Milner & Dunn: From Sea and Sand (Paranormal Gay Romance) E-Book

Trina Solet

• Herausgeber: Trina Solet
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Milner and Dunn never get a break from restless spirits. Dustin pairs an easy job with a stay at a seaside villa with Adrian, but the job turns out to be anything but easy.
They have to figure out why a simple tragedy isn't so simple. Adrian is put in danger when a mysterious apparition won't rest until Dustin can discover its identity.

Leseprobe

Milner & Dunn: From Sea and Sand (Paranormal Gay Romance) By Trina Solet

Copyright © 2022 by Trina Solet

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locales or actual events is entirely coincidental.

All sexual activity takes place between persons eighteen years of age or older.

This novel contains material intended for mature readers.

Cover image is only for illustrative purposes. Any person depicted is a model.

Milner & Dunn: From Sea and Sand

Paranormal Gay Romance

Trina Solet

Chapter 1

Every time he saw Adrian Milner's name on the door of the office next to his, Dustin smiled. Adrian hardly ever used it, and Dustin had put his name on there when he was trying to get him to be a silent partner in Milner & Dunn Investigations.

Since Dustin was in the business of evicting unwelcome spirits, he didn't think it would be all that difficult to make Adrian stay away. But Dustin only wanted to keep him out of the business for about five minutes then he found he liked having him around.

There was a good reason to keep him out of it though. Some of the apparitions Dustin dealt with weren't too friendly. They were in pain, hostile, likely to lash out. But Dustin didn't really think of them as dangerous. People were dangerous.

Still, it was his responsibility to keep Adrian safe from any supernatural attacks. If he ever got hurt, Dustin would never forgive himself, especially when Adrian had a little girl to go home to.

Adrian was still a surprise to him, watching him with Nessie especially. He was such a good dad to a three year old little girl while also being stodgy and serious, living up to the image of a buttoned down professor.

And somehow he was still willing to stick around, help Dustin with his work. It was more unexpected that Dustin wanted him there, looked forward to every time he dropped by to check up on him.

It didn't hurt that he found Adrian so appealing with his neatly combed, dark blond hair, that generous beard and broad shoulders. Then there were those serious blue eyes flashing with reactions he was terrible at hiding.

The question was how long Adrian would stay his partner, and then how would Dustin feel when he took all his marbles and went home with some guy who was more suitable.

Familiar footsteps on the stairs told him the man himself was here. Coming through the open door of his office, the first thing Adrian did was scold him. "The Out to Lunch sign was turned around and you're clearly here and it's past five o'clock."

"I am in charge here. Lunchtime is whenever I say it is," Dustin told him and then put his feet up on his desk to emphasize the point.

"In charge of what? An empty office?" Adrian taunted him.

"I have all the help I need," Dustin said and gestured at Adrian.

"Have you been telling people I'm your assistant again?" Adrian asked in a growly voice.

Dustin only chuckled and gave him an update. "My friend Camille asked me to check out her grandmother's house in Clementine Beach."

"So this is a job?"

"It's a favor. With benefits," Dustin told him.

"Benefits?" Adrian said and glowered at him like he thought the benefits might be sexual in nature.

"Villa on the beach kind of benefits," Dustin said, but Adrian's expression didn't brighten at all. "You can't go?"

"To a haunted villa?" Adrian said like it was the last thing he wanted.

"The villa won't be haunted. Mrs. Bower's mansion probably isn't either." Dunn got out his phone and showed him some pics to try and entice him. "This is the villa I'm thinking of renting, and yes it has rooms for Nessie and Luna."

Dunn was tempted to make the invitation for just him and Adrian, but he was more likely to get a yes if he included Adrian's little girl and her nanny, plus he liked them. If they were excluded, he would feel bad.

"Another mini vacation for the four of us?" Adrian said like that was a problem and Dunn's heart sank.

He made sure to keep his face neutral. "Is work keeping you here?" he asked though most of Adrian's classes were online. "We could just go for the weekend."

"It's not work. It's you," Adrian stated with merciless candor.

"So brutal! You could lie and say it's because of work," Dustin pointed out and stopped pretending he didn't mind the rejection.

