Page 35 of Hot Irish Halloween

It was Diarmuid under the mask, the man who’d ushered them to their room, the same who’d been her server at dinner. He was tall, and with his robe gone, he was lean-cut. But the blond hair and his pale blue eyes were confusing her. He leaned in and kissed her throat, nimble fingers going to work on the row of buttons at her back.

“I can’t wait, Penny Lane. You’re so lovely…” He palmed her shoulder, then her back, pressing a hot, sizzling kiss on her throat.

A breeze blew in from the opposite direction. Penny felt the chill on her bare arms and rubbed them, sudden confusion clouding her head.

“Wh-what did you call me?” Her breasts rose and fell sharply. Penny turned to stare at him.

It wasn’t Diarmuid. It was Brendan. Her Brendan, naked and waiting to love her again.

“But…you’re dead.” Penny suddenly wanted to cry. “Are you ashamed of me?”

The Irish accent was gone; in its place was that same old voice she’d known, always on the verge of self-deprecating laughter. “Penny Lane, I could never be. I came here to see you. You know, crossing the veil and all that mystical jazz. Come with me. Stay with me until sunrise, baby.”

He took her hand with that sweet, sarcastic smile that was all Brendan and tried to lead her to the nearest unoccupied settee.

Until she turned her head and saw Jack. He was frozen, staring at her in disbelief.

“Penny,” Jack growled her name in outraged warning.

Now his nose was flaring, his eyes narrowed to total darkness.

He was beautifully savage.

Utterly terrifying.

Resisting the primal pull to go to him and let him have her right there in the center of that room, to give in to the delicious carnality that everyone was indulging in so freely, Penny ran. Away from danger. Away from him.

“Penny!” Jack bellowed.

Simon’s laughter rang out, following her through the hall and out the door. “Let the Hunter and the Hunted become one.”

12

HUNTER

JACK

Jack barely registered Clarissa’s outraged shriek as he ran out of the hall and through the doors to the outside. Squinting in the dark, he spotted Penny at the bonfire, her body outlined in a fiery silhouette.

He was in his boxer briefs and nothing else. But the cold ceased to matter. His body was a furnace cranked on high heat.

“Penny!” he thundered, not giving a fuck if anyone in the castle or on the grounds could hear him. She looked up but when she saw him, her eyes widened.

And to his disbelief, she turned and kept running.

The breath left his body like he’d been kicked in the solar plexus.

She’d looked at him like she didn’t know him. Like he was a rampaging beast to her, the same as he was to everybody in that room.

He’d crawled his way back from the brink of death because this woman had demanded it. With her voice, her soul hadreached out to his and claimed him, and it meant fuck all to her. He was just someone to toy with, to tease to the edge of madness. And when all was said and done, she was going to pack up her things and fucking take off and leave him right where he was. Alone. Enslaved by his unrequited needfor her.

Something in him snapped. Broke.

Shut down.

Suddenly enraged, he took off after her, but she was fucking fast. She lifted her dress, and her legs flashed in the torchlight. He still managed to catch up to her right before she reached the entrance to the maze. Jack caught her around the waist and captured her in his arms, immobilizing her. Struggling in his hold, her eyes were defiant with that soft sweetheart chin upraised.

“Did you really think you were going to lie down and make me watch another man fuck you? Some stranger was allowed to touch you, but I can’t?” he demanded, his voice fast and harsh.

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