Dark Ghost (10 page)

He snagged her backpack with one hand, lifting it as if it didn’t weigh anything at all. He pulled her close to him, so she was virtually walking beneath the protection of his shoulder. With every step she took, she felt his heat. She could feel the way his muscles rippled and glided so fluidly beneath his skin. And that was through his clothes. She couldn’t imagine what he would feel like skin to skin.

She bit hard on her lip to try to steady her mind. “Um. Andre. We can’t just leave the fire burning.”

“I dealt with it.” He kept walking right through to the next chamber.

She glanced behind them, and as she did, the firelight was gone and the chamber went totally dark.

“I don’t have my flashlight.”

“I do not need one. Your eyes will adjust in a moment.”

“How did you…” She trailed off. She hadn’t seen him pour water on the fire. She had been so absolutely enamored by him she might not have noticed him dumping the water from the kettle on the fire. It hadn’t been that big, but even so, could a kettle full of water actually put out the flames?

“Tell me more about your family. Your other sisters,” he prompted.

It was strange, she actually could see where they were walking. Her eyes really did adjust to the darkness. More, she liked walking so close to him. She didn’t need safe. She didn’t want to live her life safe. She wanted adventure.

She had grown up with four strong women. She had never felt strong. She was the smart one. They all said it. Not the beautiful one. Not the one with the confidence to get up and sing in church, although she had the voice to do so. Or the one who could model. Worse, she was totally afraid of everything. It wasn’t just a small panic attack, sometimes she was actually paralyzed with fear.

Teagan refused to live her life with fear ruling her. She took martial arts. She worked out. She climbed, facing her greatest fear, of heights. She loved the wilderness and was determined to see as many places as possible, even if she had to go alone, which was often – and that was terrifying. Still. She did it.

Over the last couple of years, she had gained some confidence. No matter how she really felt on the inside, she could project confidence, but walking with Andre so close to her made her safe in a way she’d never felt.

She felt the brush of his gaze like a physical touch. She knew if she looked up, he would be looking down at her. The knowledge sent a little shiver of delight down her spine. She wasn’t flirty, but she suddenly wished she were. She wasn’t daring, but she
thought
about putting a hand on his rib cage as if to steady herself. Of course she wasn’t going to actually do it, but the fantasy was there. She suspected she wouldn’t have the courage to have a vacation fling with him, either, but she’d come away from this with one nightmare and a million fantasies.

She sighed. Instantly, Andre let go of her hand and swept his arm around her. He had a big arm. Lots of muscle. The moment his body was against hers, she considered fainting. It was the only viable option other than sliding her hands under his shirt to run them up his perfect chest. All that muscle and those intriguing scars. Yeah. Perfection.

“This is not an appropriate question I asked you?”

She blinked. What was he talking about? She had no choice but to look up at him. The moment their eyes met, her stomach went on a roller-coaster ride all by itself. Her knees went weak, which was stupid but true. Her toes even thought about curling, but she sent them a fierce command not to react. Still, she couldn’t stop the tremor that ran through her body at the impact. Who knew that ice blue could go dark navy?

“What question?”

“About your family. Is that not what strangers do when they try to get to know each another? Ask about family?”

He didn’t blink. She knew because she watched and blinked for him. Like a million times. Staring into his eyes was just plain dangerous, but she couldn’t look away. Her body was tight against his. In a lover’s embrace. Except it wasn’t actually a lover’s embrace, it was more like a – Teagan was making a fool of herself and was going to fall at his feet and he was keeping her up embrace.

His body was cool at first. His skin cool. It heated quickly in all the places she touched him until he burned right through her clothes. Her
dirty
clothes. She nearly groaned. Why did these things happen to her? Why couldn’t she be totally glamorous and assured like her sisters? By now, there was no doubt about it, her deodorant had failed. He smelled – yummy. He’d been lying in dirt, covered in blood when she found him, but somehow, he looked and smelled like heaven.

“Teagan.”

There it was again. Her name. That caressing voice. His accent. Her toes totally ignored her earlier command and had a field day curling right along with her stomach doing flips.

