Read Online Phantom Pleasures: Sexy Paranormal (Book 1, Phantom Series) by Julie Leto - Free Book Online Page A

leave?”
    “I’ve no idea,” he admitted, then leveled his ocean gray stare at her. “Why don’t you try?”
    A sudden wave of dizziness struck her. She braced her hands on either side of her, willing the sensation away. She’d experienced enough vertigo for a lifetime after the wreck. She didn’t need a reminder of the pain and discomfort now.
    She was healthy. She was strong. She was a survivor.
    She repeated the mantra silently in her head until the wooziness subsided. After blinking away the last of the fog, she shot a glance down the stairs and to the door, then back at Damon.
    His hopeful expression vanished nearly as quickly as he had.
    But not quickly enough.
    “No,” she said.
    “No?”
    She arched a brow. “Not used to being contradicted?”
    His glower was powerful. “Of course not, but I assumed you’d want to ensure that freedom was still yours to take.”
    She smiled. “You let me worry about my freedom. You’ll soon discover that I’m very good at taking care of myself and getting precisely what I want, when I want it.”
    He wanted her to try the door. Desperately. He was clever and commanding, this man, and he wasn’t as adept at hiding his emotions as she was at reading them. For all she knew, the wave of vertigo she’d just experienced was from him trying to exert his will on her with the same magic he’d used to disappear and to conjure the chaise lounge and the wine. But she’d fought him successfully. If she played her cards right, the game could be hers.
    Bottom line, she wanted this man.
    To be her personal phantom. This idea, so entrenched in her psyche for oh so long, blossomed into something tangible for the first time in her life. She’d turned quite a few of her more pragmatic fantasies into reality using her wealth and influence, but she’d never brought a fantasy to life with just her touch.
    “What could possibly be more pressing than finding out if you are free of this curse or trapped by it?” he asked, incredulous.
    “Finding out more about you.”
    The atmosphere shifted. The power play ended and the blaze in his eyes kindled from a spark of frustration to a slow, steady sexual heat. He reseated himself on the chaise and held-out his hand to her.
    “You say that with seduction in your voice, my lady.”
    She accepted his hand. This time, when he drew her onto the chaise, he allowed no space between them. His thigh crushed against hers, igniting a wildfire of sensation through her.
    She traced an invisible crazy eight on his knee. Crazy, as in completely insane, touching a man who, by all tenets of reason and logic, couldn’t possibly be real. “Wishful thinking, perhaps?”
    He smiled with hooded eyes. “Simple observation. There’s no shame if you want me. In the most classical sense.”
    She licked her lips, unwilling to deny his assertion. She did want him. She had wanted him—or, at least, a man like him—for all of her life. Gallant, powerful, intense. A master of magic.
    And best of all, he wasn’t entirely real. By his description, he could not follow her out of this castle or disrupt the ordered life she’d built for herself on the mainland. He was a fantasy. A diversion. A sexy, sensual secret she’d discovered and, perhaps, only she could keep.
    “I won’t deny that I find you incredibly attractive,” she responded.
    “How can you? Even now, your body tightens for me.”
    She swallowed a gasp. Even in her century, such talk pushed limits. And yet, as his gaze brushed over her breasts, her nipples responded instantly. Her thigh muscles clenched with anticipation.
    Maybe he was simply like her. Honest. Insightful. Observant.
    Hot for magical sex.
    “Is this magic?”
    He leaned closer so that his breath, wine scented just as she’d imagined, teased her cheek. “The most elemental magic of all.”
    She tilted her chin to match his sensual stare. “You were a playboy in your former life, then?”
    He ran his tongue over his lips, drawing her