Daring Time

The sponge she clutched dropped into the basin of water as though she'd lost muscular control. He watched, mesmerized, as she slowly turned to face him. She met his gaze and nodded her head once.

"Hope Stillwater?" he clarified.

Again she nodded, her huge eyes never leaving his face.

Ryan blinked in amazement. Her beauty was so immense, how-ever, that it drew his attention away even from the fact that he was impossibly standing in a bathroom with a woman who'd lived a century before him.

The light that fell upon her naked shoulders and chest wasn't the same dim electric fixture that shone in Ryan's world. Her source of radiance caressed her like a lover, making her flawless, damp skin seem to glow with a dark gold light. He saw her elegant neck convulse as his gaze lowered over her body.

She wore a pair of frilly white pantaloons—at least that's what Ryan thought they called the woman's undergarment—but her upper body was bare excerpt for the silver locket.

Her arms were beautifully shaped and graceful, her carriage slender and proud. Her breasts were full, but thrust high and firm off the plane of her chest and ribs. His penis tugged in arousal as he stared at the large pink nipples. The fantasy of suckling the tender crests and feeling them tauten under his tongue played across his mind in graphic detail.

"Ryan?"

Her breathy whisper did the impossible and removed his hot stare from the most beautiful breasts he'd ever seen. Like her, he merely nodded when he met her gaze. She'd temporarily stolen his wits along with his voice. He noticed the silent query in her velvety eyes, the amazement mixing with anxiety shaping her features. He raised his hand in an instinctive quieting gesture.

"Shhhh," he soothed, as though he were afraid her nervousness was like a loud noise—something that would rob him of the exquisite, otherworldly moment. "There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm just a man who lives in your house. I'm not sure why we're able to see each other like this."

Her breasts trembled slightly at his words.

"Why wouldn't we be able to see each other?" she whispered cautiously. She took a step toward him, her eyes searching his face. "Are you a spirit?"

"Not that I'm aware of. I was about to ask you the same question .. . even though I don't believe in ghosts."

She started slightly, as though she hadn't expected the amusement in his voice at such a moment.

"I'm just a man, Hope."

Her eyes lowered down over him.

"I see that," she murmured, her tone slightly dazed.

Her stare felt like the equivalent of a touch on the prickling skin of his chest and abdomen. When it lowered even further his cock jerked in arousal.

He couldn't stop himself. He laughed softly when he saw her startled expression of amazement as she stared at his cock with a mixture of 20 percent trepidation and 80

percent fascination. When she realized where she was staring her eyes darted to his face.

She blushed.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, clearly bemused even further by his laughter. "I've never seen a man without his clothes on before. You're the largest man I've ever seen."

"That would go without saying, since as you said, you've never seen a man naked before," Ryan said through a smile.

"I meant your overall size ... not.. . not the size of ..." Her voice quavered and trailed off.

This time a bloom of color rose all the way from her chest to her cheeks, but that didn't stop her curious gaze from flickering back to his groin.

"I know what you meant," Ryan said quietly.

The bizarreness of the situation soaked into his awareness fully for the first time at that moment. She existed but she didn't exist. The information Gail had given him today proclaimed that without a doubt, Hope Stillwater had been dead for over a century.

And yet she stood before him vibrant with life. What's more, he was naked and she was nearly so, and they were both obviously highly aware of each other sexually if his lengthening erection and her stiffening nipples were any indication.

Or perhaps she'd just grown chilly, damp as she was?

Her dark eyes lowered over him once again, lingering on his cock, and Ryan knew that her tightening nipples and flushed cheeks weren't caused by a chill in the air and embarrassment—at least not entirely. With her eyes still fastened on his growing erection, she spoke.