"I'm wondering what you're up to," Adrian said.

"I want to take advantage of the opportunity to have a nice time on a beach."

"Wouldn't you have a better time without me and a kid and a nanny tagging along and cramping your style?" Adrian asked.

"Luna and Nessie could never cramp my style," Dustin said to him with a smirk.

"Who's brutal now?" Adrian groused.

"So what's the answer?" Dustin asked and hated how much he needed to hear a yes.

Adrian sighed and glared, which meant a yes was imminent. "I'll mention it to Luna," he said, and that meant a yes was guaranteed. Luna always sided with Dustin. Seeing him grin in triumph, Adrian shook his head and got ready to leave.

"Looking forward to hearing from you," Dustin said as he walked him out. Just then he got a call from a client.

Adrian heard him say, "I'll be there tonight and the problem should be solved by morning."

After he was off the phone, he asked, "So you have a job but you skipped right over that so you can tell me about a beach vacation?"

"As any sane person would," Dustin said. "It's just a minor disturbance in a fabric store. They had to close down so they're eager for me to cleanse the place as soon as possible."

"A minor disturbance that forced them to shut down?" Adrian eyed him suspiciously then decided, "I'm going with you."

"And you say you're not my trusty and dependable assistant," Dustin said with a smirk.

"I'm your partner," Adrian declared, and as always Dustin got a thrill hearing him say it.

It was close to midnight when he and Adrian arrived in front of Sarina's Fine Fabrics. Even as they parked, Dustin could sense the oppressive presence inside.

"It's an old one," he told Adrian. "In 1978, an employee of the shoe store that was here before was strangled inside."

"So for once you did some research," Adrian said.

"Yes. The murder victim's spirit raged for a while then a spiritualist sealed her in a space under the floor. Some plumbing repair work broke the seal, and now we're dealing with this." He gestured toward the building though Adrian couldn't sense what was going on inside.

"Sealed? I haven't heard you mention ever doing that," Adrian said.

"I don't do that. I want the spirit released, not trapped. Whoever sealed her away made her rage worse," Dustin explained. Then he made a confession. "And I don't know the first thing about sealing."

As they got out of the car, Adrian gave him a disapproving look but made no comment. Armed with a bundle of herbs to help perform the cleansing, Dustin led the way inside.

As Dustin lit the herb bundle and waved it around, they propped open the front door then went to do the same to the back door. On the way they saw why Sarina had to close up shop for a while. All the bolts of fabric had unspooled and spilled all over the floor, and other debris was strewn around as well.

"Don't tell me we have to put that back," Adrian said.

"Not our job," Dustin assured him though they sometimes did straighten after apparitions disturbed things, but that was to give their clients piece of mind.

After making sure the back door stayed open too, Dustin wanted to have a look at the basement. He had to stop Adrian from going first.

"There is a reason why they say don't go down into the basement. I need to cleanse our way."

"So what is it about basements?" Adrian asked as he shone a flashlight ahead of them.

"Underground rooms compress spiritual energy," Dustin said trying to describe the feeling he was already experiencing. The air was thicker, hard to breathe, and the presence down here was almost solid, like he could touch it.

It got worse the closer they got to the sealing point. The hole in the cement floor was still there and he could see the damaged seal though the symbols meant nothing to him. It really was too bad that he hated research with a passion.

He then heard a noise, a scream being silenced, scrabbling sound of feet kicking. "She was killed here then her spirit sealed right underneath. Bad idea," Dustin said.

Adrian noticed how strained his voice sounded and took his arm. His touch was steadying, comforting, but Dustin couldn't let himself be distracted. He was sensing a problem.

"Damn. I can't drive her out as long as that hole is there. She's still tied to it, like an animal with its foot in a trap," he said.

"Do we close the hole?" Adrian asked. "There's a bag of cement. We might be able to mix up some." There were a number of tools and other things around the basement. That was because the plumber had left in a hurry and refused to come back.

"That wouldn't do it," Dustin said and kneeled by the hole. "I think I have to start the cleansing down there."

Adrian pointed his flashlight into the hole that was big enough to crawl into if Dustin wanted to wedge himself between pipes buried in the dirt. Which he didn't.

