“Yeah, like it goes off and everyone stops whatever they’re doing to have a little boogie. What? You don’t have that here?”
He chuckles and drags me into his arms, hugging me tight against his muscular chest. I take a deep breath of his scent and melt into it. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who is so free with their affection before, but I have to say, I’m a hugger and I tend to force my affection on other people, so it makes a pleasant change.
“You’re a special one, aren’t you, babe? I wish we’d met you sooner and then maybe this shit with Wren might not have happened.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I didn’t realize she was so unhappy here.”
“We don’t know that. If she decided to leave, it might just be that sometimes people just need a change.” I shrug. “There’s every chance she might reappear tomorrow and wonder why everyone’s making such a fuss.” Grinning at him, I add, “Plus, if she hadn’t disappeared off, I wouldn’t be here, and we’d probably have never met.”
I experience another of those unfamiliar pangs in my chest as I say the words, even though they’re accurate enough. I don’t like the fact that I could easily have missed out on coming here or ever meeting these guys. Which is a crazy thought, considering I’ve been here fora day.Still, though, I can’t seem to get my head around that fact. It feels like I’ve known them both for weeks, months, even.
Which is ridiculous. Maybe it’s like how actors working together every day fall in love with each other? You spend an intensely short amount of time together, but all your focus is on one another and you forget that the rest of the universe exists.
Not that I’m in love with them. I barely know them.
Although I’m still wrapped up in Brogan’s arms and I’d quite like to stay here forever, please and thank you very much. And he doesn’t seem all that willing to let me go either.
“Come on, we need to get a move on,” Soren says. “We’ve got a soul to reap.”
Brogan takes a step back but keeps me plastered to his side as he pulls me along.
“Not a party bell,” Brogan whispers in my ear. “It’s letting us know that we have another soul that needs collecting.”
We stop right in front of the water feature dead center in the middle of the garden that I noticed earlier. Soren’s already waiting beside it with a grumpy look on his face.
“Thought you might like to see this,” he grouches, like he’s annoyed at me for his decision to show me something.
“This is how we get word of a soul that needs reaping,” Brogan explains, just as the water trickles faster and faster and then as though it’s reacting to Soren’s presence, it glows with the same blue as his eyes. The fountain then releases a bubble that floats up into the air and then pops, revealing a little gumdrop that Soren plucks out of the air and puts into his mouth.
“Neat, huh? Soren came up with it.”
“You did?”
“Thought it would be more interesting this way,” he grumbles, still chewing.
“Soren likes sweet things as much as I do,” Brogan whispers in my ear, making me shiver. “He eats the candy, and it gives him the knowledge of who and where the next soul is that needs reaping.” Brogan grins, eyes flitting from me to Soren and back again. “One of us has designed everything you see here.”
That explains the difference between their two living quarters. “I’m guessing there’s a garden of nude-y lady statues somewhere with your name on it?” I tease Brogan, whose grin widens.
“Never, babe. And if I had, it would be a pile of rubble as soon as I laid eyes on your gorgeous face. All other women are dead to me.”
I snort and shove his shoulder at the blatant flirtation.
“You ready, babe?”
Soren doesn’t wait for me to reply as he puts an arm around my waist in a move that’s oddly intimate and as his hard body presses up against mine, I blush and squirm against him, even more so when he bends down and speaks directly into my ear.
“You’ll want to hold still for the next bit.”
Something about his low voice and the possibilities ofotheroccasions where he could say the same thing to me has me squirming harder. Oh sugar lumps, my panties are getting wet with all the possibilities.
Not the time or the place for my libido to strike up. The hussy. Especially since we’re about to go reap a soul, so someone’s, you know, dying.
We land just outside a small house in one of those towns where it always seems to be the middle of fall. The house itself looks like it’s a picture perfect Victorian mansion, complete with red ivy growing up the front. It has a whole vibe to it too, tickling my insides, something warm and welcoming.
Soren knocks the door, a huge blue scythe appearing in his hand so that the occupants can’t question who he is or what he’s doing here. It’s better than any form of ID, seriously.
“Wow.” I fight the urge to comment on the size or impressive curve to his scythe. From how Brogan’s lips quirk as he meets my eye, I’m pretty sure he knows exactly what I’m thinking.
“So, how big is the area you cover for reaping?”
