She cried out his name with delirious happiness, and there, at the water’s edge, the magic pulsed between them. Need made it an instant inferno where they merged and flew and drifted quickly … but together.
He was smiling, his eyes half-closed with wonderful release, as he caught her eyes. He slipped an arm around her and rolled, bringing them both splattering back into the water. “What?” Serena sputtered, but he had already rested his head upon the tile edge and drawn her against his chest so that they could luxuriate in the weightless drift of the pool. His breath touched her ear as he spoke softly.
“I missed you,” he murmured.
“We’ve never been apart …”
“You know what I mean.” He bit her ear reproachfully and then murmured, “For a new mother you look marvelous. Aren’t you glad I got you started jogging?”
Serena chuckled, caressing his fingers idly as they lay over her midriff. “Actually, you’re the one who’s lucky you talked me into jogging!”
He pulled his fingers from her touch to run them over her stomach, almost fiat now, and the baby was just six weeks old. They smiled together, aware that both thought of the tiny son they both adored, but were still learning to adjust to as parents.
As Justin had always warned her, they did have their problems. But they always worked at solving them. And love was the key.
They were silent for several seconds as the water cooled them, lapping their flesh with the slight waves and ripples. Then Justin suddenly hugged her more tightly to him.
“That was sweet,” he murmured. “The black cloak and the water, I mean. You know, I never forget the day we met. I can still close my eyes and see it step by step in detail.”
Serena lifted a finger to kiss. “So can I. …”
He hesitated a moment, then asked, “Do you ever think about Eleanora and Miles anymore?”
“Yep.”
“You do?” His eyes had been closed; he opened them warily and twisted his head to see her face. Her eyes were closed; her lips were curved in a half smile.
She must have sensed his eyes upon her, but she kept her own closed. “I think,” she said sweetly, “that they must be resting very peacefully in their graves.”
He chuckled softly. “All ghosts put to rest.”
Her eyes flicked open, and she started at him impishly. “And all of our human haunts, too! I’m ever so glad Denise found herself that fighter to marry. You see, you thought she loved your position and your money, but it was your muscles all along!”
“Very cute, darling. What about Marc? I think he married your ‘witch’ replacement faster than she replaced you!”
Serena giggled. “Maybe we should both be a bit insulted. It didn’t take either of them long to get over us!”
“That, my darling, is what love is all about. When it’s right, it’s right, and nothing in the world matters.”
“I don’t know,” Serena contradicted. “Tom and Sue knew each other for years, and it’s only been these last six months that they’ve decided they’re madly in love!”
“There are exceptions to every rule,” Justin noted with mock indignity. He heard the soft mercury of her laughter in return and then smiled. It might be twilight, but his world was as bright and brilliant as the sun. It was as if that long-ago day at the pond had ended everything, all fears, all terrors. They had been married as planned, down to the picture of Eleanora being set above the fireplace for the ceremony. And since that day Serena had been plagued by neither dreams nor accidents.
Yet if she told him it was going to rain, he always brought his umbrella. It was nice to have a wife one could depend upon with far more accuracy than the weatherman.
And it was nice to see life unfold. He had decided to continue teaching. Serena could make him laugh about the politicking. And she was absolutely charming at his functions, her eyes gleaming like amethysts when they met his in secret, loving laughter.
Summers and weekends throughout the year they spent at the Golden Hawk, keeping the old historical site cared for and preserved, and checking in on the Museum of Fact and Fantasy.
Serena had never been bored; she had picked up her bachelor’s degree in psychology and often argued him under the table.
They had their house out on Long Island, their cat—and a dog and a canary—and now they had their wonderful tiny son who kept them both busy.
I have everything, he thought, and he closed his eyes tightly in a moment of sheer gratitude.
He opened his eyes again and pulled his wife tightly against him …
But most of all, I have her.
“How long did you say they would all be gone?” he asked innocently.
She turned in his arms, violet eyes meeting his just as guilelessly. “At least three hours,” she said solemnly.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her up the pool steps. “Then let’s go make a little more magic, shall we?”
She raised a cryptic brow with a wicked half smile, and he laughed huskily.
“Oh, I do—I do—I—do—do—believe in magic!”
A Biography of Heather Graham
Heather Graham (b. 1953) is one of the country’s most prominent authors of romance, suspense, and historical fiction. She has been writing bestselling books for nearly three decades, publishing more than 150 novels and selling more than seventy-five million copies worldwide.
Born in Florida to an Irish mother and a Scottish father, Graham attended college at the University of South Florida, where she majored in theater arts. She spent a few years making a living onstage as a back-up vocalist and dinner theater actor, but after the birth of her third child decided to seek work that would allow her to spend more time with her family.
After early efforts writing romance and horror stories, Graham sold her first novel, When Next We Love (1982). She went on to write nearly two dozen contemporary romance novels.
In 1989 Graham published Sweet Savage Eden, which initiated the Cameron family saga, an epic six-book series that sets romantic drama amid turbulent periods of American history, such as the Civil War. She revisited the nineteenth century in Runaway (1994), a story of passion, deception, and murder in Florida, which spawned five sequels of its own.
In the past decade, Graham has written romantic suspense novels such as Tall, Dark, and Deadly (1999), Long, Lean, and Lethal (2000), and Dying to Have Her (2001), as well as supernatural fiction. In 2003’s Haunted she created the Harrison Investigation service, a paranormal detective organization that she spun off into four Krewe of Hunters novels in 2011.
Graham lives in Florida, where she writes, scuba dives, and spends time with her husband and five children.
Graham (left) with her sister.
Graham with her family in New Orleans. Pictured left to right: Dennis Pozzessere; Zhenia Yeretskaya Pozzessere; Derek, Shayne, and Chynna Pozzessere; Heather Graham; Jason and Bryee-Annon Pozzessere; and Jeremy Gonzalez.
Graham at a photo shoot in Key West for the promotion of the Flynn Brothers trilogy.
Graham at the haunted Myrtles plantation, Francisville, Louisiana.
Graham and the Slushpile Band playing the Memnoch the Devil Ball at the Undead Con in New Orleans, 2010.
Graham with dear friend, actor Doug Jones.
Graham (third from left) with F. Paul Wilson, R. L. Stine, Jon Land, and other friends at the seventh annual ThrillerFest, held in New York City, 2011. The authors participated in the “Be Book Smart” campaign organized by Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s oldest and largest children’s literacy organization.
Graham (seated center) with her local Romance Writers of America group in Broward County, Florida, 2011.
Graham (second from left) with fellow authors Stephen Jay Schwartz, F. Paul Wilson, and Barry Eisler participating in a panel at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, Los Angeles, 2011.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been
granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1984 by Heather E. Graham
cover design by Connie Gabbert
978-1-4804-0833-3
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
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New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY HEATHER GRAHAM
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