"You don't have to go down there, do you?" Adrian asked.

"No," Dustin said. I just need to smoke her out.

"Just be careful," Adrian said as Dustin got ready to lower the smoking herbs into the hole.

"Spirit who is trapped here, let me release you," Dustin said as he tried to place the herbs into the hole and couldn't. Something was blocking him.

He reached in with his other hand and wished something had stopped him. His hand was pulled in, sucked underground to the shoulder. Another hard tug and his head was under the floor. Adrian's voice was muffled as he called his name and the thing underground kept pulling and pulling.

Chapter 2

The pull was incredibly powerful, cruel. Dustin couldn't fight it.

"Dunn!" Adrian yelled as he grabbed him around the waist. He was the only thing keeping Dustin from being pulled into the hole all the way.

No. That was wrong. The herbs he still held in his other hand were resisting the pull as well.

Dustin addressed the apparition again. "Spirit who is trapped here, we mean you no harm! Release me and I will release you!"

It didn't work. While his head was under the floor, it was reassuring to have Adrian's strong arms around him, but he needed to free himself.

"Why is this happening?" Adrian asked in an urgent voice.

Such a good question. Was it revenge for being trapped down there for decades? The apparition had been trapped under that floor by someone like him. Then Dustin remembered the seal. It had been broken but not obliterated.

"Adrian," he called out. "The herbs won't let me get pulled in any further. Get a hammer or something, break that seal all the way."

"The herbs?" Adrian said like that was too ridiculous to be believed. "I'm not letting you go."

While Dustin appreciated that Adrian didn't want to let him go and trust some smoking herbs to keep him safe, he did have to insist. "I want out of here. Do what I tell you and hurry," Dustin said sternly.

Adrian grumbled and let go. As soon as his hold on Dustin was gone, he felt himself yanked down hard. The arm that held the herbs felt like it would get torn from its socket, but Dustin didn't make a sound. He didn't want Adrian to worry about him. He needed to smash that seal.

"I have a hammer," Adrian said and didn't wait to start smashing the floor right next to Dustin. Every blow of the hammer rang in his head so painfully loud, he thought he might pass out. The seal was powerful. It refused to be broken any further. Dustin started to doubt if Adrian could smash it all the way.

"Give him back!" Adrian yelled and the next thing Dustin knew he was thrown back as the seal was obliterated in one blow.

Dropping the hammer, Adrian rushed over to him. "Are you OK?" he asked as he checked that he wasn't hurt.

Dustin only heard him indistinctly through the screaming sound that filled the basement and his head. The spirit was completely free now and angry. Every now and then something would strike a wall or a box would get crushed.

It wasn't trying to hit them. That was good at least. Dustin had bumped his head when he was thrown back, but he had to do the cleansing right now. He tried to get up, but Adrian wouldn't let him.

"I'm fine," Dustin said. "This has to be done now."

"I'm getting you out of here," Adrian said, contradicting him.

"I'm the expert," Dustin said but he did let Adrian get him to his feet and put an arm around his waist to support him.

Things were still being thrown around, and he wished he could get Adrian out of there, though the spirit wasn't targeting him so far. "Don't address the spirit again," Dustin warned him to make sure he didn't get its attention.

"When did I...?" Adrian started to ask, but then he must have remembered his impassioned order for the spirit to give Dustin back.

Dustin went over to the hole and Adrian tried to hold him back. "I have to start the cleansing down there." Dustin kneeled over the hole, and this time he was able to lower the smoking herbs down there.

"I release you from your prison. Leave this place and find peace," he said. He felt a shift and got up to spread the smoke around the basement and call on the spirit to leave.

"Something is off," Dustin said as Adrian stuck close to him, glaring at him for putting himself in danger. Then another box was crushed and he jumped. "The spirit isn't taking the way out that I'm showing her."

"Something is keeping her here? Was the killer caught?" Adrian asked, another good question.

"He was," Dustin told him. "He died in prison in the 80s."

"That's good. Won't that help appease her anger?"

Dustin agreed. "See if you can use your phone to find an article on the killer's conviction and death. Look for Ladleton Street Strangler."

Adrian tried. "I can't get a signal."

