Her Ghostly Dom

Seven

Katherine

"How many times?"

He smiled sadly. "This will be our sixth year together. Happy anniversary, my love."

A tsunami of emotions roiled around inside her at the vicious truth he had been keeping from her.

"No. You're lying! How is this possible?"

Tears of anger and sadness pricked her eyes at this unexpected revelation. Reginald placed a hand in hers and gripped it tightly as if to keep her from pulling away from him, not just psychically but emotionally as well.

"I'm not too clear on it myself. All I know is that year after year, on Hallows Eve, I become a flesh and blood man. And for the last fifteen years since Mr. Branson has become proprietor here, I've spent my time here with willing women. That was... until I met you.

"The first time you were here, I fell hard for you, Katherine. You were so beautiful. After the first time we were together, I knew I would never be with anyone else. So I begged Giles to find you the following year. And then again the year after that. I haven't been with anyone else since you because, after you, there is no one else. You will always and forever be the only one for me."

"Oh, Reginald." She couldn't hold back the tears this time. He pulled her to his chest as she cried, overwhelmed by the realization of what it all meant.

"How can I not remember our time together? How can I not even remember being at this manor? Or meeting Giles?"

"That's the way the curse works, I'm afraid. No matter what, every first of November at the stroke of midnight, all that we shared is wiped from your memory. You'll forget you were even here, wake up back in your own home and resume your life."

"What curse?"

He sighed. "It was shortly before my death. A wicked old witch of a woman whose daughters I had... been intimate with cursed me for all eternity as some sort of revenge for being such a dreadfully handsome bloke."

"You mean a pervy old rake."

"Pardon me? Old?"

She couldn't help but laugh at his exaggerated outrage.

"What did she say? Do you remember?"

"Oh, I'll never forget.

"Though the fates may be considered,

Thee life's waste, thou tainted sinner.

Cursed are thee wicked ways,

Pervade thy soul with endless days.

Thy may seek, nay will thee find,

Thine blackened heart save frolics' time."

He recited.

"What does it mean?"

"I've spent the better part of a century trying to figure it out to no avail. All I know is, each year, you come here to be with me, but you forget the minute the clock strikes midnight November first."

"So you're saying, come midnight, I won't remember you, and you won't remember me?"

"On the contrary, Katherine, I could never forget you and the time we shared, not in a thousand years."

"Oh, Reggie. When you say things like that, it only makes me want to be with you all the more."

"The feeling is absolutely mutual, my love."

He crashed his mouth to hers in a searing kiss.

"I promise," she said, pulling away. "I'm going to figure out a way to stay here with you."