4. Mona #2
A purple light emanates from the gap in the door. Suddenly, the opening widens, and a hand reaches out from within, big fingers stretching out toward me.
A guttural scream tears through my lungs, giving the ghost time to fist my shirt and yank me inside. The ghost seals the door behind me and flattens a hand over my mouth at the same time.
“Ahhh!” I scream into the soft, warm flesh … which I am starting to doubt belongs to an actual ghost.
My shoulders rise inches into the air with each gasping breath. It suddenly dawns on me that my eyes are shut, and I don’t even remember slamming them closed. But again, it’s just my instincts overriding my conscious actions.
Gradually, I become more aware of both my body and my surroundings. A weird sense of security wraps around me with my next breath. Apple orchard, vanilla, and burning wood emanate off the person before me. I inhale it deeply once more.
My head is cradled against the door, a hand holding me softly in place. The other hand, the one covering my mouth, isn’t forceful or painfully tight. There isn’t malice in the embrace or in the energy radiating off of the large mass before me.
“Shh.” The deep, sexy voice I immediately recognize cuts through the deafening silence. “My vicious Scaredy-Cat.”
My eyes fly open and instantly land on a purple mask and the wavy cutouts around the eyes, outlined in neon strips, which create a soft purple glow between us. If I wasn’t so goddamn terrified right now and coming down from the highest high, I’d find it oddly beautiful.
Quickly, he shakes his head and presses his hand over my lips a bit more firmly. I stiffen as I hear the voices in the hallway behind me. I think it’s some staff members, asking if someone’s hurt. Which makes a lot of sense, given the very real scream that just tore through the house.
I’m sure the fear is showing on my face, and slowly, he removes his hand, whispering between us as if he’s the cause of my fear, “You’re safe. I’m not going to hurt you, Mona.”
Little does he know that his presence is the only thing calming me down right now.
“I know. But there was someone in the hallway.”
The voices from the staff trail away, and I continue as he inches forward, “Before you grabbed me, I heard a voice and footsteps behind me.”
He doesn’t dismiss my claims immediately, like I anticipated him to. Instead, he listens intently. “What did it say?”
Tears well in my eyes as the adrenaline catches up to me. “To leave.”
“Wh-what?” he asks, his voice barely audible. “Are you serious?”
I nod as he repositions his hands around my jaw, brushing my tears away. “Yeah. But I really wish I were making it up.”
There’s an incredibly odd comfortability between us, like we’ve been in this position in a thousand lifetimes before. What a story that would be … souls who found one another every time.
He doesn’t say another word. Instead, he does the thing I least expected. Sliding an arm under my waist and the other behind my head again, he pulls me into him, enveloping me in his big embrace and that delicious scent.
“You’re all right. I’ve got you. You’re safe,” he assures me, and the stupidest thing in the entire fucking world happens. Tears tip over the edge of my lashes, and my throat catches fire. “I’ll never let anything happen to you, baby.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, debating if I’m going to melt into him or step back. But once again, my body makes the first decision tonight and leans into him with abandon, and I cling to his rigid but warm muscles like he’s the safest place in the world.
Rubbing up and down my back, he presses the mask to the top of my head and kisses my hair through the mess. “I’ve got you.”
“It was probably just some kid trying to scare me,” I mutter, unsure who I’m trying to convince more. Deep in my gut, I know it wasn’t a kid’s voice. It was gravelly and real, meaning what it said with everything it had.
“I’ll figure out who it was and make them pay for it.” His tone gets rougher, a sexy possessiveness vibrating through him. “The only person who’s allowed to scare you is me.”
His words somehow calm my terror, and I can’t help but be aware that this is fucking insane. That the person comforting me in this moment is the same one wearing a mask and stalking my every waking move.
What if this was some twisted plan of his? I mean, it worked perfectly to get me to run into his arms.
“Where’d you go? You stiffened up.” He calls me out, taking me from my spiraling thoughts. “Come back to me.”
How the hell did he even sense that? How can he read me like the back of his hand? It’s unnerving and so goddamn hot, all at the same time.
But I think that’s what I like about him. He challenges me in a way I didn’t know was possible. Embracing my snarky side, but forcing me to soften a bit around the edges. I didn’t have to let him in; he forced his own way.
Pulling back from his hold, I stare up at the mask and the outline of his eyes through the mesh.
My gaze trails down the length of his body, which stands well over six feet.
I mean, the man is massive. Both in height and in build—that much was clear from the feeling of his abs through his thin shirt.
Holy heavens, this man is too fine for his own good. I don’t need to see his face to know that.
“Hi,” he murmurs softly between us, and I bet if I could see his mouth, he’d be smirking, loving that I was checking him out.
Clearing my throat, I swallow hard, feeling incredibly nervous all of a sudden, butterflies taking flight in my stomach. “Hi.”
“How are you feeling?” His hands rake down my arms, falling to my waist as he sinks in his posture to hold me easier.
The sensation of his big hands splaying on my sides has me feeling a million times better already.
“Like I could use a distraction.”
He huffs. “Oh, really?” As he lowers his head closer to mine, his hands tighten around me. “Hmm … I’m starting to think you made this whole ghost story up just to get my hands on you.”
As I come back to myself more and more, my confidence takes over, and I flatten my fingers on his chest and gently shove him backward. “You think I need a ploy to get your hands on me? All I’d need to do is say the word, and you would run straight to me like a good boy.”
A dark chuckle fills the room as he stalks backward with every push. “Hmm. You think you have that kind of control over me?”