Page 94 of Whispers of the Dead

Down on the ground, the guys are bickering over something ridiculous, and Lola is chasing her own tail in excitedcircles. She insisted on joining me up here each day, until she almost fell off during an aggressive tail-chasing session, and now we keep her paws on the ground where she’s safe.

Growling reaches me and I look down below to see Damon on all fours having a growling contest with Lola. I laugh so hard I have to catch myself to keep from falling off the platform.

“Come on, Lola, put him to shame,” Benji cheers on.

After listening to their voice carry up here, I decide to go down and join them.

“I’m just saying, if we’re going to be living in a proper colony now, maybe we should act like civilized people,” Avery says, his arms crossing over his chest.

Benji snots. “Civilized? My guy, I just saw you gut a rotter this morning with a spoon.”

“Impressive. Bet it took skill,” Damon adds.

Cole scoffs. “It was a butter knife, actually.”

Avery shrugs. “I work with what I’ve got.”

I roll my eyes and step forward to join them. “Does it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe, we don’t need to compete over who’s the most unhinged?”

Benji grins. “Oh, but that would be boring, golden girl.”

I shake my head with a laugh, then flinch when something cold and wet presses against my palm. Startled, I look down to find Lola staring up at me, wagging her tail like she expects a reward for spooking me. I scratch behind her ears, then watch her trot over to where Damon and Benji are standing near the edge of the firepit.

Benji hooks an arm around Damon’s shoulder and shakes him lightly. “You know, I was thinking…”

Damon sighs. “That’s dangerous.”

Benji ignored him. “We’ve all been in a lot of dark place, literal and metaphorical, but I gotta say, nothing beats the irony of our…what do you call her, Cole, sunshine? Our sunshine over here, still managing to blind us even while we were trapped in pitch black.”

I tilt my head. “Sunshine?”

Cole gives me a sheepish half-smile. “Yeah. That’s what you are?”

I raise a questioning brow. “And why, exactly?”

He walks over and faces me, wrapping his arms around the back of my waist. His expression softens and my heart flutters at the moment of sincerity in his usually gruff demeanor. “I was in the dark for so long. Then you came along, and suddenly, it wasn’t so dark anymore.”

I swallow hard, my throat tight. Then Benji ruins the moment. “Wow, Cole. That was disgustingly romantic. I’m actually a little nauseous.”

Cole flips him off while smiling at me. Then he cups my jaw and kisses me, slow and sensual. Butterflies erupt in my belly. He lets me go and then goes over to his seat to finish his dinner.

I step closer to Damon, curious. “What about you?” I ask, peering up at him. “Did I blind you with my brilliance, too?”

Damon’s lips twitch, and his fingers brush along the side of my jaw, tilting my face up toward his. His brown eyes pierce into my soul, and those butterflies start flapping again. “Something like that.”

His mouth claims mine, slow and unhurried, like we have all the time in the world. He cups the back of my head and pulls me flush against him, and for a moment, the world fades.

Then Benji groans dramatically. “Ugh. I take it back. Cole’s moment was bad, but this is actually worse. I’m not even a part of it.”

I break the kiss in time for Benji to grab my wrist and yank me toward him instead. His hazel eyes gleam with mischief as he dips me backward with one arm wrappedaround my waist. “If I have to suffer through the romance, I might as well take part,” he teases.

My fingers tangle in his strawberry blond hair at the back of his head. “Is that what it’s like with me? Suffering?”

His eyes widen. “Oh, no golden girl, no. I?—”

I cut him off by pressing my mouth against his, and he relaxes into the kiss, still dipping me. It’s different from Damon’s. Playful, teasing, but deep, and filled with a kind of intensity that steals my breath all the same.

When he finally pulls away, he grins. “See? That’s how you do it.”

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