Hungry Spirits

Ghosts & Demons …

In a world of technology and high-rises, the past seethes below the surface, waiting in the dark quiet places.

Kentoku is heir to a corporate empire, and the only one in his family aware that a very active spirit walks the hallways of his ancestral home. Keiko is a feisty young university student with an unusual spiritual talent — the ability to feel ghosts as though they were flesh. Ryudo is an ancient samurai guardian spirit to an old and respected family, grown powerful in the modern era.

An invitation to tea becomes a seduction that binds all three together in a web of desire, appetites, and secrets.

Alas, they are not alone in the dark. There are those among the living, and the dead, who would bind them to their service.

Willing, or not.

Madame Butterfly Reviews
Grade: A- Sex rating: Commando

I didn’t want this book to end. It was long, longer than most ebooks or even novels, and yet, I was so caught up in this paranormal world that Morgan Hawke created in Hungry Spirits that I immediately looked for more books with this world, wanting more.

I loved just about everything going on in this book. The characters, who are so interesting and fun, the plot, the paranormal world and the general dark fantasy feel to it.

The plot is quite intricate and intelligently thought out, with many twists and turns. And there’s plenty of action, which kept me very turned on. Morgan Hawke introduces her paranormal world of ghosts, demons, dragons, Avatars and sorcerers in an easy to understand way. It’s developed very slowly along the way at just the right pace so there is no info dumping, but just enough info given to keep the interest up.

Reading Hungry Spirits was like going on a fun, exotic and unique adventure into a very creative and exciting world that was easy to get lost in. It’s just too bad there aren’t any more stories from this world. — Leah

Just Erotic Romance Reviews
GOLD STAR AWARD! Heat Level: Orgasmic!

“If you want an exciting, fast paced and uniquely carnal love story, HUNGRY SPIRITS is the book for you.” — Francesca Hayne

eCataRomance
5 Stars! Heat Level: Sizzling!

“…One hell of a read. Ms. Hawke was able to hold my imagination captive, so much so, that I thoroughly enjoyed this book until the seductive end.” — Sheryl

Chrysanthemums & Lightning
Two

Keiko turned a corner and padded down a long, and very empty, hall with absolutely nothing in it, just polished cedar walls to either side, and deep shadows. Silence reigned, but for the soft falls of her feet on the smooth wood floors.

She groaned and rubbed at the back of her neck. She was tired, thirsty and more than a little annoyed. She knew her entire senior class was somewhere in the house, but she had yet to run across them, or anyone that lived there. She strongly suspected that Ryudo had something to do with that.

A seam of light spilled across the floor.

Keiko stared at it. Another door. She rushed forward, found the crack in seams of the wall, and peeked through it. The crack revealed that she was at the end of a very long, and well-lit, cedar-walled chamber filled with medieval weapons in glass cases.

There was another door, standing wide open, at the far end.

Keiko licked her lips. Finally, a real exit, and no ghost in sight. That didn’t mean he wasn’t there, but she didn’t sense anything, or smell any flowers. She shoved the wall panel to the side, and cautiously stepped through.

With hurried steps, she passed by the gleaming cases with a real sense of disappointment. She loved weapons, which was why she took the history course that had brought her here, and this looked like one of the best collections she’d seen yet. Unfortunately she just couldn’t afford to indulge herself, not with a ghost chasing her.

A case filled with ornate tantos from various eras caught her attention. She could not resist a quick look.

Though the hand grips of the daggers were wound with brilliant silk thread, in various elegant patterns, the squared blades were all of the same efficient design. Sleek, graceful and deadly… Antique tsubas, elaborate circular cross guards of brass, silver, and jade, were placed flat on a bed of gold silk, displaying their intricate filigrees of trees and beasts.

She bit down on her lip and continued on. Stupid ghost…

She passed an open doorway on her right, and looked in. Within a small alcove room, against the right wall, was a seated suit of samurai armor, lacquered in scarlet and black, and threaded with gold silk roping. The stag-antlered, flared helmet had a snarling gold mask. Two swords, a long katana, and a shorter wakizashi, were posted on a traditional lacquered wooden daisho frame at the armor’s booted feet. Unlike the rest of the exhibits, this one was not under glass. The whole display gleamed in a patch of sunlight cast by a row of small windows close to the ceiling.

Intrigued, Keiko bit her lip, and stepped through the door to get a better look at the antique armor. She’d never seen one that wasn’t within a glass case.

The room was very small and unusually warm. The scent of sun-warmed lacquered rattan, rich silk, and oiled leather, filled the small room. She leaned close, but didn’t try to touch. The intricacy of the armor was spectacularly beautiful, and very real. Her heart burned, and tears welled, with joy at seeing something truly rare from the distant past, and with the pain of what was lost. Bushido, the way of the warrior…

Keiko stepped back and bowed. The carefully preserved silk and rattan armor, represented the blood and spirits of those that had fought, and died, in defense of their people, and in service to their emperor. Samurai, to serve…

Her tears dampened the simple rice mat at her feet, and she was glad to leave something of herself behind.

“Tears. A worthy gift.” The voice was a whisper from summers past.