“Um.”
That
was certainly showing him her intelligent nature. Her witty conversation. Her mind was blank. Well. Okay. Not exactly blank – it was filled with all sorts of things that shouldn’t be there. Like Andre with his shirt off. It was as far as she dared to imagine. Seriously. Anything else would have made her head explode.

A slow, amused smile lit his eyes for one small moment and faded, but the dark navy receded a little and all that beautiful glacier blue began to return.

She narrowed her eyes. “You’d better not be reading my mind.”

“I am doing my best to be courteous.”

Color swept her face. She dared to put a hand on his rib cage to push him away from her. His body didn’t so much as rock back an inch,
and
, touching him was a huge mistake. Like
huge
. Her hand seemed to mold to his body. She was fairly certain it had melted into his skin and there was no way to ever remove it again.

“You’re lethal, Andre. Really. I don’t even know what to do with you. You’ll have to just step back and give me some breathing room so I can act like a normal human being again.” She made the confession in a little rush.

“You are not acting normal?”

She gave him her darkest scowl. “Do you think I plaster myself all over every strange man I meet?”

“I am strange?”

There was no trace of amusement on his face. She wanted it back. The steady, focused stare was getting to her. Now she’d insulted him. Damn the language barrier.

“I meant as in
stranger
. A stranger. I don’t plaster myself against men.”

“I would hope not.”

She didn’t see amusement on his face, but she heard a hint of it in his voice and for some reason, her body wanted to melt at his feet right then and there.

“Well, you’re just… um… gorgeous.” Confession was supposed to be good for the soul, right? And what else could she do? She’d insulted him by calling him strange. She hadn’t meant to, but she’d done it. And anyway, telling the truth seemed the only thing she could do, because she’d blurted it out without thinking. It was already out there, and she couldn’t take it back.

“Gorgeous?”

Great. He didn’t know what the word meant. She sighed again and wished she could unmelt her hand from his skin. There was a thin piece of material between her palm and his skin, but she was fairly certain she’d melted that away as well. Even if it was still there, she could no longer feel it.

“Hot. Seriously hot.”

He blinked. Why had she wanted him to blink? He had long lashes. Black like his hair. Not dark brown. His hair and lashes were the real thing. Black. Glossy black. Beautifully black. She was so perving on him. It was wrong, but impossible to get her mind to work properly enough to stop.

“Good-looking and sweet. That’s a lethal combination,” she added, her mouth running away from her. The ground needed to open up and swallow her. She needed to add a disclaimer. “But you’re safe. Really. I’m just going to stare at you a lot, but I won’t be all grabby and touchy. Well. Except for my hand. That’s kind of melted into you and there’s nothing either of us can do about that.”

How was that for recovering? Now she was just plain crazy in his eyes. Like her grandmother. It obviously ran in the family. At least she didn’t think he was a vampire; but really, weren’t vampires supposed to be sexy? Dracula had been really sexy at times. And he did make her tea. Men didn’t do that, did they? She’d never seen one of her brothers-in-law make tea for her sisters. Her sisters always made dinner and put it on the table in front of their already seated husbands. Did vampires make tea?

Andre actually smiled. A flash of white teeth only, but for a moment he’d smiled. Even in the dark she could see his teeth were very white and not sharp and pointy like a vampire’s teeth should be. No bloodstains. Her neck was safe. Her pulse gave a disappointed little throb. The idea of him nibbling at her neck was sexy, too.

“You think I am this… gorgeous?”

“Um. Yeah. You’re drop-dead gorgeous. The kind of gorgeous women like me just view from afar.”

His smile was completely gone now. But his eyes had gone soft. Liquid almost. So beautiful she wanted to cry.

“Women like you?” he repeated.

She gave a small shrug, still leaning into his body. Still with weak knees and a stomach doing flips. Worse. Serious, serious chemical reactions, little mini-explosions taking place in secret places she didn’t want to think about – not with him so close. She couldn’t pull her gaze from his any more than she could unmelt her hand that was now permanently glued to his side.

