Death and Relaxation (Ordinary Magic #1)(34)

Seriously.

“You don’t have to follow me.” I didn’t bother looking back at him.

“I promised Myra I’d make sure you were home.” He slowed to move in rhythm with me as I trudged up the stairs. His boots, my boots shuck-shucking as one.

“I’m here. I’m home. You’ve fulfilled your contract with my pushy sister. You can go.”

“I’m to give her a full report, and it is to include you taking off your boots and either getting into a hot bath or crawling into bed.”

“For the love of Pete,” I said. “She told you that?”

“I’m just a law-abiding citizen doing what the local law tells me to do. You don’t want me to break the law, do you, Laney?”

“Brown-noser,” I mumbled.

“What?”

“Come on in, citizen,” I said with all the sarcasm I could shovel. “And watch the amazing Delaney Reed take off her shoes.”

I opened my front door, strolled in to my living room. I was pretty sure he was laughing at me.

“You should really lock your door. All sorts of people could just walk in to the place.”

“Don’t I know it.” I turned around, held my arms out to either side. “Ta-da! I am here. I am home. And…” I held up one finger then toed off my boots and kicked them to one side. “I am de-booted.” I grinned. “Now you and my sister can get out of my hair, okay?”

“Almost.”

“Almost?”

“There’s one more thing.”

I tipped my head back and groaned. “It’s illegal to shoot siblings, right?”

“Only inside state lines.” He crossed the distance between us in three easy strides.

And then his arm was around my back, his other hand slowly rising to the side of my face, fingers tucking back in my hair to curl at the nape of my neck.

“Just in case a workplace romance doesn’t work out, I thought we could start here.” His gaze held mine. I couldn’t move. Didn’t want to move. All the sound inside me went silent, still.

Ryder was warm—hot, his jacket open so I could feel the heat of his body even through the coat I wore.

When I didn’t resist, he lowered his mouth, softly, gently.

His lips, warm with the taste of rain, found mine.

Everything in me went upside down and the world somersaulted into deep water.

I was suspended there, drowning there. My only lifeline: the man who had swept the world out from beneath me.

Friends.

Who was I kidding?

This was not a friendly kiss. This was passion.

This was Ryder.

Before I could understand it, before I could sort the truths of him from the fantasies, he quietly pulled away.

Hands still holding me, gaze locked on my eyes. On me.

“That goodnight kiss was my idea. Not your sister’s. Just in case you weren’t sure.”

I nodded. Had to swallow to remember how to make words come out of my mouth. “Good. Great. Good to know.”

The corner of his mouth slid up into a smile.

“So I’m going to leave now,” he said. “And you are going to…?”

Oh. He wanted me to say something? To put a cohesive thought together with my brain and mouth? That was impossible while he was standing this close to me.

I went with the first thing that popped into my head. “Bed?”

“Perfect.”

But before I could do—or not do—anything, he stepped back.

And just like that, the world snapped into place: solid land formed beneath my feet, gravity clicked back on.

“Sleep well, Delaney.” He paused at my front door and turned the lock. He stepped through the doorway. “Let’s do this again. With fewer dead people.”

I couldn’t even find the words to answer that. Lifted my hand in a lame wave.

He grinned and then shut the door firmly enough that I knew he had locked it behind him.

Air whooshed out of my lungs. My head went light from the air I was suddenly gulping down.

“Well,” I said with a shaky laugh. “Well, how about that?” I smiled and bare-footed it into the bathroom for a nice, long soak before bed.





Chapter 10


DEATH CAME to our little beach town on a Tuesday morning. It was one of those rare, clear spring days after a night of rain that hinted at better days right around the corner.

Death looked similarly optimistic in his bright Hawaiian shirt over a T-shirt with the words 100% ORDINARY across the chest.

I was on my fourth cup of coffee and the last page of my report when Death walked into the station.

“Can I help you, sir?” Roy asked.

“You may inform Delaney Reed that Than is here to see her about a private matter.”

“Chief?” Roy called.

I strolled around the divider that separated my desk from the rest of the station. To Death’s apparent amusement and my own satisfaction, Roy wasn’t the least bit concerned that the grim reaper was in our waiting area. He instead went back to fiddling with his newest Rubik’s Cube.

“Hey, Than. It’s very good to see you. When did you get into town?”

I noticed the temperature in the station had dropped by a few degrees.

“Moments ago.”