Read Online A Christmas Spirit by Cindy Miles - Free Book Online Page A

the depths of Gabriel’s eyes nearly rocked her backward.
    Taking a deep breath, Paige swallowed her fears and faced the enigmatic ghost of a Highlander warrior.

Chapter Ten
    Gabriel felt badly for forcing Paige to tell her feelings. The girl stood there, staring straight back at him with more courage than she’d possessed a mere two days before, and he allowed it.
    Christ, how he wanted to know how she felt.
    Even if it meant making Paige MacDonald squirm for a moment or two.
    He certainly knew how he felt. How, in such a short time, had he come to know it? But he did. And he prayed mightily she felt the same.
    Paige MacDonald looked at her booted feet, drew a deep breath, then bravely stepped closer. She once more looked him square in the eye. No fear, Gabriel noticed now. Simple honesty.
    His heart melted a bit more.
    A slight smile tipped the corners of Paige’s mouth. “I don’t know if I’d be this bold, were you alive in the flesh,” she said. “I think you being a ghost gives me more strength and courage. I’m really shy around men I’m attracted to. Probably because I know they’re not usually attracted to me.”
    Gabriel said nothing. He wasna too happy to hear she’d been attracted to other men, but that couldna be helped, he supposed. A gaggle of idiots, those modern men, and all the better for himself, he thought. He held his breath—such as it was—and waited.
    She assessed him head to toe, and seemed to concentrate mightily on her words. Almost as if they surprised her, too. She shrugged. “I don’t know, but for the very first time in my life I feel wanted.” She tipped her head back, lifted her wee hand, and grazed the line of his jaw. “And thanks to a single, solitary look from you. I feel as though I’ve known you my whole life, Gabriel.” She laughed softly. “I feel comfortable around you; all of my senses are heightened. I feel alive.” She again shrugged. “And I also feel as though it was meant for me to book a self-driving tour of the Scottish Highlands in the dead of winter, and that it was meant for my car to die and for me to find my way here, to Gorloch.” She wrapped her arms around herself and blushed that appealing shade of red. “To find my way to you.”
    Gabriel’s heart pounded fast and hard in its ghostly cage. Every nerve ending that really didna exist hummed with pent-up emotions. He clenched his fists, since the alternative was to make a feeble and useless attempt to grab Paige up in his arms and devour her. He drew a deep breath, because he knew if he wanted any sort of physical bond with her, he’d have to go painfully slow. He didna wish to keep making a pitiful grab for her, only to fall through her.
    Slowly, he lifted his hand and traced the sweeping line of fair hair that hung beside Paige’s jaw. With the pad of his thumb he smoothed both darkened circles beneath her eyes. Then he traced her lush lips with his fingers.
    He’d never wanted to touch a woman so fiercely in all his existence, dead or alive.
    “I am a selfish man, Paige MacDonald, for it pleases me to know you’ve been alone all this time.” He placed a knuckle beneath her chin. “Look up at me.”
    She did.
    “I now understand why I died when I did, and why I’ve roamed Gorloch for all these centuries past.” He lowered his mouth to hers and brushed over them once. “I’ve been waiting for you, Paige. You were meant to be mine.”

    Paige’s insides shook with something. An overwhelming sense of joy? Fear? Uncertainty?
    Love?
    She didn’t know, and didn’t want to try to know. Not now. All she wanted to do now was to listen to Gabriel’s deep, accented voice wash over her with words she never dreamed she’d ever hear, from anyone.
    Especially from someone like Gabriel Munro.
    Her fingers itched to grab onto him, pull him to her, and never let him go.
    Even though Paige couldn’t really experience the touch of his mouth on her skin, she felt it , inside. On the surface,