“Ordinary. Normal. You know. Not goddesslike status. We don’t associate with men like you. We just worship from afar.” Yeah. She was making a total fool of herself. Now she knew why it was a total blessing she’d never been attracted to a man before. She was an idiot. She had to stop talking. She just couldn’t. She was too nervous and when she was nervous, she chattered.

“Teagan.”

A million bird wings fluttering in her stomach joined the roller coaster. He could
not
continue to say her name like that or she was going to have a mini-orgasm just from the sound of his voice. That was gospel. Absolute.

“Um. Andre. You have to stop saying my name.”

His face changed. Subtly. All those carved lines, like a sculpture of the god of masculine beauty, softened. More masculine beauty. She blinked and his face was closer. His hand slipped around to the nape of her neck, his thumb sliding along her cheek. Her stomach bottomed out, did a series of flips and began churning. The air actually whooshed from her lungs so that they burned. Her throat closed.

She didn’t close her eyes. She couldn’t. He didn’t close his eyes. He watched her reaction, and she couldn’t stop it. The disaster of his mouth finding hers. She didn’t know how to kiss. He was gorgeous. He had to have kissed a gazillion times. Still, even now when she was going to make more of a fool of herself than ever, she held very still. Waiting. Holding her breath. Needing. Craving. Her perfect disaster.

His mouth touched hers. Featherlight. An exquisite brush that left behind tingles. The tingles radiated right down her body to her breasts so that she ached more than she’d already been aching. The sensation kept traveling, using her veins as a highway straight to her sex. She felt heat. Fire. A spasm of need.

She blinked. His other arm moved to her back, pulling her even tighter to him. The hand at her nape crept into her hair, fingers bunching her tight braids, pulling her head back. His mouth returned and she couldn’t stop herself. She closed her eyes and just let him take her over.

She had never kissed a man before. No one actually, other than her grandmother and sisters and that was more an affectionate kiss on the cheek. This was something altogether different. His lips moved over hers, sending little darts of fire shooting in every direction, all over her body. His tongue slid along the seam of her lips and a spear of fire shot to her feminine channel. Burning her there.

She had a mad desire to press herself against his thigh, but she lost even that thought when he deepened the kiss. Gently. Almost tenderly. Still, his mouth was pure fire and she was drowning in him. With him. She hadn’t known a woman could feel this way. She just gave herself up to him. Let him take her over, needing his mouth and the taste of him and the burn that just kept threatening to spin out of control.

He lifted his head and stared down into her eyes. She knew she looked dazed and confused because she
was
dazed and confused. She wasn’t even certain she knew her own name. She blinked rapidly to try to bring herself out from under his spell. She shook her head and touched her lips.

“Are you all right?” His voice was gentle. Sweet. Sexy.

No, she wasn’t all right.
Hell
, no, she wasn’t all right. Was he crazy? She heaved a sigh. “Clearly I’m not in my right mind. I don’t kiss strangers.”

“It was a good kiss.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “It was more than a good kiss. It’s official. You’re the best kisser in the world and therefore we can never – and, Andre, I mean
never
– do that again.”

His eyebrow shot up. “If it was a good kiss, why would you not want to repeat the experience?”

“My hand is already melted to your side. Do you want my entire body melted into yours? Because, let me explain this so you understand. It could happen.” She stared up into his incredibly blue, so sexy eyes, willing him to comprehend the graveness of the situation. “Seriously. You could walk around to the end of your days with me just stuck to you.”

Faint amusement crept back into his eyes. She didn’t like how much she loved seeing it there.

“Normally, I’m really intelligent. I am. But you’ve short-circuited my brain and fried a few necessary cells. I can’t think clearly around you. So no more kissing.” She tried to sound decisive. Really firm. She didn’t sound that way at all, not even to her own ears. “On top of being gorgeous, did you have to be a world-class kisser?”

Yep. She blurted that one right out there, too. Of course. Because no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t stop her mouth from talking. She even pressed her lips together and seriously – really – she had to remove her hand from his side. Unfortunately, she was afraid if she did, she might just put her lips there.