Twilight: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 3

the Kimberley Inn one of their biannual investigation trips for amateur ghost hunters. They could teach a group of interested— and paying—guests the basics of paranormal investigation, with almost guaranteed ghost sightings and no chance of anyone being harmed. At least not by ghosts.
    Toby squeaked when the Lady turned her blurry white face toward him, stopped and hovered in the air at the end of the bed. “What’s she doing?” he hissed, cutting a panicked glance at Sam. “Don’t let her hurt me!”
    “She won’t hurt you,” Sam murmured, keeping the camera rolling. “Just stay calm, Toby. She’s been known to interact with people before, you know that. She’s never hurt anyone, she’s just being friendly.”
    The Lady floated closer. She smiled, her lips stretching a bit too wide and revealing yellow, uneven teeth. The effect was rather ghastly. Sam shuddered, even though he didn’t believe for a second she would hurt either of them. The psychic energy he sensed from her was perfectly benign.
    She stretched out a translucent hand to Toby, who cringed away. “Sam…”
“Relax.” Sam zoomed in for a close-up on her face. “Come on, this is why you’re here, right?”
“I didn’t think any of the ghosts would touch me.”
“She won’t hurt you.” Panning out again, Sam shot Toby an irritated look. “Just hold still and don’t engage her. Maybe she’ll leave you alone and go to the bed like she usually does.”
Toby looked doubtful, but he froze in place, lips pressed together. The Lady, it seemed, wasn’t giving up so easily. Her hand shot out, and slim white fingers grasped at Toby’s arm. They passed right through, insubstantial as they were, but Toby shrieked as if he’d been skewered.
“Fuck!” He leapt from the chair, sending the EMF detector which had been on his lap crashing to the floor, and ran across the room. Flinging the door open, he dashed down the hallway as if a pack of rabid dogs was after him.
Sam sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Amateurs.” It was an unkind thing to say, but he didn’t care. Toby had been nervous and jumpy every step of the way so far. They’d only been here two days, but Toby’s attitude was already getting on his nerves.
Worst of all, Toby’s hysterics had apparently disturbed the Lady in Red. Instead of lying down on the bed and slowly disappearing as witnesses said she usually did, she abruptly vanished from the spot where she’d been hovering in front of Toby’s chair.
“Well, that’s just great.” Switching the camera off, Sam set it on the table, leaned back in the chair and shut his eyes. He’d taken Toby along to investigate the Lady in Red’s room because he thought she’d scare Toby less than any of the other spirits they’d potentially encounter. Boy, was I ever wrong about that.
He wondered if he had any ibuprofen left. The headache coming on promised to be a monster.
The door swung shut with a faint squeak. The lock snicked, and light footfalls sounded across the room. Sam smiled. “Hi, Bo.”
“How’d you know it was me?” A warm body straddled Sam’s lap, knees pressing on either side of his hips. “Could’ve been anyone.”
Opening his eyes, Sam smiled at the silhouette of Dr. Bo Broussard’s head. “I recognized your walk.”
“My walk?”
“Yeah.” Sam slipped his arms around Bo’s waist and aimed a kiss at where his mouth should be, landing half on and half off his bottom lip. “You walk like a cat. All quiet and slinky.”
Bo laughed. “What did you do to Toby? He ran out of here like a horde of demons was chasing him.”
“I didn’t do a damn thing. He scared himself, like always.”
“Does that mean the Lady in Red showed up?”
“She sure did.” Sliding his hands lower, Sam grabbed Bo’s ass and squeezed, drawing a surprised sound from his boss and lover. “She liked Toby, but he didn’t like her much.”
Bo wriggled his ass in Sam’s grip, settling more firmly astride him. “You know, if I’d had any idea that boy was going to be so easily spooked I would’ve given his spot to someone else.”
“I hear you. It’s kind of hard to screen people just from emails and online forms, though. He said in his application that seeing a real ghost was his lifelong dream.”
“Maybe we should revamp our screening process for these trips.” Bo began rocking his hips back and forth between Sam’s grasping hands and his belly. “I don’t want to end up with someone really unstable one of