Undead Or Alive (Bad Things #3)(12)

Cass slowly lifted his head. His gaze met hers. His breath heaved in his chest. “What kind of game are you playing?”

She licked the lips he’d just tasted. “What?”

“You think if you act like you want me, I’ll let you go?”

Her pink cheeks darkened even more. “You’re the one who said you wanted to kiss me!”

His legs were between her spread thighs. His hands pushed down on either side of her head. He trapped her beneath him. “I’m the one who wants to f*ck you.”

Her pupils definitely expanded. The gold was almost swallowed by the darkness.

“And you expect me to believe,” his voice rasped at her, “that you’re the woman who actually wants Death?” He wasn’t stupid, and this wasn’t the first time prey had tried to trick him for freedom.

“I’m the woman who’s staring up at an idiot,” she snapped.

Cass frowned.

“Get the hell off me!” Then she didn’t wait for him to comply. She shoved against him, hard. Not hard enough to move him. Maybe she was human, after all. Because she sure didn’t seem to have any paranormal strength.

But Cass moved off her. It was either move or give in to the dark lust snaking through his body. He stood by the side of the bed.

She glared up at him.

“Kissing me won’t give you freedom,” he warned her.

Her jaw dropped. Then it snapped closed. Then she was on her feet and jabbing her index finger into his chest. “You kissed me, Reaper. Get that fact straight. You. Kissed. Me. You pushed me onto the bed. You put your mouth on mine. And you were giving me a pretty good kiss—”

Wait. Had she just said only “pretty good”? He actually felt his cheeks burn.

“Then you just blew things to hell.” In apparent disgust, she threw her hands up into the air. “Do you just have no tact or no sense? Because when a woman kisses you and you act as if she’s doing it as some kind of payment or bribe…well, that tends to make a woman feel like crap.”

“I…” He was in way over his head.

“I kissed you because—and this will sound crazy, I know, given our circumstances—I wanted to see what it would be like.”

So did I.

Only, apparently, she’d just thought it was just “pretty good.” Hell. A woman like her probably kissed plenty of men. She had dozens of lovers. Men who would jump if she crooked her finger. Men who would— “Why are you growling? And are your hands fisting?”

He was growling because he was angry. No, jealous of the unknown men who’d been lucky enough to be near her. His hands were fisting because he was imagining driving his bare hand into the faces of those jerks. Death punch.

“Cass?”

He tried to get his shit together, but his mind was in chaos. The lust still rode him just as hard and his dick was about to shove right out of his jeans. He was not cooling down. “Come with me.” Then he turned on his heel and headed for the bathroom.

“What? Are you crazy? I—ah!”

He looked back and saw her stumbling forward, her right wrist out as she was pulled after him. “Five feet is the limit. I think you can stand outside of the door.”

He marched into the bathroom. She had to follow—at least to the door.

“Wait!” Amber cried out, her voice sharp. “You’re going to use the bathroom? In the middle of our fight? You are so weird! This isn’t normal. Not at all!”

Nothing about him was normal. He yanked on the cold water faucet, sending water plummeting down into the narrow shower stall.

Then he started stripping.

“What are you doing?”

He thought it was pretty obvious. “Cooling down.” Because the lust he felt for her was too strong. He had to get his control back, ASAP.

He left his clothes in a pile and stepped under the water.





Chapter Four


“Man, I am telling you…it was the craziest shit I ever saw!” The vampire paused as his buddy propped his shoulder against the nearby alley wall. “The bartender—you know, that pretty number with the blonde hair—she pulled out her taser and knocked that guy on his ass! She didn’t just hit the bruiser once. She did it twice. Then the guy—he just got up. Like it was nothing. He walked out of the bar without even a second glance. It was like…freaking Halloween shit. He was all Michael Myers up in that place!”

“No way.” His friend was disbelieving. “You are drunk off your ass and making up crap again. You always do this.” He waved toward the vamp. “Go sober up. I’ll see you Monday in Chemistry.” Then he turned and walked away.

“It is not bullshit!” the vampire yelled after him. “That shit is real! It happened. The guy must have been freaking superhuman the way he just jumped back up. Like a horror movie villain or something—and did I mention he was wearing a hood the whole time? A hood and gloves and—”

“I don’t think your story is bullshit,” Leo announced, tired of hiding in the shadows and just listening to the drunk vampire’s story.

The vampire gave a high-pitched yell and then he spun to face Leo. The vamp actually clutched his chest.

Not a real vamp, of course. The blood on the side of his mouth was fake. The fangs were fake. Leo was just looking at a scared frat boy. A human, so Leo would go easy on him. This human wasn’t bad. Just drunk.