning on the water in the glass and stone shower, she waited for it to warm.

It took less than three seconds before she was able to stand under the spray. One of the perks of the afterlife was the elimination of tiny inconveniences. The water soaked her hair, and she squirted her favorite body wash into her palm.

“Hmmm.” The peppermint scent lifted her spirits and pushed away her disturbing dream. She knew exactly why she had it. Every time she ran into Malcolm MacLachlan, he burrowed into her subconscious. Not that her consciousness was immune to him either. No woman, living or dead, could be oblivious to him.

That spirit guide had a body that would send even the most sexual woman into a faint. He didn’t exactly flaunt it, his dark brown hooded cape covering him most of the time, like a druid of old, but when he turned a certain way—

She pulled her hand from between her thighs and washed her legs. Luckily, he rarely visited any of the spirit guide gathering areas. She just happened to have literally bumped into him in the hallway outside their supervisor’s door yesterday as she’d exited, his evergreen scent bringing to mind dark forests and even darker orgies.

Cameron had been very pleased with her work on her last assignment. He even told her she could take a few days to play. Personally, she thought her supervisor seemed a little distracted.

They all knew he’d been sending spirit guides to help his wife move on after his death. That in itself was usually not allowed. Checking on family members after a spirit guide’s death was an absolute no-no. She couldn’t even visit her niece, something she wished to do more than anything. To know her sacrifice had meant something would be very reassuring.

Squeezing out a few squirts of shampoo, she massaged it into her hair, the candy cane aroma of it soothing her despite her growing concern. Coco and Ian, the last two spirits to be assigned to Cameron’s wife never returned. Coco had been her friend for a long time and whenever they had time to play, they’d done it together.

When she asked Cameron where Coco was, he just said she was no longer a spirit guide. She’d tried to push the issue, but he scowled at her and the rumors about his mental stability had her closing her mouth. She felt sorry for him. He had a lot of pressure from above.

Rinsing her hair, she tried to focus on what to do with her free time. Though there was no such thing as time in the afterlife, they all sensed it as they had in life, so some time away from helping the living was always welcome.

Finished with her shower, she waved her hand and it stopped. She dried herself and donned her turquoise satin robe. “My coffee.” A cup of coffee appeared on the sink next to her. Taking a sip, she looked in the mirror. “Make up.” She’d just taken the cup away when her face was enhanced with just the right amount of color. She may be dead, but that didn’t mean she should get lazy.

Taking her cup with her, she meandered over to her walk-in closet to review her clothes. She phased before speaking. “I think my purple and turquoise sundress will do.” Instantly, she had the sleeveless dress on. She returned to being solid again. She could have stayed solid and simply put on her clothes herself, but there were certain advantages to phasing like instantly being dressed or traveling through space and time.

She took another sip of coffee. She preferred her solid state as did most spirit guides since that was what they were used to. Besides, eating was much more enjoyable while solid.

A buzzer on her counter lit just before her supervisor’s voice came through. “Joy, could you come to my office, please?” Though Cameron asked, it wasn’t really a question.

“Of course.” She didn’t wait for an answer. Phasing, she quickly floated through her ceiling.

~~*~~

Malcolm grinned in the face of his boss’s frown. He’d surprised the man to speechlessness before the arguing began. What did he care? He had nothing to lose. Since this would be his last assignment, he might as well prove his point in the process.

Cameron Douglas moved his thick brown hair off his forehead. “Are you sure you want Joy for a partner? I can think of a dozen other spirit guides that might be of more help to you. As I said, this is your last chance. I’d think you’d want someone you could work well with.”

“If you think someone else would be better then why let me choose who I want?” He floated closer and solidified. “If I choose poorly then I fail and I’m out of your hair. I can’t believe you want me to succeed. What game are you playing, Douglas?”

His supervisor turned away from him, his movements rigid. “Believe me, if I had a choice, you’d be the last one I’d send on this assignment.”

He stiffened. His work had always produced the wanted results. If his methods were different from most spirit guides, what did it matter? He followed the rules and accomplished what needed to be done. If half of them, his boss included, had any inkling of what the future held, they’d change how they guided the living, of that he was sure.

Refusing to let Cameron know he was irritated, he leaned against the wall next to his boss’s desk to await his partner. He couldn’t imagine them reassigning him. It wasn’t as if the afterlife needed to be protected, which was the only other skill he excelled at. Something wasn’t making sense.

