Black Dalliances (A Blushing Death Novel) Read Free

into the reception area. I’d hired her back before I’d left Columbus to try and “find myself”. In that search, all I’d found was a lot of grief, a vampire who wanted to steal me for herself, and a human servant hell bent on eradicating werewolves from the Earth. All in all, a pretty uneventful trip. Riiiiight.
    “Tamika, reschedule my appointments today. I have something more important to do,” Dean said with a twitch of his lips as delight shone in his olive-green gaze. He seemed lighter in his own skin, sounded almost content. That couldn’t be because of me . . . could it?
    “Oh?” she chastised, placing her hand on her hip. When her eyes met mine, a grin curled the corners of her mouth up. “Miss Dahlia, thank goodness you’re back,” she said. Taking the several steps across the reception area toward me, she threw her arms around me and drew me into a tight hug.
    Once I would’ve been uncomfortable with the contact but death and grief had taught me to accept the gifts I have now. So I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her back. It felt good to be missed.
    “How are you? How are the kids?” I asked, matching her excitement with my own. A grin spread across my face and it actually reached my eyes. I was genuinely happy to see her and a part of me was surprised. I’d been living on adrenaline and self-pity for so long that Tamika’s joy and this light easy feeling in the pit of my stomach felt incredible.
    “We’re all good. I’m just glad you’re back. Maybe he’ll stop being such a bear,” she said, jerking her thumb in Dean’s direction.
    Imposing. Brooding. Intimidating. All words I would have used to describe Dean on a regular basis. Now, Dean stood beside us with a put-upon expression on his face as if he was completely innocent. I wasn’t buying it. His eyes twinkled with laughter, and I smiled up at him, happy.
    The shrill ring of his phone broke the electric connection between us and disappointment sank like a stone in my belly.
    Ripping the phone from his belt, Dean almost growled, seeming just as disappointed as I was.
    Glancing at the phone’s face, he said, “I have to take this.”
    I waved him off to his office for privacy. I didn’t need a babysitter.
    “So who’s this?” Tamika asked, cocking her hip in expectation.
    “Oh, sorry. Tamika this is Everett. Ev, Tamika,” I said in a rush. “Ev, make yourself comfortable.”
    Winking at me, he stepped away a few paces but not too far. He understood I needed him to make himself scarce but wasn’t willing to let me out of his sight in unfamiliar surroundings. Smart kid.
    “Sure, I’ll just be over there, checking out the, ah, plants,” he answered, trying to seem casual and failing miserably.
    “All right, Tamika, let’s go see my office,” I said.
    The unease in her stance and her rigid posture made me wary. She took a few pensive steps forward, hesitated, and then reached for the knob.
    “Tamika?”
    She gave me an apologetic grin and opened the door.
    I stepped in and froze, not able to grasp what I was seeing. It was exactly as I’d left it. Each paper in place, even the blueprint I’d shoved under the phone to flatten it out so it would stop rolling up on me. The pencils I’d left in a sharp line of descending order by length still lay on the desk. And the Post-it I’d stuck to the window reminding me to get milk, dulled in color by the sun, fluttered with the air-conditioning. All of it with a layer of dust a few centimeters thick.
    “Tamika?” I asked again in soft a whisper.
    “He wouldn’t let me touch it. Kept sayin’ you were comin’ back and that he didn’t want me in here,” she said with an edge of heartbreak quivering in her voice. “Miss Dahlia, sometimes he’d come in here and just sit . . . for hours.”
    “Why?” I asked, almost aghast at the sight of my office covered in dust.
    “Tamika,” Dean called, his voice sharp.
    She jumped, almost out of her skin, next to me. “Mr.