Authors: Alicia Dean
He dipped his head, and his lips hovered near her breast while his hands worked their magic below. She could feel him...the tingles of his nearness on her breasts and between her legs. Climax built to a crescendo, rocking her as wave after wave shuddered through her, throbbing and tightening with sweet, blessed release. Hot, heavy languor spilled through her, easing her back down to Earth on a sigh.
She closed her eyes and fell limp into the cushions. “Wow,” she panted, trying to regulate her breathing.
Eyes still closed, she heard a deep, throaty chuckle from Dimitri. Reality set in, and her face heated with embarrassment. What had she done? What had she let him do
to
her? She didn’t want to look at him, but she couldn’t avoid it forever.
She slowly lifted her lids. He was still next to her on the couch, but now leaned forward, his hands clasped loosely between his knees. “That’s how,” he said.
She snatched her clothes up and tugged them on as quickly as she could, all the while working up anger to cover her humiliation. “
That’s how?
What was that? Some kind of lesson or something? A teaching tool you use to induct humans into the world of reaper seduction?”
His brows drew together. “What are you talking about? I thought I was making you feel good. That’s it.”
“Right.” She shifted away from him and stood. “It’s some kind of trick. How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Make me...you know.” Her skin heated and the blush moved up her cheeks. “Without even touching me, you made me...”
“Orgasm?”
She nodded jerkily, and he laughed.
“You’re a passionate woman, Audra. No reaper tricks involved. You found me desirable—or at least the potential of what I could do to you pleasurable—and it happened. That’s it.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You didn’t get...satisfaction. What’s in it for you?”
He chuckled. “Don’t worry about me. There was some measure of satisfaction.”
“What? Proving a point of some kind?”
He sighed and shook his head. “Audra, why do you keep trying to hold onto the anger? It was a gratifying prelude for us both. That’s it. Don’t be a drama queen.”
“Drama queen?”
“Look. You asked me a question. You were curious. I satisfied that curiosity.”
“Yeah? Well next time I ask a question, how about you use your
words
to answer.”
“Sure.” He tilted his head toward her. “My apologies.”
She clenched her hands in her hair and squeezed her eyes shut. She was being completely unreasonable. She had the chance to stop him and hadn’t. Besides, what was she pissed about? Truth be told, it had been amazing. But the truth would
not
be told to him. The best she could do was to apologize.
“I’m the one who’s sorry. It was my fault, too.” She tilted her head as she stared at him. “But seriously, what was that all about? It couldn’t have been as...satisfying for you as it was for me. Why did you?”
He smiled and lowered his voice. “Because you’re an achingly beautiful woman, and you looked at me so longingly. I wanted to pleasure you.” He moved closer. “Besides, your smell drives me wild.”
“My smell?” She tamped down the desire building at his proximity. As pleasant as their little interlude had been, she wouldn’t humiliate herself like that again.
“Mmmhmm,” he murmured. “I haven’t smelled anything like it in years.”
“What do I smell like?” she asked softly.
He leaned in, his face next to hers, and inhaled, closing his eyes. “Life,” he whispered against her hair.
Audra had just ordered coffee at Sally’s Sundries when Cassie came in to the shop. She acknowledged the girl with a slight nod, and Cassie smiled and waved vigorously.
What was she doing here? Did she think they could carry on a conversation in an even slightly populated public place? They’d managed it at the bar because it was loud and everyone was drinking. Here wouldn’t be so easy.
When her coffee was ready, Audra took it and made her way to a nook in the corner where three cushy chairs were grouped around a small table, facing a TV hanging in the corner. Only one person occupied the space—a man who’d thrown his briefcase and jacket on one chair, sat in another, and had his feet propped in a third. Audra paused in the doorway, and he looked up at her, then went back to reading his paper.
Next to her, Cassie bit out, “Asshole.”
Audra was looking around for another place to sit when Cassie headed over to the man. Audra cringed as Cassie stuck a foot out and gave the man’s footrest a shove. The chair went flying and his feet came off. He sat up, his head swiveling in all directions. “Hey, hey, what the heck was that?”
Since Audra was the only human in the vicinity, his gaze landed on her. She shrugged. “I didn’t see anything.”
“The chair? You didn’t see the chair fly across the floor on its own?”
“I thought maybe you shoved it away,” she said innocently.
He glowered and gathered his briefcase and jacket. “Whatever. Don’t need this bullshit.”
When he left, Audra settled in one of the chairs while Cassie perched on the other.
“You really shouldn’t do stuff like that,” Audra said.
“I know. Dimitri would kick my ass.” Cassie folded her hands in her lap and lifted her brows. “So, how are you and Dimitri getting along?”
Audra flushed at the memory of what had happened between them and took a drink from her cup to hide it. “We’re okay. For, you know, a living human being and a not so living reaper.”
