Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist (Maple Hollow #1)

I stared up at the moon. It grew brighter with every breath as my eyes adjusted to the darkness around us. It suddenly became abundantly clear why Harlow brought me out here: to be alone.

I reached over and grabbed her hand, her fingers instantly intertwining with mine.

She hummed, squeezing my hand. “I like this . . . I like you.”

Goddess, I felt like I was in middle school again. “I like you too. A lot.”

There was something so gentle and sweet about her, something slower than the instant fire I’d had with Lou. I liked just holding Harlow’s hand and staring up at the same night sky that I’d watched my entire life. She brought something new to the mundane. I could’ve sat there all night if that was what she wanted, but my stomach flipped anew with butterflies as she leaned closer and kissed me.

Her mouth fused with mine, and her tongue brushed the seam of my lips, making me open for her. Her tongue plundered my mouth as mine eagerly licked back, the fingers of my free hand curling in her shirt and tugging her closer. Her hand dropped to my hip, and she practically hoisted me toward her.

I was so fucking grateful that she’d made the first move. Or had I by kissing her when she’d arrived? No, that’d been a chaste kiss. This was an all-consuming, “I’m-ready-to-fuck” kind of kiss and it was turning my blood molten with desire.

She tugged me toward her until I was hinging forward. I climbed into her lap, straddling her with one knee between her legs. I didn’t give a single fuck about the straw that bit into my knee as I kissed her and ground against her leg. I was already so wet for her. This was ridiculous. Was she seriously non-magical? Because this was a spell if ever there was one.

She rocked her hips in rhythm with mine, rolling against my knee. Sweet pumpkin pie, I loved the friction against the ripped denim of her thigh. Harlow’s hand snaked up my short velvet dress, skimming up to my bra.

She broke our kiss for the briefest moment to murmur, “Is this okay?” against my mouth as she cupped my breast.

I hummed against her lips. “Yes. Touch me.” I rocked faster as her hand dipped into the cup of my bra and her fingers circled my nipple, pulling a moan from my lips.

My fingers squeezed the back of her neck in response as she twirled my peaked nipple with her fingers.

Fuck.

I was so close, and I could feel how feverish she was for more. Taking it slow wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d hoped. I needed to feel her hands and mouth and skin. I pulled at her shirt, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted far fewer layers between us. I broke our kiss to scan the pumpkin patch to see if there was any place that wasn’t covered in spiny pumpkin vines or spiky hay, but as my gaze lifted back toward the bright lights of the main area of the patch, I found a lone figure standing in the middle of the field.

The heat of my blood cooled instantly and a pain hit my chest.

Lou watched us with her arms folded tightly across her chest, tears in her eyes. A mixture of anger and something else was etched on her face. Confusion, maybe? Sorrow? Betrayal? She’d been pushing me into this, yet she looked like I’d just broken her heart all over again. Could you hurt a ghost?

I leaped up, straightening my shirt.

“What?” Harlow asked, searching the fields around us, but of course, she didn’t see anything.

“Nothing, I . . .” I balled my hands into fists. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.”

I raced off, leaving yet another woman with confusion and sorrow in her eyes.

24

JORDYN

“You broke our agreement!” I screamed at Lou from the safety of my apartment. “What the hell was that? You made me act like a dick to Harlow! Just staring at me like that, what the fuck? I thought you wanted me to move on!”

Lou huffed out a breath and scrubbed a hand down her face in a gesture I knew meant she was trying not to lose her temper. “I don’t know what I’m doing here anymore.”

“What?” I barked. “What does that even mean?”

Harlow’s disappointed face flashed through my mind again, and it made my anger surge higher. How was I going to explain this away? Would she let me try to make it up to her?

Lou gestured around the room. “I don’t think I can handle watching you fall in love with someone else.”

“You’ve thrown the two of us together and now you’re out?” Didn’t Lou say that was why she was stuck?

She just leaned against my dresser and crossed her arms.

“Then why can’t you leave, Lou?” My mind was racing and grasping for any sort of sense but came up empty. “If you’re angry that I’m moving on, then that should mean you can go back to the afterlife, right?”