USA Today Bestselling Author Lauren Smith is an Oklahoma attorney by day, author by night who pens adventurous and edgy romance stories by the light of her smart phone flashlight app. She’s won multiple awards in several romance subgenres including: New England Reader’s Choice Awards, Greater Detroit BookSeller’s Best Awards, and a Semi-Finalist award for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award. She was a 2018 RITA ® Finalist in the Romance Writers of America Contest. To connect with Lauren, visit her at www.laurensmithbooks.com

Haunted, schmaunted. 
Bastian, infamous playboy and the current Earl of Weymouth doesn’t believe his English castle is haunted. So what if a few windows and lightbulbs shatter? That happens. OK, bleeding portraits are hard to explain…  But he is not going to be deterred. Not even by Jane, a seductive-as-sin grad student who has assigned herself the task of ghost hunting at Stormclyffe Hall. All Bastian wants is to restore his ancestral home, not be distracted by her curvy hips, bedroom eyes and gorgeous smile—
 
Fine, maybe he does want to get naked with Ms. GhostBuster, but that’s only because she practically follows him around, nosing into his daily life. And yes, because she looks so damnably sexy, however, he refuses to give into lust.  No matter how much she tempts him.
But when the ghosts up the ante and try to kill them, Bastian realizes he will have to keep Jane close. Very, very close. Purely to protect her, of course.
 
At least that’s what he tells himself. All bets—and some clothes—are off, as he shows her what a real earl is made of.


The Shadows of Stormclyffe Hall

Jane slowly regained consciousness. Her gaze took in the gray waves smashing against the stones below. Her chest was smeared with blood. But she wasn't hurt. It wasn't her blood. She whipped her head about frantically and realized in horror that she wasn't alone.


The figure of her nightmares, the creature that haunted and hunted her, stood a few feet away, holding a white dove in her hand, blood upon her palms. The putrid smell of death and decay invaded Jane's nostrils, making her eyes burn. Bits of flesh peeled away from the stark-white cheekbones of the monster's face. Its lidless eyes were ruby red and glowing. Jane bit her tongue, tasting blood as she sucked back a scream.


"You're Cordelia, aren't you? How are you even here? We removed your bones." Fighting to breathe each word, she sagged back against the massive rock she clung to on the cliff's edge.


Chapter 38