Frowning, he glanced around.
“What are you looking for?” she asked suspiciously.
“Nothing.”
“Did you kiss me to try and prevent me from coming down here?” she demanded. “If so, it didn’t work,” she added proudly.
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“So you’re not even bothering to deny it?”
“There was nothing in our agreement about kissing you,” he pointed out.
“About not kissing me.”
“Nothing about that either.”
“Because I never thought it would be a problem,” she said.
“It wasn’t a problem. I liked it,” he said.
“Liked it?” Talk about damning with faint praise. Here she thought the earth moved and he says he “liked” it?
“Didn’t you?” he said.
“No,” she said. A huge lie. So sue her.
“It certainly seemed as if you were really into that kiss,” he said.
“You’re mistaken.”
“Am I?” he said.
“Yes, you are. Definitely mistaken. As in terribly wrong. Big-time.”
“Prove it.” He snared her in his arms and kissed her again.
This time she was a little more prepared. Not much but a little. Her response remained anything but little, however.
Parting her lips, she allowed his tongue in to tangle with hers in a sexy thrust and withdrawal that once again made her want more. He had a talented tongue. Extremely talented. A touch to the roof of her mouth was followed by a teasing swipe across her teeth.
Kissing him was better than any sex scene she’d ever written. And that was saying something. Because she’d written some pretty damn good sex scenes. And this was just a kiss.
Just a kiss? Right. Who was she kidding? Not him for sure as he kept devouring her and she kept letting him. No, not merely letting him but returning the favor.
She had to stop this. He was trying to distract her again. And dammit, he was succeeding.
She freed herself and pointed a finger at him. “Stay there! Do not come any closer.”
“Or what?” he mocked her.
“Or I will tear up our temporary agreement and kick you to the curb.”
He tilted his head and eyed her the way a tiger eyed fresh meat. “You’re cute when you’re—”
“Don’t you dare tell me I’m cute when I’m mad,” she said fiercely. She marched over to the far wall, examining it carefully for any sign of something that might be a trigger to the secret entrance to the tunnel.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
“None of your business. Now go away.”
“And leave you all alone down here in this dark basement?”
“I’ve got a flashlight.”
“Who knows what’s down here?” Ronan said. “Snakes? Spiders? Rats?”
“You’re the rat,” she muttered under her breath.
“Seriously. You do not want to be down here.”
“Seriously. The more you tell me that, the more determined I am to be down here. Your lease only covers the second floor, not the basement. So leave.”
“I’ve got stuff stored down here.”
“Where?” She aimed the flashlight around. “I don’t see anything.” A second later, she truly couldn’t see anything as the flashlight went dead. She sensed a dark presence. Or maybe she was just sensing the enveloping darkness, period.
There was enough light coming down from the still open door at the top of the stairs to light the way back out. Sierra wanted to accuse Ronan of sabotaging her flashlight, but chances were that a ghost was responsible.
She really couldn’t waste more time on this. Giving up for now didn’t mean giving in. She’d come back later, when Ronan was out of the house and wouldn’t bother her.
An hour later, Sierra was sitting in front of her laptop, trying to write. She was behind on her daily quota of pages required to meet her deadline. She had to create five pages today, or what was left of today, to get back on track.
She’d never considered the possibility that moving into this house would be a distraction. Instead she’d thought it would be a great inspiration. The house was old enough to have been here during the Prohibition period that the ghost in her story lived through. The fact that two real ghosts, as opposed to fictional ones, were sharing the house with her was a distraction. The fact that one of them had trashed her room was definitely a problem.
But the main issue was Naked Ronan. Okay, she really needed to stop thinking of him that way, of visualizing him that way. That shouldn’t be as difficult as it was. She for sure should not be sitting in front of her laptop thinking about him instead of her characters.