Page 57 of When Hearts Surrender

“You scare easily.”

“Anyone would if someone snuck up on you at one a.m.”

“Afraid of a little street race, skydiving,” he ticks off his fingers, “strange noises in the hallway.”

I frown. “Agnes told you that, didn’t she?” I don’t want to admit this because I try to find the good in everyone, but I’m starting to dislike her.

Maxwell huffs out a breath, a rare smile on his lips. My heart pounds at the sight, the lightness I haven’t seen from him since that night at the race.

“I have ears. I don’t need her to tell me anything. Last week, you screeched so loudly because the wind rattled the windows, I could hear you all the way from the study.”

“I was in my zone and I swear that wasn’t the wind!”

I was marveling at the gorgeous two-story library, with its ornate coffered ceilings featuring intricate medallions, the Tiffany floor lamps and vintage light fixtures on the reading tables. The inner nerd in me was jumping with joy at the towering bookshelves filled to the brim with books.

I planned to curl up by the roaring fireplace in the large armchair with a book as the winds howled outside. There was something especially cozy about being in a warm environment while nature threw a tantrum around you.

But just as I sat down and opened a tome—an original, first edition of Regency era fashions—

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Something slammed against the glass repeatedly.

I shrieked, turning toward the windows as terror seized me. A man in a dark mask stared back at me.

I screamed. Loudly.

Morris rushed in minutes later and when I told him what happened, he turned on the yard lights to investigate.

But no one was there.

“It must’ve been the wind,” Morris murmured.

“It wasn’t! I swear!” I let out a shuddering breath.Was it really just the wind?“Morris… Can I ask you something?”

The old butler smiled andnodded.

“Is the curse real?”

The smile slipped off his face. He rasped, “Generations of Andersons lived in these halls. And yes, there have been tragedies…multiple accidents and misfortunes leading up to the deaths of several Anderson women.”

My blood froze in my veins and my fear had to have shone on my face because he added, “I’m an old man and I’ve found that humans are eviler than the supernatural. And it’s best not to believe in rumors. After all, curses and ghosts can’t be real, right?”

With that cryptic, unsettling message, he left the library.

I shiver at the memory and narrow my eyes at my husband. “It was scary.”

“Right. It’s the boogeyman out to get you.” Maxwell smirks as he steps toward me, completely oblivious to his state of undress.

“I swear, I saw a person in a mask.”

“Someone standing out in the dark?” He cocks a brow. “Morris told me your worries.” He walks over and I shift to the side as he grabs a few items from the fridge.

“We have state-of-the-art security systems installed. I didn’t see anything on the tape when I reviewed it,” he murmurs as he hovers over a cutting board and begins slicing the items he got out of the fridge moments ago. “There was no one there.”

He checked on it for me?The thought pleases me. I shake my head to dispel the jitteriness swimming in my gut, I focus my attention back on him.

His movements are sure and practiced, and my core clenches involuntarily. There’s something really sexy about a man who knows his way around a kitchen.

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