Till Death Do Us Part: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Vows Duet Book 1)

Chapter 9

Present Day

I blink rapidly, trying to adjust my eyes to the sudden darkness. My hands are still outstretched, reaching for papers I don’t care about anymore. Without my sight, I focus on what I can hear.

And what I hear scares the heck out of me.

I hear footsteps. Lots of footsteps. Moving all around the house. Something crashes in the kitchen and I spin towards it, accidentally knocking over a stack of Rhea’s papers. They rustle and scatter around my feet as they fall. Another noise travels to me from the back part of the house.

This is not just one ghost.

I swallow hard, my hands trembling as I reach for my phone, tucked in the pocket of my shorts. I fumble with it, turning on the flashlight like that will help me with the dead.

I shine it into the kitchen and all the noise stops. I see nothing. Well, nothing but the pot and pan I cleaned a few minutes ago on the floor. They were dry and stacked next to the sink. There was no way for them to fall without it being on purpose.

I step away from the table and into the kitchen, fear crawling up my throat, making it tight. With a shaking hand, I flip the light switch on for the kitchen. It turns on and the florescent lightbulbs both immediately explode in their covering.

My eyes adjust faster this time, thanks to the light on my phone, which means I watch as cupboard doors fly open.

Again with the horror movie tropes.

Braving a step, I reach out and slam shut a cupboard door. It rests long enough for me to know that I didn’t close it hard enough to make it bounce back open before jerking wide again.

I retreat from the kitchen, afraid to look behind me, keeping my eyes trained on the cupboard. When it’s out of sight, only then do I turn, intent on getting to my bedroom so I can, ridiculously, hide under my covers. I almost trip over my own feet as they stop, at the open maw to the hallway, dropping my phone.

Rhea’s bedroom door is closed, but her light is on, glowing under the door just enough to let me see the figure drenched in shadows at the end of the hall. I have an inexplicable urge to pee and it one hundred percent stems from fear. I know the ghosts can’t hurt me—at least not in my experience so far—but I can’t tell if this is a ghost or not, this obviously male figure standing and staring.

As I stare, I become aware of how cold it is, my panicked breaths coming in little puffs of cold vapor even though the summer rages on outside and, when I last checked, Rhea set the thermostat at seventy-five degrees.

I stare and the figure stares back, neither of us moving. I can hear ruckus all around me—papers, cupboards, pots and pans, something that sounds like breaking glass—but I can’t move, seeming to be trapped in this man’s gaze.

Something warm fills me and a strange desire to walk toward the figure hits me out of nowhere. No, not a desire; a need.

“Please,” I say, but there’s no sound. My lips just move.

I don’t know what I’m asking for, what I’m pleading for.

Just as my feet move on their own to go to the figure, a wave of icy air hits me, shifting my hair around my face. My spine stiffens as I feel presences all around. Two? Three? More, maybe?

They have me circled, but I can’t see them.

Like my vocal chords have broken through the ice building over me from the temperature, I scream when I feel a phantom touch at my hip, jerking away only to slam into a wall of person who I still cannot see.

I throw my arms up around my head, like I’m warding off potential blows. “What do you want?” I shout. “Leave me alone!”

A disembodied laugh reaches my ears and I recognize the voice—it’s my ghost whisperer. Literally.

I pivot, but there’s no escaping the circle of phantoms around me. Desperately, I seek out the figure at the end of the hall.

He’s gone.

Fury leeches through me at all of it, at myself for even looking for help from some shadowy monster. “What do you want?!” I bellow, throwing my hands out. A loud knock sounds at the door, and I scream in response before I can catch myself.

Suddenly, the cold dissipates, and the impenetrable wall of ghosts around me disappears just as fast. I scramble to pick up my phone, shining it around me as I jog into the living room.

Moment of truth.

I turn on the light and hold my breath. It glows normally.

“Nova?” a voice shouts from the other side of the door.

It takes everything in me not to scream, which includes a very odd snake-like roiling movement my body does as I startle at the male voice calling my name. Within a second, my mind associates the voice with a name.

“Jimmy?” I whisper, staring wide eyed at the door.

Am I hallucinating?

“Nova, I swear to God, open this damn door or I’m going to break it down! I heard you scream!”

