and a loveseat and overstuffed chair on the other.
“The house came filled with furniture,” Landon said. “There is even more up on the third floor. The last resident used that floor mostly for storage. The place really is huge, isn’t it?”
He sounded nervous and while she was anxious to know why he’d gotten her here, she warned herself not to push.
“Sierra chose this room because of the view and the peace and quiet,” Landon said. “It’s the farthest from where the construction work is going on. We’re remodeling some of the lower rooms that were built as servants’ quarters.”
“The view is wonderful,” Alexa said as she stepped through the open French doors onto a small balcony. The land seemed vast and endless—just like the clear blue sky overhead. She’d never been to Montana before, but all the stories she’d heard about it seemed to be true. It really was amazing country. She could imagine what it must have been like when thousands of buffalo roamed it.
As she stared out, a cowboy on a horse came into view. Something in her froze. She stood transfixed as he rode from the stand of large cottonwood trees and into the sun and sage. For a moment she’d thought she’d conjured him up from her imagination because he looked so at home in the saddle with this landscape in the background. He wore jeans, boots, a red-checked western shirt and what she thought must be a Stetson resting on his longish, raven-black hair. A brown-and-white mutt of a dog ran along a few yards off to the side of his horse.
Alexa held her breath, wanting him to turn and look in her direction. She desperately needed to see his face.
Just when it appeared he would ride by without looking in her direction, he glanced up at her.
Chapter Two
Only two of the vehicles were still parked in front of the old Wellington mansion, the red sports car and the white SUV, Marshall Chisholm noted as he rode his horse by the house. The former street was no more than a narrow dirt lane with rows of huge, old cottonwood trees on each side.
The sports car had California plates, while the SUV was licensed out of Washington State. Neither rig looked as if it might belong to drug runners out of Canada hiding out here. The expensive sports car had a Montana State University sticker on the bumper. College students?
As he came out of the trees, he got his first close-up view of the house. He’d never paid much attention to the old place. Truth is, there was something about it that had always put him off. That and no doubt the stories he’d heard over the years.
Even up close, the mansion still didn’t draw him. There was nothing in its design or the size of the place that made him want to stop and look. It was the three vehicles he’d seen here that had him curious. He wondered where the black SUV had gone.
As he circled around the place, he looked up at the blank windows, thinking he should probably just go knock at the huge front door and introduce himself as the only neighbor.
He was chewing on that idea when suddenly a young woman with long, dark, curly hair, wide violet eyes and the heart-shaped face of an angel appeared on a second-floor balcony.
But it was what he saw behind her that startled him. His horse suddenly snorted and jerked her head, eyes wild as she reared up. His western hat fell off as he fought to stay seated. He’d never seen the mare react like this before and knew he was lucky he hadn’t been bucked off.
As he regained control of his mount, he glanced up again. The young woman was still standing there, but the image he’d seen behind her was gone.
She stood in the morning light, lithe, wraithlike against the darkness behind her. A vision. Her hair floated around her face, falling about her shoulders in stark contrast to the white of the blouse she wore.
His dog, Angus, barked, making him start again. Everything about being here was making him jumpy as hell. He told himself he was letting his imagination run away with him. That and the stories he’d heard about the mansion—even though he’d always said he didn’t believe a word of it.
“Hang on a minute, Angus,” he said, glancing at the impatient mutt before looking back at the mansion window. The woman was gone.
Marshall felt a knot form in his belly as he continued to stare at the window for several long moments, trying to assure himself he hadn’t imagined her any more than he’d imagined that other image standing behind her.
He wished to hell she would reappear just to prove to himself that she’d been real though.
You don’t really believe that was a ghost you saw.
Of course, he didn’t. But still there had been something about her, something ethereal, angelic. While what he’d seen behind her … He spurred his horse, chuckling at the strange trail his thoughts had taken. He didn’t believe in ghosts or haunted houses. Or evil spirits.
But as warm as the summer morning felt with the sun hot on his back, he felt a chill.
“ALEXA, DID YOU HEAR what I said?”
She stepped back into the room, but she couldn’t shake the rush of sensations she’d felt when she’d seen the handsome cowboy’s face. A strange, wanton desire—and darkness.
Both frightened her by their intensity. She recalled how desperate she’d been to see his face. How she had needed him to look at her.
She shuddered, shocked by what she’d felt as much as by the force of it. Often she got sharp first impressions, but she’d convinced herself that other people got them too and often didn’t recognize them. Everyone met people and in an instant decided if they liked them or not, and never questioned why.
Plain old intuition. She’d even convinced herself that her mother had probably merely been good at reading people, so of course her daughter had picked it up as well. Alexa wanted to believe that rather than the other possibility.
Since she was a girl she’d been haunted by the memory of waking to find her mother standing over her, telling her to look at something at the end of her bed.
Just the thought of it after all these years gave her chills, but she’d convinced herself that what she’d seen was nothing more than her imagination. Or part of a bad dream.
Unfortunately sometimes she felt things, sensed things, she didn’t want to know about. She’d found it easier not to get too close to anyone. As long as she kept her distance and her defenses up, she could live blissfully oblivious about the people around her and their fates.
None of her earlier sensations, though, had ever been as powerful as what she’d felt when she’d seen the cowboy’s face. Desire and darkness.
“Are you all right?” Landon asked as he touched her arm and she flinched.
“Yes.” She shook her head as if she could shake off what she’d felt moments before. It had been so potent. “I’m just tired. It was a long drive.”
“I hated to ask you to come….”
“No,” she quickly reassured him. “I’d been wanting to come for a visit.” Her brother reminded her of light. There was something so pure and innocent about him. He was loving and devoted, open and trusting.
