Page 84 of This Haunted Heart

“I dare you not to smile,” I said, then I took her bottom lip gently into my mouth, and I sucked on it.

She made a valiant effort, fighting the grin off her face, but she lost eventually. With my fingers, I teased the tender skin of her inner thigh, working my way toward her heat. I found the split in her underthings, and I caressed her until her head went back and her eyes slid shut.

“Oh God,” she purred, “that’s even better than burning a house down!”

“Are you going to come for me this time, sweetheart?”

Her fingers dug into the blankets at her sides. “Definitely,” she panted.

I worked her into a frenzy with my hands, cupping her breasts, stroking her pussy. I made my nightingale sing when she came. She found her release with a moan that was as melodious as music in my ears. The sound made me painfully hard.

As her body relaxed, I cleaned my hands on the bed linens, then grabbed her loosely by the throat. “Breathe,” I instructed her, carefully tightening my grip just enough, just the way sheliked.

She did as I bid her, smiling prettily. I knew she liked it when I held her this way, liked the pressure of it, but for what I had planned next, I needed to make sure she could inhale and exhale properly. I rose up onto my knees and pulled her hips against me. Then I entered her in one hard thrust, knocking a gasp out of her.

“I still plan to make love to you,” I warned her once I was fully seated, “but there won’t be anything gentle about it this time.”

She grabbed my forearm in both of her hands, readying herself, pupils widening to swallow up the hickory color of her irises. She locked her legs around my waist, holding me close. “I love the pirate parts of you too, Loch,” she said. “I dare you to show me your worst.”

I kept her in bed the rest of the day. She was very fond of my worst, and as it turns out, it’s hard to wallow naked.

* * *

I hated it when estate business kept me away from Rynn, but I needed to hire more staff, and that required putting out an ad and a great deal of correspondence. I added a letter to Josephine to make her happy. I let her know that Rynn was officially her business now, and I welcomed a visit so they could be properly introduced.

Late that evening, I retired to the drawing room, but Rynn was slow to join me. Piano music reverberated from the library. I enjoyed the music, but impatient for her company, I went to be near her.

When I rounded into the foyer, I realized it wasn’t Rynnplaying at all as I had originally suspected. Wet footprints led in through the doorway. More trailed across the floor where the hardwood met the marble tiles. They stopped at the grand piano, which appeared to be playing itself.

Rynn was riding around on the ladder for the bookshelves, letting it carry her side to side. She was having so much fun, she didn’t notice when I crossed all the way into the room.

“Ahem,” I said finally, disguising a chortle as a cough.

Rynn nearly toppled from her rung. When the ladder came to a halt, she climbed down haphazardly, brushing her black skirts down her thighs, and hurriedly fixed her hair. It was then I noticed how finely she was dressed.

“I was just, um, making sure the ladder worked properly,” she said puckishly.

“Of course you were,” I teased, dragging my eyes down her body. “You look fetching tonight. Did you change clothing?” I never would have been able to attend to work if she’d worn that to lunch. I’d taken dinner in my office.

Her long sleeves were black lace. They hung off her shoulders, exposing the column of her throat and the swell of her breasts. The skirt was long in the back and high in the front, falling just below her knees to show off her shapely legs. She was wearing absolutely nothing underneath the dress. Her natural form filled out the bodice. She was dressed like a very, very expensive courtesan.

“I did. I just thought . . . I don’t know, actually. I just like this dress. It makes me happy, and dressing up sometimes helps with the wallowing.” She trapped her bottom lip between her teeth, and her cheeks went pink.

“I like that dress, too. I like it on you a lot,” I told her. Then I gestured at the piano. “Our watery friend has a hobby, itappears.”

She laughed. “I’ve been trying to guess his name because I knew that might help. I still haven’t figured it out, but then I got him to leave the floor at least. He followed me in here, and he’s been playing ever since. That’s an improvement, isn’t it?”

“A considerable improvement,” I agreed.

I made her dance with me. It took little coaxing. She was a lot better at it than I was. I had her sing for me too, like we were in a music hall. Afterward, she sat at the piano bench, and I attempted to play alongside our ghostly guest.

I kept one hand on Rynn’s exposed back while I played because it was impossible not to touch her in that dress.

* * *

That night, the ghosts kept me awake. There was nothing I could do for most of them. They cried at me, shouting confused things that made no sense, then moved on, gone just as quickly as they appeared. I slept in late the next morning. As the lunch hour neared, Rynn came to fetch me.

She ambled into my room and cruelly pulled aside the curtains, blinding me with sunlight.

---