Unspoken (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3)(37)

No footsteps sounded in the room. Instead, the mattress gave as he sat down beside her. “You sure you’re okay? That was pretty damn scary. I just … I … you … the thing…”

When he stopped making sense, she opened her eyes and caught him noticing what she was wearing—or what she wasn’t wearing—seemingly for the first time. “Please just go.”

His eyes swept up to her face. Slowly. All that tender concern in his eyes had turned into something different. His pupils were large and the green in his eyes seemed to glitter with a different kind of emotion. “But … uh … Don’t you think we should … talk about what all we saw?”

“Not now,” she said through tight lips and covered herself with the pillow again. Her bikini would reveal more than her bra and panties, but because it wasn’t a bathing suit, she felt more vulnerable.

“Okay.” He turned toward the door.

“Not that way,” she snapped. “The window.”

He looked back, just a hint of a smile in his eyes. “If I sneak out, she’ll really believe we were … you know.”

Della sat up, and hugged the pillow. “You aren’t wearing a shirt, your pants were undone, and I’m in my underwear. And for some unknown reason we were kissing. There is nothing in this world you could say to her that will convince her that we weren’t doing … ‘you know’! So just use the window.”

He opened it and had one leg out when he glanced back, that teasing look now brighter in his eyes. “One thing.”

“What?” She scowled.

He countered her expression with a smile. “Make that two.”

“What?” she snapped again.

“One,” he paused. “This … the kiss that just happened. It was your choice. You kissed me.”

She frowned, because damn it, she didn’t want to be reminded.

“Second. You got your days wrong.”

“Huh?”

“You’re wearing your Friday panties, and it’s Sunday.”

She tossed the pillow at him then glanced down to confirm it. Yup, she was wearing her day-of-the-week panties.

She threw her arm over her eyes and moaned.





Chapter Sixteen

Minutes later, dressed, but still not ready to face her friend’s accusations, or the deadly cold that had returned, Della heard another set of footsteps move up on her front porch. She inhaled the frigid air, and recognized Kylie’s scent, along with Socks, her cat.

She heard Kylie speaking with Miranda. Della purposely didn’t listen, only imagining what the witch was telling her. Then a loud feline howl filled the cabin. Was the cat protesting Baxter’s earlier visit?

Right then the chameleon knocked on Della’s bedroom door.

“Come in,” Della said, as if she really had a choice.

Kylie moved in first, her expression serious. She dropped on the edge of the bed beside Della. “Are you okay?”

“We were not doing the mattress mambo. I had a vision, he saw it too, and when he woke up he came here.” Della looked at Miranda standing in the doorway.

Kylie sighed. “I don’t mean—”

“I know it looked like it.” She frowned at Miranda. “And if I’d seen what you saw, I wouldn’t believe me either, but—”

“I’m not asking about you and Chase, I’m asking about the five spirits.”

“Yeah, I had…” Five? Five? Freaking five?

Della caught her breath. “No!”

Kylie nodded.

Della shook her head. “Two yes, but not five. You must have brought three with you, because I only had two.”

“There were definitely five. And they weren’t here for me. I couldn’t see them, only felt them.”

“Well, I didn’t see them either,” Della said, not wanting to claim them.

“Did they say anything?”

“No.” She popped up off her bed. “No. And no!” Della looked up at the ceiling. Not really sure who she was addressing, but looking up seemed appropriate. “Two is two too many. No way, no how, no hell, can I deal with five!” Then she glanced back at Kylie. “Are they still here?”

“No.” Kylie stood up. “They left.”

Miranda spoke up. “But they were here. The three Diet Cokes that I set out on the kitchen table for our talk—as soon as you finished what you were doing—burst. I swear I got frostbite!” She rubbed the tip of her nose.

Right then a loud thump landed on their porch, followed by a knock. Burnett.

All three of them walked into the living room. Miranda ran to the door. “Good thing you’re here. We had an invasion of ghosts.”

Burnett frowned, stepped into the cabin, and looked at Della. “Did you rest?”

“Yes.” Why did she get the strange sensation that he wasn’t just here to monitor her sleep? “Did Lucas’s trip to the basketball court turn up anything?”

“No.” From Burnett’s expression, she knew he had more to say.

“Then what?”

“I just got called to a murder scene. Three young weres. I think they might be the three you saw and may be connected to the Chi case.”