Page 55 of Flirty Fall Fling

“This looks very expensive.”

“Well”—I shrug—“it did ship from a specific cellar in France.”

“Jamie.”

“You gave me your fave. It’s only fair that I do the same so we experience both together.”

She looks at me for a beat too long. “Before we get comfortable, you should know my cousin now believes she heard a ghost last night.”

I stop midway. “Excuse me?”

“She heard you.”

“Not us?” I ask with a brow popped. “You were so much louder than me.”

“She didn’t say she heard a woman too. Because of you, she wanted to hold a séance.”

I can’t stop grinning. This woman isn’t like anyone I’ve ever met. Our conversations are ones I could never have with anyone else. It’s one of the reasons why she interests me so much.

“A séance,” I repeat, almost laughing.

“Shh. We have to be more careful,” she says, pressing one finger into my chest.

I lift her hand to my mouth and kiss her fingers that smell like a forest in the summer.

“You’re addictive,” I whisper. “The way you smell.” I kiss inside her wrist. “The way you taste.”

Her breath hitches as I press her into the counter.

“Not here,” she says against my mouth.

She slides two glasses from the cabinet, and then I follow her down another dark hallway. She stops at a set of tall double doors that swing open before her hand touches them.

Blaire thinks nothing of it as she waltzes inside, pulling my hand with her. I try to make sense of what I witnessed, blaming a draft or old hinges. Or maybe it’s magic.

This room is huge, with shelves that go from the floor to the ceiling. There are two rolling ladders to reach the books in the top rows. Several stained-glass windows glow from the streetlight. It smells like old paper and wax.

Blaire lights a kerosene lantern and pulls me with her past the big oak desk. With the tug of a book, a secret door unclicks and slides open. Behind it, narrow stone steps drop down into complete darkness.

“Am I allowed to be in here?” I whisper.

“You’re invited to be my personal guest.” She brings the lantern up higher and starts down.

“Is this where you’ll harvest my kidneys?”

“Why don’t you come find out?” She waggles her brows.

I have to duck to follow her.

We go lower, and the air changes. It’s much cooler. Eight more steps, and then we’re entering another room through another door.

The lantern’s light spreads across an area that’s built right into the manor’s foundation. Stone walls are as thick as my forearm, and we’re surrounded by them. A rug is laid over the concrete floor. Against the far wall is a blue velvet couch. In the corner is a worn armchair and a little table with a candle stub and a deck of tarot cards. Dried herbs hang in bundles from the beams overhead.

“What is this place?”

“One hundred years ago, it was used as a cellar. My aunt turned it into her hideaway, where she performed her serious magic.” She sets the lantern on the table and takes the wines from me one at a time. “It’s soundproof. We’re under the house. It’s not discussed in any of the history of the house. No one knows it exists.” She meets my eyes and smiles. “Except you and me.”

“Okay, I’m feeling pretty fucking special right now,” I say as she opens the wine and pours us each a glass.