Page 15 of This Haunted Heart

She sipped her tea and played with a piece of toast on her plate, mushing it with a finger. Then she discarded the plate onto the cart. “In my dream, after you joined me in bed, you called me by my real name. And I liked that. No one uses my name.”

That was not a dream either, but I remained silent, watching her face carefully. “You’ve told no one here?”

She nodded. “No one ever. Not since I was a girl. I liked it. I liked it on your lips, while your lips were all over me. It was . . . not a vision easily forgotten.”

I scooted closer, crowding her corner of the sofa. “Then tell me your name.”

I already knew her name, of course, but I coveted it at that moment. Stealing this offer of trust for my own would make my betrayal all the more bitter, and I wanted it anyway.

“I’ve gone mad, haven’t I?” Her breathy laugh lacked humor. “Why make our limited acquaintance more tangled and convoluted than it need be? There’s no sense in it. It’s only that sometimes when I look at you . . . I don’t even know what I’m saying. I can’t quantify the feeling. Perhaps I’ve just hadto care for myself alone for much too long. Now I’m reaching where I shouldn’t.”

“You should reach where you like,” I said, sliding a hand around the back of her neck coaxingly, fingers lacing in the curls there. “Tell me your name . . . Go on. If you truly want to hear it on my lips, then—”

“Rynn.”

“Attagirl.” I stroked a thumb down the column of her throat, and she shivered. “Such a regal name. Queen Rynn. In your dream, what did I say to you?”

But I’d pushed her too hard.

Her next breath left in a rush. Instead of answering, she climbed up off the sofa, parting from me to pace around the refreshment cart, hugging her arms like she was cold. I’d taken over the center of the sofa. Amused, I watched her fret like a cornered tiger, gracefully turning this way and that.

“Come back and sit,” I told her, but her agitated movements didn’t slow. “Since transactions usually make you feel better, I believe I know just the thing.”

She stopped right in front of me, and her head cocked to the side, sending her curls tumbling. “What’d you have in mind?”

“Sit with me, and I’ll tell you. I’ll even let you pick which side you’d like. My pirate side,” I said playfully, gesturing at my scars before patting the corresponding cushion. “Or the prettier one.”

Always eager to reassure me, she sat on my scarred side and crossed her legs. Her feet were bare. The intimacy of seeing her naked toes was not lost on me.

“What’s this transaction?” she asked.

“You come and summer with me in my home in the southeast. It’s a lovely manor at the heart of Blackwood CountyI call Nightingale House. I’ve spared it no luxury, and the wetlands are beautiful. Only grant me your presence, and in exchange I’ll pay you handsomely.”

She blinked at me. “But I’m—”

“I know. You’re retired. I thought perhaps more of what you’re used to might help you feel comfortable, like it did the other day.”

“I’ve been invited to stay with clients before, only I never leave the Lark with them. There is an assured safety here that cannot be guaranteed elsewhere. I promise I don’t see you as a client, so please don’t be offended, but—”

“Please, Rynn. It’s lambing season, the goats are birthing their new kids, and the fields need planting. My staff is busy on their farms. My home is big and lonely. I require company, and I prefer yours. If it would assuage your fears, we could take physical intimacies completely off the table in the exchange.”

Rynn’s eyes narrowed to suspicious slits. I knew then that I’d overplayed my hand, made my offer sound too good to be true—because it was. My summer home out in the middle of the forest, nothing but the mire all around, was a trap, the perfect cage for her.

“Oh no,” she said, hiding her apprehension in a lighthearted tone, “I never take physical intimacies off the table.”

I chuckled. “I apologize. We’ll put them right back on the table, then.”

But the damage was done. Her mouth flattened, and her cunning gaze remained dubious. “How much were you wanting to pay me for my chaste company?”

My lips curled up wolfishly as, finally, I sprung my trap. “How about you travel with me to my home today and when we’re finished, I’ll pay you back what I took from your safe.”

Shock flashed across her beautiful features, rounding her big doe eyes, then her gaze hardened. “What did you just say to me?”

“I think you heard me fine, Rynn.”

She worked her throat. “I think I regret sitting on your pirate side now.”

“I thought you might.”

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