Keiko jerked upright, hastily wiping her cheeks, and looked about. No one was there, but the doorway on the right, the one she had entered, was gone. Huh? She walked over to where the door had been, but it was a solid unmoving wall. She stepped back and looked around. A seam had opened on the opposite wall, right next to a big clunky wooden door-handle. A line of bright light blazed across the floor from the seam. It looked like sunlight.

One door was gone, and another had appeared. She’d been tricked.

Keiko looked up at the ceiling, and stomped her foot. “You pain in my ass!”

There was a whisper of summer flowers in the air, but nothing beyond that.

Keiko groaned and faced the other door, and its large handle. She could stay in the tiny room, or she could take the rather blatant invitation being offered. She rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms. Great, some choice. Her gaze moved to the door. It couldn’t hurt to at least see where the door led.

She heaved a sigh, and walked over. Grasping the handle with both hands, she slid open the door, and found a small perfectly contained outdoor garden surrounded by smooth white walls. The sky was a faded blue and the sunlight seemed…golden. Insects buzzed in the humid warmth.

Under cleverly pruned trees, a pebble walk wound through the grass around a trio of tall decorative stones that were practically engulfed by late summer flowers. The walk ended at a stone, moss-covered small shrine that occupied the garden’s far corner. Beside it, a small bubbling fountain trickled into a tiny pond holding a single broad lily pad and a single perfect bloom.

In the very center of the garden was a very old, and well-groomed, cherry tree. Under the tree’s twisted, but neatly trimmed, leafy branches squatted a low circular table of polished golden wood with two thick, black silk, sitting pillows.

The garden was filled with late summer — but, she knew for a fact that it was late autumn. There should be no flowers, and the trees should have been bare of leaves. It had been raining, just minutes ago, and yet the grass was dry.

The hair on Keiko’s neck lifted and the back of her head shimmered with awareness. A warm breeze, carrying the scent of chrysanthemums, caressed her cheeks.

“Good afternoon.”

Keiko’s breath caught and her hands turned to ice. She whirled.

The eerily colorless, Ryudo stood directly behind her, less than a foot away, blocking the door. He smiled, and blue flames blazed in the midnight depths of his eyes. “Would you do me the honor of joining me in the garden?” He stepped toward her.

Keiko stepped back in a hurry, moving off the slate step, her stocking clad heels crunching onto the pebble walk of the impossible garden. She winced.

He stepped out, following her with booted feet that didn’t quite touch the ground. Behind him, the door slid closed with a snap. “Thank you.” He nodded, and his smile broadened.

Fear chilled her spine, and anger followed in its wake. Her hands fisted at her sides. “Why are you doing this?”

Ryudo lifted his brow. “I thought you might be ready for a rest, and a cup of tea.” He lifted his chin and stared past her shoulder.

Keiko blinked. Huh? She turned back to look at the low table under the cherry tree. A small square wooden tray occupied the table’s center, holding a rectangular terra-cotta teapot with a bamboo handle. The pot was richly glazed in several shades of aqua. Steam curled from the pot’s square spout and two small angular cups sat beside it.

Keiko’s anger dissipated under a wash of confusion. He brought her tea? She glanced back toward the handsome and bewildering ghost.

Ryudo stepped toward her.

She backed away to avoid him, stepping off the pebble path, and onto the neatly mown grass.

The ghost strode across the grass to the low table, and stepped around it to the far side. He tugged the skirts of his coat back and knelt on the cushion facing the door, clearly leaving the cushion facing the cherry tree, for her. He looked at her expectantly.

Keiko lunged for the door, grabbed the wooden handle and tugged. The door refused to slide sideways and open. She put her full weight into it. Open, damn you! Her stocking feet skidded on the slate step. The door didn’t budge. She turned to face the ghost, fear chilling her heart while anger heated her temper. “Let me out.”

Ryudo set his elbows on the table and folded his fingers together. “Don’t you want a cup of tea?”

“With you?” Keiko set her free hand on her hip. “No thank you.”

Ryudo scowled. “Why not?”

“Why not?” Keiko set both hands on her hips. “Maybe because you just spent the past hour, or so, chasing me through the house?”

He frowned. “I wasn’t chasing you, you were running from me.”

Keiko’s mouth fell open. “Of course I was running from you, you’re a ghost!”

“Yes. I am.” He looked away. “I am a spirit, in a house full of people that cannot see me, or hear me.” He clasped his hand together. “I just want a bit of conversation with someone that knows I exist.” He looked up at her. “Is that so very terrible?”

Keiko tightened her hand on the door handle. She knew, quite painfully, what it was like to always be on the outside looking in. But, her odd sensitivity to ghosts went further than seeing and speaking to them. She had the very physical scars to prove it. “I need to get back to my class. They’ll miss me.”

“Of course.” Ryudo held out his hand, indicating the pillow next to him. “After you have a cup of tea.”

“You’re not letting me go?” Keiko’s hands fisted at her sides. “This is kidnapping!”

Ryudo’s brows rose. “It’s an invitation to tea.”

Keiko scowled. “That I refused!”

