Louis did not grin. “I am not some cheap whore peddling my wares.”

“Expensive call girl?” I offered. “I’ve got twenty bucks with your name on it. Another twenty if you’re really good.” I couldn’t resist even though it was likely he’d spit on me now. The truth was I could already see that he’d say no, no matter what I offered.

A string of curses in French were thrown my way and he bit his thumb at me. I rolled my eyes. “That’s an Italian move, isn’t it?”

Louis stormed off and his trainee—Chad, if I remembered correctly—was right behind him, trailing his mentor closely. The thing was, when I was around Louis, there was no sense of the dead like there had been at the Marshall House. No sense of ghosts or anything . . . and then there was the fact that he couldn’t see Robert. I’d always thought that was strange. Shouldn’t a necromancer be able to see an undead skeleton? Hell, even Roderick could see Robert.

I turned to look at Eammon. “Is he even a necromancer?”

Eammon seemed as shocked by my question as by the possibility I raised. “Well, of course he is. He is one of the best—”

I held up a hand. I’d learned recently that the Hollows wasn’t the well-regarded group I’d initially believed them to be. They were considered the duck-ups of Savannah. They only took on trainees not desirable to the more prestigious Savannah Council Enforcers or SCE. “Okay, fine. Maybe I’ll ask Annie.”

Tom shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t do that.”

“Why not?” I frowned. “Annie’s one of the good ones.”

Tom shook his head a second time. “She’s been off lately and been downright mean with a few patrons. Not like her, but something has her on edge, so just steer clear would be my suggestion.”

Beside Tom, Corb gave the slightest nod. “I agree with him, steering clear of Annie if you can would be best, at least until someone talks some sense into her.”

Well, so much for that idea. I was disappointed. Annie was one of the few people I would’ve liked to have known better.

“All righty then. I’ll find someone else to talk to. Nice to see you all. Come by for tea sometime.”

I turned my back on them and started back the way I’d come, stopping after a few feet because a rather large handsome man hurried to get in front of me.

“Sarge. How’s the leg doing?”

His golden eyes swept downward as he looked at his feet. “I am so, so sorry I tried to kill you, Breena. You have to believe me. And I won’t stand in the way of you and Corb getting together. I—”

I put a hand up. “Sarge, stop it. That spell wreaked havoc on everyone, not just you.” Also I didn’t know what to say to him about Corb. No. That wasn’t true. I did have something to say. “Besides, I know Corb was just getting close to me to use me—Davin said so himself. None of it was real.” I winked up at Sarge. “We’re all good, okay?” A sigh of relief slid out of him, and I patted his massive bicep as I strode past him. “But you owe me.”

He grunted as if I’d punched him in the belly. “That’s it?”

I shrugged and kept walking. “That’s it.”

In the shadow world, favors were as good a currency as money or gold. And a favor from a werewolf couldn’t be a bad thing as far as I was concerned.

I made my way to the gate, Robert swaying to my left. He collapsed at my feet, and I scooped up the finger bone and tucked it between my boobs.

Might as well give some man a thrill, even if he was a skeleton.

Corb caught up with me just as I reached the gate. I saw him from the corner of my eye and slipped through the iron rods so we had that between us.

He put his hands on the bars. “Hey. Are we still on for tomorrow?”

I shook my head, snorting. “No, I don’t think so. I ran into Davin earlier, and he let spill that you’ve been using me. I think I’ll pass on anything else with you beyond professional courtesy.”

He cursed and then leaned his head against the rusty bars. “I know it looks bad, Bree, but I can explain. It’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Yup, here’s the explanation.” I crossed my arms. “You’ve lied to me twice now. And I suspect there’s something supernatural curling under your skin. Something you don’t want to tell me. It’s one more thing you haven’t been honest about.”

He swallowed hard, and I found myself glowering into his eyes while keeping up whatever mental protections I could. Because I was no fool. Something about him drew me, and whatever supernatural sauce he had, he’d been using it to get close to me. In that, he wasn’t a lot different than Crash. He closed his eyes again. “I’m as much of a bastard as my cousin. Just in a different way.”

“You introduced him to Davin,” I said, that piece of information reminding me that he—Corb—had done more damage than he’d probably ever intended. “Davin helped him screw me over. And it looks like Davin wants me out of Savannah. Why?”

