Page 26 of Newly Undead in Dark River

“I take it back. You can look at me like that any morning,” he purred.

Someone banged on the door, and Brody grinned. Well, that couldn’t be good.

“Raine?” Walker's voice echoed around my apartment, and for a moment, I panicked like I’d be caught out cheating. Then I remembered he wasn’t my boyfriend or my partner. He was my friend, at best.

Brody was still grinning, and I rolled my eyes. “You should get dressed before Walker uses you as a chew toy for debauching me.”

Brody laughed, but he stood up, and I sucked in a gasp. Naked, he was glorious. “Babe, I’m pretty sure if anyone got debauched last night, it was me.”

He leaned forward and kissed my lips, pulling his jeans on.

“Raine? Are you okay in there?”

Brody chuckled against my lips. “He knows your all good. He can hear us just fine.”

He tilted his head and lifted a finger. As if on cue, Walker let out a disgruntled huff. “I sure can, fleabag. Get your ass out here, before I come in there and drag you out.”

Brody grinned. “He’s so uptight. Makes you wonder why?”

I dropped my voice low. “Isn’t he dating Angeline?”

The shock on Brody’s face was almost comical. “Angeline is married to the Doc.”

No fucking way. “Doc Alice?”

Brody laughed loud, reverberating. “How many doctors do you think a town full of dead people needs? Come on, Raine. Better get out there before the old guy gets his panties in a knot.”

I pulled on a dress and ran my fingers through my bed hair. I walked to the door and opened it. Walker stood there, out of uniform for once. He looked strange, like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland with no head-on.

He looked at my rose-colored cheeks, and then over my shoulder to where Brody was standing with a self-satisfied grin. His mouth opened and closed a few times, like a fish gasping for air, before he snapped it shut with an audible click. His jaw flexed as he ground his molars, and it was a little mesmerizing. It had to be bad for his teeth, though. I didn’t know if Dark River had a dentist, or if they had to travel to one of the human towns. You couldn’t pay me enough to stick my fingers into the mouth of a vampire, though. It was like flossing the teeth of a shark.

“It’s time for your first counseling appointment. I thought I’d come over and escort you,” he grunted. “I see you were busy.”

I stared at his face, wondering if Brody was right. Was Walker so angsty because he had a thing for me? My belly flip-flopped at the idea. Walker was hot. If I closed my eyes, I could still imagine how his body felt beneath my hands when I’d almost nailed him in public on my second day in town.

Mika would be trying to get him on some kind of commitment lockdown, but I wasn’t Mika anymore. I was Raine, a sampler of sexy supernaturals. Still a little high on Brody’s blood, feeling bolder than I had any right to be, I stepped closer to Walker, until I was well inside his personal space. I looked up at him through my lashes and saw his nostrils flare.

“I was busy,” I purred. If I stood on the tips of my toes, I’d be a fraction of an inch from his lips. His green eyes burned down at me, taking on that odd glow I saw on my very first day. The one he got when he was worked up. I felt my lips curl into a smug grin. Still smiling, I lifted and nipped his chin with my fangs. He shuddered, and I turned on my heel and walked away, human -slow. I could hear Brody’s laughter following me down the back stairs of the apartment. I’d walked halfway across the square by the time Walker caught up.

I just raised an eyebrow at him. “Have a nice chat with Brody?” I had no doubt that he had been grilling his shifter friend.

Walker frowned at me. “You played a dangerous game with Brody. He is mortal. Well, mortal-ish, he’ll live longer than humans. It is still definitely possible for you to rip his throat out. You are barely two weeks old. You shouldn’t be trying mortal blood.” He sounded like he was giving me the safe sex speech, and I rolled my eyes. There was nothing sexy about getting lectured. “Besides, I thought you were dating Judge?”

I stopped and turned toward him. “What does it matter to you who I am dating, Sheriff?” I looked at him straight in those glorious eyes, not giving him the opportunity to break away.

His jaw ticked. “I just want you to be careful.”

I quirked my eyebrow again. Once again, I got into his space, pressing my body close until my soft curves were pressed against the long, hard lines of his body. He sucked in a breath, and my heart was thundering. “Is that the only reason, Walker?”

The part of my brain that was still a nineteen-year-old human was doing a pterodactyl screech of excitement inside my head. Walker was silent, but his chest was heaving. He leaned forward until I had no choice to look anywhere but at his eyes. “No. But this would be a gross misuse of my authority,” he growled.

“What would be?” I whispered, not daring to hope he meant what I thought he did. In the next moment, my hopes were confirmed as his head dipped, his lips pressing softly into mine. He tasted like perfection, and I kissed him back and moaned when he sucked my bottom lip into his mouth, his fangs scraping against the tender flesh.

Then he was gone so fast that the red curls of my hair fluttered around my face. I stood there gaping like a fish, completely unsure what to do. What the hell was my life right now?

Someone was clapping from behind me, and I whirled to see Judge grinning like an idiot. Now I felt guilty. I might have talked a big game to Walker, but I’d actually slept with Judge, and now he’d seen me kissing another man.

“Judge…”

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