“I heard what he did for you. It’s the talk of the reaper community.”
Audra whipped her head to Cassie, eyes widening. “You…heard?”
Had Dimitri told everyone? Kiss and tell didn’t seem his style, but she didn’t know him all that well. Why would he do that? In the reaper world, was it some kind of accomplishment to bang a human?
“Any time a reaper turns human, it’s a big thing. Pretty cool that Dimitri did it to help that woman.” Cassie gave her a sly smile. “He really did it for you, though. He’s got a thing for you.”
Oh, the priest thing. Relief flooded through her. “It was nice of him, yes. Surprising. I didn’t even know you guys could turn human.”
“I can’t, yet. You have to be a reaper for, like, a few years or something. Wouldn’t anyway. No freakin’ way. Too dangerous.”
“Dangerous? Dimitri said there were consequences, but he didn’t go into detail.”
Cassie shook her head. “Sounds like Dimitri. Downplaying what he did.”
“What do you mean?”
Cassie scooted to the edge of the chair and leaned forward. “Turning human is the most dangerous thing we can do. If we die while we’re human, then...that’s it.”
Audra glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention. So far, she and Cassie were still alone in their cubbyhole. “
It
how?”
“We’ll be cast into this bleak, torturous eternity, with nothing but darkness. Rather than earning our reward, we’ll be destined to wander with nothing but our memories and pain. Forced to relive every horrible thing we’ve done, every horrible thing that’s happened to us, over and over. Indefinitely.” Cassie visibly shuddered. “I know I only lived seventeen years, but enough bad shit happened to me in that time, I wouldn’t want to relive it even for a second.”
“Wow,” Audra breathed. “But, really. It’s not likely he’d be killed during that brief time he turned human. He was in a hospital. He was safe.”
“You’d think so. But there are a lot of defectors out there. There are other reapers who want him dead. If they got wind he turned human…”
Audra shook her head. Dimitri had risked a lot. “Why? Why would he take that chance?”
Cassie smiled. “You don’t get it, do you? Dimitri would do anything for you. He’s in love with you.”
Audra flushed. “No, he’s not. Gaylen said the same thing, but trust me, he’s not.”
“How do you know?”
“I asked him.”
Cassie threw herself back into the chair, howling with giggles. “You asked him? I bet he about shit. He’s not going to admit it to you. Good grief. A reaper in love with a human? That’s, like, the worst. I mean, where do you go from there, right?”
“Exactly.” A sense of hopelessness came over her. Where indeed? Dimitri might have feelings for her—he’d taken a huge risk to please her—but none of that mattered. They were literally worlds apart.
“So, how do you feel about him?” Cassie asked.
Good question. One for which she didn’t have an answer. If she did, she wouldn’t share it with this rumor-loving teen. “Doesn’t really matter. As you said. Where do we go from here? It’s not like we can have any kind of future together.”
“You never know. Sometimes miracles happen. Even in the reaper world. You just have to believe.”
Audra cocked a brow. “That doesn’t sound quite like the jaded, street-wise kid I met a few nights ago.”
Cassie grinned. “Maybe being dead has softened me.” Her head tilted back as her attention riveted to the TV. The grin faded.
Audra looked up to see what had caught her interest. The newscaster was talking about the serial killer who had now claimed five victims in Oklahoma towns, mostly in the northeast. A witness had seen a man believed to be the killer leaving a motel room. A brief description rolled across the bottom of the screen. The man was average height, stocky, wore a hat. The witness hadn’t seen his hair or eye color. The only other identifier was a partial tattoo on the suspect’s upper arm. The witness could only see the bottom part, but he said it looked like a creature of some kind, maybe a seahorse or a dinosaur.
Audra thought of Mary Lou’s daughter. She hoped this deranged monster hadn’t gotten her. Hoped the girl was just rebelling against her obsessive, overprotective mother and would be home soon.
Audra looked at Cassie. Her face was pale, tears swam in her eyes, and her lips trembled.
“Cassie? What is it?”
“I know who killed them.”
“How do you know?”
Eyes still glued to the TV, Cassie whispered, “Because, he killed me.”
A chill shot down Audra’s spine. “Cassie...I’m so sorry.”
Cassie nodded, still not looking at Audra.
“Do you know who he is?” Audra asked.
Another nod.
“Tell me. I’ll tell Shane. He’ll find him, and he won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“There’s a code we have to follow. No interfering with the human world. If I told you, you’d have to tell Shane how you know. Then, all kinds of questions would have to be answered. Everything would come out.”
“None of that matters, Cassie. You have information that could stop a killer. Just tell me who he is. I won’t tell Shane how I found out. You could stop him by just telling me.”
