Page 8 of Possess Me

“Evelyn insists she hates that,” I say, fighting a laugh.

Damien shakes his head. “I think she loves it.” Evelyn Dodge has been a fixture in Damien’s life since childhood when she acted as his agent during his years as a professional tennis player, both as a kid and as an adult. She’s been my friend and pseudo-mom for years, and a huge improvement on the woman who biologically has that title.

And since she’s now married to my father, I can legitimately call her Mom. And my kids call her Gran. Damien’s right, of course. Brassy and bold, Evelyn will go to her grave pretending that she’s still too young to be “Grandma,” thank you very much. While all the time, she’s giddy inside.

I’ve seen the look in her eye.

I glance up to tell Damien all of that, and only then do I notice a street sign.

Metropole Avenue.

“You brought me to Metropole?” I pause to look at him, my mind whirring. “Are we heading to Hollywood House?”

I can’t keep the eager note out of my voice. Hollywood House is what the vacation rental company that bought Vivien Lorainne’s house after her death named the property. And, of course, they listed it in the Haunted Mansions subsection of their catalog.

At less than two thousand square feet, the house isn’t actually a mansion. From the pictures I’ve seen and the things I’ve read, it’s a cute little blue cottage with white trim. It has a covered porch, a huge back patio with a view of the ocean, three bedrooms, a living room, and a dining room. The cottage was Vivien’s favorite place in the world, and she lived there permanently, leaving it only when she was filming or traveling.

“If we’re staying overnight, I wish you’d told me,” I say, my secretly aching feet no longer aching. “We could have brought our luggage.”

“I’m not giving away anything,” he says. “Besides, I think I’m insulted that you don’t trust me to have taken care of that.”

“You make a good point, Mr. Stark.”

He chuckles as we round a bend. “Eyes on the pavement, okay?”

“I already figured it out,” I say, but he simply stares me down.

“Fine,” I agree, far too giddy to argue. I let him guide me the rest of the distance, then draw in a breath when he moves behind me, his hands on my shoulders. “We’re here.”

It’s exactly as I’ve seen it in photographs. Only one thing is different—there’s a For Sale sign in the yard. And hanging from it is a smaller sign, bright red with white letters: SOLD.

3

Sold?

I glance toward the sign, lit in the warm glow of a street lamp, then back at Damien, his face alight with humor and just a hint of something else. Nerves, I think. Except Damien very rarely gets nervous.

“You?” I say, my voice little more than a whisper. “Damien, did you buy Vivien Lorainne’s house?”

He spreads his hands in a little boy and the cookie jar gesture.

“For me?”

“For us,” he says, moving in front of me and putting his hands on my hips. “Good surprise, bad surprise, or weird surprise?”

My laugh seems to echo from this hill all the way down to the beach as I throw my arms around his neck. “Good,” I say. “And also a little weird. But in the best possible way,” I add, rising on my toes to kiss him as his hands slide to cup my ass. The kiss is long and deep and fully worthy of a gift of the two-thousand-square-foot variety. And when I pull away, I’m as giddy as if I’d just downed a bottle of champagne.

“You’re sure? You’re not worried about the rumors? Hauntings and all that?”

I wave a hand, brushing away the words. “Vivien Lorainne’s house.” I shrug. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all that needs to be said.

A white picket fence surrounds the house, and when he opens the gate, I practically skip through and onto the front porch. When he joins me, I grin. “I’ll say this for you, Mr. Stark—there’s never a dull moment.”

“And there never will be.”

We share a smile as I lean against the porch railing and study this man who not only still loves me, but still surprises me, managing to make every one of our days together just a teensy bit better than the one before.

Luckiest girl ever, I think, and I can’t help but wonder what I did to deserve Damien in my life.