Chapter 6

6

NIALL

I woke up a bit disoriented but deliciously comfortable. Wrapped around a very warm, soft pillow, I tightened my grip, inhaling deeply and finding a pleasant hint of vanilla in the air. The scent was as soft and warm as the pillow, and my lips curled into a smile.

Whatever new detergent the housekeeper is using ? —

My eyes flew wide open when I realized it wasn’t detergent. Or a pillow. Or my house. Well, theoretically, it was my house, but it wasn’t the one I lived in. In reality, I was spooning Tallulah. She was the pillow and it was her scent intoxicating me.

Snuggled up next to me, she was fast asleep. Her black curls shielded her face, but as I quietly untangled myself from her, I caught a glimpse of a soft smile on her lips in a gap between her curls.

I groaned quietly as I got up, careful not to rouse her. Why is my brain telling me to get back in bed with her and never leave?

We were both fully dressed, to my relief, but even that felt wrong. I wanted to crawl back under the covers and pull her into my arms, but I wanted to do it with nothing separating us. Shaking my head at myself, I bent over to collect my shoes, knowing I had to get out of her bedroom as fast as humanly possible. Before she had me under her spell completely.

As the events of last night came back to me, I remembered her asking me to sleep with her, but she’d only meant sleep . I was awake now, and climbing back in bed with her, even fully dressed, would amount to an obvious breach of professional boundaries.

It was a line I’d never crossed before, and I didn’t even like this woman. A part of me scoffed at the thought. Stop lying. You’re intrigued by her. Fascinated. Captivated. She looked you right in the eyes last night and asked you to sleep with her. No one’s ever done anything like that before.

Of course, I hadn’t been able to see her eyes clearly, but I’d felt her gaze on mine. Moreover, I had been able to see a glimmer when the lightning lit the room, so I knew where her eyes had been. That was enough for me to conclude that she’d looked right at me, unwavering and confident when she’d made her request.

After sliding my feet into my shoes, I lingered for a moment, knowing I was being a creeper, but I just wanted to take one last look at her while she slept. The woman confused the balls off me, but she looked so innocent and relaxed in her sleep that it was hard to even remember why when I looked at her now.

So far, she’d actually struck me as a pretty straightforward person. She’d come right out last night and told me that she liked the way I spoke. Even in her interview, she hadn’t held back her thoughts, directly saying that she hadn’t wanted to work for me because of my attitude.

No one had ever told me anything like that before either, and even though she’d ended up taking the job regardless, I knew she hadn’t done it because of me . She hadn’t suddenly changed her mind about working for me, but she’d taken the job because she genuinely wanted to do this specific work— and she’d gotten a place to stay out of the deal to boot.

With her features all smoothed out, that soft smile on her face, and her curls so wild and free, she was even more beautiful than before. Devoid of makeup, pretense, and even that constant, knowing twinkle in her eyes, she was stunning.

But I did miss that twinkle. Strangely, considering that it was one of the things that annoyed me most about her.

Eventually, I tore my gaze away from her creamy skin and headed for the door, quietly leaving the room. Breakfast and coffee would set my mind right. At the last minute, I had remembered to stock the fridge before she moved in. Tallulah had appreciated it, and I was pretty thrilled right at that moment too.

I had a routine in the morning which, to be fair, also included showering and clean clothes, but the most important part of it was my coffee and toast. I needed those two things more than anything else to start the day. Since I didn’t have any clean clothes, I went directly to the kitchen.

The idea of being naked in such close proximity to her was too enticing, which was why showering was out of the question. My libido was already awake and raring to go. I was a master of self-control, but there was something about this unusual situation I was wrapped up in with a gorgeous employee that was already threatening to snap something loose inside me.

Sighing, I switched on the coffee machine and headed over to the fridge. She hadn’t eaten much of anything yet. I frowned, wondering if I’d selected the wrong groceries, but it was pretty standard stuff.

Some fruits, vegetables, cheeses, butter, yogurt, cold cuts, some meat, and more of that sort of thing. None of the packages or containers had been opened, though.

