by Anne Hope
For a moment, he forgot he was no longer made of flesh, that he was only mist and shadows. He ached for her like any other man, wanted to lose himself in this shy, strangely alluring woman in his arms until night trickled seamlessly into dawn.
The music changed, the tempo picking up a notch. Still he refused to release her. Touching her made him feel alive again, and he wasn’t ready to lose that yet.
Unfortunately, the choice wasn’t his. Evelyn suddenly stiffened and jolted her body away. At the loss of the connection, the wonderful medley of sensations he was experiencing instantly ceased, like a light going out inside him. From one moment to the next, he felt empty.
“I’m sorry,” she squeaked. “I feel…dizzy.”
Their table was no longer free, so she sank into a couch someone had just vacated. She dropped her head against the backrest, gazing at the winking lights overhead, inhaling short, shallow breaths.
“Are you all right, ma’am?” a man sitting nearby asked.
“She’s fine,” Matt absently replied, forgetting that no one but Evelyn could hear him.
“I’m fine,” she repeated with an admonishing glance in Matt’s direction. “I guess all that dancing made me a little lightheaded.”
“And your boyfriend let you walk off the dance floor all by yourself?”
Evelyn blushed. “I’m not here with anyone,” she muttered, avoiding Matt’s drilling stare.
The pompous bastard actually had the gall to come sit beside her. “Guess it’s my lucky day then.”
He was one slick son of a bitch. Matt recognized the type—the smart black suit worn over a white T-shirt, the glossed-back hair, the flashy Rolex knock-off on his wrist, not to mention that smug, I’m-too-sexy smile. Everything about this guy screamed: I’m getting laid tonight.
“Get up and walk away,” Matt advised.
She ignored him. “I’m Evelyn,” she introduced herself.
Matt swore.
“It’s a pleasure, Evelyn. I’m Todd.”
“Nice to meet you, Todd.” If Matt didn’t know any better, he’d say she was doing it on purpose to spite him.
“Would the lovely Evelyn be so kind as to let me buy her a drink?”
Pretentious prick. “He’s trying to get you drunk so he can get into your pants,” Matt translated.
Evelyn shot him a withering glare, then graced her new companion with a flirtatious smile that looked completely foreign on her face. “A cosmopolitan would be wonderful.”
Todd flagged down the waitress, making sure to flash his fake Rolex. “A cosmopolitan and a whiskey, straight up, please.”
“How ‘bout I give you something straight up?” Matt growled, pretending not to see the fierce glower Evelyn directed his way.
“Tell me, pretty lady, what are you doing at the Spirit Lounge all by yourself on a Sunday night?”
Matt snorted. “She’s certainly not here to hook up with a jackass like you, that’s for sure.”
“Will you just stop?” she said through clenched teeth.
Todd’s face contorted into a confused grimace that would have easily earned him the starring role in Dumb and Dumber. “Stop what?”
Evelyn blinked. “Paying me so many compliments,” she improvised. “You’re embarrassing me.”
Shifty-eyed Todd displayed a donkey-like grin. “Come now, I’m sure a girl like you is used to being showered with compliments.”
“I feel like tossing you into a shower,” Matt pitched in. “You’re so full of shit.”
“Not at all,” she replied sharply, aiming the comment more at Matt than at Todd.
The waitress returned with their drinks. “That’ll be twenty-four dollars please.”
Todd pulled out a thick wad of cash and handed her a couple of bills. “Keep the change,” he said with a wink. The waitress beamed.
Matt rolled his eyes. “Oh, brother.”
“For the lovely lady.” Todd made a show of handing her the drink, his flashy watch winking with silver sparks. As Evelyn reached out to take hold of it, the presumptuous jerk purposely brushed his fingers against hers.
An emotion Matt had never before experienced speared through him. It felt oddly like jealousy. Acting on impulse, he gave the guy a nice, hard shove. Todd hurtled back, a shocked look on his face, splashing the drink all over Evelyn’s only fancy dress.
