Read All Together Dead for Free Online Page A

her shoulder and clearly planning to head into town to give us some privacy, it hardly seemed promising that we’d have to grab an instant to consummate a relationship that had had so little face time.
    Amelia said, “Good-bye!” She had a big smile all over her face, and since Amelia has the whitest teeth in the world, she looked like the Cheshire cat. Amelia’s short hair was sticking out all over (she says no one in Bon Temps can cut it right) and her tan face was bare of makeup. Amelia looks like a young suburban mom who has an infant seat strapped into the back of her minivan; the kind of mom who takes time off to run and swim and play tennis. In point of fact, Amelia did run three times a week and practiced tai chi out in my backyard, but she hated getting in the water and she thought tennis was for (and I quote) “mouth-breathing idiots.” I’d always admired tennis players myself, but when Amelia had a point of view, she stuck to it.
    “Going to the mall in Monroe,” she said. “Shopping to do!” And with an I’m-being-a-good-roommate kind of wave, she hopped into her Mustang and vanished…
    …leaving Quinn and me to stare at each other.
    “That Amelia!” I said lamely.
    “She’s…one of a kind,” Quinn said, just as uneasy as I was.
    “The thing is—” I began, just as Quinn said, “Listen, I think we ought—” and we both floundered to a halt. He made a gesture that indicated I should go first.
    “How long are you here for?” I asked.
    “I have to leave tomorrow,” he said. “I could stay in Monroe or Shreveport.”
    We did some more staring. I can’t read Were minds, not like regular humans. I can get the intent, though, and the intent was…intent.
    “So,” he said. He went down on one knee. “Please,” he said.
    I had to smile, but then I looked away. “The only thing is,” I began again. This conversation would come much more easily to Amelia, who was frank to a very extreme point. “You know that we have, uh, a lot of…” I gestured back and forth with my hand.
    “Chemistry,” he said.
    “Right,” I said. “But if we never get to see any more of each other than we have the past three months, I’m not really sure I want to make that next step.” I hated to say it, but I had to. I didn’t need to cause myself pain. “I have big lust,” I said. “Big, big lust. But I’m not a one-night-stand kind of woman.”
    “When the summit is over, I’m taking a long time off,” Quinn said, and I could tell he was absolutely sincere. “A month. I came here to ask you if I could spend it with you.”
    “Really?” I couldn’t help sounding incredulous. “Really?”
    He smiled up at me. Quinn has a smooth, shaved head, an olive complexion, a bold nose, and a smile that makes these little dimples in the corners of his mouth. His eyes are purple, like a spring pansy. He is as big as a pro wrestler, and just as scary. He held up a huge hand, as if he were swearing an oath. “On a stack of Bibles,” he said.
    “Yes,” I said after a moment’s scan of my inner qualms to make sure they were minor. And also, I may not have a built-in truth detector, but I could have told if he’d been thinking, I’m saying that to get in her pants. Shifters are very hard to read, their brains are all snarly and semiopaque, but I would’ve picked up on that. “Then…yes.”
    “Oh, boy.” Quinn took a deep breath and his grin lit up the room. But in the next moment, his eyes got that focused look men get when they’re thinking about sex very specifically. And then, lickety-split, Quinn was on his feet and his arms were around me as tightly as ropes tying us together.
    His mouth found mine. We picked up where we’d left off with the kissing. His mouth was a very clever one and his tongue was very warm. His hands began examining my topography. Down the line of my back to the curve of my hips, back up to my shoulders to cup my face for a moment, down to brush my neck teasingly with