He was the only spirit guide left from the future. The rest were either reassigned or had disappeared. That he was being given a partner on this case meant it would be a particularly difficult one. Rarely did they partner up.

“If you didn’t always show the worst-case scenario and if you would carefully couch your words in more palatable phrases, you wouldn’t be in jeopardy of losing your position.” Cameron’s voice had just a tinge of desperation to it.

Something was seriously wrong. Though he’d never been overly fond of his boss, the man had a stellar track record and did his job with confidence. “Have I ever failed to deliver the desired outcome?”

Cameron sighed. “It’s not just the outcome that counts. The process should also be—never mind. It’s not worth having this conversation for the hundredth time.” Cameron’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

Now he was sure something, other than his own dismissal, was riding on this assignment. A twinge of guilt niggled at his psyche, but he pushed it away. Joy was an accomplished spirit guide. The antithesis of him, but still very successful. Not only would they do what needed to be done, but he would show her reality, proving to her that her way of looking at life and death was far too idealistic.

She was too happy and too confident in that happiness. She needed to be taught, as he’d taught a couple others, that her way of guiding the living would only leave them unprepared for what lay ahead. The future was not puppies and marshmallows.

Cameron leaned back in his chair and looked over at him. “How do you know Joy? I didn’t think you spent your free time in the same places she does.”

He shook his head. “I don’t. But having been here longer than you, I run into other guides whether I want to or not. I also know of her success rate with the living, and if as you say, this is my last chance to prove I should keep my job, I want the best.”

His boss nodded. “She is the best, but her methods are far different from yours. Then again, maybe you’ll learn something that will help you. I’d listen to her if I were you.”

Or maybe she’d learn from him, which was his goal. He crossed his arms, refusing to respond to Cameron’s statement. The woman was unprepared for what he planned to—

Joy Collingwood phased through the ceiling and floated down to hover in front of Cameron’s desk before turning solid. Her sleeveless dress cinched in at the waist to show off her figure and flared out slightly at the knee. The turquoise running riot through the purple swirls on the material matched her eyes perfectly, and knowing her, that was planned.

His gaze followed her long legs down to her feet where she wore strappy sandals and a practical heel. As his eyes moved to her face, he found her straight auburn hair swept up in a neat bun, as usual. She wore small pearl earrings in her pierced ears and a pearl necklace that matched the neckline of her modest dress. Despite that, his body still noticed every feminine curve from her ample breasts to her rounded hips.

The scent of peppermint wafted toward him, and he barely refrained from grimacing, the scent itself too happy for his tastes. As her lips lifted in a polite smile toward their boss, he found himself focused on her white teeth. She looked like an ad in one of those woman’s magazines that were so popular in America in the twentieth century. As far as he was concerned, her entire appearance was unreal. Too perfect. Too put together. Too content.

He would change that.

“You wished to see me?” Even her voice was soothing, which caused irritation to flash through him.

Cameron rose from behind the desk and held out his hand. “Please take a seat.”

She sat, crossing one long limb over the other before her gaze rested on him. “Oh, hello Malcolm.”

He nodded once, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he watched her like a hawk watched a hare.

She smiled politely, but it didn’t quite reach her bright blue-green eyes. She returned her gaze to Cameron as if she wished to dismiss him. She was in for a surprise.

Cameron leaned against his desk. “I know I told you to take some time to relax after your last case, but I’m afraid the powers-that-be have other plans.”

At his boss’s phrasing, Malcolm perked up. He’s the one who chose Joy to partner with, not the higher ups. Did that mean he was being tested by those above Cameron? If he was, did they know he’d choose Joy or would they be as surprised as Cameron to discover his choice? He didn’t like being manipulated. It only happened once that he knew of when he was alive and it had cost him his life.

Again, a pang of conscience hit him for dragging Joy into his mission, but it left as soon as it arrived. If Cameron’s boss expected him to fail, he or she or it was in for a rude awakening.

Joy nodded. “Of course, I understand. I hadn’t decided what I wanted to do anyway.” She cocked her head slightly to the right when she made her statement.

Something inside him suggested she hadn’t been completely truthful. Not that she lied, but maybe didn’t admit to everything. He’d have to watch that behavior on their assignment. He’d learned a lot on the streets that had kept him alive for as long as he was there.