Dustin placed the smoking herbs under his hand and bathed the phone in the smoke. "Try now."

"That worked," Adrian said surprised. "I found it. What now?"

"Read it aloud, and keep reading it and focus on the meaning on of it to her," Dustin instructed him.

"I'll try," Adrian said doubtfully and started reading.

At the same time, Dustin spoke to the apparition that was still filling his head with enraged screaming. "Trapped spirit, the one who took your life is long dead. It's time for you to be free, to find peace and rest, never to suffer again."

He kept repeating similar words while Adrian read the article over and over. They kept doing that all through the upstairs too while around them lengths of fabric billowed and things were thrown around. Then a cold gust of wind blew through the place, and everything settled, quieted.

Breathing with difficulty, Dustin slumped against Adrian and enjoyed the tight hold of his arms. "I need that vacation."

"You were going to do this alone," Adrian reminded him in a tight voice full of blame.

"I would have managed, but my head would have been stuck under that floor for longer."

The whole ordeal would have taken longer and been much harder on him without Adrian, but Dustin still wished he hadn't brought him. He didn't understand why Adrian even wanted to come. He was only an unwilling partner in the business, nothing more.

But that's how it always was. Every time he had a job, Dustin was torn between needing Adrian and needing to keep him safe.

He didn't dwell on it though, just enjoyed being in Adrian's arms, pressed to his powerful chest and feeling his lips find their way from the edge of his earlobe to his mouth.

Chapter 3

Dustin drove to Clementine Beach early to make sure everything at the villa was OK. He did a quick cleansing though there was no real need and also set up some wards. He just wanted to be absolutely sure the place was safe before Adrian arrived with Nessie and Luna.

The whole time he was preoccupied, not by anything supernatural, but by the worry that Adrian might not like the place. It was right on the beach. There was a view of the beach from two floors. The main bedroom upstairs had a balcony. Under it, there was a large porch facing the beach with a table for eating on one side, and he thought Luna, Nessie's nanny, might use the other side for her painting or sketching.

Thinking of all of them there made Dustin smile, and he had to wonder at himself. How was that something that delighted him? It wasn't like him at all. Dustin never wanted even a hint of a relationship, much less of domesticity. But it seemed as if Adrian could make him like anything.

When Adrian's car pulled up, Dustin waved to them. He watched Nessie scamper out of the back of the car once she was released from her car seat, and run straight toward him, her strawberry blond hair bouncing.

"Dustin! I saw the ocean! It's over there!" she told him excitedly and pointed at it like he could have somehow missed it.

"She's been pointing out the ocean for the last half hour," Adrian said as he came over and looked at the villa critically.

Luna looked at it with a much brighter expression. "Wow, Dustin, you have outdone yourself."

"It is impressive," Adrian agreed grudgingly. Then under his breath he added, "And hopefully not haunted."

"Not even a little bit," Dustin assured him then showed them inside. "Kitchen and living room on the first floor. Plus a small office that's all yours."

"Oh, thank you. I wasn't expecting that," Adrian said.

The bedrooms were all upstairs. There were only three of them, and Dustin did suggest to Adrian that the two of them could share the largest room. Adrian shot him down. He had said, "I don't want to confuse Nessie. Or myself."

Dustin hid his disappointment but he was also thinking about that last thing Adrian said. If they got too close, it would confuse things, for both of them. After all they were just partners with benefits.

Now Adrian was going even further and refusing the biggest room, leaving it to Dustin, so he whispered in his ear, "I need an excuse to sneak over here, and that balcony with the view is it."

Nessie and Luna were checking out the room they would be sharing, but Adrian still gave him a disapproving look. "I can sleep in the office downstairs. Then Luna can have her own room."

"It's too small, and look at you," Dustin said and motioned up and down Adrian's body. "You would have to stick your feet out the window."

"It's not that small," Adrian said.

Getting close, sliding his hand to Adrian's lower back, Dustin kept his voice low and husky as he told him, "I want you to have this room. Then when I slip in here at night, we can enjoy it together."

He stepped back just as Nessie rushed over to announce. "I'm a roomie!"

"She's my little roomie," Luna said. "We have a great view up the beach. We'll be able to see the pier all lit up at night."

