Page 82 of The Devil and His Ghost

I released a bark of laughter. “I have no shame in getting turned on with you in my lap like this.”

She was quiet for a while, but when she spoke, her voice was nearly inaudible. “How can you want someone like me?”

“I believe we’ve had this discussion before,” I answered just as quietly with my lips against her forehead. I pulled her closer.

“You didn’t know then what you know now.”

There was no fighting the wave of anguish that followed her words. Still, I managed to respond, “No, I didn’t. I know far more now, but it hasn’t changed anything. I’ve never been more sure of anything than I am about what I feel for you, Ghost.”

“Even if I say I hate you?”

“Even then.”

In the good days and the bad. Now, tomorrow, and forever.

Chapter 29

Kendyll

(One Year Ago)

I WATCHED BETHELMA FROM ACROSS the hotel ballroom with a bland scowl. She waved her hands dramatically while talking to the group of fans that had bumped into us as we checked into the grand hotel. We weren’t filming an episode here but were merely rooming here before going to our actual shooting location the following day. This meant the opulent hotel was full of guests, and guests meant showing off her skills. That was, her acting skills, because the ghost she claimed to be communicating with was standing right next to me and watched the farce with just as much annoyed befuddlement as me.

“She’s ridiculous,” the ghost woman said with a shake of her head. “Telling people I’m touching them when I’m nowhere near them!”

Catsper meowed in agreement, watching the spectacle from beside my feet.

Bethelma had asked as we’d arrived here if I felt or saw anyone. I apparently hadn’t learned over the years, because I’d answered honestly about seeing a few ghosts in the lobby, including the woman she was pretending to communicate with right now. Just watching exhausted me, and I knew I’d be even more drained if she suddenly improvised too much and needed my assistance.

Deciding now was my chance to make my getaway, I turned to leave the ballroom with the black ghost cat padding through the air after me. Bethelma would be pissed when she realized I’d left midperformance for her fans, but I couldn’t be bothered to give a damn. I didn’t care about her outbursts anymore.

I didn’t care about much anymore.

“Kendyll. Wait up!”

I slowed in the bustling lobby to let Alex catch up to me. His freckled cheeks pinkened, and he smiled sheepishly at me. “Are you heading up to your room?”

“Yeah. I don’t feel like watching her for another hour.”

“I know it’s already late, but maybe we could go grab a bite to eat or something. You and me. You’ve been working like a mad woman for the past year, taking on extra loads and working ahead of schedule. I thought we could maybe catch up and enjoy the evening a little.”

The past year had been mostly a blur as I practically drowned myself in traveling for work and getting investigations done. I worried that what I ran from would catch up to me if I didn’t keep moving. So I was on autopilot with a laser focus on work. If I didn’t lose myself in the grueling tasks, I’d wonder. I’d remember.

I’d crack.

Clearing my throat, I replied, “What’s there to catch up on? I eat, sleep, and breathe work.”

He laughed nervously and ran a hand through his chestnut hair. “R-Right. True. Still, we could grab a bite to eat and chat a little. We’ve worked together all these years, but we’ve never really sat and … talked.”

I reached the elevator bay where twelve elevators circled us. People waited for a cart to take them up to their room, but the area was so large that there was plenty of space between everyone as we waited.

“Alex, I—”

A riot of female laughter disturbed the easy chatter of the guests in the elevator bay. I turned to glare at the obnoxious newcomers, but instead of a steely stare, my eyes widened and breath halted. Two well-endowed and scantily-clad women were tucked under each of Xander’s arms. He smiled casually as the two blondes caressed his chest and murmured salaciously to him.

Xander’s dark eyes caught mine as the trio drew closer, and the easygoing smile he wore fell away in stunned silence.

The note I’d left behind as I fled his apartment before the sun had even risen became vivid in my mind.