One Foot in the Grave

“Look at you, luv. Can’t say I prefer the brown hair, but as for the rest of you…you’re luscious.”

Bones traced the inside of his lower lip with his tongue as his eyes slid all over me. Their heat seemed to rub my skin. When he took a step closer, I flattened back against the wall.

“Stay where you are.”

He leaned nonchalantly against the countertop. “What are you all lathered about? Think I’m here to kill you?”

“No. If you were going to kill me, you wouldn’t have bothered with the altar ambush. You obviously know what name I’m going under, so you would have just gone for me one night when I came home.”

He whistled appreciatively. “That’s right, pet. You haven’t forgotten how I work. Do you know I was offered a contract on the mysterious Red Reaper at least three times before? One bloke had half-a-million bounty for your dead body.”

Well, not a surprise. After all, Lazarus had tried to cash a check on my ass for the same reason. “What did you say, since you’ve just confirmed you’re not here for that?”

Bones straightened, and the bantering went out of him. “Oh, I said yes, of course. Then I hunted the sods down and played ball with their heads. The calls quit coming after that.”

I swallowed at the image he described. Knowing him, it was exactly what he’d done.

“So, then, why are you here?”

He smiled and came nearer, ignoring my previous order.

“Not happy to see me after all these years? Do you know why I wanted to catch you unawares? So I could see your eyes, and know what you felt in that very instant.”

Danger. Danger. Less than a foot separated us. I’d never been able to resist him touching me, and I wasn’t about to test my willpower now. Frantically I tried to think of a way to distract him.

“Have you met my boyfriend?”

There. That was a doozy. His eyes narrowed, and his lips thinned into a tight line. Yep, Noah was a mood kill for both of us.

I pressed my advantage. Peril before passion; it was safer. “Just how did you weasel into Randy’s life to become a groomsman in this wedding, anyhow? Find out my best friend was marrying him? You must have mind- fucked him quick. They were only engaged a month.”

He pointed a finger near my face. “Your man Randy I’ve known for six months. Long before Denise met him. Unusual bloke, don’t you agree? You know what his first words were to me, 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?’”

I blinked. Denise had once said Randy thought outside the box. Way outside the box, it appeared. And I’d underestimated the size of his balls.

“He knows what you are?”

Bones nodded. “I gave him a peep of the eyes, you know, with the green lights on, and told him he hadn’t seen anything. He blinked at me the same way you just did and asked me if that was supposed to work.”

Now I was really impressed. Randy had a natural immunity to vampire power, even from someone as strong as Bones.

“Obviously that was unexpected. I struck up a conversation with him and we became chummy. It wasn’t until this week, after I’d accepted my position in his wedding, that he met me at a bar with your scent all over him. You’d helped him move furniture that day.”

I was relieved, yet at the same time hurt to think seeing Bones was only due to happenstance.

“So running into you is just a coincidence? You’ve, ah, gotten over what happened before?”

He locked his eyes with mine. “Wouldn’t you like to know? But I don’t believe I’m going to tell you. You can stew about it, like I’ve had to stew ever since I got your bloody Dear John note. I will tell you this, though-we have unfinished business between us. And we’re damn sure going to sort it out no matter how much you’d rather avoid it.”

Oh shit. I’d left him with a note before because I knew I couldn’t face him and tell him goodbye. Now four years later, I still didn’t think I was strong enough.

“Cather-, er, Cristine! Are you in there?”

My mother knocked loudly on the door, and I sagged in relief. For once I was glad she was there.

Bones’s mouth twitched. “I think I’ll just pay my respects to your mum, Kitten. Been a while.”

“Don’t you-!”

The threat I’d been about to utter died on my lips as he opened the door. She looked at him in bewilderment for a second before recognition dawned. Then her face went purple.

“You! You!”

“Lovely to see you again, Justina,” Bones said devilishly. “You look very fetching in that shade.”

“You filthy animal!” she raged. “Every night I prayed that you were dead and rotting in hell!”

“Mother!” I said curtly. Absence hadn’t made her heart grow fonder.

Bones shrugged. “You should have spoken up a bit. The Almighty must not have heard you.”

I pointed a finger at the door. “Bones, whatever you want to say to me can wait until this wedding is over. That’s my friend and yours out there, waiting for us to get pictures with them, and that’s what we’re going to do. Mother, you make one fucking peep to trash Denise’s wedding, and I swear to God I’ll let him bite you.”

“Happy to oblige, Kitten,” he assured me.

I jerked my head at the door again. “Out!”

“Ladies.” He nodded and sauntered off.

I watched him leave before going to the sink and splashing water onto my face. After all, I had to look pretty for the pictures.

ELEVEN

MY MOTHER NEEDED SEVERAL MORE DIRE warnings before she agreed not to do anything to disrupt the reception. Or notify my work about Bones. I had flatly promised to change myself into a vampire on the spot if she did either.

“That’s what he wants from you, Catherine. He wants to steal your soul and turn you into a beast,” she said for the third time as she escorted me into the hall.

“Well, then, you’ll bear that in mind and keep your mouth shut, won’t you? And for God’s sake, call me Cristine. Can you be more obvious?”

We reached the door. Denise abandoned the pose she had with Randy and met us at the entrance.

“Oh, Cat, I didn’t know that Randy’s friend was…” She lowered her voice. “A vampire! But don’t worry. I talked to Randy. He was amazed I knew they existed, too! We have so much in common. Anyhow, Randy swears he’s harmless. Says he’s known him for months.”

My mother looked at Denise like she’d grown three heads.

“Harmless?! We aren’t talking about a dog that may or may not bite! We are talking about a murderer-”

“Ahem,” I interrupted, stroking my neck for emphasis. She closed her mouth and stalked off. Farther away I heard Bones snort with laughter. He’d been listening.

“It’s okay, Denise,” I reassured her. “He knows as long as he keeps his fangs clean, we won’t have any problems.”

“How does he know that?” she asked practically. “Did you talk to him? You were in the bathroom awhile and I didn’t see him. Did you corner him?”

The other way around. “Um, well, kind of…er,” I stammered, something I hadn’t done in years. “I know him. I mean, I’ve seen him around before. Around Virginia, that is. He, uh, he and I have an understanding. He doesn’t mess with me and I don’t mess with him.”

Denise accepted it at face value. “Well, then let’s go get pictures. I’m glad you two aren’t going to fight. Tell