The Rogue Hunter Read Free Page B

women on the dock might be drunk, but this one definitely was, he thought dryly as she staggered sideways slightly and then fell. He wasn't the only one to notice, Mortimer realized, as both women on the dock turned and a flashlight beam shot from the hand of the one with the ponytail, bathing the fallen woman in light as she got to her feet.
    "Sam? Are you all right?"
    Caught in the beam as she was, Mortimer got a good look at the third woman. Her features suggested she was related to the other two, but she very definitely had a different body shape. While the other two were shapely and voluptuous, this one was tall, lean, and flat-chested. Her hair was as black as the night and fell in a straight curtain, framing a face filled by huge, dark eyes; a slightly crooked nose; and a large mouth that was presently twisted in an embarrassed grimace.
    "Yes, yes," the woman named Sam answered on a laugh as she brushed at a large dark spot on her T-shirt. Not only had she stumbled over her own feet, she'd spilled her drink over herself.
    Tsking with irritation, the woman turned back toward the cottage . "I'll be right back."
    "Oh, don't bother changing, Sam," one of the women, the one with the bob, said. "There's no one here to impress."
    "Yeah, but it's sticky, Alex," the woman named Sam complained.
    "So. We have yet to take our first night swim. That will wash it away."
    "True." A slow grin claimed Sam's lips, and she continued down toward the dock.
    A low whistle drew Mortimer's attention to the side to see that Bricker had joined him and was ogling their neighbors with a wholly male appreciation.
    "Maybe cottage country won't be so bad," Bricker whispered, and then tore his gaze away from the women to ask in hushed tones, "Sidetracked, were you?"
    Mortimer shrugged. "I heard laughing and came to investigate."
    The younger immortal nodded, his eyes shifting back to the women. "Yeah. Girls tend to do that a lot when they get together. At least my sisters do. They get together and laugh and giggle and…" He paused and peered back toward the next yard as another burst of laughter sounded from the women.
    Mortimer followed his glance. Sam had reached the dock, her flashlight beam bobbing over the other two women as they got to their feet. Mortimer chuckled as it caught them rising with their backs to each other just as they bumped butts and nearly sent each other flying off the dock in opposite directions. A burst of laughter exploded from the women as they steadied themselves.
    "And you say I'm clumsy?" Sam asked with dry amusement as she turned away, only to ruin the effect by nearly overbalancing and tipping off the dock herself, without bumping anything as an excuse for her own clumsiness.
    Mortimer shook his head at their antics as another round of laughter erupted. The trio had obviously had quite a bit to drink. He'd barely had the thought when Sam said with disgust, "Dear God, anyone would think I was drunk, stumbling around like this."
    "Not if they knew you and knew how clumsy you are," the one with the ponytail teased.
    "Oh, who cares?" the one with the bob, whom Sam had called Alex, said. "We're on vacation. People can think what they want."
    " Eww! Ew, ew, ew!"
    The trio halted abruptly, and Sam swung the flashlight beam around toward the girl with the ponytail. "What is it, Jo?"
    "I think I stepped on a baby frog," came the disgusted moan.
    The beam of light immediately dropped to illuminate the feet of the woman with the ponytail—Jo—as she raised one foot for examination.
    "It looks like mud," Sam said reassuringly.
    "It was cold and squishy," Jo said uncertainly. Teetering about in her stork-like position, she bent to better examine the bottom of the foot in question and would have lost her balance and tumbled to the grass had Alex not stepped into the beam of light to catch her arm and steady her.
    "Mud is cold and squishy," Alex said reasonably. "Besides, if you'd stepped on a baby frog it would be a pancake on