She shrieked and rocketed to her feet.
“I’m so sorry,” Todd blubbered. “I don’t know how that happened.”
“That’s quite all right,” she said. “It was an accident.” She turned to Matt, her eyes narrowing into slits. “I’ll just go to the ladies’ room and get myself cleaned up.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Todd called after her. “With a new drink.”
Matt followed her to the ladies’ room, softly chuckling to himself. The look on Todd’s face when he’d socked him one had been priceless.
The moment Evelyn got him alone, however, his laughter quickly ceased. She was livid. A gentle flush dusted her cheeks, and her mouth was set in a hard, grim line. “What in heaven’s name do you think you’re doing?” She grabbed a handful of paper towels, angrily patted down her dress.
“Saving your pretty little butt, that’s what. That guy’s bad news.”
“Why? Because he was generous enough to buy me a drink?”
He cocked a brow, his annoyance reaching a dangerous peak. “Are you really that clueless? Your friend Todd is about as subtle as a Quentin Tarantino flick.”
“I disagree. He’s polite and charming—”
A woman came out of a stall and flung a furtive, uneasy glance in Evelyn’s direction. Barely taking a couple of seconds to wash her hands, she scurried out of the bathroom.
“Give me a break,” he scoffed, picking up where they’d left off. “He just wants to score. Why are you so bent set on letting him make a fool of you?”
He’d hit a nerve. Pain flickered across her face, deepening her flush. “Is it so hard for you to believe a man might actually like me?”
Matt felt like a moron. The last thing he’d wanted was to insult her. “No, just not that guy.”
“Why not?”
“Because I know the type.”
“You mean you are the type.”
She had him there. “Hey, it takes one to know one,” he said in answer to her biting remark. “If that’s the kind of guy you go for, you might as well stick with me.”
Evelyn pitched the towels in the wastebasket. “Except for one major difference.” Her slate colored eyes glittered meaningfully. "He’s alive.”
And with that bitter observation hovering like a black cloud between them, she spun on her heels and stomped out of the restroom.
The next day, Evelyn felt like a wreck. She’d left the Spirit Lounge at midnight the previous evening with two things—a massive headache and Todd’s phone number tucked safely in her purse. Oh, and Matt of course. She couldn’t ditch him if she tried. He was like a bad cold that refused to go away.
He’d followed her to the library this morning and now stood propped against the shelves across the aisle from her, his arms and ankles crossed, watching her work. Evelyn sorted her books, trying her best to ignore him. Unfortunately, her glance kept straying his way, so she failed to miss the exaggerated yawn he feigned for her benefit.
“This is what you do all day?”
“Someone has to keep this place in order,” she replied with a proud tilt of her chin.
He harrumphed, then sank back into blessed silence…for a second or two. “So, have you decided yet?” He absently scanned some of the titles beside him.
She climbed a ladder and began organizing a stack of returns on one of the higher shelves. “Decided what?”
“If you’ll be calling Todd.” His expression portrayed bored indifference, but she caught a strained note in his voice that belied his laidback demeanor.
“I might. Then again I might not. Either way, I’m not telling you.”
He sh
rugged impassively, then took hold of a book and lazily leafed through it. “Suit yourself.”
She sucked in an indignant breath. “You lied to me!”
“Huh?”
“You have been reading my books.”
He stared down at the volume he clasped, looking as guilty as sin. “Maybe I have,” he said in clear imitation of her. “Then again maybe I haven’t. Either way, I’m not telling you.”
With an annoyed hmm, she clamped her mouth shut and turned her back to him. From the corner of her eye, she saw him slide the book back on the shelf…in the wrong spot! “Put it back where you got it please.”
“I did.”
Evelyn sighed and plodded down the ladder to place the volume in its rightful place. “Don’t make a mess,” she admonished.
Pivoting on her heels, she intended to return to her previous position on the ladder, but Matt closed his fingers around her wrist. A current of pure electricity buzzed through her and wrenched a surprised gasp from her.
