A Sinful Trap - R.G. Alexander Page 0,59
and Davide was right about the noise. There are definitely ghosts up there. I met them.” She gestured to her shoes. “Do you mind?”
When Cam shook his head, she slipped them off and curled her feet beneath her. Getting comfortable, he hoped. She must have come straight here from the shower because her hair was still wet, the bangs that usually fell over one eye slicked away from her freshly scrubbed face. It made her look young and innocent, vulnerable with that new wound from the attic. Her clinging, faded t-shirt, shorts and pink knee-high socks with white stripes on top didn’t do anything to take away from that arousing image.
The wolf in him reacted to it, and he crossed his legs as casually as he could to conceal his erection. The buffer couldn’t solve every problem. Which was why it took longer than it should have for her words to register. “You met the ghosts?”
Davide moved to sit beside her on the couch, his gaze lingering on her lips. “Does that explain the trunk you had me carry in?”
“It does.” She focused on Cam. “You asked about the sisters the other day. Did you know it would be them?”
“I wondered. There was an old picture of them in the purchase file.”
“I’ve never seen it.” He was about to offer to make her a copy when she asked, “Did you know that one of them was your grandfather’s mate? She’s the one who wanted you to have the trunk.”
Cam stared at her, momentarily at a loss for words. He’d been thinking about the connections and parallels before she’d arrived, but she’d actually spoken to his grandfather’s mate?
“The Enchanted Inn was the right name for it,” he murmured, shaking his head at the confusion in her expression.
“I thought they were children,” Davide said, perplexed. “They sounded like children.”
“I think they’re at the age they were when they were happiest? I’m not sure how it works,” she offered helplessly. “But if either of you wanted them to leave, that’s not happening anytime soon. They’d like to stay for a while, and they want me to memorialize them at the inn. I can’t believe I’m saying any of this out loud, but I’m now living with ghosts and this is how my week is going.”
Davide chuckled and leaned closer, not-so-subtly taking in her scent.
Bailey noticed. “I’m telling you about conversations with dead people and you’re… Are you smelling me again?”
“It’s not my fault.” He shrugged unapologetically. “You smell amazing.”
“You always say that.”
“It’s always true,” Cam said gruffly.
When her smile wavered, his heart clenched.
She doesn’t believe you.
“It’s a shifter thing, right?” She nodded as if answering her own question. “Do you want to know what the ghosts said about what happened to them?”
“No.” He refused to let her change the subject before he’d set her straight on a few things.
Davide looked at him, obviously disappointed by his response, and Cam sighed in frustration.
Sliding to his knees beside the couch, he said, “Tomorrow, or maybe the day after, I’ll ask you to tell me all about it. But we have more important things to discuss, and I realized last night that I’ve been wasting time looking for an answer that I didn’t need instead of focusing on the things that matter.” He stared into her eyes, willing her to understand. “My grandfather left. End of story. And sometimes, selfish people don’t think about the things they leave behind.”
She exhaled slowly, obviously recognizing her own words. “The mental TMI was a two-way street then. Good to know.”
When she crossed her arms, he shook his head.
“You always do that when you’re feeling defensive.”
“And you always—” She set her hands on her thighs, laughing under her breath. “A dozen things you always do just popped into my head. You’ll have to give me a minute, Boot Boy. Nothing magical has ever happened to me before, and I can’t even enjoy it, because I know you didn’t open the door willingly.”
“Why would you say that?” Davide asked, looking troubled.
“You can be honest with me, D. You always were in your emails. I know it’s the push to mate, I understood that much after the psychic download. If this were purely about emotion and desire, Cam would be sharing his pon farr mind meld with you.”
Cam frowned. “What the hell is a pon farr? Another vampire reference?”
“Star Trek.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Before Ava, if I wanted to eat a homecooked meal, I went over to Dani and Liam’s