Page 80 of For Better or Hearse
Her gaze narrows in suspicion. “Is this your cheat code to getting me to like you?”
“You already like me.”
She splashes him. “So cocky.”
His feet touch the bottom of the lagoon. Sand and seaweed. “Okay, Bigfoot. If you could be a cryptid, which one would you choose?”
Her eyes light up. He’s piqued her interest. For some reason, it makes him happy to see that she’s happy.
“Banshee,” he asks, “or a fury?”
A burst of laughter escapes her mouth. “I’m sorry, excuse me? You did research.On cryptids?” Smiling, she swims toward him.
His ears flame. He did. Last night at the bar before she joined him, he couldn’t resist googling the term.
She schools her expression into one of faux seriousness, mouth fixed in a straight line, brow slightly furrowed. “You better take that to the grave, Doctor Whitford.”
“I’ll be sure to delete my search history,” he says dryly.
“Since you’re asking…” She searches his face, and he resists the urge to call the game off. Like she’s seeing too much of him.
“Neither,” she says. “I would choose to be Jenny Greenteeth. A monster swamp hag who lives in a bog. If anyone gets too close, I drown them.” Her lips curl. “Then eat them.”
He chokes on a laugh. “That can’t be a real thing.”
“Oh, I regret to inform you, it is very real. And it will terrify you.” Expression wondering, she tilts her head. “What about you?”
He shifts, uncomfortable. Again, with her searching eyes, her earnest questions.
He offers a shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe a Wendigo.”
“No way.” She runs her hand along his jaw. The touch of her silk, fire. “I think you’d be Mothman. You act big and scary, but really, you’re just misunderstood. You’re kind and sweet when you want to be.”
When she drops her hand, Nathaniel abandons his fight to stay restrained. He captures her slim wrist. Pulls her toward him. “Is that what you think of me?”
Her teeth sink into her full bottom lip for a second. “I thinkso,” she admits. “I think a lot of things I thought about you were wrong.”
“Here’s another truth,” he says, running his fingers over the thin, delicate skin on the inside of her wrist. The pulse that beats there. “I can’t stop thinking about that kiss.”
Usually, he wouldn’t try so hard. Be so goddamn desperate. But he can’t help it. This woman is keeping him afloat on this trip. Keeping him sane. Alive.
She bites her lip, looking suddenly shy and soft. Immediately, he’s snared by the contradictions that are Ash Keller. Her girlish flushed cheeks alongside the sharp, dark cat eye. Her quirky love for cryptids balanced by her love for his grandfather.
Now that he’s unlocked a little bit of her, he wants more. A hell of a lot more.
Hesitating, she sinks her teeth into her lower lip.
“You do that a lot,” Nathaniel says. “Bite your lip when you’re nervous.”
A cool brow arched. “You notice when I’m nervous?”
The words roll off his tongue before he can stop them. “I notice everything about you.”
Her kohl-lined eyes widen. The tantalizing flush on her face ruins him. That’s what finally does it. He’s officially lost the battle he’s been fighting for the last few days. “I liked our kiss.”
At his honesty, the wariness in her eyes turns to consideration.
“I liked the kiss too.” She ducks her dark head. But rather than swim away from him, like he expects, she drifts toward him.