Page 59 of Death Raiser

“Agitated?”

“Not before, but now that you mention it, this line of questioning is—”

“Wolfish?” I bit my lip.

Understanding flashed across Connor’s face and he laughed. He dropped his pizza on the paper plate and laughed some more, a deep rumble of laughter that brought a smile to my face even though I was pretty sure he was laughing at me. “Did you seriously choose the night of a full moon for our date to see if I was a werewolf?”

I took a bite of my hotdog. “Mmmm.”

“I could've rescheduled,” he pointed out.

I chewed my food and grinned at him. “That would’ve told me what I needed to know.”

“I’m not a werewolf, Lark.”

“Clearly.” I was out of options. He wasn’t fae, and he wasn’t a werewolf. Those were the two types of glamies I knew of that could smell, see, and hear spirits other than necromancers.

“I could just tell you,” he said.

“Don’t you dare. I’m having too much fun trying to figure it out. Besides, you don’t want to relieve me of my curiosity before I’m properly enamored by your wit and charm.”

He rested his plate on his lap and leaned back. The moonlight danced along his chiselled features. “Are you not enamored already?”

“Maybe.”

His lips twitched, but he didn’t say more.

I wanted to reach out with my fingers and trace those lips, then the hard lines of his nose, cheekbones, and jawline. When I first met him, I’d thought he looked a little like a younger, clean-cut Keanu Reeves. Still did, but somehow the comparison didn’t fit as well anymore. Connor was just…Connor. And he was gorgeous.

He peered over at me. “I don’t think you’re ready to find out, anyway,” he said.

“You’re probably right.”

Buddy whined and rested his fluffy head on my foot. I broke the rest of my hot dog in two and gave both dogs a piece. They inhaled the food and looked at me expectantly. I reached out and scratched behind Buddy’s ear. “I know you were caught between protecting your family and wanting to be honest with me, but why…why did you make me feel like you didn’t like anything about me?”

“I liked and like plenty.”

“You have a funny way of showing it.”

The muscles along his jawline bunched as he clenched his teeth. He didn’t speak right away. When he did, he lowered his voice, the deep tone rumbling from his chest. “I have to keep a part of me separate when I’m doing my job. I can’t allow myself to feel too much. It sometimes comes across as unfriendly.”

Sometimes?

Seriously, sometimes?

In other words, Connor compartmentalized. Not sometimes, though. All the time. And unfriendly wouldn’t be the word I’d use to describe his demeanour at a crime scene. “I would’ve said hostile, but there’s no point arguing semantics.”

“Ah, yes. And you’re a ray of sunshine.”

“Compared to you, I’m incandescent,” I muttered.

His lips twitched and he leaned back on the bench, his pizza forgotten. I had the random thought of picking up the plate and tossing it to the side so I could straddle him on the park bench. His snark did nothing to repel my growing attraction, and if I were being completely honest with myself, this attraction had been building since the moment I met him.

I blinked the fantasy away.

“I wasn’t being sarcastic,” Connor said.

“Shocking.”

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