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him that I want to kill.
    Why?
    He wants to destroy me. I can’t allow that. I have too many plans for this world.
    Socia had long ago discovered Sholto was a time lord. He had stepped nonchalantly out of her broom closet in the store one day announcing that it was a time portal and that he had heard about her and her perversions and he wanted to play. Neither his entry into her store or world surprised her. Since opening Hoodoo Guru lots of strange people had appeared and disappeared. The real estate agent who rented her the property told her some people found the shop haunted. He had laughed uneasily and offered her a huge reduction in rent if she took it. Socia did.
    The cheap rent she needed. Hauntings she would deal with. And she did. Besides, on the whole, paranormal beings were pretty easy to live with. Most were just passing through while others liked to chat and explain their lives to her. Either way it was no skin off her nose and the extra paranormal flavor gave her shop a certain cachet that drew people in. As for the time portal Sholto had come through? Her landlord was unconcerned when Socia explained the water heater originally located in the closet had blown up, sealing off the closet. He just wanted to make sure she stayed on renting. Sholto hadn’t been pleased. When he had found out what she had done, he had beaten her hard and left her bleeding.
    “Mary Dalton, Mary Dalton,” Socia murmured as she lifted her head and pushed back her long, black, wet hair. “I need to find you.”
    Ten minutes later, Socia, wrapped in a black, Chinese silk embroidered robe, was on the Internet, searching for the woman in question. There was no phone listing for her nor did she appear on Facebook . “Smart woman.” Too many people were enslaved to that form of social media. Socia was not one of them. She liked to keep her private life private.
    A Cairns Post newspaper wedding announcement caught her eye as she thumbed through the on-line edition.
    June Dalton is thrilled to announce the engagement of her eldest daughter Frances to Will Williamson, only son of Wilma and Wilbur Williamson. Frances’
    sisters Mary and Clare Dalton will be in attendance at the wedding at the Forever Room at 96 Mulgrave Road, Cairns on Saturday 2pm.
    Socia nodded her head. She planned to be in attendance too. She had to warn Mary Dalton what danger awaited her.

Chapter Five
    “Oh, how did you know where I lived?” Mary wasn’t happy. It was two o’clock in the morning. The insistent knocking on her front door had driven her out from her nice, cozy bed to beat up whoever was insane enough to be at her door. When she opened it to find Simon Mayhew smiling at her as if it was perfectly normal to be there, she was amazed . How? Why?
    “Pleased to see me?”
    Yes. No. I don’t know . It had taken Mary a long time to get to sleep. Her thoughts had been solely on the man who was now at her door. She pulled at the simple, long pale pink cotton t-shirt that barely covered her thighs. She had no bra or panties on. Mary felt suddenly very exposed. And wet. So damn wet for cock .
    “Let me in. I want to talk to you.”
    “Why?” Mary knew if he crossed the threshold they would be crossing a barrier that they could not return to. While she enjoyed sex, it was usually the hot, horny and meaningless kind that required no more from her than opening her legs. She didn’t want her mind opened as well. Mary had a feeling Simon would want more than an orgasm from her.
    He leaned against the door jamb. “You know why.”
    “No, I don’t,” she responded, knowing she sounded perverse but not caring that she did. Mary knew she had to maintain some cool distance between them or she would be giving into the wild urge to press herself against his body and just stay there.
    “Mary—”
    “Swerve, Simon or whatever the hell you call yourself, I want to go to bed.”
    With you— I mean alone. Aw hell, I don’t know what I mean any more.
    “Me,