Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Read Online Free PDF Page B

ghost.”

CHAPTER 4
    Seamus slid back through the opening, bracing himself on the trapdoor’s frame before letting go. He landed on the floor below, right next to Bree, who didn’t move an inch.
    She wore a thin shirt that reached to her knees, opaque enough that Seamus could see the shape of her limbs beneath it. She smelled of warmth and sleep.
    Seamus didn’t touch her—it was enough for now to be beside her, breathing her scent. “I don’t know what it was,” he said, keeping his voice quiet. “The light shorting out, maybe.” He didn’t truly believe that, and he was puzzled by it. He hadn’t sensed danger, exactly, but it was odd.
    Bree glanced at the dark space above them. “Well, close it up, will you? It gives me the creeps.” Before Seamus could move to put the door back in place, Bree took a step closer to him.
    “Are you all right?” she asked in a soft voice. “You should be keeping still.” She touched Seamus’s side, where the bullets had been.
    The soreness there, which had been bugging Seamus as he tried to sleep, eased a bit. Bree’s fingers were small, her fingertips smooth.
    She kept her gaze on his side as she traced the bandage over the now-closing holes, ran her fingers along ribs that had been black with bruises. The bruises were a greeny yellow, and their soreness faded as Bree touched them.
    Seamus lifted his hand and cupped her face. Bree started, then leaned into his touch, her cheeks flushing, eyes sweeping downward. Her plump features were small against his palm. Seamus ran his thumb across her cheekbone, liking the softness of her skin.
    Bree took a long breath and let it out, the brush of it sending a wave of pleasure all the way down his body. Seamus moved his thumb over her cheekbone again, more firmly this time as he learned the feel of her.
    Her eyes were soft, the blue of them almost black in the darkness. Seamus slid his fingertips across her brows, brushing over her lashes as he came back to her cheek.
    Bree’s throat moved. She touched his side again, near the wounds, then ran her fingers around the lines of his pectorals and up to his shoulders.
    The leisurely touch had him burning more than if she’d jumped on him and borne him to the floor. Not that he’d mind if she did that. Seamus would cradle her against him, soothe her eagerness with slow kisses ...
    Her fingers moved across his shoulders, Bree’s gaze on the hollow of his throat, where a Collar was supposed to rest. She leaned forward the slightest bit and touched her tongue to his skin there.
    Seamus started, his blood igniting. Her hair brushed his nose, the violets smell coming to him again. Wanting greater than he’d ever felt rushed through him. Seamus had been holding himself so tightly for so long, that loosening was going to kill him.
    He closed his eyes, inhaled the goodness of Bree, and pressed a kiss to her hair.
    I need this woman. I need her to hold me, to help calm this thing raging inside me. I need her to heal me, to make me whole again
...
    There was a sudden clatter from Nadine’s room, and she yanked open her door, not six feet from Seamus.
    Bree wrenched herself away from him, her face flaming. The shock of her vanishing warmth jerked a growl from Seamus’s throat. Time had slowed, thickening, as he’d touched her. Now it rolled forward with a kick.
    “I heard it,” Nadine said. She struggled to tie a robe around her substantial form. “What did I tell you? Seamus, help me get up there. I want a look.”
    ***
    Seamus at first refused. Too dangerous, he said. Bree privately agreed with him, but her mother wouldn’t take no for an answer. Now Bree waited, heart beating rapidly, as Seamus maneuvered the ladder he’d brought from the garage under the hole.
    Bree was on fire from his touch, her fingers tingling with the need to reach for him, to taste him again. His skin had been vibrant under her tongue, smooth, with a bite of salt. She’d never sensed the vitality,