This Darkest Man Read Free Page A

face. Was he laughing at me?
    “Yeah,”
I muttered. “Good night.” I kept my eyes down as I opened the door to my own
bedroom, which was across the hall from the one I had given him to use.
    “Good
night, Mattie,” I heard him call behind me just before I closed the door. Once
safely in the solitude of my bedroom, I leaned my head against the door and
groaned. Had I really just been staring at this guy? And worse, been caught? I
was so stupid.
    Dejected,
I walked toward my bed and started to get changed into my nightdress. It was
one of the things that Erin had sent me when she went on her first shopping
trip in Paris. The others were rather risqué and I could just imagine Erin
laughing as she bought them, knowing that they were things that I probably
would never wear. This nightdress, however, was more demure. It was white and
was a decent length as it reached my mid-thigh. Delicate lace covered my
shoulders and décolletage, with a silk underlay preventing it being see through
over my breasts and panties. Those panties, of course, matched. Erin was big on
matching things. She made me wear a matching bra and panties on my first date
with Josh. That was before we found out what kind of person he was, of course.
    I
slid under the cold sheets of my bed and was just about to extinguish the
single candle beside the bed, when I heard a thump. A second later I heard
Clay’s door open.
    “What
the hell? Matilda, are you all right?”
    Grabbing
the candlestick, I reached the door and opened it to find Clay standing there
wearing only boxer shorts. This time, I managed not to stare.
    “I’m
fine.”
    “What
was that noise?” He held his own candle and walked to the top of the stairs.
    “It’s
probably nothing. Old houses like this always makes noises,” I told him as I
followed. I’d been used to those noises ever since I could remember coming
here.
    “That
wasn’t a normal noise,” he said over his shoulder as he descended the stairs.
“Stay behind me.”
    I
nearly rolled my eyes at his back. “Trust me. It is.” But I followed him
anyway. He looked through every room in the house, and nothing seemed out of
place. “See?” I told him.
    “We
haven’t checked the cellar.” He moved past me, toward the narrow staircase. I
let him go down first before I followed. “Man, its creepy down here.” He moved
his candle so to inspect every corner, but all he found were cobwebs. The last
part that he checked was the dark space where the skeleton had been holed up.
“Are you sure this doesn’t lead to the outside somehow?”
    “If
it did, I’m sure the poor person that was left there would have escaped.”
    He
twisted his head to look at me. “Ha ha, very funny.”
    I
couldn’t help but grin back at him, just like I couldn’t help but notice how
perfect he looked in the candlelight.  His high cheekbones and firm jaw were
all the more prominent in the light and shadow, and as the flame flickered, it
gave him an almost ethereal appearance. We held each other’s eyes for a moment,
and for once I didn’t feel myself blush. Instead, I felt myself drawn forward,
almost as if I would be the one to initiate a kiss.
    But
the sound of the door swinging closed interrupted us. It slammed shut with a
loud bang, and we both ran for the stairs. “What the hell—”A crash of glass
followed, and Clay wrenched open the door that lead to the kitchen. The wine
bottle, the one that I had put safely away in the trash earlier, lay shattered
on the floor.
    “I
guess someone didn’t like us drinking the wine,” Clay said as we both stared at
the mess.
    “It’s
probably Aunt Anna. She never did like people touching her things.”
    He
looked at me. “I don’t know if you’re joking or not. But I don’t believe in
ghosts, someone’s done this. There must be someone gaining access to the house.
We should—”
    “Stop.”
I raised a hand to emphasize my point. “There is no one else here. These things
happen