Spirit [New Crescent 2] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Read online

  New Crescent 2

  Spirit

  All her life, Reggie Stanton has felt connected to Bennett House. Her childhood dreams come true when she's asked to restore the old place. Unfortunately, old friend and combatant Chase McCann has been hired to do the landscaping.

  They share a tension filled past he won't talk about, and things are definitely heating up between them. Seeing him, all hot and dirty day after day, wears down Reggie's resistance. The situation is made worse when unexplained and often dangerous things start to happen around the house. What is the soul-sucking evil lurking in the library and what do the children have to do with it? She enlists the help of the meddlesome, matchmaking ghost haunting the garden.

  Reggie's willing to risk everything to solve the mystery surrounding Bennett House, but sex with Chase would really complicate matters. Especially since Reggie's been secretly in love with him for years.

  Sensuality Rating: SENSUAL

  Genre: Paranormal/Romantic Suspense

  Length: 73,350 words

  SPIRIT

  New Crescent 2

  Mary Lou George

  ROMANCE

  www.BookStrand.com

  A SIREN-BOOKSTRAND TITLE

  IMPRINT: Romance

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK VERSION: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to one LEGAL copy for your own personal use. It is ILLEGAL to send your copy to someone who did not pay for it. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book.

  SPIRIT

  Copyright © 2008 by Mary Lou George

  E-book ISBN: 1-60601-096-4

  First E-book Publication: October 2008

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2008 by Siren-BookStrand, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  Printed in the U.S.A.

  PUBLISHER

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  For Kim and Bill. I couldn’t do it without you.

  SPIRIT

  New Crescent 2

  MARY LOU GEORGE

  Copyright © 2008

  Prologue

  He hungered. Not for food…but for life. How long had it been? Time was a concept he no longer grasped. A taste here, a taste there. He’d existed on so little, so pathetically little. But change was coming. He’d felt it when he’d fed from that snooping kid. There were always people nosing around. Their curiosity angered him, but it sustained him. Barely. It was time.

  Chapter 1

  “Bennett House sold?” Regina Stanton swallowed a mouthful of pancake and said, “I was only gone two months. How could it have sold so quickly?”

  “I guess there’s still a market for large waterfront properties with white elephants on them,” Reggie’s father replied.

  “I happen to like elephants, white or black or even pink. Whatever. I don’t discriminate.” She looked earnestly at her father “So, it’s gone then. My house belongs to someone else. Who bought it?”

  Don Stanton glanced over his shoulder at his wife, slicing bananas at the counter. She nodded to him and he said, “Some writer…goes by the name, Pat Somers?”

  Reggie choked, and with a grin, her father thumped her on the back. “You’ve heard of her?”

  She rolled her brandy colored eyes at him and gasped. “Only because I’ve read all of her books! This is amazing! New Crescent is the perfect place for someone like her to live. And in Bennett House?” Her smile dissolved as she said, “Please tell me she doesn’t intend to tear the place down.”

  Her mother stepped in, placing another plate of pancakes and fruit before them. “Apparently not.” She sat down and dug in. “She’s having it restored. The house, the gardens, the path to the beach, the whole bit.”

  “The work is well underway,” her father said. “Nothing but the best.”

  “This is great news. Did you meet her?” Reggie licked maple syrup off her finger.

  Her mother handed her a napkin. “No one’s met her. She made all the arrangements through an agent named Jackie Blake. Your father handled the sale. We debated calling and telling you, but we didn’t want to interrupt your trip.”

  Looking at her plate, Reggie chased a blueberry with her fork and effectively avoided her mother’s eye. She wasn’t ready to discuss what had happened that past fateful summer. The only sound heard in the kitchen was the familiar burping and sighing of the coffeemaker.

  Reggie finally broke the awkward silence. “Thank you both for holding down the fort while I was gone. I especially missed you…my sweetie. It was way too long.”

  She reached down and gave her beloved dog, Prudence, an enthusiastic mauling. Prudence, or Pru to her nearest and dearest, lapped it up.

  After breakfast, Reggie accompanied her father to town. Happiness made her heart beat faster as they drove the familiar streets.

  She tilted her head in her father’s direction and sighed. “I swear, Dad, for me, New Crescent is a little slice of paradise on earth. It’s good to be home.”

  He nodded. “Yup, that’s the way it is, pretty much. Our native sons and daughters always find their way back to us” His face creased with concern. “Does it still bother you that you didn’t inherit the Goode family gift?”

  Reggie shrugged. “Not so much. I’ve accepted the fact that I was passed over. I’m just happy that their blood runs through my veins.” She waved a hand at the charming main street. “Look what they founded. What kind of courage would it have taken to provide sanctuary during the Salem witch hunts? For that Rebecca, Elizabeth, and Morgan Goode will always be my heroes.”

