HauntingMelodyStClaire (8 page)

“She doesn’t need me.” He rubbed his cheek against hers.
“Look what I’ve turned into.”

“You’re wrong, Travis, she will always need you.” She
hesitated to mention the way she’d found Kassa but wanted no more secrets
between them. “She started working cases alone.”

“What? How do you know?”

“She’s a bit banged up. A couple of bruises.”

He started to pull away and she stopped him. “I’d call
first. She tried to take out my head with a baseball bat for breaking your
heart. I don’t think you’d stand a chance.”

“She’s angry with me.”

“Furious.”

He hesitated and gave her a quick kiss. “Stay here.” He
flashed away and she could hear his voice from the kitchen. Melody heard
several attempted apologies before he got off the phone. It took a moment and
he was back with a wry grin on his face and a flush on his cheeks. “Yep, she’s
pissed.”

“But she’s safe.”

“She is and happy for us. I had to call her cell. They’re
not as easy as a land line because it takes a lot of concentration for us to
communicate through wireless.” He wrapped his arms around her. “The joys of
modern technology.”

Melody grinned. “She didn’t threaten bodily harm?”

He shrugged. “Well, she let me know if I wrecked her house
again she was going to do all kinds of terrible things.” He sighed. “I have no
idea where her aggressive tendencies come from.”

Melody glanced around at the destruction in the room and
thought it best to say nothing. “I would never keep you from your family. She’s
your daughter, and that’s a precious thing.”

The distinct pop of the record player starting up surprised
her. “You’re going to have to show me how to do that.”

“Hmmm.” He said nothing, just pulled her into his arms. The
first familiar strums of a guitar had her smiling. Conway Twitty crooned about
starry skies and moonlight on the ground while Travis sang in her ear and
pressed butterfly kisses against her skin.

It took a moment to realize her cheeks were wet with tears.
Her heart spilled over with happiness. “I love you, Travis Santiago.”

He stopped their dance and looked at her in wonder. “That’s
the first time I’ve heard you say it since…”

She nodded and wiped her tears away.

“I love you too.” He brushed her damp cheeks with his
thumbs. “I’ve loved you since the first time you told me to leave you alone in
the charred ruins of that house.”

“Persistent. I like that.”

He walked her backward and she could feel the energy around
her thrum to life.

“You’re going to have to teach me all this ghost stuff.”

His smile was wicked. He spun her around and it took a
moment to realize they were twisting up in the air. She gasped and dug her
nails in his forearms. “No time like the present.”

Melody beamed at the man who had brought her back to life.
To who she once was. “So what do we do now?”

“I have some chains upstairs that we could rattle.” He
wiggled his eyebrows.

“Worst come-on in the history of ghost-dom. There goes the
neighborhood.”

“Well, they’re already scandalized by the floating sunhat
and basket by the lemon tree.”

She gasped in surprise. “Oh God.” She smacked his bare chest
then covered her mouth. “You were out there with me. I must have freaked out
the neighbors.”

He laughed and held her against him. “I love you, Melody St.
Claire. Don’t you ever leave me again.”

“Never.” She kissed him, pouring everything she had into it.
Nothing could keep them apart.

Their laughter echoed throughout the house. Kassa leaned
against the doorjamb and smiled, sending a special thank-you prayer to the
powers that be for her late arrival. No daughter should ever hear her father,
dead or not, having sex. It was bad enough sensing the sexual energy they’d
left behind. She quietly slipped out the door and brushed the locket around her
throat. Love wasn’t dead, after all.

Dawn writes to give her mind a
break from the voices clamoring to tell their stories. She has traveled the
world twice over. While her days were filled with long hours and hard work, her
nights were left for dark, lustful fantasies in and out of strange hotels and
cities.

Alaska and Texas are the places
she calls home. She currently resides in the frigid north with her family,
neurotic dog, and the moose and bear that encroach on her land.

I'm a 911 dispatcher turned romance
author. I have been in love with romance for over twenty years. To say I'm
addicted to reading is an understatement. My ebook reader is an extension of me
and holds many of my fantasies and secrets. It's filled with dragons, shifters,
vampires, ghosts and many more jaw-dropping characters who keep me entertained
on a daily basis. My love of paranormal and outrageous imagination have
conspired together to bring me where I am today…sitting in front of my computer
allowing them free rein. Writing is my passion, what I was born to do. I hope
you will enjoy reading my stories as much as I love spinning them. I reside in
Florida with my son and a guinea pig named Shadow. I adore French fries and my
phone is permanently attached to my ear.

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pages at
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Primal
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Haunting Melody St. Claire

ISBN 9781419946523

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Haunting Melody St. Claire Copyright © 2013 Dawn Montgomery &
Ditter Kellen

Edited by Grace Bradley

Cover design and photography by Syneca

Model: Austin

Additional cover photography by Peter Dedeurwaerder/Shutterstock.com

Electronic book publication May 2013

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