“You refuse your host’s invitation?” Ryudo dropped his chin and lowered his brows. “How terribly impolite.”

Keiko’s mouth fell open. She was being rude? “You’re not the owner, you’re just a ghost!”

“Just a ghost?” Ryudo set his hands flat on the table, and his eyes narrowed. “This entire house is under my personal guardianship, and my domain, therefore you are my guest!”

Keiko backed against the door, and swallowed hard. She was not only trapped by the house’s guardian spirit, she’d just succeeded in pissing it off. But damn it, he was being rude too. One did not force one’s guests to…have tea.

She released a breath. Merciful Lady that sounded silly. Forced to have tea… “Do you regularly lock your guests in when they won’t have tea?”

Ryudo’s brows shot up, then he glanced away with a small shrug. “Only occasionally.”

Keiko snorted and crossed her arms. “No wonder you don’t have very many guests.”

His brows dropped low over his eyes and he glared at her. “What is so terrible about having tea with me?”

Keiko sighed. “It’s not the tea, it’s the fact that you just spent half the day scaring me to death, and now you expect me to keep you company?”

He sighed, and looked down at his hands. “It was not my intent to frighten you.”

“Is that so? Then why did you take my coat, and my tie?” She tugged at a lock of her hair. “And my hair-bow?”

He winced. “I was perhaps a bit over enthusiastic.”

“A bit?” Keiko set her hand on her hip. “You threatened to undress me!”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s not as if I can do anything to you, I am a ghost.”

Keiko shivered suddenly. But he could. Apparently, he didn’t know about her…oddness. She had no idea how he’d missed it, when so many others had not, but at that moment, she was truly grateful. “I would really like to leave. Now, please.”

“Of course.” He rose to his feet, standing with his head bowed, and his hands stiffly correct at his sides. “Please, forgive me.” His voice was barely a whisper. “One should not treat one’s guest in such a shameful manner.”

Keiko froze, confused. The ghost was presenting her a formal apology?

Ryudo’s hands tightened at his sides. “As you truly wish to leave…”

The door abruptly slid partway open under her hands.

He’s letting me go? Keiko pushed at the door, and it slid easily, all the way open.

“It’s just that, I haven’t had the pleasure of … a young lady’s company in a very long time.”

With one foot on the flagstone threshold, Keiko hesitated. If Ryudo’s uniform was any measure of his age, he had been a ghost for over a century. She couldn’t imagine existing that long, in a house full of people that didn’t even know he was there. And the one person he could speak to – wanted nothing to do with him.

Not even … tea.

She closed her eyes and shame brought heat to her cheeks. Yes, he was a ghost, but clearly, he was acting out of desperate loneliness. He hadn’t actually done anything truly awful, just embarrassing. Merciful Lady, he’d given her a formal apology. That was not the action of a night terror, a monster out to cut her to ribbons, but of a man who had done something he was ashamed of.

What could it hurt, to have tea?

Keiko turned around to face him. “I accept your apology, honored Ryudo.” She set her hands on her plain skirt and gave him a deep bow, her long hair falling beside her cheeks. “I am Keiko, and I would be honored to have tea with you.”

His head lifted his eyes wide. His lips parted. “You will?” He straightened and shook his head. “I mean, by all means, please do!” He held out his hand, indicating the other cushion and a truly breathtaking smile bloomed.

Keiko nearly reeled from the effect. Ryudo might be a ghost, but Merciful Lady, he was a gorgeous ghost. She swept her hands across her skirt smiled and strode to the table.

Ryudo tugged the tails of his coat out of the way and knelt, a host awaiting his guest.

Keiko smoothed her skirt down over her knees, and knelt on the offered pillow. A refreshingly breeze cool caressed her through the white cotton blouse. The blazer would have been uncomfortably warm.

Ryudo set his chin on his palm and gave her that wonderful smile. “Lovely.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh please…” She reached for the tea pot. It was surprisingly warm, and very full.

Ryudo tilted his head. “You don’t like compliments?”

“I don’t mind them.” Keiko gave him a tight smile. “It just doesn’t happen very often, not to me.” Carefully, she poured green tea into the two square cups.

His brows lifted. “I find that hard to believe.”

Keiko did not want to talk about her lack of…appeal. She set the pot on the square tray, and lifted her cup. “Out of curiosity, how did you…?” She lifted her free hand, indicating the garden. “Arrange this?”

“Ah, so you noticed.” Ryudo smiled sourly.

Keiko snorted. “Kind of hard to miss when it’s really raining outside.”

“Oh, yes, well…” He winced. “It’s an illusion.”

An illusion? She froze, with the cup halfway to her mouth. “Then, where am I, really?”

Ryudo smiled tightly. “We’re really within a rather empty room.” He raised his hand indicating the tree, and the sky, overhead. “Once upon a time, this garden really existed, right here, just as you see it.” He peered down at his hands, and lifted his shoulder in a half-shrug. “They expanded the house, and it was…lost.”

Keiko knocked on the table. “Wow, this is an amazingly solid illusion.”

Ryudo chuckled. “The table is not an illusion; nor is the cushions, or the teapot.”

