Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

walking into the foyer. “Anyone here?”
“In the main hall,” a very familiar voice answered. “C’mon in.”
“Be right there.” Adrian shut the door and leaned his forehead against it until his hammering heart slowed down. Didn’t it just figure that the one person already here was the one person he didn’t want to be alone with?
You don’t know he’s the only one here. There might be a whole room full of people in there. Being very, very quiet.
“Bullshit,” Adrian muttered, pushing away from the door. He and Greg were here alone, no doubt about it. He’d just have to deal with it somehow.
Gathering his courage, Adrian turned and strode across the foyer toward the arched entry into the main hall before he could change his mind. His sneakers barely made a sound on the oak plank floor. It wasn’t a real advantage, when Greg knew he was there, but it felt like one anyway. Especially when his silent entrance into the huge room earned him the sight of Greg’s pale skin between the top of his lowslung jeans and the ragged hem of his black Cats T-shirt as he stretched on tiptoe in a vain attempt to reach a sagging cloth on the wall.
Adrian swallowed. God, it really had been too long since he’d gotten laid if the mere glimpse of a strip of smooth bare back could make his mouth go bone dry and his armpits prickle with sweat.
He cleared his throat. “Hi.”
Greg twisted enough to grin over his shoulder. “Adrian. Am I ever glad to see you. Can you help me out here?”
“Um. Sure.” Adrian edged closer, trying to act as if his heart wasn’t attempting to pummel its way through the center of his sternum. “What do you need me to do?”
“See if you can get this cloth back over the hook there.” Stepping back, Greg pointed toward one of the adhesive-backed plastic hooks attached to the stone wall. A loop of dark gray gauze had come loose and sagged just below the white peg. “I can’t reach the stupid thing.”
“Oh. Yeah, okay.”
Adrian walked forward, thinking surely Greg would move out of the way. He didn’t.
God.
Trying to ignore Greg’s nearness, Adrian planted one palm on the wall to brace himself, grasped the cloth in his other hand and reached upward to replace it on the hook. He only had a couple of inches over Greg, but it was enough. Barely. By standing on his toes and straightening his fingers, he managed to get the thin material looped over its hook.
“Okay, that’s got it.” Adrian dropped his arms. “Who hung this, anyway? I know for a fact we didn’t have a ladder down here yesterday.”
“Linda Torino. You know her, right? Redhead, killer body, ’bout nine and a half feet tall?”
Adrian laughed. “Yeah, she used to date my roommate in sophomore year. Nice girl. Though she got very tired of being asked to hang things up where other people couldn’t reach.”
“Speaking of which, thanks for helping me out here. I just couldn’t get it up.” Greg moved closer, a playful smile curving his lips. “The cloth on the hook, that is. For you? I could get other things up just fine.”
Half the blood in Adrian’s body rushed into his face. The other half siphoned southward to his crotch. His head whirled. He put a hand on the wall to keep himself upright, trying to act casual. Maybe Greg wouldn’t notice.
Of course he couldn’t be so lucky. Grin widening, Greg sidled so close Adrian could feel the heat of his body. “Hm. Something tells me you could, um…get up more than a piece of gauze for me too. Am I right?”
Oh God. Adrian shut his eyes. Only mortification and vertigo kept an erection at bay, and the faint, spicy scent of Greg’s skin threatened to erode those two fragile barriers any second now. “Uhhh…”
Greg let out a low chuckle that sent gooseflesh racing up Adrian’s arms. “Oh, man. You do. You want me.”
An arm slid around Adrian’s waist. He yelped, eyes flying open again. “What?”
“It’s okay.” Greg pressed close and nuzzled Adrian’s throat. “I want you too, in case that wasn’t totally obvious.”
“Greg, no.” Adrian’s voice sounded weak, breathless and unconvincing, even to himself. He laid both palms on Greg’s shoulders, though his hands shook too hard to push Greg away. “Stop.”
“Do you really want me to?” Warm, soft lips followed the line of Adrian’s jaw, making him shiver. “Please don’t make me stop. We could leave, right now. We could go to my dorm.” The tip of Greg’s tongue traced the shell of