Zero Day Exploit (Bayou’s End #1.5) Read Free Page A

now. Especially when every time he caught her eye—caught her watching him—he gave her that slow, sensuous smile that said he knew exactly what was on her mind.
    When the train let off at her stop he rose with her, but stopped at the door of the subway car, looking down at her. She had fifteen seconds to make up her mind before the train whisked him off and she never saw him again. She looked up into pale green eyes, dark with the question he wouldn’t ask.
    She took a deep breath. To hell with it. Not like she hadn’t done the walk of shame before.
    “Walk me to my door?” she asked, and he smiled with those sinful damned lips that made something so simple look so dirty.
    “Of course,” he said, and stepped off the train. The door whooshed shut behind him. “I’d hate for anything to happen to you.”
    In the twenty steps from the transit exit to my front door , she thought, but said nothing.
    They stepped out into the crunch of snow on the sidewalk, breaths tasting of the crisp, clean scent of fresh snowfall on each cold bright inhalation, pluming into smoke as they rushed out. Street lights gleamed golden, stars bottled in glass, lighting their way as she led him up the sidewalk to her building, their arms brushing with every step. She dug out her keys, then glanced at him, biting her lip.
    “This is me.”
    “I had guessed.” He reached up to coil a lock of her hair around his finger, then brushed its tip against her cheek in a ticklish trail as he stepped closer. Deliciously close, oppressively close, the tall bulk of him caging her against the door of the building. “I won’t ask, Zero. It’s your choice.”
    “Okay,” she said with a shaky breath. “Okay. Well you can come up if you want. Or not.”
    “You have to unlock the door first.”
    “That too.”
    Somehow she fumbled her key into the lock, and nearly ran up the stairs. He was a dark shadow on her heels, stalking her to the front door of her third-floor shoebox studio. She felt hunted, and a delicious shiver went through her when, as she unlocked her door, his hands curled against her waist, burning hot and rough through her hoodie and shirt. He leaned into her, his body hard against her back, and dipped his head. His lips hovered over her throat, and with a husky sound he simply inhaled .
    “You smell like green apples,” he whispered, and caught her earlobe between his teeth. The sharp pleasurable sting of a bite bolted straight to every pleasure point in her body before he soothed it with the soft tracery of his tongue. She trembled, and made herself pull away long enough to step inside and drag him through the door.
    He backed her up against the wall just past the entryway, trapping her against the hard brick. She wasn’t that short—five foot five—but he towered over her, until he nearly enveloped her. His knuckles grazed down her throat, rough callused texture teasing her skin into prickles as he traced a path down to the zipper of her hoodie.
    “Changing your mind?” he breathed, eyes simmering hot as he slowly dragged the zipper down, teeth popping apart with a loud rasp.
    “No,” she whispered, and swallowed hard. “But let’s get one thing straight. You are definitely the mistake I’ll regret in the morning. You won’t call me, I won’t call you.”
    “I can deal with that,” he said, then drew her close and kissed her.

CHAPTER TWO
    D IZZY HEAT CRASHED OVER Z ERO , leaving her gasping. Evan laid claim to her mouth with a wildness that bordered on madness, scouring her lips with his heat, shocking her senses with every titillating flick of his tongue. He delved deep, invading her intimately and inescapably. He tasted like wildfire, a flashfire burn that consumed everything in his path—including her. She’d never have thought, from his lazy smiles and lingering glances, that this slept under his skin.
    She should tell him to slow down. She should do…something. Something other than clinging to him as he