Page 103 of Grave Beginnings

Peanut Butter curled up beside me, stretching his head back to lick my jaw and purr. “Too good to be real.”

He snorted. “We’ll work on that. We all have flaws. Are you going to fall back to sleep or let me ask you some questions?”

I sighed. “Ask. I dunno if I will answer…”

“Cassidy. The two of you dated?”

“Fucked. Not dated. Cassidy’s deep in the closet.”

Angel said nothing, just held me and breathed for a few minutes.

“To be fair, his personality was already in there, so it was a tight fit,” I mumbled into the pillow as I semi-dozed.

“Did you care about him?” Angel finally asked.

“Um, well, I liked him at first. But it became clear pretty fast that I was just a warm hole for him. I avoided him for a long time, but sometimes it was easy.” I sighed. “Everyone gets lonely.”

“Did he ever hit you before?”

“No. He never really took part in the teasing that some of the other officers were into. Not until I got marked. Right before I was transferred, he made it sound like I was doing dead bodies or something. But I hadn’t been anywhere with him in more than six months. Maybe a year?” I thought about that for a few minutes. “He flirted after Grandma died. Tried to convince me to go to the bar and drink. I knew drinking wasn’t what he had in mind, and I wasn’t interested.”

He stewed on that for a while. Was it strange that I found hisbody heat soothing? I couldn’t recall the last time I’d actually slept in the same bed as someone. It was one of the things I’d learned to avoid in my teens. Sex happened, and then I got the hell out. It was safer that way.

“Will you someday tell me who hurt you?” he asked after a long while.

“The list is long.”

He tucked his nose to the back of my neck, the soothing touch of his variance and mine making me shiver, and my cock wake up. I swallowed back a sound.

Neither of us moved. I closed my eyes, surprised by the mental surrender, as rarely had I ever been able to sleep around strangers. But we were supposed to be mates or something now. I didn’t think for one minute he couldn’t take from me anything he wanted. Instead, he held me tight, keeping his hips away from mine, a careful distance.

“Rest,” Angel whispered. “You’re safe. Ivan is asleep in the living room. The team is taking care of whatever your magic did to try to protect you. Your guy, Peanut Butter there, is keeping an eye on you.”

I snorted without opening my eyes, even as Peanut Butter licked my jaw. I could see how nice it would be to have strong arms around me like this more often. “You said there is more to this mate thing?”

“Yeah, but we have time. Sleep. You need it. You’re still healing.”

I hummed, sleep tugging at me. “I should probably tell you that something creepy was in my apartment. Since I’m falling asleep… if you see something weird, it’s not me. Some sort of shadow or something.” Had it been real? It felt like a lifetime ago, not within the span of twenty-four hours.

He was silent so long I began to doze, and I only vaguely heard, “I wondered why all the lights were on. And Ivan didn’t say anything either.”

35

To sayI slept like the dead was an understatement. I roused to Angel waving a cup of coffee beneath my nose. Sitting up and taking it without thinking, I instantly downed half the cup of perfection as I watched his fine ass wander out of my room. Was it strange to want him to put a shirt on because I didn’t like anyone else staring at him? Or that I wanted to slide my hands over his bare skin, trace his tattoos, and bask in his body heat?

I drank my coffee and lifted the blanket to Peanut Butter’s chirps. He always wanted to curl up in the cave of fabric until I got out of bed. Angel spoke softly, and I suspected Ivan was awake. He wandered back to the bedroom and pointed at the cup.

“Do you need more?”

“You should marry me,” I blurted.

“All it takes is serving you coffee, huh?” Angel teased. “I’m making breakfast sandwiches for on the go.”

“Where are we going?” I glanced at the clock. “Dropping Ivan off and to work early?”

“Keanan is picking up Ivan. You and me have to meet theteam.” He hesitated. “They picked up a few… remains last night that we’re hoping you can help with.”

Remains? I stared at him; my mind sluggish first thing in the morning. “Zombies? You mean zombies?”