Reaper's Dark Kiss Read Online Free

what’s getting on your nerves?”
    It felt like Sky looked right through him. “The walls,” she said. “Feels like they’re closing in.”
    * * * *
    Julian would have gone anywhere with Sky if it meant keeping her with him the rest of the night. On the way out, he got a carrier and put the coffees in it.
    Outside, the August night was cool and calm. He noted that Sky was so distracted, she didn’t ask any questions. He led them into the park and chose a bench that was nearly hidden under the spreading leaves of an oak tree. Sky sat with her feet on the bench, her knees pulled up close, her back against the stone arm. Julian swung his legs over the opposite end, took the black coffee, and gave Sky the one with cream and sugar. She sipped in thoughtful silence.
    “You ready to tell me what happened before you called?” he asked.
    “No.” Sky put her cup on the bench, took out her tablet, and started typing.
    It was a quiet night. The news that Julian had been sent after the drainer had spread, and from what he could see, Shadow Worlders were staying off the streets. No one wanted to fall under a reaper’s suspicion for draining.
    Rustling leaves were the background as Sky’s fingers chattered against the screen. Her soft lips were pursed into the perfect pout for a kiss. Her mouth would be a start, and then Julian wanted to kiss her everywhere, kiss her throat, her breasts, her smooth belly. He’d take Sky slowly, ease into her silken softness before he—
    “You owe me an answer,” Sky said, typing steadily. “I hope you’re thinking about it.”
    That rocked Julian out of his thoughts. He said, “I found some of your articles online. You really interviewed a guy on death row?”
    Sky’s face lit up. She set her tablet down, picked up her coffee. “That was a tough one. Took me months to get the interview. Thought he’d be dead before they let me in.” She gave Julian a curious look. “You checked up on me?”
    He’d checked everything he could find, which wasn’t much. Her online bio talked sparingly about her parents, her brother, and her college degree. “Just wondering what you do that makes you sit around Central Park in the middle of the night,” he said.
    “White slavers who pay for foreign women to go to school and learn English, dope dealers who smuggle medicine to sick people who can’t afford it—bad guys with a conscience.”
    Reading Sky’s stories was one thing. But now he was courting her. He couldn’t just let her talk to dangerous people who would probably only meet her at gods only knew what hours of the night. His beast clawed at him, demanding that he protect Sky.
    “Can I see your phone?” he said.
    “Why?” Sky dug it out of her pocket and handed it over. “Adding superspy gear so you can find me?”
    Taking the phone, Julian said, “Putting in my numbers. Notebooks get lost.” He showed Sky the phone. “Use this one first. Leave voice mail anytime. If it can’t wait, use the second one. I’ll get back to you as fast as I can.”
    “You just met me, and you’re putting both your numbers in my phone?”
    With a grin, Julian said, “I didn’t think you’d say yes to me moving in.” He gave her phone back. “How come those people talk to you? They sound like the kind who like their secrets.”
    “I listen.” She tilted her coffee cup gently side to side. “Everyone wants to tell their story. It’s how we are.”
    “What about you?” he asked her. “What’s your story?”
    Sky shut down like a walled city under siege. That confirmed what Julian thought. After what happened to her parents, she kept people at a distance, as if she knew everything had an end, and the only way to avoid endings was to avoid beginnings.
    “I didn’t mean to pry,” he said, resisting the urge to take her into his arms, to tell her that he wasn’t going anywhere. Not tonight. Not ever.
    She focused on the tablet’s screen, doodling freehand. Two curved lines emerged,