Oleander House: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 1

to shed light on Josephine’s cryptic message. He yawned and rubbed his eyes as he opened a text on the nature of space-time and started skimming the pages.
    A hand glided down Sam’s chest, over his belly, between his legs. He moaned and pushed his hips against the maddeningly soft touch. The fingers trailed teasingly across his inner thigh, then back up to pinch a nipple so hard he yelped. Sam opened his eyes. Bo stood over him, straddling his knees, unbound hair hanging down to curtain his face. Sam’s breath hitched. Bo bent lower, Sam rose to meet him, and their mouths fused together, hard and hot and hungry. Sam moaned over and over with the pleasure of it.
    “I want you,” Bo whispered. “Please, Sam. Sam,
    Sam please, Sam please…”
“…wake up! Sam!”
Sam jerked awake, head snapping up from the
    table where he’d evidently fallen asleep again. He blinked blearily at the unexpected vision of Bo kneeling on the floor beside him, one hand on his shoulder and a mix of amusement and worry in his eyes.
    “Christ, must’ve fallen asleep,” Sam mumbled. “What time’s it?”
“Almost one p.m.,” Bo answered. “I wouldn’t have woken you, but you were…well…”
Sam got the point. He’d obviously been moaning— or worse, talking—in his sleep. His face flamed with embarrassment. “Sorry. This dream was, um, different.”
“I gathered.” Bo’s gaze flicked down to Sam’s crotch and back up again. He didn’t say anything else, but he didn’t have to. Sam felt his embarrassment begin to dissolve in a wash of desire.
Sam shifted uncomfortably in the chair. “Has everyone gone to Gautier yet?”
“Yeah.” Bo rose to his feet in one fluid motion. “They left at about eight. They should be back in another hour or so, actually. We thought we could do the storm cellar and the family cemetery today.”
“Sounds good.”
In the awkward quiet that followed, Sam toyed nervously with the pages of the book lying open on the table, trying not to notice that Bo’s crotch was less than a foot from his face.
Bo cleared his throat and backed up a pace. “So. You, uh, want something to eat? There’s a few waffles left over from breakfast, or there’s sliced turkey for sandwiches.”
Sam found it both irritating and exhilarating that Bo seemed so nervous to be alone in the house with him. “I’ll heat up those waffles in a little bit,” he said with a tight smile. “Thanks.”
“Sure.” Bo glanced around at the books and magazines spread out across the table. “What were you doing?”
“Reading.” Sam stood and stretched. Bo’s gaze raked down his body, making his skin tingle. “Andre was too, before he went up to bed. We figured with a collection this size, maybe there would be something that could shed some light on what’s been happening here.”
“And did you find anything?”
“Andre found a scientific text that said high electromagnetic fields can cause temporal lobe hallucinations. He thinks that might be what’s going on.”
Bo scratched absently at his chin. “Hm. It’s a documented side effect, that’s true. But I’m not inclined to think it’s the cause of the phenomena here.”
“Because of the pictures and the video.”
“Exactly. Plus hallucinations don’t usually occur with EMF readings at the levels we’ve found here. It’s only been documented at levels much higher.” Bo picked up a copy of The Boundary and started flipping the pages. “I didn’t know these were here. This thing went out of circulation in the early eighties.”
“These particular issues are from the late sixties and early seventies.” Sam grinned. “And you’ll never guess what I found in one of them.”
Bo’s eyebrows went up. “Well? What is it?”
Sam retrieved the sheet of notebook paper from the book where he’d placed it carefully between the pages. He held it out to Bo. “Here. Read this.”
Their fingers brushed when Bo took the paper. Bo licked his lips, the tip of his tongue resting for a moment at the corner of his mouth, and Sam nearly groaned out loud. He wondered if Bo had any idea how sexy that looked. He pulled his hand back and tore his gaze from Bo’s mouth before his privates could get too interested.
Bo’s eyes went wide as he scanned the short note. “Where did you find this?”
“Stuck in one of those magazines.” Sam waved a hand at the pile on the table. “I looked through all of them, and a bunch of books too. If she left anything else, I didn’t