Page 92 of The Soul Never Forgets

Chapter23

Caroline Beaumont

Pascagoula,Mississippi

Present Day

As it turns out,I suck at poker. Dawsey, however, does not. He raked in the money at the casino tonight. Just like Frank used to.

We enter Augustina’s old bedroom at The Seamark Inn and Dawsey closes the door behind us, locking it. I place my beaded handbag on the dresser and kick out of my heels. “I noticed the static electricity as soon as we walked in.”

Dawsey looks around the room. “I felt it too when we came back into the house. It’s even stronger in here. What do you think it is?”

“Them.”

“Them how?”

I shrug. “Their energy, maybe. I’m not sure.”

“But we are them, just in a different veil of time, so how can they also be here?”

He makes a good point.

“I have no idea.” And I’m not sure I ever will.

“It’s not scary though. I like the way it makes me feel. It’s warm. Comforting.”

“That’s a good way to describe it.”

We move toward each other at the same time, and Dawsey frames my face with his hands, touching his lips to mine with the softest pressure. “You’re trembling, Cara.”

“It’s the oddest sensation. My nerves are on edge just as they were the night Frank and Augustina were together the first time.”

“It must be something about the energy in the room. I’m on edge too.”

Dawsey kisses the side of my face, and his lips move toward the area below my ear on my neck. Goose pimples erupt over the entire side of my body.

“Will you let your hair down?” he says against my ear.

I nod and reach up, removing the pins one by one that are holding my style in place. My hair falls below my shoulders and he picks up a lock, rubbing it between his fingers. “Your curls are beautiful.

“Thank you.”

“They were the first thing I noticed about you when I walked into my office and only saw you from behind.”

I turn around and pull my hair over one shoulder. “Will you help me out of this?”

“Happy to.”

Dawsey lowers the zipper on my dress and kisses my bare shoulder. The fine hairs on my skin rise and goose bumps form over my body. The contact of his lips against my skin makes my deepest desires whirl like crazy in my belly.

He takes a step back and unbuttons his shirt, shrugging it off his shoulders, and watches as I lower my dress until it drops to a puddle on the floor around my feet. Reaching behind my back, I unfasten my black lace bra and then it and my black lace thong both join my dress on the floor.

There’s a growing pile of clothes on the floor. Part his, part mine. We work in sync until we’re bare before each other and a marrow-deep déjà vu hums throughout my body. Every cell within me is alive and vibrating with excitement as I wait for his touch.

Dawsey comes to me, and I wrap my arms around his shoulders. He kisses my mouth, and we move toward the bed. My legs touch the railing, and we tumble to the bed, but his muscular arms catch me, lowering my upper body to the mattress. He’s going to protect me the same way he has in every other life.

We roll onto our sides, facing each other. His outstretched large palm easily wraps around my hip bone, and he pulls me to him. We’re lying face-to-face, so close, and he presses his forehead to mine.

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