Keiko peered hard at the cherry tree on the other side of the table, but it looked perfectly solid. “Incredible.” She sipped at the tea. It was wonderful. “So, how are you doing it; the illusion?”

Ryudo looked away. “I would rather not say.”

Keiko eyed her phantom host. It would have been horrifically rude to insist on an explanation. “All right.” She looked at the tea she had set before him. He hadn’t touched it. Probably, because as a ghost, he couldn’t touch it. She glanced away. “So how did you come to be in this house?” She flinched. Obviously he had died to become the house guardian. Perhaps that wasn’t a polite thing to ask. “You don’t have to answer, if you’d rather speak of something else…?”

Ryudo smiled sourly. “It was…asked of me, and I agreed.” He looked down at his hands. “It is not a bad existence, I can do a number of things I could not as a living man.”

Keiko nodded. “Like the illusions.”

He gave her a brief smile. “Yes, and the moving of objects, without actually touching them.” He stared at the tea pot and gestured with his fingers.

The pot obediently lifted and floated toward Keiko.

Her heart in her mouth, Keiko locked her hands in her lap. I will not freak out.

The tea pot tipped steaming tea into her cup, then returned to the tray.

Keiko released her breath very slowly and pasted a smile on her lips. “Well that must be entertaining.”

Ryudo set his elbow on the table and propped his chin on his hand. “Oh yes, all the screaming and running away from floating objects, can be quite entertaining.” He rolled his eyes and sighed. “But never leaving the house, and having no one to talk to, can get a little dull.”

Wanting to comfort him, Keiko set her palm over Ryudo’s hand. She froze. She could feel his long cool fingers under her palm, as solid as her own.

Ryudo stared at her hand over his. “I can feel…your hand.”

~ * ~

Chrysanthemums & Lightning
Four

He was undressing her? Alarmed, Keiko pushed at the ghost’s all too solid chest. “Ryudo? You said you wouldn’t!”

“Keiko.” Ryudo caught the back of her skirt, bunching it in his fist. “I can’t seduce you with your clothes on.” He tugged. The black skirt slid down from her hips and fell to the grass, revealing the white lace garter-belt holding her stockings, and the white lace panties over them. His brow lifted. “Lace and stockings? Very nice.” He ducked down and set his arm under her knees. “Modern panty-hose is annoying.” He rose, scooping her up into his arms.

Lifted into the air, Keiko gasped softly, and threw her arms around his neck. “Ryudo, wait!”

Ryudo turned slowly, with her in his arms. “Keiko, I have already waited a hundred and fifteen years.” The world around them began to darken and fade. “My waiting is done.”

Keiko looked around in alarm. The trees and flowers became shadows that changed shape and dimension. The sounds of summer drifted away, replaced by the sound of thunder rumbling somewhere, far away. She turned to look into Ryudo’s shadow-filled eyes. “You’re going to…you mean to, have sex, with me?”

“Is there another meaning for seduction?” Ryudo gave her tight smile. “Terror spills your power into your blood, but it does not release it from the body.” He strode forward, carrying her into a darkness filled with the sound of late autumn rain on a tile roof. “To taste your power, they have to break the skin, and drink it from your blood.”

Lightning flashed, briefly illuminating a bamboo framed, rice paper screen standing before a broad window.

His voice whispered intimately against her ear. “When I bring you to erotic climax, orgasm, I can take all I need in a single kiss.”

Thunder rumbled again, louder and closer. Another lightning flash revealed a thick futon bedroll upon the floor, angled outward from a shadowed corner by the window. Two low pillows rested side by side. The bed’s coverlet was scarlet silk.

A warm golden glow bloomed against the back wall, opposite the window. The glow coalesced into an antique Victorian oil lamp, with a scrolled oil font resting upon the head of kneeling girl of brass. Flame brightened in a slender glass chimney, revealing that the lamp rested in the very center of a low table of golden oak, pushed up against a cedar wall. On the table, less than a hand-span from the oil lamp, a rectangular aqua tea pot rested on a square lacquered tray, accompanied by two square cups. Two black pillows rested on the polished wood floor.

A delicate, bamboo-framed, white silk screen, the room’s only decoration, was positioned against the wall opposite the window, behind the table. The screen was finely embroidered with a magnificent spreading cherry tree.

There was no door.

Ryudo released her legs, setting Keiko down on the smooth wood floor. He cupped her shoulders and smiled down at her. No longer was he a gray image, but a man fully realized, wearing a neatly pressed, black wool uniform, decorated in scarlet and gold braid, with glossy black boots.

Keiko looked up at Ryudo’s face. “This … seduction, is the only way?”

His features seemed carved from ivory, though his full lips were a rich dark red. His hand closed on her shoulders, and his fingers, no longer cool, but warm, caught in her bra straps. “Yes.” He drew the white elastic straps down her arms. “I prefer drinking from the fount of desire.” He tugged the bra from her arms and let it fall to the floor. His eyes narrowed, and his smile turned feral. “Pleasure serves no finer banquet.”

She shivered under his gaze, but left her hands at her sides.

