However, Cash didn’t have time to worry about Nicola when his thoughts were centred on Abby and what was to happen that night.
He’d left Abby only after pulling her to him and engaging in a lips-to-ear whispered conversation that, to any who observed it, would look like lover’s talk.
Instead it was Cash telling Abby if she left Nicola’s f**king side he’d not be responsible for his actions.
After biting her lip (this time, Cash could swear, it was to hide a smile, although he had no f**king clue what there was to smile about), Abby agreed.
Only then did Cash leave.
He spied an unusual book, thin and old, pulled it from its shelf and leafed through it, finding it was a (bad) epic poem about the Civil War.
He replaced the book and his mind went back to Abby.
He had, he realised, been wrong. He’d thought he had her that first weekend they were together.
He hadn’t had her then.
He knew this because he had her now.
All of her.
The all of her he saw that she gave her husband in their wedding photo.
And the feeling of having all of Abby was something Cash had not anticipated.
He should have. She’d given him clues. Hell, she’d given him clues from the first day they’d met.
He, of course, thought she was a professional escort. So when she’d wiped the gloss from his lips at the pub and leaned into him in an affectionate way when he put on her cape on their first date, he thought it was a show.
It wasn’t.
It was just Abby.
The night she’d thought he was in an accident, her guard came crashing down.
Quickly after she invited him in, laughing in abandon with her face turned up to his; calling him for no reason (and then hilariously expecting him to carry the conversation); squeezing his thigh comfortingly when he was angry; curling in his lap to be close when she had to share hard facts but in a gentle way; leading him to the study and asking him to f**k her on the desk, that was Abby.
All of Abby.
All for him.
On this thought, for some unknown reason, Cash’s mood turned darker and he wondered if Benjamin Butler had any time to think before he’d died. To think about his wife. To think about leaving such an exquisite creature behind. To think about how f**king lucky he’d been and how abhorrent it was that their time was cut short.
Cash hoped he had not.
His mind occupied with Abby’s dead husband suddenly Cash felt a warm draught against his ankles.
He looked down and saw nothing.
He looked to the door. It was, as he left it, open.
He looked to the window. It was, as he’d entered, closed.
The draught ascended the length of his body, curling around.
Cash took a step back and it disappeared.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, thinking the situation with Abby, the castle and the ghost was screwing with his head.
On that thought, the draught came back, circling his wrist in an odd way, almost but also strangely not, putting pressure there as if to lift his hand.
He took another step away.
“Here he is!” Cash heard Fenella screech and the draught disappeared.
He turned to the door to see her entering, yanking her mother behind her, Abby following, Honor coming up the rear.
Abby’s sentries.
Cash stared at them.
Then he repeated, “Fucking hell.”
“Well, I knew he couldn’t have gone far,” Abby stated, rushing forward.
The minute her back was to the others, she gave him a comical, wide-eyed look which Cash couldn’t quite interpret and at which Cash was in no mood to laugh.
“I’m still not certain why we all had to go in search of Cash. Abby could have found him on her own,” Nicola noted, her words explaining Abby’s look.
Abby had made it to Cash’s side and her fingers curled around his bicep as she leaned into his body and looked back at Nicola.
“I could have got lost,” she lied, bald-faced.
“Yes, it’s a big castle.” Honor drawled, her eyes on Cash. She looked like she didn’t know whether to laugh or scream and Cash felt her pain.
“And I’m blonde,” Abby went on, “I think it’s a scientific fact that blondes are a bit scatty.”
At her words, Cash started leaning towards laughter and looked down at Abby. “I’m not certain that’s science.”
“Really?” she asked. “I thought there were some studies done about it.”
“I don’t think so,” Cash replied.
“Well, there should be,” she mumbled, giving him another look, this one he could read quite clearly and it said shut up, then she turned a bright smile to Nicola and declared overly cheerfully, “Well, I found him now! All’s well!”
Cash’s mood disappeared and he burst into laughter.
His arm went around her waist to pull her closer. When it did, her hands detached from his bicep, one arm slid around his back and she looked up at him right before his head descended and, still laughing, he kissed her. It was swift, it was light but it was definitely a kiss.
When he lifted his head, he saw she was smiling up at him dazzlingly as if his laughter was a gift from the gods, better than any diamond bracelet, any cashmere robe.
The smile still on her lips, her thumb came to his mouth and she swiped at her ever-present lip gloss the kiss had transferred to his lips. As she did so Cash felt the room around them melt and all he saw was her exquisite face, her smile, her glow.
And he knew, regardless of all that was happening, ghosts and brothers murdering brothers and sons exacting retribution, Abby was happy.
And Cash had made her that way.
In that instant Cash saw that not only had her guard come crashing down, the pain she couldn’t quite hide that lurked in the back of her eyes from the minute he’d sat across from her at the pub had disappeared.
He’d taken it away.
“Jesus,” he muttered, powerful sensations he didn’t completely understand shooting through him like spears and he watched her face turn confused.
“What?” she asked.
“Jesus,” he repeated.
Abby turned into him. “Cash, are you okay?”
As if his actions weren’t under his control, his hand went to her jaw tilting her face up further. His mouth came down on hers and he gave her a kiss that was not swift, it was not light and it could have quite possibly been the physical definition of a kiss.
“Oh my,” Cash vaguely heard Fenella whisper from far away.
“Maybe we should leave them alone,” Nicola murmured from just as far.