“I…I need to go home.”
“Now?”
“Yes.” Grace sucked in a breath, then another before squaring her shoulders and clearing her expression.
Luc had seen that specific expression before. Always when she was afraid, beyond terror. However, she knew how to hide it. Her show of calm insistence would fool anyone not cursed as he was.
“Thank you for the tour, and…and…everything.” She waved a hand in the air, grabbed the lantern, then parted the curtains, and ran. He sped after her. “Wait.”
Grace glanced over her shoulder, but kept moving. The tears brimmed once more. “No. I can’t.” She set foot on the ladder. If she wanted to leave, she was going the wrong way.
“You must. It’s dark out there, and even with a lantern you’ll lose your way.” He climbed after her. “Let me take you home.”
Nearly halfway across the deck, she stopped and stared into the night.
With a new moon, the land lay deep in shadow.
“You can’t do that. The moon’s waxing gibbous,” she said, continuing to stare. “You’ll vanish the instant you step off theOnly Love’s deck.”
“I can take you. I might not be corporeal outside of theOnly Love, but I still exist. At this phase of the moon, I am more in the spirit world and have all the powers of most phantoms.”
This time when she looked back at him, Grace’s green eyes were wide. “Now you’re telling me ghosts are real.” A frantic titter escaped her lips.
“Not that the topic is relevant at the moment, but I exist in that world most of the time, so yes, ghosts are real.”
She pivoted to face him. “A curse that condemns a man to live as a spirit and a man at the same time. Real ghosts. A VooDoo priestess praying for my protection. A pair of dogs that obey my every command without any training. A book with blank pages, that fill as a man tells me what is written there. A ship that should never have been able to sail into waters as shallow as these—a nearly invisible, broken ship at that. Until some magic makes it not just appear but exist in one piece with nearly no signs of the century it has been here. Sure, of course that man will be able to take me home, even though he has no physical body. Except that I kissed the man, and his body was almost too physical.” Her hands fisted at her sides, and she stepped toward him. “Just how many incredible events do you think I can believe at one time?” Grace flung her arms wide. “Yeah, go ahead. Do your ghostly worst and take me home.”
Chapter Nineteen
March 18, 1912 New Moon
Sweet Dreams Plantation House
One moment she stared at Luc aboard the deck of his ship, the next instant she stood in her bedroom.
Yipping, the dogs raced up the stairs and swirled around her feet. Luc must have let them in, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Luc are you here?” Grace called.
The curtains of the French window billowed.
“You need time. Call my name when you want me,” his voice whispered on the breeze. The dogs kept dancing and licking at her hands. “Mars, Mercury, lay down,” she ordered. They took up their nightly spot in front of her bedroom door.
Grace slumped onto the bed. He was right. She did need time. She thought she believed in his curse, but seeing his ship, kissing him had been… too much.
That kiss had been glorious, but the moment she stepped from his arms, fear—bone-deep, blade-sharp, heart-rending fear—had overwhelmed her.
I’ve kissed men before, and kissing Luc wasn’t all that different.
Why in the world would she be afraid of something, so… ordinary?
However, the embrace had been about as far from ordinary as the North Star was from Bayou Mal Chance.
Every romantic cliché about making love applied—to the nth degree.
The earth moved. Lightning struck. Her blood sizzled. Her world spun. Everything had vanished except him.
All those truisms combined could not describe the seething heat, the searing joy of kissing and holding Luc. Grace had been as close to rapture as humanly possible.
