The temperature in her bedroom suddenly dropped and Sierra felt a thick stillness that did not bode well. She sensed an evil presence growing and she could tell from Ruby’s frightened face that she was aware of it as well.
The sound of the front door slamming made them both jump.
The next sound was Ronan swearing. The feeling of an evil presence disappeared and was replaced with the continued curses of Sierra’s clearly unhappy temporary housemate.
Yanking open her bedroom door to confront him, she said, “What is your problem?”
It belatedly occurred to her that it might have been smarter on her part to stay out of his way instead of confronting him.
“You,” he said. “You’re my problem.”
“Hey, I already told you that I did not throw those plates at you.”
“Right. They just happened to fly halfway across the kitchen on their own.”
“Stranger things have happened,” she muttered.
“Like what?” he immediately demanded.
“Like you smelling cigar smoke,” she said, silently congratulating herself for coming up with something that was in his bailiwick.
“That wasn’t strange.”
“You thought it was at the time.”
“I changed my mind.” He paused for a moment. “I don’t suppose you have the original blueprints for the house?”
“No.”
“Any blueprints for the house?”
“No.”
She thought she heard him mutter “Good” under his breath but she couldn’t be sure. What was he hiding? She knew what she was hiding—a pair of ghosts, one good and one bad. But Ronan had some sort of secret of his own.
“Where are you going?” Ronan demanded.
“I thought this would be a good time to check out the basement.”
“You thought wrong.”
“What do you have stashed down there?”
“There’s a lot of old stuff down there.”
“So?”
“So…” He looked deep into her eyes. “You don’t want to go into the basement.”
“I am not falling for that,” she said impatiently.
“For what?”
“For that I’m-so-sexy-look-at-me look. It doesn’t work on me.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” he muttered.
“Doesn’t seem to stop you trying though.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
She put her hand on the doorknob.
He put his hand over hers.
She felt a strange kind of zing. His touch was responsible for making her heart go faster and her hormones to race out of control. He’d touched her last night when she’d had that terrible nightmare and she’d felt safe. Now she felt something else. Not danger exactly. Desire.
Yep, this was definitely desire. She hadn’t felt it for a while, not since … well, actually never. Not this strong. Not just from a man’s hand covering hers. Which made her wonder what it would feel like to have his mouth covering hers, or his naked body covering hers.
She already knew his naked body was damn fine. The chemistry between them was undeniable. Was this lust at first glance? She’d never wanted a man so badly so quickly. What was going on here?
She was still wondering about that when the basement door suddenly flew open, knocking her backward off her feet and into Ronan’s arms.
Chapter Eight
Ronan caught her in his arms, preventing her from falling. She felt the air humming, but maybe that was because her entire body was humming. Especially the parts that were pressed against his body, like her breasts.
Putting her hands on his broad shoulders didn’t help matters any. Instead, it seemed to make it easer for him to lower his head until his lips covered hers. She should have minded him taking possession of her mouth so totally but she didn’t because it felt so damn good. The touch of his tongue was darkly seductive.
He tilted his head to increase the angle and therefore the intimacy of their kiss … their slow, erotic, irresistible kiss.
But she should resist. She couldn’t remember why exactly because her mind was filled with the waves of pleasure and the excitement of the moment. This was far and away the best kiss she’d ever had. She should be thinking of ways to extend it not end it.
Every breath brought her closer to wanting more of him. She wanted his mouth on her naked body, his lips pressed against her breast, his tongue seducing her nipple.
No, wait, this wasn’t right. Ronan was kissing her to distract her from going into the basement and she was letting him. She surprised him by breaking off their embrace and sliding under his arm to hurry down the stairs.
Ronan rushed after her. “I can explain,” he began.
She kept racing down the stairs. Only when she was at the bottom did she turn and say, “Explain what?”