Excited anticipation spiced up my mood for the rest of the day. Kash had something planned, obviously, but what? I admit I was hoping for a hotel room down the road in Asheville. I’d been having all kinds of fantasies of having a real, grown-up romance with him, somewhere far away from my Dad’s sphere of influence. Far, far away.
That night I put my robe on over my clothes and climbed into bed to read the way I always did. As I’d expected, Dad didn’t bother to check on me. I waited until his drunken snores vibrated the trailer’s thin walls, then I left my robe on my bed and crept to the window. It opened silently—a feature left over from high school, when Kash and Hunter had oiled the thing within an inch of its life. I felt the same rush now that I had then, that spark of life which comes from grasping at a freedom which had been unfairly denied.
I wriggled through just fine and landed silently in the soft earth below my window but lost my balance and nearly fell against the trailer. Strong hands caught my wrists before I could thump against the trailer and I was yanked forward into Kash’s broad chest. I breathed him in, getting lost in the scent of my past and possibly my future.
“Come on,” he whispered into my hair. “Truck’s parked on Main.”
We snuck through the woods, avoiding the living room window. We probably didn’t need to, the glare would have rendered us invisible from my father’s eyes, but there was no sense in risking it. My heart thundered with delicious adrenaline, heightened by the briefest kiss of anxiety. Giggling breathlessly, clinging to his hand, chasing him through the forest, I felt like I was eighteen years old all over again.
“Made it!” He spun me around to face him and pressed my back against the waiting truck, lifting me to my toes for a deep, searching kiss. Already hot, I rippled my body against his and dragged my nails through his hair. How the hell I’d managed to live without him for so long, I haven’t a clue.
“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered huskily.
“Hell yes.” He smacked a kiss on my nose and slapped my ass, propelling me toward the passenger door.
I expected him to head for the freeway, but instead he drove straight down the gravel extension of Main Street, out into the wild nothing beyond.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“You remember when we were kids, how Hunter and I used to go exploring all the time?”
“Yeah, and you left me at home because I was a ‘little girl’ who ‘couldn’t handle man stuff’?” My air quotes were as heavy as my remembered annoyance.
He grinned. “I figured you’d remember. Well, I wanted to make it up to you. Where to first? Haunted B&B? Distressed drainage ditch? The old train bridge?”
I chuckled wickedly. “Depends. Did you bring spray paint?”
He laughed. “I’m trying to be good, remember?”
“So—yes?”
“No!”
“Aw. Okay, haunted B&B.”
“You got it.”
I giggled. “It better be real freaking haunted after all this build-up, Kash. I’ve been wanting to find it for years, but I had no idea where to look.”
“I think that’s why it’s abandoned,” he said. “Thing’s impossible to find from any main road.”
We crept slowly through patches of forest and swatches of sand, leaving the roads behind in favor of tire tracks. Sudden dips and bits of exposed rock made it an adventure, and his skill behind the wheel made it a fun one instead of a terrifying one.
Eventually we made it back to the pavement.
“Couldn’t we have gotten here by main roads?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “This isn’t a main road, it’s an access road to the water tower. There’s a security gate down that way and a dead end this way.”
I shook my head. “Hell of a place for a bed and breakfast.”
He scoffed. “Right?”
The shabby mini mansion sat at the top of a long, winding, overgrown driveway which branched off of the access road at an unexpected angle. It was gorgeous, even with all the windows broken and the roof falling in.
“You like it?” he asked, seeing the look on my face.
“I love it,” I breathed, trying not to look all doe eyed and crap.
“I always thought you would.” Kash pulled up closer and parked the car in front of the wide front porch. One of the huge double doors hung at an odd angle, leaving enough space for a full-grown adult to squeeze inside. Reaching back, he grabbed a flashlight out of the back seat but didn’t turn it on.
“Truck lights are one thing,” he said even though he was shutting them off. “I could be water maintenance for all anybody knows. But you can see flashlights on this hill for miles, and someone would get curious.”
“So why bring it?”
He grinned. “The windows are boarded up. There’s a whole haunted house to explore. You ready for this?”
“I was born ready,” I said, tossing my hair back.
Even under all the layers of dust and leaves, the foyer was impressive. Gilded trimmings glinted under the beam of light, hinting at a rich and exclusive patronage. Somewhere above us, a door creaked. I grabbed Kash’s arm and froze. Okay, so maybe ‘born ready’ was a bit of an over exaggeration.
Kash chuckled. “It’s a bathroom door on the third floor. There’s a hole in the roof there, any little breeze will make that thing wiggle.”
My heart thudded in my teeth. “You’re sure?”
“You aren’t afraid of ghosts, now Daisy, are you?” He was teasing me, but I didn’t care. It bothered me even less when he put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed comfortingly.
“No! No. I’m not scared of