Cameron looked over at him. “Would you mind coming over here so I can talk to you both at the same time?”

He pushed away from the wall and strode toward Joy, taking a stance behind her chair and to the right. This close, he could smell the sweet peppermint scent emanating from her. It reminded him of when he was a little boy. He’d loved candy canes back then, often eating them all off the tree before Christmas day.

The last thing he needed was to be reminded of his early years before he knew what awaited him in the world. “What is this assignment you have for us?”

“Us?” Joy turned around to look at him.

Was that merely surprise or fear he saw in her eyes? He couldn’t be sure because she turned back to face Cameron.

Their supervisor nodded. “Yes, this is a difficult assignment, and I need two very good spirit guides on it.”

Joy sat a little straighter at the compliment. “I’m happy to help.”

He wanted to tell her Cameron was playing on her ego, but he kept silent, more interested in their task than in edifying his partner on the ways their boss manipulated spirit guides.

Cameron sighed deeply before glancing from him to Joy, but he kept his focus on her as he spoke. “Your assignment is my wife, Holly.”

He chuckled, loving the irony of the importance of his last assignment to his boss, but he didn’t miss Joy’s complexion fading to a pasty white.

Cameron didn’t notice as he turned his focus on him and scowled. “This is no laughing matter.”

“You can’t tell me you don’t see the irony of this. If I’m not successful, not only am I a failure, but you are too. It forces you to want me to succeed. You actually have to hope you get to keep me around.”

Cameron shook his head. “I hold nothing against you, Malcolm. If it was my choice, you’d continue for as long as I’m here. I’m not thrilled with your methods, but you do accomplish your goals.”

His boss’s unexpected endorsement both surprised him and made him more nervous. He knew how Cameron worked, but those who pulled the man’s strings were a complete unknown. This was one time he wished he could see the future of those in the afterlife.

“What happened to Coco?” Joy’s voice surprised them both.

Cameron stood and walked around his desk. “She has moved on.”

That was as ambiguous an answer as any he’d heard in all his time as a spirit guide, and from the look on Joy’s face, she recognized it for the brush off it was.

His boss continued. “Holly will be expecting you on Christmas Eve.” He pushed a file across his desk. “Everything you need to know is in here, but…” The man stared at the packet of paper beneath his hand as if he wished he didn’t have to let it go. “This is confidential. No discussing it with other guides or trainers or anyone except me.”

Ah, the man’s personal relationship to his wife was revealed inside. Malcolm couldn’t wait to read it.

Joy leaned forward and with her long, polish-free nails pulled the file from Cameron’s hand and set it on her lap. “What is our goal for Holly?” Her voice, which had been smooth as silk before, had a scratchy undertone now. She obviously knew more than he did about this assignment and from her serious face, it wasn’t good.

Cameron smiled. “I need my wife to be open to expanding her horizons, deepening her connections to others.”

“That’s a bit broad. Anything or person in particular?” He didn’t want to lose his position over semantics. He wanted specifics.

His boss leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “No, nothing in particular. It’s more a mindset than anything else. She has accepted my death and begun to live, but only at the surface level. She stays within her comfort area, what she already knows, like our Christmas Shop and the Deervale community. I need her to be open to going beyond what she knows and feels now.”

“So, you want her to start living her own life separate from you.” Joy’s face had relaxed, and she appeared a bit more confident.

Every person he’d ever known had no problem moving beyond a break up or divorce. He didn’t see much difference with the death of a spouse. “What am I missing here? Why wouldn’t she be doing that anyway? Why would you need two spirit guides for that?”

Both Cameron and Joy looked at him with wide eyes, before Cameron’s mouth lowered into a frown. “Because my wife and I loved each other.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but Joy interrupted him. “Malcolm, where have you been? Cameron and Holly were soulmates.”

Schitz. Just his luck. He was far too familiar with the trouble with that.

~~*~~

Joy finished reading the file on Holly and carefully returned all the papers back in order. Rising from her kitchen table, she strolled into her living room where Malcolm waited.

Just having him in her space had super-charged her libido. She’d never been attracted to the bad boy type before. Maybe he wasn’t a bad boy after all, not that she’d had any better luck with good boy types either. “Here you are.” She held out the file.

