Read Everlastin' Book 1 for Free Online

Beth
trained her gaze on the front of the house some fifty feet away.
She was nearly to the outer doors, believing the puzzling man had
given up, when he dashed in front of her and opened the entry for
her. Bowing at the waist, he motioned her into the
house.
    He was again at the second
set of doors before her.
    “Lachlan,” she sighed, a
foot up on the bottom of the three stone steps. “I'm too tired to
play cat-and-mouse.”
    “Darlin’, I gave Carlene ma
word I'd watch efter you. Besides, it wouldna be right to let you
suffer a moment's boredom here now, would it?”
    A smile strained to appear
on Beth's lips. “Is this what I have to look forward to until
Carlene and David return?”
    With a mock wounded look, he
reached down, clasped her hand then drew her into the house. Beth
closed the door behind her. She was beginning to wonder if the man
understood the word “no”, or had ever been denied a thing in his
life. He was the most carefree person she'd ever met.
    He pulled her down a
narrower, secondary hall that ended at the kitchen. As if
thoroughly enjoying himself, he urged Beth to sit at a two-chair
table in the corner of the spacious room, then swaggered to the
antique stove and flamboyantly swung a kettle up into a hand. Beth
watched him, a smile straining to resist her efforts to subdue it.
He had somehow made her experience more emotions in one day than
she had in years. Resting an elbow on the table, she lowered her
chin onto the upturned palm, and watched him.
    He certainly was a
character, someone who could have easily just returned home from
pirating on the high seas.
    Pirate.
    Yes.
    His shoulder-length, dark
auburn hair. The powerful breadth of his shoulders and back,
accentuated by the white shirt he wore, a shirt very much like what
the pirate-types had worn centuries ago. Black, snug pants covered
his slim hips, rounded backside, and muscular thighs, and tapered
into shiny black, knee-high boots. But minus an earring. Although
if she woke in the morning and found him wearing one, she doubted
she would be surprised.
    “How do you take yer
tea?”
    Beth reluctantly withdrew
from her reverie. “Excuse me?”
    “Your tea, lass.”
    “Straight's
fine.”
    Lachlan cocked a brow in her
direction and smiled. After a few seconds, he walked to the table
and set down two steaming cups, one in front of Beth, one where he
was lowering himself onto a chair across from her.
    “I knew we had somethin’ in
common, lass. Straight tea and kissin’ in the
moonlight.”
    “Just what do you do around
here?” Beth asked, forcing lightness in her tone to camouflage her
nervousness.
    He shrugged. “A bit o’ this,
a bit o’ tha'.”
    “Have you worked here
long?”
    “Depends.”
    Beth stopped in the process
of taking a sip of tea and lowered her cup. “On what?”
    “Some say I dinna work at
all.” He shrugged again. “Are you hungry?”
    “No, thank you.”
    “So tell me then, wha' do
you think o’ Baird House?”
    Beth took several leisurely
sips of her tea before answering. “It's magnificent.”
    “Aye, tis tha', but I've a
feelin’ you've mair to say abou' the place than wha' yer eyes tell
you.”
    Beth frowned and smiled at
the same time. Whether it was the man's presence, or his cryptic
statements, he possessed the uncanny ability to raise the hairs on
the back of her neck and arms. “What a curious thing to
say.”
    “No' really.”
    Setting down her cup, she
folded her arms atop the table. “What do your other senses tell you about this
place?”
    A secretive grin touched
upon his mouth. “Well, there's a good feelin’wi’in these walls. If
you close yer eyes and keep yer fears at bay, you can hear the
heartbeat o’ this house.”
    “Oh, pl—ease!”
    “Dinna laugh, Beth,” he said
with a sad smile. “Some say this house is alive. It has a soul, as
everlastin’ as tha' o’ a mon or a womon.”
    “That's eerie,” Beth said
quietly, staring into her cup.
    “No. Tis the