The Secret Seduction by Charlie Lane

Author:Charlie Lane
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2020-02-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Allison stumbled through something that was definitely a monologue, or quite possibly a prologue, although maybe an exposition. Carson couldn’t tell. The script, quite simply, stunk like a full chamber pot left in a hot, closed room too long. Perhaps her improvisation improved it, but he couldn’t say for certain. Though his attention fixated on her lips, he had no idea what words they shaped. The shapes themselves, though … damn. He remembered how they’d felt pressed to his own lips, how they’d moved innocently, experimentally. What a heady mixture, that—innocence coupled with the boldness and curiosity of experimentation.

He hardened. Blast. He shifted, trying to hide it. No one looked at him, though. The twenty or so audience members sat in rapt attention for the beautiful girl in the amethyst gown.

Before this afternoon, he’d thought her funny, beautiful, odd. Her mumblings had suggested she held secrets, hidden depths matching his own, but he’d had no idea just how well-matched they actually were. He could not have fashioned a more perfect woman for himself had he been asked to. Her adventurous spirit called to his own, and she knew as well as he the necessity of keeping that spirit hidden.

Chains clunked onto the stage from behind a curtain, thrown by someone hidden. Huge, and heavy-looking, they couldn’t be fake.

“How heavy are those?” Carson whispered.

Beside him, Mary Sillas snorted. “Jack stole ’em from the dockyard, he did.”

Allison kneeled to pick up the chains. Her slender fingers wrapped around the links, her muscles twitched as she attempted to lift them. They stayed right where they were.

“Oh, dear,” said Mary Sillas. “She’s just a bit o’ a thing. Can’t lift ’em. How can she be a ghost if she can’t rattle the chains?”

Carson wondered the same thing, but he didn’t have to wonder for long. Allison stood, faced the audience, clenched and unclenched her hands a few times, then said in a wavering voice, “My burdens are too heavy to carry alone. I must go to my lover, for he shall spend all eternity helping me carry this sinful load.” Treating the audience to a ghost’s lonely wail, she abandoned the chains, gliding across the stage toward where Carson waited in the wings. When her form disappeared from the audience’s view, her face lit up as bright as the afternoon summer sun, and Carson couldn’t help an answering smile. He realized in a flash—he liked Allision Shropshire.

He wasn’t just attracted to her beauty. He wasn’t just tempted by her mischievous, rebellious nature. He liked her determination. He wanted to be around her just to see what she would do next. She’d surprised him today, too, thanking him for the books he’d given her and then apologizing. She’d made amends quickly, ready to change when wrong. She’d be mercurial if her actions weren’t so … premeditated. He laughed, remembering her falling from her crouched position behind the couch. She’d planned the whole damned ambush in order to discover the identity of her book fairy. The beautiful, adventurous minx.

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