These Haunted Hearts: A Regency Ghost Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

grave.
    “Why didn’t you answer me?” Temper sent her
nonsensical fears scampering into the shadows.
    He laughed softly and put his arms around her. Until
the first time Miles held her, she’d never felt she had a place in
the world. He anchored her every time he touched her. She closed
her eyes and relished his heat, even as her heart kicked into a
gallop at the prospect of that strong, male body naked against
hers.
    “I wanted to tease you.”
    “By scaring me silly and risking discovery,” she said
crossly, although held so close, it was difficult to maintain her
annoyance.
    As if by common consent, they stood a few seconds
without speaking, waiting to hear if anyone climbed the stairs to
investigate the cry in the night.
    The house around them remained silent.
    “I wasn’t sure you’d come.” Miles drew away and led
her toward the bed. Or at least she assumed he led her toward the
bed. The darkness disoriented her. The darkness and the dizzy
pleasure of being alone with Miles.
    “I nearly didn’t,” she admitted in a low voice,
following without resistance.
    “Let me open the curtains.”
    She shivered with the trepidation that his embrace
had briefly vanquished. Any nervousness about ghosts receded under
a more immediate fear of what was about to happen. “I’d rather do
this in the dark.”
    He laughed again. “How do you know?”
    Miles seemed to take this encounter so lightly. One
of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him was the way he
responded to life with a smile. But something in her resented his
failure to recognize her surrender as the huge concession it
was.
    “I don’t.”
    “Then trust me. I’d prefer to do this in a blaze of
light so I see every expression on your lovely face. In the absence
of a hundred chandeliers, moonlight must suffice.”
    She stumbled to a halt. He frequently called her
pretty and his darling and other such flummery. The problem was
that just now he’d sounded so genuine, if she wasn’t careful, she
might start to believe him, in spite of the damning evidence of her
looking glass. His casual reference to her beauty cut straight to
her yearning heart. She wanted to be beautiful for him. As he was
beautiful for her.
    “Miles…” she said helplessly.
    He raised her hand to his lips and placed a kiss on
her palm. The caress tingled to the soles of her feet and she began
to tremble, this time not with fear.
    “Stay there,” he murmured.
    Her skin tightening with wanton anticipation, she
listened to him prowl around the room. He seemed to have an
unerring instinct for where he went. With a swish of the curtains,
moonlight flooded the chamber, turning black to molten silver.
    She poised uncertainly, trapped between the craven
urge to flee and a powerful hunger for this ultimate closeness.
    She watched Miles at the window. The light limned
him, turned him into a being from another world. The magnificent
sight made the breath catch in her throat. He wore a loose white
shirt and breeches. She’d never been so aware of his height or the
lean strength of his body.
    He turned and at last she saw the smile that tilted
his mouth. His eyes focused on her and the smile faded, replaced by
an expression that looked like awe. He tautened into stillness as
he surveyed her from her unbound hair to her bare toes peeping
beneath the white hem of her simple night rail.
    The moonlight was so bright, she saw his Adam’s apple
bob when he swallowed. She could almost imagine that he found her
as breathtaking as she found him. His expression smoothed the
sharpness from her uncertainty. The clamorous babble of thoughts in
her head quietened to a low hum of need.
    “You’re undressed,” he said huskily.
    It seemed foolish to blush when they both knew she
was in this room to offer herself to him, but heat flushed her
cheeks. “I wasn’t sure what to wear.”
    His joyous smile made her toes curl against the
Turkish rug at her feet. “Or not, as the case may be.”
    “Or