  His lips turned up into a gentle smile and he sent it her way. “That’s my girl.”

  “It’s enough to be part of this magical town. It still amazes me that some outsiders come here and never even sense the undercurrents. They have no idea that it’s so much more—that it’s a place where the unexplainable is almost commonplace.” Sad for a moment, she shook her head. “They think New Crescent is your run of the mill, uneventful small town. The few who take the time to look into our past think the stories of enchantment are manufactured just to entertain the tourists. They smile and act like they’re privy to some sort of inside joke when really they kind of just float on the surface of a calm sea and never dive deeper to explore the wonders beneath the surface. They miss so much.”

  “Their loss.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more. My guess is the Goode sisters set it up that way,” Reggie nodded as they pulled into the parking space behind the real estate office. “Not everyone can handle the knowledge that there is more to this world than what meets the eye. It’s best left to those who are armed with the gifts necessary to comprehend—and the power to act.”

  Situated on the main street of New Crescent, Stanton Realty had been in business for years, always owned and operated by a descendant of Rebecca Goode. After her father retired, Reggie had taken over the company. She loved it. There was something very satisfying about finding the perfect home for a client. For Reggie, roots ran deep. Land was more than something to be bought or sold if the price was right. Here, in this town, it
was a birthright, and it meant everything.

  The office was a welcome sight. As soon as she unlocked the door, she felt comfortable. Decorated in shades of white, blue, and green, the subtle colors and whitewashed furniture suited her to a tee. Reggie took the chair behind the desk. Her father sat opposite her.

  She looked at him with suspicion. “That’s a pretty smug look you’ve got on your face there, Dad. Care to fill me in?”

  He sucked at subterfuge.

  Bursting with excitement, he rubbed his hands together and shifted his chair closer. “I have a job for you.”

  She looked around the office, her eyes wide and said, “I thought I already had a job.”

  “Of course you do dear and you’re very good at it. The business is yours and has been since the day you were born. It’s been gratifying to see you make such a success of it.”

  “I like this work, Dad. Maybe it’s in my blood. I had to inherit at least something from Rebecca Goode besides height, right?” Reggie was almost five feet ten in her socks. It was a well-known fact that founding sister Rebecca Goode had been unusually tall, and Reggie picked up where her ancestor had left off. From her mother, she’d inherited lush curves, blonde hair, and warm coloring, a fact she’d never bemoaned even though her looks had often made men forget what they were saying. Perhaps she wasn’t beautiful in the conventional sense of the word, but she was sexy and striking.

  Don Stanton ignored his daughter’s self deprecating comment. “Have you ever considered making use of your more creative abilities?”

  “Cut to the chase. What are you asking me exactly?”

  “Pat Somers’s agent asked me if I knew anyone in town who would be interested in taking on the interior design of Bennett House, and I thought of you. I know of no one in this world who cares more about that house. You took interior design in college. You’re the perfect choice.”

  Regina stared at her father, a look of astonishment on her face. “I don’t have the experience. That’s an awfully big job.”

  “The woman wants to hire someone connected to this town. She knows all about you and wants you to take on the project. I must admit, I waxed a bit poetic about your love of the place when I showed the house. I guess my charm held sway. Just call the agent and work out the details. The project is yours if you want it.”

  She laughed. “Want it? I’d have to be crazy to say no. It’s the kind of thing I dreamed about when I was a kid…it seems almost too good to be true.”

  “Well, honey, sometimes dreams come true.” He walked around the desk and kissed the top of her head. Turning on the computer, he said, “I’ll continue on here in the office until you’re finished with Bennett House. Why don’t you go take a look right now, check the place out.”

  “So, Mick Jagger, is this just an underhanded way of coming out of retirement? Is Mom okay with it?”

  “Would I be suggesting it to you if she hadn’t already approved the idea? I’m old, not stupid.”

  She moved from the chair so he could take it. “You’re neither. And I love you very much. Mind if I take the car?”

  “Stop! Flashback! The first year you had your license...didn’t they call you Crash?” He laughed at her expression and said, “Ah, good times…”

  He tossed her his keys.

  In the driver’s seat of her father’s car, Reggie sighed. Funny how things work out. Her very first solo voyage behind the wheel had been this exact route. She’d made the trip to Bennett House countless times, by every mode of transportation available to her. From the age of eight, when her only means was a silver Raleigh bicycle, she’d taken this road, made this turn. Every tree and shrub had grown up right along with her, like siblings. She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t longed to live in the big house. But no, now it belonged to someone else, it seemed Bennett House wasn’t her destiny and like other disappointments in her life, she’d accepted it with grace.

