Don’t Bite the Messenger Read Free Page A

loosely on my upper arm. I stopped inching. The red neon lights of a beer sign highlighted his dark brown hair and painted vivid color along sharp cheekbones. “You’d best be on your way home.”
    “Why? Is the witching hour upon us?”
    He released my arm and stepped back, looking me up and down in an appraising manner. “I suppose you could say that. Don’t you want to go home?”
    I glanced back as the leather twins peeled off to the side, toward the table I’d vacated. Eugenie fit my general description. Scruffy girl with blue hair. I didn’t like her much, but that didn’t mean I wanted to see her hurt simply because she’d copied my hairstyle.
    “Why would I want to go home?” I asked absently, angling to gain a better view. “This is a swell place. Great microbrews. Good music. Nice people.” Maybe I could con him into helping me get Eugenie off the vamps’ radar. With an internal grimace, I tilted my head and batted my lashes. He smiled as though he found me amusing. Not the reaction I was going for.
    And then I remembered that I’d reached the end of the night. My eyeliner had probably leached out from my eyes, my cheeks were decorated with black wings, and I smelled like sweet and sour soup. He, on the other hand, smelled like cool, autumn rain and looked expensive.
    “I am partial to nice people.” He stepped forward, effectively blocking my view of the bar. “You, for instance, seem exceptionally nice.”
    I nodded, sidestepping, but I still couldn’t see Eugenie’s table. Nor could I see the vamps. Had they already taken her? One backed into view and I almost sighed in relief before registering what my hallway companion had said. I looked up, startled. His smile widened, an unlikely dimple emerging on one cheek.
    If I had a type, he’d be it. Handsome, tall, with an easy carriage of obvious strength, and flexible in the face of strange situations. Behind him, one of the vampires turned and spotted me, and his eyes narrowed, glowing dully in the dim light. My breath caught and my heart began racing.
    “I’m so glad you agreed to meet me here,” the guy said, raising my chin with a finger and drawing my awareness back into my frozen body. He winked. My fear must have been visible, and he must have understood that I was hiding from someone. Understood and wanted to help. If he knew what was after me, he would no doubt be running for the door. But if he was game, I would happily play along.
    “Yeah, I’ve really missed you.” My sappy tone sounded like a foreign language. My heart had never beat faster for a man, but apparently it was a common reaction because the vampire dismissed me. His companion joined him and they went back to scanning the bar. Eugenie had been ruled out, and I was only a girl meeting her boyfriend, clearly not a panicked courier.
    My “boyfriend” rested his hand on my shoulder blade in a strangely intimate gesture, pulling me toward him. I should have been skulking away, but instead I staggered a step forward, one hand landing on his chest. He immediately covered it with his own.
    “So why don’t you give your old lover a kiss?” he asked. I snatched my hand back and shook my head sharply. He smiled, laugh lines crinkling around his dark eyes as he leaned down, mouth hovering a scant inch from my lips. “I believe you owe me.”
    “That’s how you want to play it?” I whispered through clenched teeth. “Fine.” I grabbed him by the back of the neck, pulling his mouth roughly against mine. Our teeth banged together. He stiffened but then smiled against my mouth, tilting his head and turning the kiss into something different. Something that felt nothing like a game.
    His hand snaked around my nape and wove into my hair. His tongue stroked my bottom lip, and a warm rush of need filled me, drawing me toward him until our bodies pressed together. Maybe if I kept my eyes closed and held very still in his shadow, I could pretend the moment was real, that he cared