Double Dating with the Dead by Karen Kelley (best fiction novels to read .txt) 📗

Selena James looked even better in color than she had in the grainy black-and-white photo above her weekly psychic column in the newspaper.

He wondered if she knew that with the sunlight streaming in behind her, the skirt she wore was practically transparent. He didn’t think he wanted to tell her. He rather enjoyed the view. Payback for the very public challenge she’d issued in the paper just because he’d said she was delusional—on television.

A twinge of guilt flickered over him. He quickly dismissed it. The woman was delusional. There were no such things as ghosts or people who talked to ghosts.

“Did I scare you?” she asked in a mocking voice, one eyebrow lifting sardonically. She swept into the room, and shadows blocked the view of her legs.

A shame because he could’ve looked at Selena James’s legs a lot longer.

“I don’t scare so easily.” He casually leaned against the balustrade and crossed his arms in front of him.

“But then you’ve never stayed in a haunted hotel,” she said.

“I can’t stay in a place that’s haunted since there are no such things as ghosts.”

As she stepped closer, he could see her eyes were a deep, haunting violet, her features pure, patrician. And she was tall. Maybe five-eight. For some reason he’d pictured her much shorter.

When she breezed past him, he caught the scent of her perfume. It wrapped around him, begging him to follow wherever she might lead. She was definitely a temptation, but one he’d resist. After all, she was the enemy.

She faced him, and his heart skipped a beat. Knowing she was the enemy didn’t make her any less alluring and sexy. Probably the reason she had so many followers who faithfully read her column. She was like a spider, weaving her web for the unsuspecting fly. But he knew her game and wouldn’t be drawn in. No, Miss James had finally met her match.

Definitely tempting, though.

Man, he’d been spending way too many hours closeted away in front of his computer while he met his last deadline, then been consumed with promotion for his current release, Ghosts and Other Guff. Dating hadn’t been a top priority.

Two weeks alone with Selena might not be so bad. She was hot, definitely hot. He wondered how hard it would be to entice her into his bed. At least then his stay here wouldn’t be such a waste. It was an option worth considering.

Selena watched Trent. The changing emotions on his face that finally settled into speculation.

Would she or wouldn’t she?

She’d seen that interested look before in men’s eyes. Trent wasn’t bad himself—even better in person than he had been on television, which was what started this whole mess. Sure, it was only a local station, but he’d said she was obviously delusional. Announced it on television without a care in the world.

So if he thought she’d be climbing in his bed, he’d better think again.

She didn’t care that his shoulders were wide and his eyes a bright green, the color of finely cut emeralds. The kind of eyes, and the kind of smile, that could talk her right out of her clothes and have her naked on a bed before she realized how she’d gotten there.

Oh, yes, he was a clean-shaven devil in an expensive suit and, if she wasn’t mistaken, wearing designer cologne.

But she wasn’t stupid and she wouldn’t fall for his charm. He’d figure that out soon enough.

Trent was a skeptic. Her enemy. He’d made jokes about her column. She could very well lose her job if she didn’t change his opinion about the supernatural by the end of their stay.

Lust could not enter the equation.

She faced him once again, tilting her chin and looking up at him. He was very tall, too. “You said some pretty ugly things about me on television. Do you always take potshots at people you’ve never met?”

“Nothing personal.”

Was he serious? The bangles on her wrists jangled when she planted her hands on her hips. “Nothing personal? You’re joking, right?”

She gritted her teeth. She would not stoop to losing her temper. But she’d love to wipe that sardonic smirk right off his face!

His smile turned downward, and it was like a thundercloud hovered over him. Well, she was the lightning bolt that would strike him down.

“I go after all cheats, not just you,” he said.

“Now I’m a cheat?” I won’t lose my temper, she told herself.

“You’re bilking the public when you feed them a line of crap about ghosts being everywhere and that you can talk to them.”

“And how do you know they aren’t?”

He swung his arm wide. “Do you see any?” He looked toward the second floor. “If there are any ghosts here, show yourselves,” he yelled.

Silence.

He looked at her. “See, no ghosts.”

If there were any in the old hotel, he’d probably pissed them off. One thing she hated more than a skeptic was a pissed-off ghost. They could get really nasty when they were riled.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she warned.

“Should I be worried that a ghost will suddenly appear?” He went to the front door and scooped up his suitcases. “There are no such things as ghosts. If there are, please point them out to me.”

Stay calm, she told herself. Take a deep breath.

Exhale! Don’t forget to exhale.

She let her breath out and smiled. At least, she hoped it looked like a smile and not a snarl.

“No, I don’t see any ghosts, but that doesn’t mean they’re not here. They don’t always show themselves.”

He walked past her, then out of the blue, flinched. He spun around, one eyebrow raised. “That was rather childish, don’t you think?”

“That I believe in ghosts? I think you’ve made it plain what you think about my psychic abilities.”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, and it isn’t ghosts.” He frowned.

Two weeks with a loony. Selena’s mother was going to regret challenging Trent in her daughter’s name. And if Mom forgot for one minute, Selena planned to remind her.

Darn it, she’d warned her mother