Read Man about the House (Wicked Wraiths) Online
Authors: Mina Carter
With a heavy heart, he headed for the door. He’d blown it. Hex was going to laugh until he pissed himself over how he’d spent twelve hours as a sex wraith and still got his ass dumped before he could get a second date.
“Wait.” Her voice stopped him as his hand landed on the door handle. Hope slammed into him, constricting his heart until he could barely breathe. He didn’t turn around. He daren’t. “Did you mean that?”
Her voice was closer, as though she’d moved toward him. He turned his head slightly, not to look at her, but to make sure he was hearing her properly.
“Mean what?”
“Everything. Did you really want…
me
that much?” She was right behind him when she spoke again, her voice filled with an odd mixture of curiosity and hope. “You said you weren’t my type, but it’s not that at all. It’s more I’m not — can’t be — your type. Surely?”
Corvin’s knuckles tightened on the door handle until they showed white. “Asking me or telling me?”
“Asking.”
Turning, he caught her gaze with his. Indecision showed plainly in her chocolate brown eyes. “Darlin’, you’re more than my type. You’re freaking perfect for me. Do you think I’d go to this much trouble for a passing fancy?”
“Yeah, but you’re…” She shrugged, and nibbled her lower lip. Corvin crossed the short distance in two steps and wrapped his hands around her upper arms.
“What do I have to do to persuade you that you’re perfect just as you are?” he demanded, wanting to shake her. The desire must have shown in his eyes because an answering fire filled hers.
“Well, being with me without bloody lying would be a good start!”
Corvin dragged her into his arms, his hands smoothing down her waist and over the flare of her hips possessively. Far from the fight he was expecting, she all but melted against him. “I’m not lying now,” he whispered, tilting her chin up so he could gaze deep into her eyes. “This is who I am, what I am. Give us another chance? Give me another chance? A chance to start again, do it right this time?”
“Well, that depends. Why should I?” Janelle arched her eyebrow as she asked. She wasn’t sure why she was even thinking of giving him a second chance. The little voice in her head, the one that sounded suspiciously like an incredulous Tori, demanded to know what the hell she thought she was playing at. Janelle ignored it, still watching him.
He’d lied. He’d gotten his friend to turn him into a wraith for the night so he could seduce her, but if seduction was all he was interested in, he could have just faded out this morning, and she wouldn’t have been any the wiser. So why had he hung about when he knew the chances of him being caught increased with every passing second.
“You shouldn’t. I was wrong… but, thank you.”
That surprised her and she let it show on her face, leaning back in his hold to look up into his face. His stark male beauty made her stare again. And he was all hers? “Thank you for what?”
He smiled, a quirk of his sinfully full lips. “For making me see, making me grow up. I — I’ve always brushed things off in the past, you see. Ignored problems or made them go away when I’ve screwed up.” He shrugged, colour tinting his high cheekbones as he looked away in embarrassment for a second. Within a heartbeat his blue eyes met hers again, the expression in them earnest. “But this time, with you, it’s different. I screwed up, so I wanted to make things right. I have to make them right.”
Janelle nodded. A hot guy who was prepared to do anything to possess her, who’d actually got his friend to curse him so he could treat her to the hottest night of sex she’d ever had. She’d be nuts to let him go, especially when he was so determined to put things right. “And does starting again mean we have to wait for sex?”
“God, I hope not. But if that’s what you want…”
She smiled and pressed closer. His breathing caught as she walked her fingertips across his broad chest. “Then let’s start again, with the sex part, and go from there?”
Mina was born and raised in the East Farthing of Middle Earth (otherwise known as the Midlands, England) and spend her childhood learning all the sorts of things generally required of a professional adventurer. Able to ride, box, shoot, make and read maps, make chainmail and use a broadsword (with varying degrees of efficiency) she was disgusted to find that adventuring is not considered a suitable occupation these days.
So, instead of slaying dragons and hunting vampires and the like, Mina spends her days writing about hot shifters, government conspiracies and vampire lords with more than their fair share of RAWR. Turns out wanna-be adventurers have quite the turn of imagination after all…
(But she keeps the sword sharp, just in case the writing career is just a dream and she really *is* an adventurer.)
The boring part
: A full time author and cover artist, Mina can usually be found hunched over a keyboard or graphics tablet, frantically trying to get the images and words in her head out and onto the screen before they drive her mad. She’s addicted to coffee and would like to be addicted to chocolate, but unfortunately chocolate dislikes her.
Now Available in eBook:
Seducing the Sergeant
It’s a Wolf Thing (with Chance Masters)
Hedging his Bets (with Celia Kyle)
Reaper
Perfect Mate
Close Protection (Paranormal Protection Agency)
The Wildcat and the Doctor (With BJ Barnes)
Midsummer Heat (Stratton Wolves)
Now Available in Print:
End of Days (anthology)
Halloween Heat (anthology)