Bridal Jitters Read Free Page A

file for the more formal covenant marriage.
    The muted warble and twang of a high-rez rock guitar sounded from the street. Sam crossed the office to the window, made a space between the blinds, and studied the night-shrouded sidewalk.
    The Old Quarter teemed with revelers tonight. The heavy river fog that had cloaked Cadence nightly for the past several days had deterred no one. People dressed as witches, goblins, and ghosts—the fairy-tale sort, not the very real remnants of dangerous alien energy known as
unstable dissonance energy manifestations
—drifted in and out of the mists. Orange lights came and went eerily in the shadows. As Sam watched, a grinning jack-o’-lantern appeared out of the gloom. Someone shrieked in pretended fright. Raucous laughter echoed in the night.
    This was Halloween eve, and the noise level was already high. Tomorrow night, Halloween night, would be bedlam. Half of Cadence would flock to the Old Quarter to party. There was no place in town quite as atmospheric at Halloween asthe seedy districts adjacent to the ancient walls of the Dead City.
    In this part of town, ambient psi energy leaked continuously through tiny, often invisible cracks in the emerald-colored stones. It seeped up from the endless miles of green quartz tunnels and corridors beneath the pavement. The little currents and eddies of energy were part of the lure of the Old Quarters of all the cities on Harmony that had been built near the sites of ancient ruins. Tourists and locals alike loved the creepy sensations, especially at this time of year.
    Maybe there was something to the theory that the flickers of psychic and para energy were stronger at this time of year, Sam thought. Ever since he had been a kid running loose on the streets, it had always seemed to him that he was more aware of the traces of ancient alien psi energy at Halloween. Tonight was no exception. The not-quite-human trickles of power that leaked out of the Dead City felt very strong. The stuff whispered through his mind, making him deeply aware of the unseen paranormal world that hovered just beyond the range of the physical senses. The surge in power levels that he detected was probably nothing more than the result of his overactive imagination, he thought. The same imagination that had conjured up the brilliant idea of talking Virginia into a marriage-of-convenience.
    In hindsight, all he could say was that it had seemed like a good idea at the time.
    Behind him, Virginia yawned. “We’d better get some sleep. Mac Ewert will be expecting us early tomorrow morning. He’s anxious to get his excavation site cleared so that he can get his team back on the job. He made a big point of reminding me of how much money he’s losing with every day of lost work.”
    “You’re right. We need some sleep. Don’t want to doze off in front of Gage & Burch’s first client.” Sam turned away from the window. “I’ll see you to your door.”
    For a few seconds, the tension in her eyes retreated. She gave him a familiar, laughing smile, the kind of smile she had bestowed on him frequently until he had asked her to merge her business with his and file for an MC. At the sight of the glowing look, he felt his whole body tighten. The desire he had worked so hard to conceal for the past two months heated his blood. With every passing hour it was getting harder to quash the rush of sexual anticipation that stirred him whenever he was near Virginia.
    By the time his nonwedding night arrived, he would be a basket case.
    What the
hell
had he been thinking? A marriage-of-convenience in which he slept on the third floor while Virginia slept on the second floor was going to make him certifiably crazy.
    She rose from the chair and stretched. “I thought it was my turn to see you to your door.”
    “Want to flip a coin?”
    “Okay, but this time let’s try one of my mine. I don’t trust that one that you like to use. It always comes up heads.” She dug a quarter out of her