Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(147)

“How do you know this?” Honor asked. Abby hadn’t noticed her getting close but she saw now that Honor was studying her sister, unable to hide her curiosity.

Suzanne looked at Honor and shrugged. “She talks to me.”

“Talks to you?” Fenella squeaked.

“Yes,” Suzanne answered, “ever since I was eight years old. We’d moved in, we were here a few months, Alistair said something nasty, it was the first time he did. I remember it like yesterday. I was crying in my room. She came and talked to me.”

Abby, Cash, Fenella and Honor were all staring at her.

Finally Honor spoke. “You think you might have wanted to mention this to us? You know, sometime in the last twenty-five years,” she ended on a near shout.

“At first I thought you all would think I was crazy,” Suzanne returned, blithely ignoring her sister’s raised voice. “Then, even when I knew you saw her too, I kept it to myself.”

“Why?” Fenella asked.

Something shifted across her face, something that looked like pain, before she hid it.

“I just did,” she answered and her eyes went back to Abby. “She’s exposed herself now in front of Cash so I’d guess she won’t hesitate to do it again. She probably knows you’ve set a trap. She also probably figures she’ll win. She always has. You aren’t the first one to try to get rid of her, you know.” Abby didn’t know but didn’t say anything as Suzanne kept talking. “I don’t know what Anthony is up to but if she’s given him the slip, to draw her out you’ll have to make a claim to what she considers hers.”

“She’s been holding my hand or in my arms all night,” Cash reminded her.

“Obviously, that isn’t enough.” She grinned wickedly but it wasn’t her usual unpleasant wickedness, this grin was actually kind of endearing and, Abby thought distractedly, she should do it more often. “You’ll have to go for the gusto.”

“It’s my understanding she can be anywhere, hear anything,” Cash replied. “She’s probably listening to you right now.”

Suzanne shook her head. “No. Over the years I’ve learned to sense her. She’s not here.”

“So how is she going to know Abby’s kissing me?” Cash enquired.

“You, if you’re in this house, she’s tuned into. Completely,” Suzanne replied softly, her words freaking Abby out but not as much as her next words would do. “Not what you’re saying, not what you’re doing, what you’re feeling.”

“Oh my,” Fenella breathed.

Before her mind kicked in, Abby turned to Cash in embarrassed horror and muttered, “Oh my Lord, Cash, if that’s true, we shouldn’t have had sex on the desk in the study. She probably watched or at least she felt. Bloody hell, I hadn’t thought of that.”

Slowly, Cash’s head turned to the side, his chin dipped down, his eyes locked with Abby’s and for the first time since he left to talk to James, his mouth formed a delicious grin.

“Oh my,” Fenella breathed again.

“You had sex on Alistair’s desk!” Honor hooted loudly and everyone in the room turned to look at them as Abby felt the heat come up in her cheeks and she mentally kicked herself for being stupid, stupid, stupid. “That’s hilarious!” Honor shouted.

Abby ducked her head, praying for a miracle (or a little, teensy bit of Angus’s mojo) that would make her a real invisible woman.

When this unsurprisingly didn’t happen, she turned into Cash’s body and buried her face in his chest begging, “Please, kill me.”

Cash’s arms went around her as Abby heard Mrs. Truman yell, “Abigail Butler, what did I tell you about hanky panky? And on a desk! My goodness, your grandmother is probably spinning in her grave.”

Abby tilted her head back, looked up at Cash and whispered, “Are you going to kill me? If you are, now’s a good time.”

His face descended, his captivating grin firmly in place and against her lips, he murmured, “No, darling, I’m not going to kill you.”

“Damn,” she whispered right before his mouth took hers in a kiss.

It wasn’t a brush-on-the-lips kiss.

It was an open-mouths, tongues-engaged, knees-weakening, stomach-dipping, body-melting kiss. Abby leaned into Cash, his head slanted, deepening the already-deep kiss and she felt his arms tighten around her as her hands slid up his arms, along his shoulders, one gliding up his neck and into his hair.

She absorbed his low groan, a delectable tremor shuddering through her moments before they heard the spine-chilling scream.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Showdown Part Two

Cash’s mouth broke from Abby’s, both their heads jerked to the side and they saw Vivianna only feet away and hovering before she shot forward.

Abby’s body tensed for flight but they had no time, Vivianna was almost upon them.

Cash’s arm came up to fend Vivianna off, something Abby knew wouldn’t work because, well, she was a ghost.

Then it did.

Worked that was.

Vivianna slammed into Cash’s upturned hand as if her body was corporeal, the scream stilled and she flew back.

Abby heard gasps around her but all she could do was stare.

“What on –” she breathed but she heard a whisper in her ear.