Page 7 of Gift for My Ghost

“I suppose not,” she conceded but she didn’t look any happier.

They were only a few inches apart in the small space and he gave in to a sudden impulse, placing his finger under her chin and applying a little pressure. To his utter shock, she respondedto the gesture, raising her head to look at him as her eyes went wide.

“How did you do that?”

“I have absolutely no idea. Could you feel my hand?”

“Not exactly. Just a little… pressure, but I knew what you wanted me to do.”

“Do you know what I want now?” he asked, and lowered his head.

CHAPTER 3

Jessica’s heart skipped a beat as Leo lowered his head towards her, his intentions clear. It won’t work, she told herself, but she closed her eyes anyway.

For a moment she felt nothing, then there was a slight pressure against her mouth. A gasp escaped, and then she felt the warmth of his lips against hers, along with a faint but undeniable presence. She had a fleeting impression of a gentle, teasing stroke along her bottom lip before he pulled back.

“Jessica, I-”

Suddenly afraid of what he might say, she hurried into speech instead.

“I don’t understand. You couldn’t do that before, could you?”

He tried to touch her a few times in the first couple of months, but it was as if his hand simply passed through her—an experience neither one of them enjoyed. He shook his head, watching her thoughtfully.

“Is it that unusual?”

“I knew it was possible. I was thrown across the room once when I didn’t prepare the circle correctly.”

“I have no desire to throw you across the room. I want to close the distance between us, not increase it.”

“I know you do,” she whispered. “I wonder…”

She raised her hand to his chest, but it was the same as in their early experiments and she quickly drew it away as he gave a frustrated sigh. There had to be a reason why he’d been able to touch her but she hadn’t been able to do the same.

“Maybe that’s something that will come with time as well. Or maybe we just need to practice,” he added, smiling at her.

He lowered his head again and she eagerly accepted his kiss, but it was the same fleeting sensation. There was a brief moment when she could actually feel the warmth of his mouth against hers, and then her mouth tingled slightly, as if from a mild shock, and he was gone.

The third time, the sensation was so faint she could barely feel it, as if the connection between them was fading.

“I think that’s enough for right now,” she said finally, and she was sure she wasn’t imagining the disappointment in his eyes. “It’s probably going to take some time.”If it happens at all.

“I’m not sure I have time.”

“Why would you think that? You’re not… leaving are you?”

She couldn’t stand the thought of losing him, but if he was being called to move on…

“No,” he said immediately. “It’s just that the strangest thing happened this-”

Before he could continue, the door to the office opened and her best friend Wendy poked her head in.

“Hey! Are you busy?”

“Never too busy for you,” she said, hoping she sounded sincere.

Wendy was a very pretty, very curvy brunette with an impeccable sense of style. The two of them had met at a convention for bloggers—Wendy wrote about food and restaurants while Jessica wrote about the psychic world—and they had immediately hit it off. They had kept in touch via emails and messages because both of them traveled and they were rarely close enough to meet in person, but then Wendy had asked her to come and help with the vengeful spirit haunting Midnight Manor.

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