Free Ghost Hunter by Jayne Castle Page A

reasonable. “But as you get older, you learn how to handle the rush. I’m not going to throw you over my shoulder and haul you off to the nearest bed.”
    She tilted her head slightly. “You’re starting to sound a little testy. That’s part of the syndrome.”
    â€œTesty?”
    â€œShort tempered, irritable. You know, testy. I’ve noticed that ghost hunters often get that way after they’ve fried a ghost.”
    â€œIs that so?” he said, very polite, but through his teeth.
    â€œIf they don’t get rid of the adrenaline overload in some other way, that is. When they can’t get a date, my brothers go to the gym, instead.”
    â€œYou really know how to rez a man’s amber, don’t you?”
    â€œLike I said, three brothers. I’ve had oodles of experience.”
    He got a cold feeling. No doubt about it, leaving her alone here in Cadence for the past six months was proving to be one of the biggest miscalculations of his life. He didn’t make many mistakes, but when he made them, they tended to really resonate.
    â€œWhat have you been doing for fun here in Cadence?” he asked, determined to change the subject.
    â€œI’ve been pretty busy.” She patted Rose again. “You’d be amazed at how much work it takes to open up a small business and get it running at a profit.”
    â€œAs a matter of fact, I’m not the least bit surprised,” he said, putting a not-so-subtle emphasis into the words. “I run the Aurora Springs Guild, remember? It’s a very big business. Requires even more work and time than a small business.”
    â€œForget it, that logic isn’t going to fly with me. There’sa vast difference between being interested in your work and being obsessed with it.”
    â€œAnd you know where that line is?”
    â€œYes, I do.” She paused deliberately. “You know, in hindsight, you owe me, big time.”
    â€œHow do you figure that?”
    â€œWhat if we had actually gone through with a Covenant Marriage? Just think how miserable you would have been by now. I’d be nagging you, rezzing your amber, as you put it, constantly, day in and day out. To escape, you’d be spending even more time at the office. What were you thinking, anyway, going straight for a full Covenant? If we were going to try any kind of relationship at all, we should have gone for a limited Marriage of Convenience.”
    â€œThought I knew what I was doing,” he said.
    The marriage laws had been relaxed slightly in the past two centuries, Cooper reflected, but not a whole lot. The rigid rules had made sense two hundred years ago when the colonists had found themselves abandoned on Harmony.
    The settlers’ primary goal in those dangerous early years had been to establish a strong, cohesive social fabric. The personal happiness of individuals had been a distant second. The social scientists, philosophers, and elected leaders had known that the basic building block of any society was the family. They had concluded that if the small, fragile colonies were to stand any chance at all of survival, the social structure had to be founded on strong family units.
    The desperate, determined Founders had drawn up a Constitution and a series of laws designed to ensure that families remained intact, regardless of the price that had to be paid. Hence, the institution of the Covenant Marriage, a bond which, generally speaking, could be severed only by death or an act of the Federation Council.
    But the Founders had also understood the need to provide an alternative for those who were not ready to take thebig leap. The Marriage of Convenience was a legally recognized arrangement that had to be renewed regularly by both parties involved. It could be terminated at any point. There were pitfalls, however. Couples had to be particularly careful about birth control. The arrival of a baby automatically converted the