Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
R’orn whirled around again but again there was nothing to see. The bed was empty except for dancing shadows and flickering firelight. Could it be his eyes playing tricks on him again? He frowned and scrubbed at them with the heels of his hands. What in the Seven Hells was going on around here?
Then he saw Samantha glancing at him with a look on her face that was half worried/half irritated.
“Are you okay?” she mouthed at him.
R’orn shrugged as though nothing was wrong—though to be honest, this fucking room was beginning to get to him!
“Anyway, Caroline’s father caught them in bed and he had a shotgun in his hand,” the Innkeeper went on, continuing the story and obviously oblivious to the strange things R’orn had been seeing. “She begged him not to shoot—said they were in love! And then she promised him that she was still a virgin!”
“Oh—what did he say to that?” Samantha asked in a low voice.
“He said, ‘then you’ll die a virgin!’ And he shot them both. Right there in that bed—if you look, you can still see where the wood of the frame has been repaired. It was partially shattered by the shotgun blasts,” the Innkeeper added, pointing.
“How awful!” Samantha put a hand to her mouth.
“How do they know all this?” R’orn demanded. “I mean, if the, uh, lovers were both killed, how do they know what they said?”
“Why, because Caroline’s father, Terrance Abernathy, testified to the whole thing at his murder trial!” the Innkeeper exclaimed. “Folks said he wasn’t a bit sorry—they hanged him for the double murder but he went to his grave claiming that Caroline and Beau deserved to die for ‘dishonoring’ the Abernathy family name.”
“What an asshole!” Samantha said, frowning. “I mean, excuse me, but that’s exactly what he was!”
“Yes—he’s buried in the family plot at the old Abernathy estate, so we don’t have his ghost with us here at The Belgrave Mansion,” the Innkeeper said and heaved a regretful sigh. “But the spirits of Caroline and her husband, Beau linger on. It’s said that they’re still longing for each other, because they never got to consummate their marriage. You know they were married less than twenty-four hours before her father shot them both? So sad…” She shook her head, looking sad.
“I do feel a lingering sense of loss here.” Samantha spoke in hushed tones. “A sense of missed opportunity and longing for love…” She sighed and shook her head. “Such a tragic end.”
“Sadly, that’s the way it is with many of the stories here at The Belgrave Mansion,” the Innkeeper said. “At least with Caroline and Beau, they had a little time to love each other before they were discovered.”
R’orn wondered how it would be, knowing that the one you loved was forbidden to you but stealing her away anyway, even though you knew you might be killed for it. To brave such danger, a male would truly have to be in love—a state he had never personally experienced. And never hoped to, since he had no wish to subject any female to his Beast. But—
Suddenly he felt that warmth on his shoulder again—as though an invisible hand was gripping him. And then, with no warning, an acute sense of possessive protectiveness swept through him. He looked at Samantha and a growl rose in his throat at the thought of anyone hurting her or trying to take her from him. He wanted to keep her safe, to love her, to worship her body with his own—she was his, damn it! She belonged to him!
Stepping over to her in a single stride, he took her in his arms and leaned down to look into her face.
Samantha, who had been about to ask the Innkeeper another question, looked up at him with wide, surprised eyes. Her phone dropped from her hand and clattered in the hardwood floor but she seemed too shocked to notice—or to resist him.
R’orn wasn’t taking any chances though—she was his and he was damn well going to show her that! Threading his fingers through her long, silky black hair he held her in place and bent her over his arm.
5
R’ORN
Samantha gasped as he pressed his mouth to the side of her throat. He found her pulse point and bit possessively, sucking hard…then kissed tenderly to ease the ache, bathing the mark he’d made with his tongue until he drew a long, shaky moan from her throat.
His only thought was to mark her as his own—to possess her and own her forever. He would protect her and provide for her and pleasure her until she cried his name in passion! He would—
“R’orn! What…what are you doing?”
Samantha’s words—which were moaned in a breathless voice, broke through the haze of lust and desire that had somehow taken over R’orn’s mind. He became aware that he was licking and kissing the vulnerable side of her throat and she was moaning steadily and—surprisingly—not trying to push him away.