  Nearing the lane that led to the house, Reggie shook off the threat of melancholy and forced her mind to concentrate on the positive. If she couldn’t have it, then what a wonderful stroke of luck to be able to make the house over the way she’d always imagined. As a child, late at night when she couldn’t sleep, she’d restore the house and grounds in her mind, eventually drifting off to sleep where more vivid dreams awaited her.

  Surprisingly, she’d never spent much time inside the house itself. She’d snuck in through boarded up windows a time or two, but for as long as she could remember, Bennett House had been empty and forgotten. When she was younger, she’d resented that the house was ignored by its owners, by outsiders. In her mind, it was despicable to leave such a place abandoned. It deserved life, love, tender-loving care. It gave her satisfaction to know that she’d get her chance to make it a home, even if not for herself.

  As she rounded the last curve of the driveway, Reggie smiled at the number of vehicles parked in front. The place was a hive of activity. Her pleasure was short-lived, however, when she spied the all-too-familiar, beat-up Chevy pickup.

  Chase McCann. Hell! The last person she was prepared to see right now. For a split second she considered turning the car around and heading for home, but that option slipped away when the man himself stepped out of the house and recognized the car. He headed toward her.

  Chapter 2

  He moved with an economy of motion that was heartbreakingly familiar to her. It suited him. With Chase, nothing was wasted. Everything counted. He spoke only when something needed to be said and acted only when something needed to get done. She couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t know him. He was sewn into the fabric of her life like threads of gold woven into a priceless tapestry.

  At six feet seven, he was the only person who’d ever truly towered over her. Sometimes he could make her feel so small. And not just because of his height. Like Reggie, her friends Travis Sinclair, Sam Daniels, and Chase McCann were from Old Families. They’d all been close since childhood. Travis and Sam were like brothers to her, but Chase had always stood aside. Things were different with him. He was no brother to her. The difference was subtle and indefinable, but Reggie knew it was there…between them. Still, she couldn’t imagine her world without him in it.

  Sitting behind the steering wheel of her father’s car, Reggie braced for impact. Chase reached the driver’s side just as she stepped out. Neither said a word. He held the door open for her, closed it after her, and still they said nothing.

  Uncharacteristically, Chase broke the silence. “No one told me you were back.”

  She looked up at him. Damn, he looked good. A tuft of hair stood up on the crown of his head. The sun shone through it. He’d got a hair cut. Maybe he’d had to because of the head wound he’d suffered on her account that past summer. The summer they’d never talked about.

  The sun had lightened the tips of his sandy brown hair and had darkened his skin just enough. Reggie knew that some men these days spent hours and paid a fortune to achieve just a fraction of what Chase McCann came by so effortlessly. The thought irritated her and added an edge to her voice.

  “I’m back. There, I told you.”

  “Good.”

  His blue eyes held humor as he appeared to wait for Reggie to start talking. She couldn’t resist. It’s what she did when he was around. She talked.

  “I guess I’d never be back officially until I came here. My dad and mom told me that Pat Somers bought the place. She’s my favorite writer you know…” They started toward the house.

  Reggie had come unprepared, wearing much-loved, but impractical, high-heeled sandals. The gravel made it difficult to walk with dignity. Without uttering a word, he took her elbow and helped steady her. She continued to fill the silence with chatter. His touch sent tiny reverberations through her body and her heart raced.

  Abruptly, she stopped walking and talking and paused for a second.

  “I came to the hospital the next day to see you, but they told me you’d left against doctor’s advice.”
>
  “I hate hospitals.”

  “Who doesn’t? You should have listened to the doctors. Head wounds can be serious.” She sighed. “The slightest dent and your hair never parts right again.”

  Her quip scored, and he laughed. She kept talking. “I went to your house and the Garden Center, and you weren’t there either. You’d left.”

  “There was something I had to take care of.”

  She put a hand on her hip and looked up at him with irritation. “Care to tell me what was so important?”

  “No.”

  She shook her head. “No surprise there, but don’t you think I deserve some sort of explanation? I put myself between you and a bullet, cowboy. That should count for something, even to you.”

  He had a closed look on his face. “It’s not my story to tell.”

  She knew she’d get nothing more from him and sighed with impatience. They were right back to their usual dynamic, Chase calm and stubborn, Reggie angry and frustrated. She had hoped things would be different after what they’d been through together last summer, but nothing had changed. He still maintained that invisible but rock-solid distance between them. Instinctively, she too slid back into old habits. She put an arm up to push him aside.

  “Okay, that’s it then. Out of my way, Lawn Boy. I need to take a look around inside. I’m going to bring this house back to life.”

  He didn’t move. She sighed and looked past his shoulder. Rolling her eyes and pasting a bored expression on her face, she pointed. “Oh look, your minions are getting restless, a fight’s about to break out.”

  He turned and swore creatively. She raised her eyebrows and thought, Profanity. At least something’s changed.