I rush to the door, throwing it open, still panting from my encounter with multiple ghosts. Jimmy’s face is lined with panic and worry, his eyes scanning me head-to-toe, and it takes everything in me to not throw myself at him, just so I can borrow some of the strength he exudes.

I glance down, realizing I’m wearing my comfy clothes and zero bra. And for some dang reason, my nipples are rock hard and poking through my thin tank top. With a nervous throat clearing, I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the door.

“Sup.”

Sup? I groan internally. What is wrong with me?

Jimmy quirks a smile at me, but it’s gone as quick as it came. “Why were you screaming?” he asks, staring at me intently.

“I…I saw a spider,” I stutter, then shrug. “Big spider.”

His brow furrows, and he looks like he doesn’t believe that lie. His eyes dart to my arms. “You have bruises.”

I feel the blood drain from my face and I abandon trying to cover up my unbound breasts, planting my hands over the markings to cover them as much as possible. “It’s fine,” I dismiss, looking at my feet.

“Nova.”

My stomach clenches at the sultry way my name sounds on his lips. “Yes?”

“Look at me.”

Grudgingly, I glance up, finding him a step closer, looking down at me. “What?”

“Whoever did that to you should be reported.”

I snort. “Noted.”

Been there, tried that.

I shiver and rub at my arms a bit as he grunts, sounding unhappy. “Were you looking for Rhea? She’s at work.”

I force myself to hold Jimmy’s gaze, which turns more intense at my question. “I wasn’t looking for Rhea, sweet girl.”

I blush furiously at the endearment. “Oh.”

“Oh,” he agrees.

“Um…do you want to…come in?” I ask, a warning bell in my head reminding me that Rhea said no one at the house, especially men. Jimmy shakes his head, and I try to disguise my disappointment by sinking my teeth into my lip.

“Don’t, Nova.”

“Don’t what?” I ask, feeling out of breath at the command in his voice.

“Look disappointed. I can’t…tonight,” he adds.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, embarrassed.

Jimmy lets out a laugh full of disbelief. “Don’t apologize. I wish I could. I just can’t tonight.”

He stands still as I search his face, looking for signs of lying. Or worse—infidelity. Which is why my big mouth opens and blurts out, “Do you have a wife?”

His grin makes my body heat.

“No, sweet girl,” he answers, stepping closer again. Close enough that I want to lean into him, push up on those same toes that curled, and kiss his full lips, but I refuse to let myself act so needy and wanton. “I do not have a wife, or a girlfriend, or any kids. I am one hundred percent unattached.”

“Okay,” I breathe.

“I have to go,” he murmurs, staring at my lips.

“Okay.”

“I will come back for you. Soon.”

“Okay.”

His eyes capture mine, and they’re full of mischief. “You’re so talkative tonight.”

I chuckle nervously, my fingers going for the tips of my hair to fidget. “I’m—” I cut myself off before I can say ‘sorry’ at the stern look that crosses his face. “Okay,” I finish instead.

Jimmy looks away, searching the yard. “Close the door and lock it for me, sweet girl? I want you safe inside before I leave.”

“I’ll be safe,” I say. I’m not sure I’m trying to reassure him or myself since now I know there’s more than one ghost in this house, and they’re mean.

He lifts a brow at me. “Close it. Lock it. Now.”

I roll my eyes. “Okay, Dad. Bye.”

I stick my tongue at him and shut the door on his laugh, letting my head press against the wood once it’s locked. A buzzing sort of warmth has filled my limbs and my core, and I already know that I would break all the lessons my actual Dad taught me to become whatever Jimmy wanted me to be.

I’m two seconds from deciding that my libido needs a release when I turn around and spy the darkened house beyond the living room. I sigh. I have a mess to pick up before I can do anything about my libido.

At least there’s one positive thing that came out of tonight, though: I learned more about my ghost friends. While they did what they could to rile me up and scare me, they didn’t harm me. Whether it’s because they don’t know they can, or if it’s because they are only messing with me, I’m not sure.

What I’m also not sure of is the figure at the end of the hall.

Because if I see him again, I can’t kick the feeling that I would run right to him, even if he is the devil himself.