His gaze lifted, and his dark eyes caught hers. “Exquisite.”

Keiko licked her lips. There was no escape. She was not leaving, until the ghost had taken what he would, of her. Her belly clenched in sudden and ravenous anticipation.

He smiled and dropped to one knee. He shook back his silky black hair, and thumbed it behind his ears. Trapping her gaze with his shadow-filled eyes, he eased forward, opened his mouth, and captured the pink tip of her nipple, sucking it hard into his mouth.

Carnal fire speared straight down into her core, and focused on the tiny point of her clit. Her belly clenched in dark hunger. She gasped and her knees weakened. She grabbed onto his shoulders, nearly falling atop him.

His hands cupped the fullness of her buttocks, and his fingers closed on her lace panties. He suckled on her nipple, making loud wet sounds of masculine enjoyment.

Bolts of rapture stirred by his lips and tongue stabbed straight down to her clit, and her belly tightened with a voracious greed that ruthlessly demanded more. Soft needy sounds slipped from her throat.

He clamped his teeth down, in a tender bite, then flicked his tongue, hard, against the sensitive flesh.

The inflamed point of her clit throbbed with exquisite agony. She choked, and her body went rigid with violent anticipation. Her breath stilled.

He jerked on the lace with both hands, and tugged her panties down.

She took a single breath.

He closed one hand on her bare ass cheek, and slid the other hand up, between her legs. His palm cupped her feminine core. He pulled back from her breast, and captured her gaze. “Open, for me.”

She gripped the shoulders of his coat and gasped for breath. Her heart’s shock warred with her body’s fierce tormenting hunger. Hunger won, and her legs parted, all by themselves.

He smiled. “Ah… Good.” Two of his strong fingers delved into the soft hair, and past, between the plump lips, then deeper still, among the sensitive, and wet folds of her secret flesh. “You’re very close.” His fingers curled, and found her swollen clit.

She gasped and came up on her toes, bucking against his palm. She dropped to her heels, trembling.

He licked his lips. “Almost there.” He brought his hand up from her butt to grab her hair at the base of her neck. His dampened fingers flicked against her clit.

A bolt of erotic lightning struck, and her body eagerly tightened. She lunged up on her toes in anticipation of a glorious fall… Her mouth opened in shocked delight, and a small cry escaped her throat.

“There.” He pulled his hands from her.

She slid back from the brink and cried out, collapsing over his shoulder, panting and shuddering in acute disappointment.

His smile broadened. “You’re ready to be taken.” He lifted her from the floor, cradling her in his arms, and carried her from the lamp’s light into the shadows.

Keiko’s heart slammed in her chest, but she couldn’t tell if it was from fear, or wicked anticipation of his taking.

Ryudo knelt on the broad futon and sat her on her knees in the center. His lips brushed hers. He sat back on his heels and pulled a red length of silk from within his sleeve. He stretched it between his hands then leaned close.

Keiko started. “What…?” She reached up to touch the red silk.

“For your eyes.” Ryudo brushed her hands away. “You are not yet ready to see.”

“Why not?” She froze and fear washed cold down her spine. Was he monstrous after all?

“Do not be afraid.” He pressed the cloth across her eyes. “I will bring you only pleasure. This, I swear.” He pulled her forward, against his chest and knotted the cloth behind her head.

She shivered in his embrace. He wasn’t a man, he was a ghost, and he had her trapped in a room with no exit. She was completely at his mercy.

He caught her shoulders and pressed her back until she lay against the mattress. “Be at ease.” He straddled her with his knees, and his hands closed around her wrists, pulling them above her head. “Only pleasure.” His lips brushed hers in a gentle kiss, but he did not release her wrists.

A hot sultry breeze swept across her skin, carrying the scent of chrysanthemums. The sound of rain on the tiles was loud, and thunder rumbled far away.

He rose above her, with the sensation of hot shadowy flesh, as though his clothes had evaporated. His voice whispered from the darkness. “I will give you pleasure unlike anything a mortal man can give you.” His mouth closed on her breast, and his tongue made wet circles around her tender nipple.

Carnal hunger quickened and clenched in her belly, a banked fire leaping to furious life. She arched and moaned.

Hot, moist breath whispered across her other nipple, and then a tongue, and yet his mouth still lapped at her other breast.

She gasped in confusion, even as arousal stormed through her, instigated by her deliciously tormented nipples.

Hands cupped her breasts, and yet his hands were still on her wrists. Fingers came from nowhere to caress her hips, even as other hands slid under, and down, to cup her butt, and squeeze.

She arched her back under a sea of gently stroking palms and exploring fingers. A moan escaped her throat.

A mouth opened on her belly and a tongue investigated her navel. Teeth gently scored her hips, her belly and her inner thighs, nibbling then gently lapping the sting away.

Hands lifted her knees and parted her thighs. Hot breath washed against her intimate flesh, and then a tongue stroked her with wicked purpose. The tongue swirled across her folds then flicked across her clit, delivering delicious bolts of brutally salacious delight. Yet still, tongues circled and flicked at both her nipples.

