Ghost Memories - By Heather Graham Page 0,4
said, Victoria had spoken her mind. Love, he determined, would have its way. He wasn’t a fool; he knew the world, and he had seen many an affair go sadly as daughters or sons obeyed their parents. His Victoria, however, would not do so. They would be together. He had to believe in the dream, because the most important aspect of the dream had proven real—Victoria herself.
He drank himself to sleep.
In the morning, he ordered a bath from the mistress of his lodgings, and once bathed and shaven, he felt like a new man. He had just completed his toilet when the landlady brought him a note.
It was from Victoria. She was visiting a friend, Siobhan O’Hara, at a public house with a lady’s tea room. There was also a lovely outside patio.
And Siobhan’s personal apartments were atop the lower level public house.
She would be delighted if he might pass by.
Discreetly.
Immediately, he felt overcome by emotion. And he realized, sadly, that Victoria had understood the extent of her father’s temper and determination. That would not deter him. If she wished it, he would be discreet.
And so he donned his hat and set out on the street until he reached O’Hara’s. There, he paused, uncertain, but a young lady came from the house, Miss Siobhan O’Hara, as pretty as a picture with her blazing red hair and snapping green eyes. “Why, Captain Miller! How lovely to see you. I have a box that needs lifting around back, if you’d be so good as to assist me?”
“Aye, with pleasure,” he assured her, and so he walked around with her to the rear of the establishment and the delivery entrance. “I really do have a box of Cuban rum,” she told him, her green eyes afire with laughter. “If you would?”
“As I said, dear Miss O’Hara, with pleasure!”
He lifted the box, and set it where she directed just inside the storage room, then she brought a finger to her lips, winked, and led him to a stairway.
“You’ll not be disturbed!” she promised, and disappeared outside.
He walked up the stairs. When he reached the door at the top of the stairs and was about to knock, the door flew open.
Victoria was there.
She drew him in.
She did not speak.
She slid into his arms, as if they had been betrothed for years, as if they were known lovers, and she was greeting him as was only proper.
They kissed, and her lips were pure sweetness, her breath was mint, and what she might have lacked in experience, she quickly made up for in ardor. Holding her, he felt his limbs inflame, his desire ignite into fever. He tried so hard to hold back, but she would have none of it.
“Please!” she commanded. “I watched you on the streets forever! We would meet, and you would ask about my welfare and mention the weather. And now we have talked, and we know our hearts and minds.”
“But you are a proper lady,” he whispered against her lips, aching. And yet, he loved her—he would never force anything upon her. He would wait. He would fight. He would die for her.
She laughed. Ah, that melody of sound. Her eyes were wicked as they touched upon his. “I am a proper woman as well, my dearest Captain! One who has dreamed of you…longed for you so many lonely nights!”
Everything within him seemed to explode with a thousand rockets, and his need for her was urgent and desperate, and still…
She would not wait. They tangled in a passionate kiss. She was a determined tease, touching his sex, stroking him through clothing, until they both struggled to rid one another of the cumbersome costume that was only proper on the streets, yet so impractical in such a climate! They were both steaming as they struggled with stays and laces and ties, and he laughed, asking her how he was ever going to put her all back together again.
“You’ve never disrobed a woman before, Captain?” she teased. “Why do I doubt that?”
“Well, I have disrobed one, but I’ve yet to re-robe one,” he told her. “And seldom were the woman quite so dressed!”
She never took offense at honesty, and for that, he loved her all the more. And as they talked and laughed, their clothing was at last cast away, and he looked at the beauty of her nakedness, and he was as breathless and in awe as a school boy. But he drew her to him, and their bodies seemed so attuned and