He’d thrown back his hood, which in itself was new to her as he always wore it when she’d seen him before. His black glossy hair just begged her to run her hands through it. Instead, she was careful his hand didn’t touch hers as he accepted the documents.

“Is it as bad as I think?” He looked up at her, his brown eyes searching hers for the truth.

“It depends on what you think is bad. Cameron and Holly have one of those love stories that lasts beyond death, which is wonderful and beautiful and —”

“And the worst-case scenario given our task.” He slapped the file against his bare knee, his red, black and royal blue kilt having fallen open.

She forced her gaze from his dusky skin, her body already reacting to him. “Not necessarily. I’m sure if we put our heads together, we can come up with a workable strategy.”

He lowered his dark brows and looked at her as if she were crazy. “Right. And while we’re at it, let’s develop a plan for world peace.”

He didn’t have to be an ass about it. “I’m sure one is being worked on even as we speak.”

He grunted as he opened the file, his message clear. He thought her naïve. She should have known he’d be a jerk.

Turning, she headed back to her kitchen.

“Where are you going?”

His voice caused her to halt. “I thought I’d get us some iced tea while you read.”

“Iced tea.” He shook his head. “Add some Lapsir to that.”

“Lapsir?” She’d never heard of that drink.

“It was invented after you transitioned. Just ask for it, and be liberal with it.”

She continued to her kitchen. The rumors about Malcolm were true. He came from the future, or rather the future compared to most of the spirits. Time had no meaning in the afterlife, which is why she didn’t mind getting another case. If she wanted to, she could go to a Tahiti replica and enjoy the warm waters for days and be back within seconds, but she wouldn’t be able to relax knowing she would be working with Malcolm.

That and their assignment. She shivered.

Quickly, she pulled the iced tea out of her fridge and poured it into two glasses. “A bottle of Lapsir.” The red liquid in the glass bottle that appeared seemed to move like fire, streaks of yellow and orange clearly inside it.

Instead of pouring it into Malcolm’s glass, she put it on a tray and brought it back to the living room. She could have ordered it while there, but she wanted to give him a chance to read about Holly and Cameron while alone. It had brought tears to her eyes, though she doubted it would affect him in the same way.

He was waiting for her as she put the tray down on her glass coffee table. He sat on her gray and black blotch couch, his brown cape, dark complexion and black hair a handsome compliment to her furniture.

She took a seat on her zebra striped recliner as she lifted her glass from the tray. “I thought I’d let you pour your own Lapsir.”

Opening the bottle, he didn’t respond. He poured a significant amount into the tea, causing it to take on the colors of the liquor. After capping the bottle, he raised his glass. “To success.”

She raised her glass as well before they both drank. “I think getting Holly to be open to living her own life will be difficult, but not impossible.”

Malcolm looked at her and laughed. “You really are an optimist. This assignment, if we’re successful, is going to wring us out and drop us in a heap on a stone-cold floor. However, if as I suspect, we fail, which I believe is the expectation, then we succeed in meeting their goals.”

She felt her body grow cold as her throat tried to close. “We can’t fail.” Her words came out scratchy.

“Why? You had the same reaction when you found out Holly was our assignment. What do you know?”

It was more what she didn’t know. “You read the whole file?”

He nodded.

He must have used the viewer, a reenactment of someone’s life that never completely portrayed the nuances, in her opinion. “Every spirit guide pair that has visited Holly has disappeared.”

He gave her a look of amused disbelief. “You don’t know that.”

“I do.” She paused to take a deep breath to settle her nerves, her fear getting the better of her. “My friend Coco was assigned to be Holly’s Spirit of Christmas Present along with Ian Fergusson. Neither has returned.”

He appeared to give that some thought. “They could have been given another assignment.”

This time she gave him a look of disbelief. “Both of them? You know as well as I do that Cameron only assigns paired spirit guides as an exception rather than as a rule. I tell you, they’re gone.” She pointed to the file he’d laid on the couch next to him. “Didn’t you notice there was no mention of a debrief? We always debrief with Cameron.”

“Say you’re correct, and we are expected to fail and disappear. That leaves us only one option.”

His confidence gave her hope. “What’s that?”

“We must succeed.”

Her hope fizzled and died. Of course she wanted to succeed, but it would be close to impossible unless Malcolm had some serious practical ideas.