“You know you have to come see me when you’re here,” Reece said, instead of admitting anything. “I’ll give you back your hoodie.”Lie.Oh, come on. He wasn’t actually keeping the hoodie. Was he?
“I kinda thought it fit you better.”
That made Reece smile again even while he scoffed. “You remember how big I am, right? Or not-big, in this case?”
“Fit isn’t just about size,” said Grayson.
“Pretty sure there’s a sex joke in there. A hate-sex joke, even.”
“What, like how no part of me would ever fit in any part of you?”
That startled a laugh out of Reece.
And sent a shiver up his spine.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said.
“I’m not,” Grayson said dryly. “You remember how bigIam, don’t you?”
“Are you kidding?” said Reece. “That’s a feature, not a bug.”
“This, right here, is that empath lack of self-preservation we just talked about.”
“No, this is you threatening me with a good time again, like we talked about.”
This time Grayson scoffed. “I got close to a foot and a hundred pounds on you, and you know my strength is all jacked up.”
“Yeah, you really don’t know the difference between a threat and a good time,” said Reece, “because every word you say just makes it better.”
“I know how empaths work, Reece.” Grayson’s drawl was deep and gravelly in his ear. “Wouldn’t matter how good a time I wanted to give you—youget in bed with someone to lose yourself to their emotions. You make them feel the best they’ve ever felt because you get all those good feelings back tenfold. But I’m not like other people. You wouldn’t feel a thing from me.”
“Nice try, sugar,”Reece said, mimicking Grayson’s accent. “But you don’t guess everything right either, because that’s not how empaths work and I’m frankly surprised you didn’t already know.”
“Then how—”
“Yes, the ricochet is amazing but it’smaking someone else feel goodthat really gets us going, and you’re goddamn right I could make you feel the best you’ve ever felt. And for the record, right now I’mnotlying, and I’m still not lying when I say you don’t need emotions for me to have the time of my life wrecking you until we broke the fucking bed.”
There was a pause.
“Hypothetically,” Reece said quickly.
“Hypothetically,” Grayson said, almost at the same time. “We can’t touch.”
“We can’t touch,” Reece agreed, “and you’re an empath hunter.”
“I’m an empathspecialistand you’re an empath.”
“I’m an empath and I’m supposed to run away from the Dead Man.”
“You’re supposed to run away from the Dead Man who’s supposed to be doing his job,” said Grayson.
“So obviously it’s a completely hypothetical hate-fuck.”
“Obviously.”
There was another pause.
“It’s getting late,” Reece said, right as Grayson said, “I should hit the shower.”
