Page 41

“Would either of them do it?”

“No, my landlord checks in occasionally but he always plans any maintenance visits ahead of time. I suppose Rhys could have stopped by while I was gone and grabbed a bite on his way out.”

“Seems like a brotherly thing to do.”

“Actually . . . He would totally fuck around with my pillows too. He likes to give me shit for how I arrange my bed. That doesn’t excuse the footsteps and eerie sounds, though.”

“No,” he says with a relaxed sigh. “But that place is so old it could easily be loud pipes or boards settling. Perhaps your neighbor picked up tap dancing.”

His hand slides up the side of my ribs as he readjusts his position, leaving shivers in its wake. Whoa. That should not have felt as seductive as it did. It’s because I’m touch-starved. It’s not Casper. The absence of contact for years has made my skin overly sensitive. That’s all. It’s a good thing I didn’t react with a purr or something equally humiliating. Unfortunately, the caress clears my mind of all thoughts and I’ve lost our place in the conversation.

“’Tis the season, being October and all.”

That’s right, ghosts. “I can’t believe it’s already October,” I groan.

“What do you have against it?”

“Nothing, I love fall. It just feels like the last couple months have gone by quickly. That, and I’m involved in organizing this fundraiser at work and it’s coming up soon.”

“How soon?” he asks.

“October thirty-first.”

“Oh, so it’s a Halloween thing.”

“Nope.” The corner of my mouth tilts. “It’s a very secular Harvest Festival.”

“Booo,” he says under his breath. “Well it’s not that secular on October thirty-first.”

I made the same argument, but that call was up to the people handling community outreach. “It’s also not secular that they encourage volunteers to wear costumes under their volunteer shirts, but . . .”

“Seriously?” He chuckles. “So what’s your costume this year?”

“No idea.” I should probably start figuring that out.

“Do you do the whole sexy noun thing?”

“Sexy noun?”

“Yeah, you know. Sexy nurse, sexy cat, sexy mustard, sexy washing machine.”

“How do you make a washing machine sexy?” I ask.

I see him raise a brow in the mirror’s reflection. “I mean . . . Have you watched any porn lately? There are women getting stuck in them all the time. Those appliances are quite dangerous.”

“Good to know.”

“Stay vigilant, Duchess. And if you ever get trapped, call me before your stepbrother.”

I laugh. “I don’t even have a stepbrother.”

He grins, still not looking at me. “I said what I said.”

Is he flirting with me? I err on the side of caution and roll my eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”

I took a nap after I got home from my appointment with Casper; my body was wiped out. Around seven p.m. I wake up to my phone chiming next to me. There’s a brief moment of disorientation at how dark it is outside. I squint at the bright screen.

Casper