Phantom Pleasures: Sexy Paranormal (Book 1, Phantom Series) by Julie Leto Read Free Book Online Page B

“What is this. . .‘can sis’?”
    She snickered. “It’s Kansas.
Wizard of
—oh, never mind. Okay. You’re not dead. And unlike when I saw you in the window earlier, you are now solid. Which means?”
    Damon took a second before he realized he was supposed to provide the missing information to her supposition. “I know not, my lady. My last memory includes a powerful anger toward a dark sorcerer. I must suppose that this anger led me here.”
    She blew out a breath and managed to stand solidly on her own. “So, you pissed off some magician who locked you in the painting?”
    Damon winced. Such language from a woman of breeding was wholly unexpected, but nonetheless intriguing. “What makes you think
I
angered
him
?”
    She broadened her stance in a pose that looked vaguely defensive. “He wouldn’t have trapped his best friend in here all this time, would he?”
    Damon thought of the cat. “I would not be so sure.” Eyeing her skeptically, he wondered at the breadth of their conversation. For a woman who’d just confronted someone whose presence could not be explained scientifically, she appeared mostly unruffled. Did such occurrences happen daily in her century?
    “You have no trouble accepting that I am a man out of time?” he asked.
    She laughed. Not a tinkling, genteel giggle, but an out-and-out guffaw. “I have a lot of trouble, believe me. But I can’t ignore what is right in front of me.”
    Nor could he. She was hauntingly lovely, with eyes the color of leaves in spring and skin that, despite a natural pale hue, glowed with life. But mostly, she possessed a fire he’d never witnessed in a woman so young, so lonely. She’d reacted to him too easily to be a woman who warmed herself regularly in any man’s bed.
    “Perhaps I am not real at all,” he offered, wanting to verify his suspicions, “but a figment of your powerful fantasy?”
    Her shock, followed by a quick flash of anger, told Damon more than she intended, he was sure. That she was lonely. That she was in need of a lover. And that she wasn’t happy about it. Not, at least, when someone else voiced her innermost desires.
    She pinched him on the arm. Instinctively, he stepped back and voiced his displeasure with a random curse.
    Her chuckle infuriated him, but he had to admit, she possessed a wealth of courage. She’d turned the tables, saucy wench.
    “You’re as real as the knot on my head,” she insisted. “At least, for my purposes. Question is,
why
are you here?”
    Damon took a deep breath, invigorated again by the rush of air into his lungs. This, coupled with his attraction to this beautiful, headstrong woman, was a sensation he never wanted to forget. “I have no idea, my lady, but I do intend to find out.”
    Her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist before he could react. He squelched his instinct to twist out of her grip, startled by the heat of her flesh. She turned his hand and pressed her fingers tightly on his palm. Satisfied by what she felt there, she quickly scratched her nails across his skin.
    He winced. “Is this a new form of greeting?”
    She pulled his hand closer and watched as nail marks swelled.
    “You feel pain; you have a heartbeat and blood flow,” she assessed.
    Damon attempted to gently remove his hand from her grip, but she held tight. With no need to demonstrate his power at the moment, he simply arched a brow.
    She released him but showed no repentance for her audacious behavior.
    “You have not yet reciprocated,” he reminded her.
    “Excuse me?”
    Absently, he rubbed the spot where she’d marred his flesh. “Your name?”
    “Oh.” She thrust her hand at him. “Alexa Chandler, president and CEO of Crown Chandler Enterprises.”
    He glanced skeptically at her hand. He gave her a sweeping bow, then stepped aside.
    She pulled her hand back. “You weren’t solid before,” she said.
    “I daresay you know nothing of who I was before, Miss Chandler. Or is it Lady Chandler?”
    She snorted.