I pulled out the butter and turned, then blinked hard when I found her standing in the doorway, evidently watching me with a playful smile on her lips. “Good morning. Sleep well?”

“I—yes.” Seeing her with her hair all mussed from sleep and wearing nothing more than cotton shorts and a tank top that hugged every curve, I could so easily take her back upstairs and do a lot more than cuddling.

Thank heavens, it had been too dark last night to see what she was wearing when I’d climbed into that bed with her, or else I might’ve tried my luck regardless of any boundaries. Oblivious to my filthy thoughts, she sashayed into the kitchen and reached for two mugs in the cabinet above the coffee machine.

“Thanks for coming to check on me last night and for sticking around this morning,” she said, apparently unaware that we’d slept completely intertwined. “I’ll admit that I was a little freaked out before you got here.”

At her words, I forced my brain out of the gutter. Clearly, this girl was opposed to asking for help, and though she seemed to like pretending she didn’t need it, it suddenly became obvious that she did. “Do you eat?”

She frowned before she let out a chuckle. “What kind of question is that? Of course, I eat. Doesn’t everyone?”

“Well, one would think so, but you haven’t touched anything in your fridge. Should I have ordered something else? I don’t mind restocking if I’ve somehow?—”

“It’s not the food,” she said quickly, interrupting me, but with a smile on her face. “I’ve never lived alone before and I don’t really cook for myself. I did touch the cereal in the pantry last night, if that makes you feel better.”

“You had cereal for dinner?”

She inclined her head at me. “It’s the best. What did you have?”

“Coq au vin,” I replied absently, wondering about her background before she’d come to New Orleans. “Do you always have cereal for dinner, and if so, what do you have for breakfast?”

She shrugged. “Coffee.”

I found myself chuckling at her—again—and I was so surprised that I spun back to the fridge to buy a moment to collect myself. “Well, not today. Today, I’m cooking breakfast for you. Eggs and sausages. You’re not a vegetarian, right?”

“Definitely not.” She fixed her own coffee before glancing at me as I carried what I needed to the stove. “Do you take cream and sugar?”

“Nope. I take it dark and bitter.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” she asked jokingly, handing over my mug.

I reached for a pan hanging above the stove and chuckled again, wondering why it came so naturally with her when I didn’t usually relax around anyone but Jake. Maybe because we had shared a bed. “Where are you from?”

“California,” she said, but when she didn’t elaborate, I figured it was because she didn’t want to talk about it. She tended to ramble on about stuff, so in her case, being mum about something spoke volumes.

Her response sparked something in my memory, though. “Right. I knew that, didn’t I? You told me so when I caught you sneaking around my house. Something about California and Anne Rice.”

She laughed as she sat at the kitchen table and turned so she could watch me cook. “I wasn’t sneaking. I paid for a tour and we got lost. That’s what happens when you take a friend with you who’s trying to distract herself from her fear.”

“She was that scared?” I asked mildly. “In my house? Funny, I’ve always found the place to be rather welcoming.”

“Only people like you and I would find an old, gothic mansion with a dark history welcoming,” she said, but I couldn’t tell if she was joking.

“Most of that dark history is nonsense,” I told her. “From what I’ve been able to find out, the Ramparts were primarily a very tight knit, loving family.”

“What about the daughter they chained to her bed because she was mentally ill?”

I scoffed. “Nonsense. There are birth records for a total of five daughters being born to any Rampart who ever lived in that house. It seems they were more inclined to have sons. But I managed to track each one of those daughters and none of them died under mysterious circumstances.”

“Well, that’s a disappointment.”

I frowned. “It’s a disappointment that the family didn’t chain one of their own to a bed and let her die?”

Tallulah’s eyes widened and she paused for a moment. Then she laughed. “When you put it that way, I feel like an asshole for having wanted it to be true. I suppose it’s a good story to draw people in, though. Makes it sound like they were evil enough as a family for that house to be particularly haunted.”