Her legs were lifted higher, and another hot, wet tongue circled the tight rose of her anus with forbidden intent.

She cried out, overwhelmed by the sensual assault of tongues, lips, and gentle bites, writhing in voluptuous and voracious passion.

The tongue at her core slid into her, and lapped, then lengthened into a finger that stroked and flicked against something truly delightful.

She moaned and bucked against the hands that held her, striving for more of that riveting sensation.

The finger within her, thickened, becoming rigid and deliciously knobby. It thrust inward, deeply, striking that delicious spot.

She arched back with an impassioned cry.

“Yes, oh, yes,” he whispered. “Give me your pleasure. Give me your rapture. Give me…everything.”

The rigid length pulled back, and thrust, then again, and again…

She bucked against him, her body welcoming the delicious invasion. Sweat ran from her skin, and the musky scent of exertion, and lust, became a thick perfume permeated by the scent of chrysanthemums.

The mouths on her nipples clamped down in brutally tender bites that seared her with ferocious delight. Tongues lapped at her skin. Fingers and hands caressed her ass, her thighs, and squeezed her breasts for the mouths that plundered them.

Climax rushed upward and crested. She trembled hard, teetering, balancing on the razor’s edge of the abyss, wanting the fall into pleasure, but afraid of what would happen once she did.

“Yes!” His summer hot breath caressed her lips. “Give it to me!”

Something small and damp, a tongue, lapped at her clit, delivering an unexpected spark.
Her breath stopped. Climax exploded, slamming her down into a pounding spiral of agonizing rapture that ripped screams from her throat.

His mouth covered her lips, stealing her cries, stealing her breath, filling her mouth, and possessing her.

He released her mouth from his devouring kiss. “Your essence is as potent as plum wine, and just as sweet.” His many hands and lips traveled across her skin delivering light caresses and soft kisses. “Oh yes, a worthy keeper, and protector, of my heart.”

Keiko trembled in his hold and gasped for breath. “I don’t understand.”

“You will.” His lips brushed hers. “I want to love you again.” Teeth bit down on her breasts in gentle inciting bites, and nails scored her flesh leaving trails of shivering delight. The shaft within her pulsed gently, in time with her heart. A tongue swept across her lips. “I have so much to give you.”

She moaned. “How much more?”

“No more than your heart can bear.” A mouth sucked hard on her nipple.

The bolts of pleasure wracked her with tiny shudders. “I can’t take… I can’t take much more.”

“You can. You will. You were made for my love. You were made for me.”

Restrained by invisible hands, twisting among limbs she couldn’t see, mounted and taken while wreathed in wet tongues and wetter mouths. The pulsing shaft fucked her cunt, relentless, and tireless, like the mouths that tasted her flesh. She writhed in a mindless abyss of physical sensation that shredded all thought, but her body’s joyous rapture.

And through it all, Ryudo’s voice echoed in her mind with the searing heat of late summer, and the scent of chrysanthemums. “Give me your passion. Feed me your ecstasy. Love me, Keiko. Love me…forever.”

~ * ~

Chrysanthemums & Lightning
Five

She awoke to the sound of rain and opened her eyes to an opaque rice paper screen obscuring a broad window in a cedar-walled room. It was over, Ryudo was gone. She shifted and found that a heavy silk kimono of deep scarlet covered her naked body. She groaned and sat up on the thick futon, clutching the heavy kimono to her breasts. She was still wearing her stockings and garter belt.

“Are you all right?”

She yelped and turned.

Seated on a pillow at the table, by the cherry tree wall hanging, was a very human young man, not much older than she. Dressed in dark pleated pants and a white dress shirt, his tie was loose and his cropped black hair just a little mussed, as though he’d scrubbed his hands through it. In the light of the oil lamp, his face was sculptured perfection with a mouth made for sin.

“I’m…” She clutched the kimono tighter and looked for her clothes. “I’m okay.”

He smiled. “Good. I didn’t think he’d hurt you, but he doesn’t always understand our limits.”

“Hurt me?” Keiko turned to look at the beautiful youth. “Who?”

The young man folded his arms, looked firmly at the wall and scowled. “Ryudo.”

Her mouth fell open. “You know about him?”

The young man rolled his eyes and smiled sourly. “I should. He’s my house guardian. I’m Kentoku.”

His house guardian? Then this was…his house? And she was an uninvited guest. “I’m terribly sorry…!” Clutching the robe to cover her nudity, Keiko lunged from the futon and tripped on the robe.

Kentoku launched off the pillow, hands out. “Are you all right?”

She backed away and bobbed a small bow. “I’m Keiko. I was part of the tour. Please excuse me, I didn’t mean to stay…”

“Relax!” He held up his hands. “I know, Ryudo told me.”

She stilled. “You can talk to him?”

Kentoku shrugged. “I’m the only one in the family that knows he’s there.”

Keiko shook her head. “My class, my instructors… They must have hunted all over the house for me!”

Kentoku hunched his shoulders and stared at the floor. “Uh, no they didn’t.”

She jerked back a step. “But I was gone so long, they must have missed me…?”

