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Laughter pealed out of him. Such a ridiculous statement proved his concerns were groundless. She was still herself. Despite everything they’d done to her, that hadn’t changed.
“Still a prude?” he asked with more laughter. “Don’t fret. I locked the door behind me.”
She jumped up, and he took his time looking her over.
“Look at you, luv.” Her face might be exactly the same, but her body was curvier, filling out her lacy, lavender bridesmaid dress in all the right ways. “Can’t say I prefer the brown hair, but as for the rest of you…you’re luscious.”
She moved back until the wall prevented her from retreating another inch. “Stay where you are.”
Was that fear tingeing her scent? Perhaps she thought he’d changed in the same, lethal way he’d just wondered about with her. If so, his chosen profession wouldn’t allay that fear.
Bones made his movements slow as he leaned against the countertop. His hands were now both in sight, too, showing that he held no weapons.
“No need to get lathered. I’m not here to kill you.”
“No,” she said after a moment. “If you were, you wouldn’t have bothered with the ambush at the altar. You obviously know what name I’m going under now, so you would have just come for me one night when I came home from work.”
Bones let out a light whistle. “I see you haven’t forgotten how I work. Do you know I was offered a contract on the mysterious Red Reaper three times before? One bloke offered half a million bounty for your dead body.”
Something flitted over her features, too quick for him to read. She’d gotten better at concealing her emotions. “What did you say, since you’ve confirmed you’re not here for that?”
“I said yes, of course.” Dark satisfaction filled him at the memory. “Then, I hunted down the sods and played ball with their heads. The bounties on you quit being posted after that.”
All except whoever had hired Lazarus. That contract had never been public, and he still didn’t know who was behind it.
That trace of fear in her scent didn’t abate when she said, “So, if not for business, then why are you here?”
As if she didn’t know.
“Not happy to see me?” He began closing the space between them, his slight smile daring her to dispute his question. “Know why I wanted to catch you unawares earlier? So I could see your eyes, and know what you felt in that very instant.”
Her gaze darted around as if seeking escape, but with the stalls and sink at her sides and the wall behind her, she’d backed herself into a corner. She no longer looked him in the eyes, but he caught her gaze moving over his body as if she couldn’t help herself.
Go on, little liar,he thought as her heart rate sped up and a deeper, richer scent covered that tinge of fear.Tell me you didn’t feel that thunderbolt when we saw each other again, and that you don’t feel more alive now than you have in years.
“Have you met my boyfriend?” she blurted out, and then recoiled as if the words had struck her, too. “How did you weasel into Randy’s life to become a groomsman, anyhow?” she went on in almost desperate haste. “Did you find out my best friend was marrying him? If so, you must have mind-fucked him quick. They were only engaged for a month.”
He didn’t rise to the bait about Noah. That was her attempt at deflection, and he wouldn’t indulge it.
“I’ve known Randy over six months,” he said, enjoying the shock that bloomed over her features. “Unusual bloke, don’t you agree? Know what his first words to me were, after we sat side by side for an hour in a bar? He said, ‘I hope this won’t be engraved on my headstone, but you haven’t breathed this whole time. Care to tell me how you do that?’”
Her blink was priceless. “He knows what you are?”
“’Course. I gave him a peep from my eyes with the green lights on, and told him he hadn’t seen anything. He just blinked at me the same way you did and asked if that was supposed to work. Obviously, that was unexpected, so we struck up a conversation.”After I killed yet another vampire for you.“We became mates. It wasn’t until this week, after I’d accepted my position as groomsman, that he met me in a bar with your scent all over him. You’d helped him move into Denise’s that day.”
She seemed dazed and even a little hurt before she schooled her expression into blankness. Bones said nothing while hiding a sardonic smile.Not nice to think that you might be an afterthought, is it? Welcome to my world.
“So, running into you today is just coincidence?” she said. “You’ve, ah…gotten over what happened before?”
He’d admire the balls of the question if he didn’t know bravado was her chief defense whenever she felt vulnerable.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he mocked. “But you can stew about it, the same way I’ve had to stew ever since I got your bloody Dear John note. I will tell you this, though”-footsteps approached, followed by mutters in a voice he well recognized-“we have unfinished business between us, and wearegoing to sort it no matter how much you’d rather avoid doing so.”
Her face paled. Then, it turned ashen when Justina’s voice boomed out. “Cather-er, Cristine! Are you in there?”
“Oh, shit!” Cat said, staring at the door in horror.
He only smiled. “Think I’ll pay my respects to your mum.”
