Free Daring Time by Beth Kery Page B

hesitated, not sure how to put into words the haunting, watchful atmosphere of the Prairie Street mansion, the bizarre yet strangely right circumstances of having gained ownership of it.
    "You have to admit, Mom, it's over-the-top generous on Alistair's part. That property is worth millions."
    Eve ruffled his hair before she stepped back. "He wanted to do it, Ryan."
    He glanced at his mother in mild surprise. He'd become friends with Alistair Franklin while he was a student at the University of Chicago. Alistair had been a professor of history who was well known among the students for his charismatic personality and entertaining lectures. Alistair had taken an instant liking to Ryan and the feeling had been mutual. Ryan had ended up doing a senior thesis with Alistair as his counselor. Their friendship had only grown after Ryan graduated, went to law school and eventually joined the ranks of the Chicago Police Department. Ryan's father had passed away two years ago, but while he'd been alive Alistair had also grown close with both of his parents.
    Still, he was surprised to hear his mother had been talking to Alistair about the mansion.
    "When have you seen Alistair?"
    "We speak on the phone every few weeks, ever since he had his stroke," Eve explained.
    "He can't get around like he used to, but we both know what a social person Alistair is.
    He loves to talk. He wanted to give you that property, Ryan."
    "He said it's helping him out tax-wise," Ryan mumbled doubtfully.
    Eve's eyebrows arched. "Well, that may be. But he also thinks of you like a son, Ryan.
    You know he lost a child. I think it helps him to be able to do something like this . ..
    helps fill in the empty spaces that the death of a child leaves."
    "Alistair had a kid?" Ryan asked, genuinely shocked. Never once in all the time he'd spent with the older man had Alistair ever hinted at that fact.
    "He doesn't speak of it often, but he has told me that he lost a child years ago. Maybe he felt more comfortable telling me since I'm also a parent," Eve explained when she noticed what must have been a look of shock on his face. "At any rate, you're doing a good thing by accepting the house from him. When are you going to show it to me?"
    "How about next Tuesday?" Ryan asked.
    "Perfect," Eve replied cheerfully. "I'm looking forward to seeing it after hearing Alistair's and your descriptions. Imagine—you owning a house on Prairie Avenue."
    "Come on," Ryan said with a tilt of his chin toward the back room of her store. "You can show me where those shelves are that you wanted me to put together."
    Eve clapped once, her blue eyes going wide with delight. "Oh, today is my lucky day.
    I've been trying to get you over here to put those shelves together forever."
    Ryan shrugged nonchalantly as he followed her. "If forever is the same as a week and a half."
    Eve snorted with laughter. "Okay, you caught me exaggerating. Seriously, though," she continued as her gaze sharpened on him. "What'd I do to deserve the favor on today of all days?"
    Ryan gave her a smile. "Just figured it was time, Mom."
    Now that he had everything in place to take his jaunt through time, Ryan wasn't exactly sure how to proceed. He only knew that his sexual desire for Hope had always been involved in their contact.
    He wasn't sure if there was a genuine link or if it was just inevitable that Hope and sex went together like two sides of a coin, but it was the only place he could figure was a good starting point for the journey.
    So he stripped off his clothes, lay in the brass bed and engaged in some good, old-fashioned masturbatory fantasizing. Maybe imagination was the key to time travel. If that were the case, what more powerful, vivid type of fantasy was there than that used to instigate sexual arousal?
    He stroked his cock slowly, recalling what it had felt like having Hope's soft, elegantly shaped hand doing the same thing. He recalled the scent that he'd caught on her in the bathroom when they'd both