Kentoku turned away. “Ryudo contacted me before…before anyone knew you were gone. He didn’t want you missed.” He turned to look at the silk hanging, and the cherry tree. “I told your instructor, that you weren’t feeling well, and left in a taxi.” He released a breath. “It was the only thing I could think of, at the time.”

Keiko’s shoulders slumped. “Oh. Thank you.” She frowned. Ryudo had told him that he had her? Her chin lifted. “Then you knew? You knew I was here, all along?”

Kentoku scowled at the floor. “Yes, I knew.”

Keiko stepped back. “And you let him…do this?”

“I didn’t let him!” He turned to face her, his hands fisted at his sides. “Before I said one word to your teachers, I tried to get to you first. He locked all the doors on me.” He turned away and hunched his shoulders. “I couldn’t find you. I couldn’t stop him.”

Keiko looked away. He had tried to rescue her. “Oh…” She closed her eyes. “I’m…sorry.”

Kentoku sighed. “I’m sorry. He’s my house guardian, but he’s really powerful, and no one knows he’s there. No one knows these apartments even exist, but me.” He turned away and scowled. “No one wants to know.”

Keiko rolled her eyes and sighed. “No matter how often you tell them, they won’t believe, because they don’t want to believe.”

“Exactly.” He looked up and smiled.

Keiko smiled in return. It was so amazingly wonderful to meet someone else who knew that ghosts were real.

Abruptly, he averted his gaze. “Oh yes, and I’m to…” He swallowed. “Arrange for your accommodations.”

“Arrange for my, what?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Kentoku turned to the side, shoved his hands in his pockets and studied his stocking toes. “As Ryudo’s formal consort, you’re entitled to living quarters his apartments –“

She gasped. “As his, what…?” She put up one finger, and shook her head. “Oh no, I am no one’s mistress!”

Kentoku frowned at her. “But I thought you just, uh…” He swallowed and blushed furiously. “I meant, that he…and you…you both, just finished…” He threw out his hands helplessly and gestured vaguely toward the futon in the corner.

She scowled. “Had sex?”

He winced. “Yeah, that.”

“We did.” Her hands fisted in the scarlet silk she held. “But that doesn’t make me his mistress.”

Kentoku lifted a hand and scrubbed at the back of his cropped hair, wincing in obvious confusion. “But he said you…?”

Keiko stomped her foot and turned her back. “I don’t care what he said! I’m not!” She looked up at the dark ceiling and released her breath. She was being rude to someone who did not deserve it.

Kentoku gasped. “Your back…”

Keiko flinched. Her scars. She was holding her robe in front of her, and he could see her entire naked back side.

“What happened to you?”

Keiko slowly turned back around and kept her gaze down. “Ghosts. That’s what they do to me, when they catch me.”

“Ryudo didn’t…?”

“No. He didn’t, but others have.”

“My God. I’m…sorry.”

She peeked at his expression. He didn’t look disgusted, only concerned. She took a deep breath. Better not to think about it. “May I have my clothes please?”

He smiled suddenly, and brilliantly. “Sure. I’ll even give you a ride home.” He strode for the gleaming table.

Keiko tilted her head and her brows lifted. “You’re going to let me leave?”

Kentoku picked up a neatly folded bundle from the pillow under the table. “Are you kidding? I’ve been beating my skull trying to find a way to explain your presence to my father.” He walked over to her and presented her clothes. He rolled his eyes. “Father does not believe in ghosts.”

Keiko took her clothes and smiled wryly. “So a ghost’s mistress…?”

Kentoku snorted. “Oh yeah, that would go over real well.” He carefully turned his back to her. “Though Ryudo is going to go ballistic when he finds out I let you leave.”

Keiko padded over to the futon and set the kimono down. So what if he looked? He’d already seen the worse, her back. “What will he do?” She pulled out her bra, but didn’t see her panties.

“Who? Ryudo? He’ll lock knock things over, and torment me in the night…”

Keiko winced and shrugged into her blouse. “I’m…sorry.”

Kentoku sighed. “It’s okay. Ryudo is much easier to deal with than Father. All I have to do is spend a few nights at a friend’s house until his temper cools. He can’t follow me out the house, or disown me.” He jingled the change in his pockets. “Though I suspect that this tantrum is going to be a whopper.” He scraped his heel on the wood floor. “He says he can…feel you, like a real person. That’s why he can actually, um… be with you.”

Keiko rolled her eyes while tucking her blouse into her skirt. “You mean, have sex?”

Kentoku shrugged. “Yeah.”

Keiko knotted her tie around her collar. “So, we had sex. People do it all the time.” Okay, so with Ryudo it was really weird, sex. “Don’t you have a girlfriend?”

He scowled. “Of course, it’s just that we don’t…do that.”

“Why not?” She shrugged into her jacket and folded the scarlet robe neatly on the bed.

Kentoku winced. “I’m supposed to wait ’til we’re married.”

Keiko froze. He was a virgin? The giggle just slipped out.

Kentoku turned and glared at her. “It’s not funny!”

Keiko shoved her hands behind her, and bit down on her lip. “Oh, no, of course not.” She took a deep calming breath, but the smile crept onto her face.