Corb opened his eyes and frowned. “What? Davin helped him? I didn’t know that. I swear, I didn’t!”

I didn’t even know if I could trust that small bit of surprise. I took a step back. “Thanks for letting me stay with you, Corb. That was a good thing you did. And for cleaning my clothes that one night. And for kissing me to make Alan jealous. All good things. Honest. But that’s where it ends. I’m done with liars.”

I turned my back on him and walked down the street. The gates creaked open, and then a hand on my arm spun me around.

“I didn’t kiss you to make him jealous,” he said, moving toward me. I didn’t expect what was coming next, honest.

Because suddenly that cheeky bugger was kissing me again. Only, it wasn’t a casual kiss that felt nice and had a little spice behind it, or even the panty-melting kiss he’d planted on me in front of Alan.

This kiss felt like the ocean crashing over me, drowning me in salt water that slid under my flesh, caressing every inch of me with this man’s touch and his taste, making my skin shiver in anticipation. This kiss had an oomph that I’d previously felt only with Crash, except instead of fire, it filled me with night air and the pull of the ocean tide. I dug my hands into his hair and held him tightly, feeling like there was something just outside the edge of my reach if I could only find it. I might have groaned. I’m not really sure, or maybe it was him.

His mouth slid off mine before I could grasp that elusive something, and it was then that I realized we were all tangled around each other—my arms around his neck, his arms around my back, one of his hands in my long hair and the other firmly grabbing my ass. To top it off, my legs were wrapped around his waist, which meant I could tell all too clearly just how happy he was to have me plastered over him.

Corb’s breath came in gasps as if he too wasn’t sure what had happened there. “Sorry. I’m sorry. But please don’t push me away. I haven’t felt like this about anyone for a long time, and I can’t just let you walk away. I don’t see you as someone to use. I don’t. No matter what other people might say. Even if yes, that was the original job. It changed very quickly, Bree. You have to believe me.”

I unwrapped myself from him, getting myself back onto solid ground. Robert’s finger bone dropped to the ground, and he appeared once more at my side and let out a growl, which helped pull me back from the brink of forgetting that Corb had been lying all along.

“How can I trust you?” I said, hating how breathy my voice was with all those hormones rippling through me. Hot damn, that kiss had been something else and every part in me was tingling with a desire I couldn’t shake.

He smoothed a hand through his hair. “We start again. You be honest with me, and I’ll be honest with you.”

I quirked both eyebrows up. “Just what have I lied about?”

“Nothing.” He held up both hands. “It was a figure of speech. Please let me take you out tomorrow. We can talk then. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

Well, that was interesting. I still wasn’t sure I wanted to get closer to him—my body’s reaction was way too strong and that made me stupid—but I had nothing planned for the next night and my brain and hormones were scrambled badly, which meant that I wasn’t really thinking about saying no. “Fine. One dinner.”

And that was how I ended up going on my first real date in almost twenty years with a man younger than me, who held a wallop of power he’d been keeping hidden, and seemed determined to gain my interest back.

Yup, just call me a cougar.

9

The walk back to my gran’s house helped shut off all the wild hormones, the pulsing of blood in my veins that called me back to Corb’s arms. But not even the coolness of a Savannah night could burn off everything he had awakened in my body.

Which only left me feeling more confused. If you’d asked me after my kiss with Crash that morning, I would have told you that nothing could be hotter and there was no one I’d rather roll around naked with for hours on a plastic sheet with a heck of a lot of oil.

But the kiss with Corb had been just as strong, in a different way, and at a certain moment I’d wanted to just . . . I couldn’t even find the words, but the closest I could come to was press myself into him. To sink under his skin. To let him wash over me.

I’d gone from being married and having zero sex to having two smoking hot guys kissing me in one day. Younger me would have been horrified. Older me was somewhat fascinated that this was even happening. And just kind of running with it. I mean, I didn’t really have to choose between them, and I still didn’t feel like it. Even if Crash had basically told me we’d be terrible together and Corb had lied to me.

“Weird, this is too weird,” I whispered to myself.

Robert grunted and I glanced at my companion. “Robert, you don’t like Corb?”