Page 27 of Call Off the Dark

“Look, I found a harlot!” he exclaimed. “She’s right here, in the flesh.” He squeezed her sides, and she giggled as he said, “I win.”

“I meant find a harlot in the photos.” She leaned back against him. “Plus you know I gave up prostitution once we started dating.”

“Oh, I misunderstood the rules.”

“There they are!” Helen slid over in front of a large black-and-white framed image that showed at least two dozen working girls gathered in front of the house. “Do you think this place is haunted?”

Tyler leaned in for a closer look. “I mean, I hope so.”

She laughed. “Who do you hope is haunting us?”

A smile played in the corner of his mouth, and she felt relieved that he was finally loosening up. “Like, which prostitute do I want to be haunted by?”

“Yeah.”

“The only girl I’d want to haunt me is you.”

The whole conversation was so silly, but it filled Helen with sweetness nonetheless. “Deal,” she said. “But if you die first, I want you to haunt me.”

“No deal.”

“No?”

“I’m not that mean, Helen.”

“I didn’t say flicker my lights and rearrange my furniture to scare the hell out of me. Just visit me in my bed at night.”

Tyler stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He nuzzled his face in her neck. “Okay, maybe just that.”

“It would be mean if you didn’t do that.”

“You’re right. That would be kind of mean.”

Helen glanced down the hallway. Still empty. “Show me what you’d do to me,” she whispered.

“Here?” he asked.

She nodded, and he gave her a look like he really would strip all her clothes right there and then, and she giggled. Then he took her hand and led her to the hexagon-shaped drawing room at the end of the hallway with a velvet sofa, several wingback chairs, and tables. There they paused.

“Here?” Tyler asked.

“Right on this sofa,” Helen replied.

Then they both laughed.

Several numbered doors led off the drawing room, and Tyler unlocked their door, revealing a four-poster bed draped in a rich purple bedspread.

Helen didn’t give him a chance to move toward the bed though. Instead, she yanked his shirt off as soon as the door shut behind them and shoved him against the wall beside a window with white curtains overlooking a sunken English garden. Tyler pulled the curtains all the way shut, then reached for her shirt.

She sighed as she felt the soft cotton pull over her head. She made the sound because it was how she felt but also because she knew he loved the sound of her exhales, the sound of her voice, the sound of anything that came out of her. She wanted to make his anxious thoughts fade away, wanted to make this so good for him that he’d know tomorrow would be okay, no matter what.

As the rest of their clothes were coming off, voices started to collect on the other side of the wall. Teatime in the drawing room.

Helen wrapped her arms around Tyler’s neck, and as their naked bodies pressed together, they could hear a woman ask if there was any honey for the tea.

“These walls are thin,” Tyler said under his breath.

“So the patrons could hear what they were missing,” Helen said. “It’s good for business at the brothel.”