Seeing that they were happy to be sharing, Adrian finally agreed to take the room with the balcony, but he glared at Dustin for being happy about it. How could Dustin possibly resist a man so grouchy?

Nessie and Luna were already on the beach, enjoying the sun and the waves, but Adrian wasn't in a hurry to join them though Dustin was dying to see him in swim trunks.

"Shouldn't we check out that mansion?" he asked.

"You're all work when you should be all play," Dustin scolded him. "I'm going there only as a precaution. There haven't been any reports of anything unusual happening. Camille just wants to be sure before her grandmother moves in. She bought the Wickers Mansion because she's retiring and planning to live here full time."

"Sounds nice. But wouldn't it be better to get the work part over with?" Adrian asked though he was planning to work remotely the whole time they were at the villa.

"Fine. Let's take a drive over there," Dustin said. He didn't mind getting the job out of the way especially if it would put Adrian's mind at ease.

As they were heading out, and Adrian was texting Luna to let her know, Dustin narrowed his eyes at him. "Are you insisting we go over there so I won't sneak away to handle it alone?"

"That would be just like you," Adrian said. So mistrustful. But actually Dustin had been considering doing that.

The Wickers Mansion was overflowing with climbing vines. They wrapped around the columns that lined the walkway which ran down the back of the house and faced the ocean.

They stopped there as they were circling the house and Dustin got a feeling he didn't expect. "Something is here," he told Adrian.

He didn't light the herbs he brought with him yet. Leading the way inside, he told Adrian to start opening windows and doors. There were plenty of them to keep the two of them busy.

"Too bad there is no staff here yet to do this," Dustin said. There was no staff or furniture there yet. "That's probably why there haven't been any sightings."

"In other words, you're admitting that you were wrong," Adrian said.

"It does happen occasionally," Dustin admitted and tried to pinpoint the source of the presence he sensed. Once he did that, he would know where to start the cleansing.

He had no luck though. Even once they had walked through the whole empty house, he only sensed the presence intermittently and couldn't pin down the source.

As they were coming down from the attic, Adrian said, "I was sure it was going to be the basement again. Then I was sure it was going to be the attic. Could it be outside?"

"Let's take a walk in the garden," Dustin said.

The front of the house faced a garden with a big fountain at its center. The garden was a little unkempt but still impressive.

"Don't tell me there is a body buried out here," Adrian said.

"No. And it's not a place of death of the spirit," Dustin told him. Someone had died there, on the bench by the fountain, but their spirit had moved on.

Dustin then touched the back of his head and spun around to stare at the house. There was a strong prickling feeling inside his skull, at the base. He couldn't remember ever feeling anything like that before and he and no idea what it meant.

"Stay here. I want to check something out," he told Adrian, who looked ready to argue. "I'll have a better sense of what I'm dealing with if you aren't there."

Adrian sighed but let him go. Going closer to the house, Dustin was drawn around and to the back. The prickling feeling inside his skull came and went.

As he stood looking down the row of vine covered columns on the back porch, he saw flashes of something moving between them. It was an apparition, but it behaved so strangely. And was he hearing a laugh?

The sunlight was becoming strange too, shining too brightly, blinding him. Dustin moved to light the bundle of herbs he carried and realized he must have left it somewhere. Or maybe dropped it. Since when was he so careless?

To find the herbs, he retraced his steps. He should have ended up back in front of the house, but that's not where he was. He was looking down the row of columns again.

Except now Adrian was there. Why didn't he listen and stay away? Dustin was about to tell him to go, but Adrian ducked behind a column.

Dustin went over to him, but now Adrian was further away. Dustin saw his arms go up and realized Adrian was putting them around someone.

Another man was there and Adrian was embracing him, about to kiss him. At the sight, Dustin felt such pain then Adrian turned and smirked at him.

Dustin snapped out of it. That wasn't Adrian. The apparition was making him see him, see what he dreaded. This was another thing that never happened before. He needed to get Adrian away from there.

"Your illusions have no power over me. I only see what's real," he said as he shut his eyes and opened them to find himself on the side of the house. He continued to the front, the whole time chanting, "I only see what's real. I only see what's real."