Phantom Series Boxed Set by Julie Leto Read Free Book Online Page A

lack of size. The minute she regained her balance, she yanked her hand from his and stepped back to establish distance.
    “I apologize, my lady. As for what I am, I cannot yet say. As to who, I am Damon Forsyth.”
    She popped the tie holding her hair in place, releasing the red strands in thick, shiny waves. She sighed. Apparently loosening her hair alleviated some of the pain in her head. Her jaw relaxed, but only slightly.
    “So, Damon Forsyth, are you dead?”
    Damon glanced down at his body, examining the coarse texture of his breeches and the slick leather of his boots. “I do not believe so, madam. Quite frankly, I’ve not felt this alive for centuries.”
    “Then what are you?”
    “I’m quite certain I do not yet know. Previously, I was the son of John Forsyth, a British baron and governor of a Gypsy colony in a land called—”
    “Valoren?”
    Damon gaped. “You know this place?”
    She shook her head. “No, I don’t know it at all. Just the name. And you’re not in Kansas anymore, Sir Damon. Then again, neither am I.”
    Wavering on her feet, she reached out to find her balance. Luckily, Damon was the nearest solid object. Her hand gripped his powerfully, and for a split second he imagined those same fingers seizing his naked shoulders or raking across his back.
    He cleared his throat and shook the bawdy image from his mind. “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