Angry.
At Abby!
Cash was angry at Abby.
Abby’s mouth dropped open.
Her eyes slid back to Suzanne whose smugness had hit the stratosphere.
Mindlessly, Abby turned and ran up the steps taking them two at a time.
She got to the upstairs banister and had her purse in her hands before strong fingers closed around her upper arm in a vicelike grip and she was yanked backwards.
Her eyes flew to Cash’s.
“Let me go!” she shouted, tugging at her arm in his grasp.
“What the f**k are you doing?” he asked, eyes narrowed on her purse, fingers not letting her go.
She stopped struggling and yelled, “I’m leaving!”
“The hell you are,” he snapped, wrenched her purse out of her hands and threw it into the lounge.
Abby watched it sail then land on the floor then she looked back at Cash and screamed, “Would you stop throwing my stuff!”
He ignored her demand and used her arm to pull her close. “You should have been home an hour ago. Or, it would seem, you should have f**king phoned an hour ago to say you’d be home now.”
Abby saw Suzanne join them at the top of the stairs, she was pulling on her coat, flipping her hair over the collar and looking happy as a clam.
Abby’s eyes moved back to Cash and she drawled with saccharine sweetness, “I’m so sorry I didn’t give you plenty of head’s up to get rid of your kissin’ cousin before I got home.”
She watched Cash’s head jerk, his brows shot together and then his lip curled in disgust.
“You think I’m f**king around on you?” he asked, deep voice filled with incredulity then he went on, “with Suzanne?” he uttered her name like it tasted foul.
Abby looked back at Suzanne and she’d lost her smug, happy look.
Abby’s eyes clashed with Cash’s again when she accused, “I just saw you kissing her.”
“No, you just saw her kissing me,” Cash shot back instantly.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Suzanne cut in, moving toward the door and Cash turned, taking Abby with him, his hand still on her arm.
“I’ll deal with you later,” Cash clipped to Suzanne.
“I’ll look forward to that,” came Suzanne’s sultry purr.
Cash’s body went solid and the air in the room, already thick, became suffocating.
“Don’t mistake me, Suzanne,” Cash’s voice was a low, menacing warning and Abby watched as Suzanne paled.
Recovering swiftly, she offered, “I’ll let myself out.”
“You do that,” Cash stated then, dismissing Suzanne completely, he turned back to Abby and started, “As for you –”
At that, with a vicious tug Abby yanked her arm free and vaguely heard the door close behind Suzanne. She was too deep in a tizzy at all she’d experienced that night at the castle, and what she’d just seen, to proceed with caution.
She stomped around Cash and into the lounge, muttering angrily, “I cannot believe after all I went through tonight,” she bent down to pick up her purse and looked up at Cash who had followed her, “for you,” she snapped, rising, “only to come home to see you groping Suzanne.”
“Abby, I’ll repeat, I was not groping Suzanne,” Cash returned.
“Whatever!” Abby shouted, beside herself, experiencing a layering of freak outs that she couldn’t quite overcome. “How would you feel if you came home and saw me in the arms of another man?”
Cash’s eyes narrowed and his hands went to his hips. “I wouldn’t f**king like it but I would also give you the chance to f**king explain.”
“Right,” Abby snorted with disbelief. “You’d freak.”
And he would.
“I would. Then I’d give you the chance to f**king explain,” he fired back.
Abby shook her head and walked to him with the intent to walk right by him and get her coat. “I’m not talking about this. I’m going home.”
Cash’s fingers curled around her upper arm firmly, effectively halting her and when she looked up at him, he stated, “You are home.”
“My home,” she snapped back.
“Yes, darling,” he returned calmly, “your home,” then he jerked her purse out of her hand again and threw it on a chair, making his point.
She looked at her purse and something came over her, something she couldn’t control.
She had an excuse, of course.
Her whole life, within weeks, had been turned on its head. And that included living with an impossibly rich, incredibly handsome, very famous International Hot Guy. And that also included going head-to-head with a ghost.
So, Abby thought, it was really only a matter of time before she lost her mind completely.
Which was exactly what she did.
In slow motion, her eyes moved from their perusal of her bag to Cash.
Then she shrieked, “Stop throwing my stuff!”
Cash pulled her close and his arm started to slide around her as he said, “Abby, you need to calm down.”
“Calm?” she asked. “Calm!” she screeched. “You be calm!” She yanked out of his arms and took two steps back, he came for her but she lifted her hand, pointed a finger at him and he stopped. “You be calm in the face of what I’ve seen, and done, and then seen tonight. A ghost, Cash, I came face-to-face with a f**king ghost!”
Distractedly she noticed his whole body jerked as if he’d been punched in the stomach but she just kept right on ranting.
“And let me tell you ghosts are scary!” she shouted then started pacing. “They scream and you… would not… believe how awful it sounds. They melt through walls. They melt back through walls. They float. And they attack!”
She stopped ranting and glared at him.
Quietly, looking like he was fighting the urge to check her temperature, he said, “Abby, there are no such things as ghosts.”
“I would have said the same thing a few weeks ago, but believe me, there are ghosts. They’re mean and they’re nasty and this one particularly,” Abby returned as if she had any authority on ghosts (although she felt, at that moment, she did).
“Maybe I should get you a drink,” he suggested.
“I don’t want a drink,” she retorted.
“Then maybe I should call Tim,” he replied softly.
“You are not going to call Tim!” Abby shouted.
He took a step toward her, saying, “Abby, you have to calm down.”