Surrender to Love by Raine English

never done that to him. There was just something about her that drove him crazy…crazy with desire.
    A first he’d been hurt and, he had to admit, a little annoyed that she didn’t let him kiss her good night, but he could understand her reluctance to get involved with him. She’d just been through a breakup with a guy who’d cheated on her. Of course, she’d be a little gun-shy. Actually, she’d surprised him when she accepted his advances on the hood of the car. But he knew by her behavior on the ride home that she was second-guessing what had happened between them.
    Images of her standing in the doorway when he was out on the pier flickered through his mind. He recalled how the moonlight had streamed over her long golden hair and onto her shoulders. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and finally fell asleep dreaming of Tara.
     
    ~*~
     
    Tara woke to sun streaming in over her face. Another beautiful day on Breakers Island. She stretched her arms, then rolled over to check her phone for the time. Six a.m. Perfect. She’d wanted to get up extra early today to finish cleaning the house. She took a quick shower, slipped on a pair of shorts and a cotton shirt, tied her wet hair up in a bun, and then headed downstairs. She took the back stairs to avoid bothering her grandmother, who most likely was still asleep.
    After making a pot of coffee, she padded down the hall toward the front door, hoping to find a newspaper outside on the porch. When she walked by the library, her steps came to an immediate halt. She backed up and stood in the doorway, her hand covering her mouth in horror. What had happened in there? The neat piles she’d had stacked on the desk were no longer standing. Papers were strewn everywhere. Books from the bookcase had been thrown on the floor. She raced out of the room and down the hall. Everywhere she looked, things had been disrupted. In the dining room, the china cabinet doors were open, and broken pieces of knickknacks littered the table, chairs, and floor. She reached for the call box on the wall and pressed the button. “Grandmother,” she cried, fully aware of the hysteria in her voice. “Are you all right?” Sheer black fright swept through her. If this is what the first floor looked like, what must have happened upstairs?
    Without waiting for an answer, she charged up to the second floor, taking two steps at a time. When she came to her grandmother’s room, her racing heart slowed a little as she saw that it was untouched. In the bed, her grandmother yawned and rubbed her eyes, then reached for her glasses on the nightstand and slipped them on. “Tara? I thought that was you standing in the doorway. What are you doing? What’s wrong? You look terrible.”
    She came into the room and sat beside her on the bed, folding her hands in her lap to stop them from trembling. “Someone’s broken into the house.”
    Her grandmother sat up straight. A long deep line furrowed her brows. “Broken in? How do you know?”
    “Because everything’s a mess downstairs.”
    The old woman put her hand over Tara’s. “That was probably just Addison having some fun. He likes to do that every now and then. Move things, throw his papers around…”
    That was no ghost. What happened downstairs was done by a living, breathing human being. A terrifying thought occurred to her. Whoever did that could still be in the house. She grabbed the bathrobe draped over the back of a chair, then handed it to her grandmother. “Quick, put this on. We’ve got to go.”
    She slipped her arms in the robe’s sleeves. “Go? Go where? I really think you’re overreacting. Nothing bad ever happens here.”
    Tara helped her grandmother out of bed. “Let’s hope that I am, but in case I’m not, it’s best that we get out of here until we can have the house checked out.”
    Thankfully, her grandmother stopped fussing. Tara scanned the hallway before they headed down the stairs, making sure no one was coming out of any of