“Yeah. Sounds like a simple plan. Too bad things aren’t that easy, huh?”
~*~
Audra hadn’t been able to convince Cassie to tell her who the killer was. She almost felt culpable herself, like she should be able to glean the information that could stop a killer, but she hadn’t. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t convince Cassie.
But Cassie
had
told her where to find Dimitri. She couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d done...the chance he’d taken for her. She had to see him. Had to let him know what it meant to her.
She knocked on the door, and he opened it. His brows rose in surprise. “What’s going on? How did you find me?”
“Cassie told me where you were.” She stepped inside, and he closed the door.
“Ah, Cassie. So, what’s up? Do you need something?”
“I found out how dangerous it was…what you did.”
“What I did?”
She moved closer to him in the small foyer. “You turned human to comfort Trevor’s mother, in spite of the risks.”
“So...I...”
Moving a smidgen closer, she said, “You did that for me.”
He gave a nervous laugh. “You’re getting close.”
“I know.” She held his gaze.
“I thought you didn’t like to be so close.”
Now they were nearly touching. He sucked in a breath.
Her stomach tensed, and all rational thought fled. She moved forward until their bodies meshed.
The same sensation she’d experienced before washed over her, a scary, thrilling...sexual tingle. Could he feel it too?
“Does that feel good to you?” she whispered.
“Audra,” he groaned, letting his head fall back, his lids shuttering over the blue of his eyes.
“I want to touch you,” she said softly. “I want to make you feel the way you made me feel...before. Can I, while you’re a reaper?”
“Just being near you almost does it for me.”
“But, to really be satisfied, you’d have to turn human?”
He opened his eyes, nodding, but didn’t speak.
“And that could get you killed. Permanently. You can’t risk it. Turning human isn’t safe.”
A tight grin emerged. “You’re right. But not for the reasons you’re thinking. This thing between us...it isn’t safe, period. You belong with someone like Dunham. Someone who can give you the life, the future you deserve. Kids and all. You should probably leave.”
She blinked rapidly, suddenly feeling hurt and foolish. His words shafted through her soul.
“Future?” she scoffed. “I didn’t ask you to marry me. I just wanted to get you off. You know, sort of like paying a debt.” She grabbed her purse and whirled toward the door. “Never mind, though. I won’t mention it again.”
“Audra...wait.”
She halted, her hand on the knob.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. This whole thing is just...complicated. Impossible.”
“I’m aware of that. I didn’t ask you come into my life. Not you, and certainly not your reaper entourage. I might be handling it badly, but I have no idea how I’m supposed to handle it.”
“I know. And if I could protect you from it, I would. If I could take away everything that’s happened, I would. Well, most everything. Not that thing yesterday. On your couch. That, I would keep.”
In spite of her humiliation, she smiled. The tension in her shoulders eased, and she turned to offer him an apologetic smile.
“You’re right. It’s an impossible situation. I suppose you’re not to blame. You’re the only one keeping a level head.” She sighed, brushing a lock of hair back from her face. “I overreacted. My emotions have been a little close to the surface lately. I’m sorry. I really just wanted to thank you. For what you did for Cheryl.” She shrugged. “I didn’t mean to bring sex into it.”
He cocked a grin. “There are worse things you could bring into it.”
She laughed. “Yes. I suppose there are.” She opened the door and gave a little wave. “See you around, Dimitri.”
~*~
The next night, Dimitri stood in a hospital room, waiting for a woman to die. At least she wasn’t one of Audra’s patients. Audra would be spared that. Pity he had to take her, though. She hadn’t even seen her twenty-fifth birthday.
He paused, taken aback by the sentiment. When had he started to think like that? It was a job. There was no room for emotions or what-if’s. Regardless of age, when it was time to die, you died. Plain and simple. He would have to disregard this new and unwelcome tug of guilt.
Movement behind him caught his attention, and he turned to find Gaylen in the room.
“This one was yours all along, I suppose,” Gaylen said. “They’re no fun when it’s legal.”
“Sorry it’s been spoiled for you.”
“You don’t really mean that. I can tell.”
Dimitri ignored him.
“Hey, check that out.”
“What?”
“The guy out in the hallway.”
Dimitri followed his gaze to the back of a heavy-set guy just outside the room. “Yeah, what about him?”
“He’s the killer. The one we watched in that motel room.”
Dimitri frowned, waiting until the man turned around to get a look at his face. When he did, Dimitri’s insides froze.
“Shit,” Dimitri bit out.
“That’s him, right?”
“Yes. He also killed Cassie.”
“Hmmm, and he works with Audra. Interesting.”
Dimitri tried to ignore the tightening in his gut. “Why is that interesting?”
“Well, I mean. It puts her in a great deal of danger, don’t you think?”
Dimitri didn’t answer.