Page 52 of Hungry As Her Python

“You always walk home alone, Sugar?”

The voice slid in from my right—low, husky, threaded with something that made my stomach drop to my knees.

I yelped and almost tripped over a knotted tree root.

My robe fluttered open a dangerous inch before I caught myself, heat flooding my cheeks.

Where the hell had he come from?

One second, I was alone with my thoughts. The next, Conrad was there—close enough that the heat from his body brushed against my skin in waves.

My heart tried to beat its way out of my chest.

I knew he and his friends were staying in the little cottage behind my bakery and that I’d pass it on my way home. That was, the guys had all lived there before Ryan moved in with Donny and Jaxson with Evie.

Now it was just him, but he might as well have been a ghost.

Bakery hours didn’t leave much room for casual drop-ins, and Conrad didn’t strike me as a man who did anything casually.

I hadn’t seen him for days, now twice today, and I didn’t know what to think.

The rental was only a few rows down from my own two-story Colonial, which was why I decided to come home from the other direction.

So I didn’t have to pass him.

Fat lot of good that did.

Poof! There he was again, materializing out of the dark like he’d been part of the forest all along.

I didn’t see his motorcycle. No truck. Not Deputy’s car, either. Which was unnerving because I knew he drove all three.

I baked cookies for the man who handled all of Castor’s Corners mechanical needs.

Anyway, how had Conrad gotten here without his vehicles? And why?

“Yep. Walking it is,” I said, aiming for casual but sounding slightly breathless. “I didn’t drive myself tonight.”

He knew that, of course.

But he just made a low sound in his throat, one of those noncommittal man-noises that somehow carried more weight than an entire sentence.

He kept pace with me for a few more steps before his hand—warm, strong—closed around my elbow.

“Can I see you to your door, Bella?”

The way he said my name? Like it was a promise and a curse all at once. Well, it did things to me.

I pretended to think it over, though the truth was obvious.

Who wouldn’t want a six-foot-plus wall of Shifter muscle walking them through town in the middle of the night?

Especially when said Witch was wearing nothing but a robe and a stubborn streak.

“Fine,” I said, trying to sound like I was doing him a favor. “But it’s just a walk, Conrad. Don’t read anything into it.”

His smirk was slow and dangerous, curling at one corner of his mouth.

“Anything you say, Sugar. But just so you know,” he leaned in close enough that his breath brushed my ear. “I’m up for anything with you, anytime. Day or night.”