“And if I do, what are you going to do about it? Spank me?” Something dark and dangerous smoldered in his eyes, and she was struck by the sheer sensuality he exuded. Suddenly, she understood what had earned him all that popularity on the silver screen. A woman could easily drown in the churning depths of those ocean blue eyes.
The memory of his hands on her the previous night when they’d danced flared to life, sent a bolt of molten heat lapping through her. “How are you doing it?” her voice dropped to a baffled whisper. “Holding books, pushing people, touching me?”
He rubbed his thumb against the underside of her wrist, and her flesh prickled in response. She trembled, wanting nothing more than to sever the electrifying contact but unable to pull her hand away. “All I have to do is think of you,” he said in a warm, husky tone that resonated with as much energy as the rest of him.
Heat, she thought. Energy and pure heat.
Tamping down the emotion swelling inside her, she found the willpower to break free of his grasp. “I have work to do,” she murmured, quickly placing a safe distance between them.
He watched her walk away with a knowing smile curling those incredibly well-shaped lips of his. “Don’t let me stop you.”
Evelyn saw the silent, unmistakable challenge twinkling in his gaze and swallowed past the thick knot in her throat. This was going to be a very long day.
For the next couple of days, Matt followed Evelyn to work, doing his darnedest to distract her. He entertained her with his biting sense of humor, annoyed her with his caustic, often smug remarks, and completely unhinged her with those smoldering, not-so-inadvertent touches. He made a complete fool of her more than once, when co-workers and customers alike caught her talking to—or worse yet, arguing with—herself.
By Wednesday evening, she felt physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. All she could do was flop onto her favorite armchair with Slippers curled in her lap. She didn’t even have the energy to read. And still, after all this time, she had yet to figure out why he’d been sent to her. She knew only that by Friday he’d be gone.
The thought should have thrilled her. He’d been nothing but a nuisance since he’d appeared—arrogant, sarcastic, pushy. He’d afforded her not one moment of peace in nearly a week.
Still, she’d grown accustomed to his presence. Strangely enough, on those rare occasions when he wasn’t around, she felt lonely. For a person who valued her solitude as much as she did, this was quite discomfiting.
She hated to admit it, but a part of her wished he could stay—which was totally insane because she couldn’t very well have a ghost stalking her for the rest of her life. Nevertheless, she’d begun to think of him as a friend. His presence was oddly comforting, even now as he hovered quietly by the hearth, staring pensively into the dancing flames.
The winking reflection of the fire made his face glow gold and silver, like a tangible mist embedded with microscopic jewels. She let her gaze trail over his profile, committing his features to memory. Something dark and heavy squeezed her heart at the realization that in two days he would evaporate like a spring rain.
“What happens when you leave here?” she asked.
The only indication that he heard her was the slight angling of his head in her direction. After a short pause, he said, “Wish I knew.”
Sadness gripped her. “You’ll go to a better place, I’m sure.” Once again, something she’d read about his accident poked at her consciousness, but it kept slipping from her grasp like the wispy strings of a cloud.
“Hey, I grew up in the film industry,” he added with a hitch of his shoulder. “How much worse can fire and brimstone be?”
“You’re not going to hell.”
He chuckled, but the sound was dry, void of humor. “I didn’t make the best choices in my life, Evie. I was always out for number one. Didn’t give a damn how many people I hurt along the way.” The flames roared ominously, streaked his cheeks with ruddy fingers.
A shiver snaked through her.
“My funeral must’ve been a pretty lonely affair,” he continued reflectively. “If any of my exes showed up, it was probably for the simple pleasure of dancing on my grave.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“I met a girl in a bar once,” he confessed. “I turned on the charm, she fell for it, and we ended up going back to my place. Couple of days later I ran into her again. She said, ‘Hi’ and I said, ‘Sorry, have we met before?’”
Evelyn flinched. “Ouch.”
“It gets worse. I dated another girl for a couple of months, and things inevitably started getting old. I tried to break up with her, but she just wouldn’t take the hint. So, I made sure she caught me in bed with her cousin. She got the message loud and clear after that.”