Kentoku rolled his eyes. “Come on, I’ll take you home.” He walked to the left wall and slid open a door.

Keiko frowned. That door hadn’t been there until he opened it.

On stocking feet, she followed the young master of the house through a number of narrow halls.

He tugged open a door and signaled her to wait. He dashed out. In only a few minutes, he dashed back and held up a pair of plain black loafers, and a bright blue, hooded rain slicker. “These yours?”

Keiko nodded and took them gratefully.

He closed the door, and led her into another set of even smaller hallways. He turned and whispered. “Servant’s access halls.” His quick stride led her through sudden turns and sharp corners halls. They stopped at a door that led into a garage. Sitting on the garage steps, they slipped on their shoes. He hurried past several expensive cars parked in a neat row on the left, and stopped at a silver Subaru parked right by the wide door.

Ensconced in the passenger side, and pulling out onto the rain, Keiko suddenly realized that her house slippers were somewhere in Ryudo’s room. She scowled. He was welcome to them.

The ride through the city was rainy and quiet, but for the sound of windshield wipers.

Keiko looked down at her hands. “Kentoku, I’m sorry you had to…find me, like that.”
Kentoku slumped in his seat. “I just wish I could have gotten to you before…anything happened.”

“Does he do this regularly?”

“No.” Kentoku’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “There are a few stories about his…mistresses, but I just thought they were stories. Supposedly, the last woman he had was, oh…back during the last Imperial war. The story goes that she broke into the house, so he kept her.”

The last mistress was during the last Imperial war? Keiko frowned. “How old is he?”

Kentoku pursed his lips. “I’m not sure, Ryudo won’t say, but the house records say that he’s been there since the house was built during the early feudal era.”

That meant Ryudo was…hundreds of years old? Keiko’s mouth fell open. “If he’s that old, why is he wearing a late imperial uniform?”

Kentoku shrugged. “He does that. It’s in the records that he modernizes his appearance every century or so.”

Keiko frowned at the passing traffic. It sounded like Ryudo modernized his appearance with every new– She swallowed. –Mistress.

Kentoku frowned up at a traffic light. “Look, I’m sorry for Ryudo’s, behavior. He’s not normally like that.”

Keiko smiled sourly. “But according to your house records he is like that.”

Kentoku winced. “Seriously, I thought it was just a pack of stories. I’ve never seen him do that before, lock someone in the house and try to keep them.” He smiled. “Though I can see why he would want to keep you.”

Was that a compliment? Keiko firmly decided that she didn’t want to know.

He looked over at her. “This sounds really awful, but if you want to stay free, don’t come back.”

Keiko’s brows lifted. “You got me out that time…”

Kentoku shook his head. “Only because he didn’t know I was going to help you leave. He’s not like a normal ghost. I’ve seen him make illusions that you can’t walk through.” He glanced at her. “If he had been paying attention, I would not have been able to get you out because the door would not have been there.”

“And you live like this, all the time?”

“You get used to it after a while. He moves walls and doors around, and throws random objects, but he can’t actually touch me. ” He sucked on his bottom lip. “Not the way he can physically touch you.”

Keiko stared out her window.

“I’ve heard about people like you.” Kentoku looked at her briefly. “It’s said that the reason ghosts can touch you, is because you bridge this world and the next.”

That was news. Keiko turned to face him. “Is that it? Really?”

“I did some reading on this.” Kentoku nodded. “It’s like you’re halfway in both worlds, at the same time.” He frowned. “It also means that you don’t have the basic defense against the dead that most people have.” He held up his palm. “Life itself.”

Keiko frowned. “But I’m alive…”

Kentoku shook his head. “Physically you are, but spiritually, you aren’t. That’s why they can touch you.” He winced. “And hurt you. From what I understand, the only defense against the dead is something really and truly alive.” He looked at her. “If I were you, I’d take a martial arts class and find something you can use as a weapon against them.”

She shook her head. “I can see the martial arts class, but a living weapon?” She frowned. “Wait, a bo, a quarterstaff, is made of wood…”

“That’s right!” Kentoku sat up straight. “A rattan staff that’s still green ought to work.”

“And no one will think twice if I carry a bo around. I can just say I’m taking it to class!” Keiko smiled. “Thank you Kentoku, that’s brilliant!”

Kentoku blushed. “Please, my friends call me Toku.” He stopped the car in front of her apartment building. “Well, here you are.” He turned to look at her. “Look, I’m sorry about…Ryudo.”

Keiko opened her door. “It’s all right, really.” She turned and smiled at him. “Because of him, I met you and you gave me the secret to protecting myself. As far as I’m concerned, it was well worth it.”

Toku turned to catch her eye. “Keiko, I wish…” He swallowed hard. “I wish I’d met you first.”

Keiko froze. She lunged across the seat and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Good bye.” She slipped out of the car and closed the door.

Toku waved and pulled away.

Keiko watched his car disappear into traffic. Martial arts classes and a living weapon…

Could it be so simple? She turned and walked into her building. Her jaw clenched. She would not be victimized by a ghost again. Not even a loving one.

~ * ~

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