Read Online Wicked Obsession by Cora Zane - Free Book Online Page A

was not meant to be empty. The lack of laughter and idle chatter made the chateau seem less like a place for the living, and more like a mausoleum.
    A chill passed over her when at last she turned the corner. Trying to ignore the empty row of adjoined rooms, Eleni fixed her eyes on the double doors to the suite Julian had set aside for her. Even then, she couldn’t quell the sense of oppressive loneliness and an almost queasy sense of fear. The silence and stillness made the hall seem almost haunted—with what, she couldn’t guess. Not ghosts, she was certain of that, but perhaps centuries of bad memories had left an impression.
    Eleni reached the double doors, and grabbed for the handle. She entered the room without a second thought, and yelped in surprise at the sight of a woman standing in front of her closet door in a bright blue dress.
    It seemed as though the world stopped for an instant. Her attention settled on the open-mouthed expression of shock on Gisele’s face. The servant stood amid a mess of strewn clothes.
    Eleni could barely believe what she was seeing. The maid had dressed herself in the sleek blue evening dress she’d brought with her from San Francisco. It was ill-fitting on Gisele’s body shape. It fit her trim waist perfectly, but fit too tight across her large bust and curvy hips.
    A sharp pain lanced Eleni’s heart. Anya had given her the dress as a sobriety gift before she’d left for France. But Gisele hadn’t stopped with just the dress. She wore a slash of red lipstick that Eleni suspected came from her makeup drawer in the bathroom. But what infuriated her most, was that the servant had secured her lush, honey blonde hair into a loose knot at the nape of her neck with her great grandmother’s floral hairpins.
     Gisele’s face blazed scarlet. “I came in to prepare the room for you, and the dress—”
    “—was on the bed,” Eleni cut her off in a flat voice. “Yes, I know where I left it.”
    “Is it truly a reason to be angry?” Gisele asked in stiff defense. Shaken, she looked remarkably like a little girl discovered playing in her mother’s wardrobe.
    “I don’t know what to think,” Eleni said truthfully. She pulled Julian’s bed sheet tighter around her, clinging to it like a shield. “We both know you shouldn’t be in here going through my things.”
    Before her date with Julian, she’d tried on the dress, but decided it was too long, too glamorous for the evening. She’d left it lying across the foot of the bed with the intention of hanging it up later. She didn’t know how to take it situation—as an insult, or an awful gesture of flattery? Gisele was a veritable stranger. One she would have to live with, but a stranger all the same. It felt like a violation of more than simply trust.
    “Take it off.” Even to her own ears, her voice sounded angry and resolute. She had lived in Rubio’s house with eighteen other women, and while it had ended poorly, no one had ever trespassed on her privacy in this way. No one had ever worn her clothes or jewelry without asking her for permission first.
    Gisele began to shimmy out of the too-tight dress. “You plan to tell Julian.” It sounded like an accusation.
     The thought hadn’t crossed her mind until now. It didn’t surprise her that Gisele would be worried, but Eleni didn’t need to involve him in a small squabble she could handle by herself. If she presented Julian with a problem so soon after moving in, he might believe her to be a troublemaker.
    She turned her back while Gisele changed, but now that Eleni knew she could not trust the woman, it was hard not to watch her in the dresser mirror. Eleni glimpsed Gisele’s white bra straps as the servant turned to toss the dress onto the end of the bed. She spoke to her reflection.
    “I will clean my own room from this day forward, is that understood?”
    “Perfectly,” Gisele responded stiffly. Once she had pulled on her jeans, she slipped her feet into a pair