Read Online PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Haunted Whispers by C.J. Ayers - Free Book Online Page A

expression a mixture of pain and anger. Since Jim refused to put Julie down or leave her alone for even a second, Cody quickly and briefly related the story to him. He didn’t want to say too much and cause her to re-live the events of the evening.
    A half-hour later, the other officers had gone and Jim and Julie were seated on his couch. Jim still held Julie cradled in his lap. She burrowed into his body. “Jim. I know we only just moved our relationship to a new stage, but I don’t have any family around, and I’m ready to lose it. Could I stay here with you tonight? I don’t want to be alone.” She looked up at him and his heart was ready to explode in his chest, “You can make love to me, if you want…?”
    “I am not going to make love to you. Not tonight, anyway. And there is no way in hell I’m leaving your side tonight, either.” She looked almost rejected, so he quickly added, “Besides, there are rules about making love to a woman in a state of vulnerability, sweetheart.”
    “Do you think you could just keep holding me, then? Don’t let go yet?”
    “I will be right here holding you all night.” The truth is, he couldn’t be pried away from her with a crowbar. He felt guilty for leaving her earlier that evening. How was he to know she wouldn’t be safe? But, still, if he had asked to come in, she probably would have said yes, and he could have prevented her nightmare. He thought he’d been doing the honorable thing by saying goodnight at the door. Well, he wasn’t going to leave her again. If he had his way, he wasn’t going to ever leave her again. Without releasing her, Jim swung his legs up on the couch and rolled on his side positioning Julie in front of him so he could snuggle her into his body spooning her. He held her tightly around the waist with one arm and stroked her hair gently with the other. She snugged with her bottom against his groin and her back against his chest. After a few minutes, he pulled the blanket from the back of the couch and covered them both with it.
    “I feel safe now,” Julie said, her voice thick with fatigue. She didn’t say any more. Three minutes later, she was sound asleep.
                  After an hour, Jim woke up. In her sleep, Julie had moved his hand from her waist under the blanket to her left breast. He felt her softness under his palm and her hand pressing him against her. She muttered, “Jim. Thank you.”
                  Jim wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. He could feel himself growing harder by the second. He couldn’t wake her up. Besides the fact that she would be embarrassed, she needed her sleep after what she’d been through tonight. He wouldn’t dare take advantage of her for his own sexual gratification. But, try as he might, he couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that her round little bottom was pressed up against his growing erection. He was trying to stop fantasizing about slipping his hand inside her bra and caressing her perfect breasts. He wanted to make love to her more than anything else.
    Even though he’d been a jackass not to notice her all these years, he’d know her for a long time. He knew the type of woman she was. He had just never allowed himself to look at her that way before. He’d put a block up in his mind that caused him to think of her as a sister, but she wasn’t a sister. She was the perfect woman for him. The one he’d been looking for all along.
    With her, his feelings were a combination of head over heels stomach-churning butterflies of meeting a special someone for the first time, and the ease and comfort of being with an old friend that he’d known for years.
    He knew earlier tonight, after he’d seen her safely into her apartment, that he was in love with her. He had planned to show up at her door in the morning with flowers and tell her how he felt. He was going to tell her that he wanted a future that included her.
    That confession would have to wait. Who