Inevitable by Michelle Rowen Page B

her very best to put Ryan out of her head and wait for the lust potion’s affects to fade away. She’d researched the potion earlier that day at the office. The effects would wane if given enough time. A week, maybe. Giving in to their desires wouldallegedly help speed the process along, but…that wasn’t a good idea. It would cause too many complications.
    Writing about him in her erotic novel had been cathartic, but ultimately unhelpful. She knew that now. It just kept him vividly in her mind as an object of desire. A scene she’d written when her characters had made love in a bedroom filled with candles and red roses flickered in her mind. It was the scene when her heroine realized that the hero wasn’t only interested in sex. He’d fallen in love with her.
    It was only a fantasy. And that was how it would stay, no matter how much her body ached to feel Ryan’s against hers. This lust potion was only a temporary problem. Ryan’s presence in her life again was only a temporary problem. She just had to be strong for a little while longer.
    So instead, she thought about the job in front of her. She’d dealt with a lot of ghosts in her life. And nine times out of ten, they were reasonable sorts, if a bit confused about what had happened to them.
    Emma and Ryan finally reached the fourth floor which had a banister along one side of the hallway, showing a open view down to the lobby. All the lights on this floor were flickering, even the ones set into the ceiling.
    â€œI’d be surprised if they’d even paid the electricity bill recently,” Ryan said. “After all, nobody’s running this place anymore.”
    â€œThis is all because of Harold,” Emma agreed. “It shows that he’s aggravated and highly emotional. It’s enough to affect the power levels around him and in this particular case, it’s electricity.”
    â€œGreat.”
    Normally she’d hang back a little and get her bearings, trying to sense the ghost and predict what he might do.But she was on edge and she wanted this over with. With Ryan a bit too close for comfort, she began to open doors into the rooms that looked as if they’d been frozen in time. Each one was identical with a double bed, a wooden desk, a chair, and a window with green curtains.
    â€œWhere is he?” Ryan asked. “Do you sense him at all?”
    She did. He was here. He was watching them.
    â€œHarold Duchamp,” she called out. “My name is Emma Black and this is Ryan Shephard. Please show yourself to us.”
    There was silence for a moment, and then a loud, deep voice boomed, “You’re not welcome here.”
    â€œWe’re here to help you. You don’t have to hide from us, we mean you no harm.”
    â€œLeave me to suffer in peace!”
    A door at the far end of the hallway flew open and something launched out of it. A glass vase. Ryan grabbed Emma and pulled her out of the way before it smashed against the wall behind her.
    She inhaled sharply. “Well, so much for Casper the Friendly Ghost.”
    â€œWatch out!” Ryan yanked Emma against him as a wooden chair rocketed past them.
    â€œHe’s not all that open to meeting new people,” Emma said
    â€œYou think?”
    â€œThis ghost has serious anger issues.”
    Ryan looked angry, too. “Not such a romantic tale of love and loss anymore, is it? Lorraine should be glad to see the end of him.”
    Maybe this was a mistake. She wanted to solve the case so she’d be looked at in a better light at PARA, but the ghost of Harold Duchamp was making it clear hemeant to physically harm them. With the lust she felt for Ryan clouding her thoughts, she definitely wasn’t on her game tonight.
    Unfortunately, an exorcism was impossible. She had a bag in the trunk of her car at her house that held everything she needed for that—candles, salt, a exorcist handbook that contained all of the