“Exactly,” I said. “I’m quite sure that’s precisely why they started the rumors. Anything to make a buck or two when you’re in need of some cash.”

She pouted, pulling my attention to her cherry red lips. They were so full and pronounced that I suddenly had the urge to kiss them. To taste her sugar-laden coffee on them.

That surge of attraction I’d felt earlier shot through me again, and for a moment, I wondered if I should turn on the charm. Few people ever got the opportunity to discover that I had a charming side, but my mother had raised a proper gentleman and I hadn’t forgotten anything she’d taught me. I simply chose to ignore it the vast majority of the time.

The more I was around Tallulah Pruette though, the more I wanted her to discover that part of me. After last night and this morning, I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to her in a way I’d never been attracted to anyone before.

When I’d first seen her, I’d been attracted to her physically, of course. The woman was sexy, with all those curves and the confidence to work them as she walked. Now, however, I found the attraction was deeper than just that.

Physically, it was still there, but I also wanted to know her, which wasn’t like me at all. In the end, as I cooked the sausages and cracked a few eggs into a separate pan, I fought that instinct to charm her. She was my employee, regardless of everything else. She couldn’t be anything more than that. Any attempts to get closer to her would end poorly.

“Do you really think the Ramparts made it up?” she asked. “I mean, it’d be a good thing if they didn’t chain one of their own to a bed. I get that, but do you really believe they made up a rumor that vile for money ?”

“I think one of their distant relatives did,” I said. “The Ramparts of old were incredibly well off. They were one of the most affluent families around for generations. They were held in high esteem by their community, they worked their way up in business and in the military, and for a long time, Lady Luck seemed to favor them.”

“Let me guess,” she said knowingly. “Their luck ran out at some point?”

I nodded. “Very much so. As far as I can tell, a few business deals went bad in the nineteen thirties and forties. After that, things went from bad to worse. The later generations of Ramparts definitely dropped the ball and it’s my belief that Rupert Rampart, the last of them, started the rumors in the nineties when Ghost Tours became a thing. I bought the house from his estate, and at that point, there wasn’t much left.”

“That’s a depressingly boring and logical explanation,” she said.

I chuckled. Again. Then quickly turned serious again. “Well, there certainly were members of their family who were less noble than others. You know, considering their agricultural history.”

“Right.” She nodded. “The slavery.”

“Exactly. The human trafficking means not all the stories are manufactured, sadly. People suffered here. They lived and died, laughed and cried. We just don’t know if any of that translates into paranormal activity.”

“It sounds like you’re saying there’s still a chance it’s haunted?” she asked, one eyebrow arched at me.

I shrugged. “I suppose so. I simply choose not to think about it.”

“Have you ever seen anything strange there?”

“Not a thing,” I replied honestly. “Maybe the spirits simply approved of my motivation to buy the house. Who knows?”

I plated up our food and brought them over to the table.

She sighed, a dreamy smile on her face. “Thank you for this. It smells divine.”

“You’re welcome,” I said as I joined her. “I’ve been thinking about it, and watching scary movies for inspiration for the festival is actually a really good idea. I might be interested in watching a few with you, if you don’t mind. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

“I don’t mind,” she said immediately. “It would be useful for you to get into the right frame of mind before you need to start approving my excellent new ideas. But I thought you didn’t like scary movies?”

“I don’t, but this is for work. I have a theater room at my house. If you’d like, we can watch them there and make a night of it. This weekend?”

“It’s a date,” she said easily.

I really hope that’s where this is going , the devil on my shoulder whispered in my ear. That same devil purred at the thought even though I knew it was just an expression she’d used.

“Excellent. I’ll set it up,” I said before telling that damn devil to stop trying to get me in trouble.

Tallulah had definitely done a number on me, and that was decidedly more dangerous than any of the spirits supposedly residing in any of the properties I’d ever bought. Because the risks she posed to me, to my way of life, and even to my professional reputation were a hell of a lot more real than just some angry ghosts rattling the cabinets.