She gazed at him, owl-eyed. “Guess you’re right. You really are going to hell.”
“Told you.”
Slippers meowed and stretched in her lap, demanding attention. She gently ran her palm down the cat’s soft, furry back. “Why did you do it?” The kitten purred contentedly and snuggled closer. “Treat the women in your life so badly?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Because I could. Because they let me. Or maybe it was simply because most of them were no better than my mother—inattentive, self-absorbed, and about as deep, not to mention palatable, as a spoonful of Buckley’s.”
Evelyn chortled, scratching Slippers behind the ears. “You make relationships sound like a disease.”
“Believe me, they are. They’ll suck you dry if you’re not careful.”
“So you don’t regret it, then?”
He slanted a glance her way. “What?”
“Never falling in love.”
His eyes locked with hers, sparkling like sunshine on dew. Something bright and ravenous burned in their depths, as palpable as a caress. “Who said I never fell in love?”
For one crazy moment, she could’ve sworn he was speaking about her. Her heart bucked in her chest as a new wave of heat gushed through her, and she thanked her lucky stars she was sitting down because her legs all but melted in a puddle of Jell-O at the foot of her chair.
That’s when Evelyn made a decision. The decision to end all this nonsense and call Todd.
“Are you out of your ever-loving mind?” Matt inwardly cursed as he stood in Evelyn’s bedroom the next evening, watching her select her outfit for her so-called date. “You can’t possibly go out with that dickhead.”
How had things gone so wrong? Yesterday, he was sure he had her—hook, line and sinker. That falling in love comment had all but cinched the deal. But today, she was bent set on going out with that loser, Todd. It made absolutely no sense.
“I can and I will.” She rifled through her drab wardrobe with steel determination. “Oh, and I would really appreciate it if you stopped insulting the man.”
Matt felt the red hot singe of jealousy upon hearing her defend the jerk.
Damn. Had he been stupid enough to get caught in his ow
n trap? When had pretense ended and reality squeezed in? What did he care who Evelyn dated apart from the fact that if he failed to win her love, eternal damnation most likely awaited him?
He thought back to last night. When he’d alluded to having fallen in love, the words hadn’t felt like a lie. Why was that?
With a shake of his head, he pushed his disturbing musings aside, refocusing his attention on something safer and far more entertaining—the appraisal of her wardrobe.
With a thoughtful hmm, Evelyn was currently evaluating a dress his grandmother wouldn’t be caught dead in. It was gray and shapeless, with as much sex appeal as control-top underwear. He cocked a brow and grinned wryly. “Perfect,” he said. “Todd will love it.”
She wrinkled her nose and promptly placed it back in the closet. Biting her lower lip, she pulled out a pair of black slacks and a lime-green polo.
“Didn’t realize he was taking you golfing in the dead of winter. The good news is you can always club the horny bastard if he gets out of line.”
She pierced him with an icy, not-the-least-bit-amused stare. “Do you mind?”
A wayward curl fell to brush her cheek, and she flicked it away with a frustrated wave of her hand. She’d been wearing her hair down since he’d told her he liked it better that way. That had to mean something.
The russet-streaked strands caught the light as they cascaded down her back in a thick, sinful web. Matt edged in closer, his fingers itching to clasp one of those wicked locks. Her hair would be soft, like silk. He could tell just by looking at it. The mere sight of those untamed curls made his body prickle uncomfortably, until he could feel his essence changing, feel mist thickening into mass and energy converting to flesh. He lifted his hand, stunned to realize he couldn’t see through it. The woman did strange things to him. Things he’d never before experienced or could ever begin to comprehend.
And that both enticed and frightened the crap out of him.
Decisively, she yanked a black skirt and a pink blouse from their hangers and swiveled on her heels. Unaware that Matt stood directly behind her, she plowed into him. The sudden contact struck him like a blast to the midsection, made his entire being chime with awareness.
