Page 90 of You'll Be the Death of Me

“Back in the lawyer’s office, when I asked if you’d had a wife or girlfriend, you said you knew you didn’t because you couldn’tfeelher absence.” Dell nervously fiddled with the hem of her nightie. “Can you feel Pamela now?”

He sharply turned to her. “No.No!” A sudden fluster reddened his face. “Sorry. Of course you would think that from what I just said. But no. That’s not what I meant.”

A wave of relief almost drowned her. “Okay. What did you mean?”

“I meant that things make sense now. From that experience, I learned not to get my heart set on anything in case it didn’t work out. That’s why I’m so passive. After Pamela, I stopped taking risks. I stopped trying. I stopped...living.”

The pain lacing his words would have sent Dell over the edge if it hadn’t been coupled with his deep realization.

“I see it now,” he went on. “I wasn’t very happy when I died. And then when I landed in the afterlife, I was keen to just slog through. I was so disconnected I didn’t even realize I transitionedthe wrong person. But now I’ve met you—again—and all I want to do is live. The biggest thing bothering me right now is we’re getting closer to solving thiswrong turnmystery, and that means you’re going to be... gone.”

The double-edged thought had occurred to her too, of course. She wanted—needed—to get back to her life, but she also didn’t want to leave him. However their lives and deaths were tangled up was a mystery she wanted to solve but a knot she didn’t exactly want to untie. To hear him say parting with her was the biggest thing he was thinking of filled her with a heady warmth.

She stroked her fingers across the bones in the back of his hand. “Do you think there’s any way we can... both come back?”

He gave her a serious look. “Dell, I’mactuallydead, remember? You’re just stuck in some in-between—which I have not forgotten is my fault. Despite my feelings toward you, I will do whatever it takes to fix this still.”

The warmth she’d felt spread to other parts of her body, namely her chest and a hot pool low in her belly. She stroked his hand again and looked up at him. “Feelings?”

The flush in his cheeks matched the one filling hers, surely. “Yes.” He turned his body to sit in the couch’s corner and face her. “Dell, you are the most remarkable person I’ve ever met. Your heart is so big, I don’t know how it fits inside your body. You put everyone before yourself and still find a way to achievesomuch. Not to mention your ability to literally defy afterlife physics... Still trying to figure that one out, but I would bet it has to do with your general propensity for skill and determination.” He paused to thoughtfully stroke his chin. “And as if all that wasn’t enough, there’s this magnetic pull I feel toward you, as if we’re destined to—”

Dell cut him off by pressing her mouth to his. Yes, the laundry list of her qualities was nice to hear, but more than that, she needed to kiss him. This man who’d crashed into her—literally—and found his way back in the strangest of ways. She had feelings for him too, even after two days. But it hadn’t really been two days. Whatever source linked them together had been in place for a long time, they just didn’t know it.

Cole kissed her back, leaning into it, and letting out one of his little moans that drove her absolutely wild. The greedy rasp deep in his throat was half need and half relief. She felt the same and all but turned to jelly when he began to lay her back on the couch. He was nearly on top of her, his hand sliding up her thigh, when a door closing down the hall startled them.

They both froze. The urge to sit up and pretend they hadn’t been doing anything hit Dell hard, but Cole stayed hovering over her, holding himself up with his arms.

“A hazard of bringing a woman home to my parents’ house, I guess,” he said with a cheeky grin.

Dell laughed. Even though they were invisible, she wasn’t sure how far she was willing to go out in the open where they could be walked in on. She reached up and loosened Cole’s crooked tie so it hung open around his neck. “Can we perhaps take this to your bedroom?”

He moved so quickly to get up, she gasped and laughed again. He led her from the couch by the hand. Chaucer stayed snoring on the floor, curled into a happy ball of fluff. They entered his room, and before he could throw her down on the bed like he looked like he wanted to, Dell paused to quietly close the door.

Apparentlysuper hornywas a strong emotion that allowed her to move things from the physical world too.

Cole didn’t pause to ask questions or give her a chance to explain. He sat on the end of the bed and pulled her onto his lap. Dell settled in, relishing the fact they had full privacy and secretly loving the idea of being in his childhood bedroom.

“Feels a little scandalous, doesn’t it?” she said between kisses. “Being in here.”

“It does. Believe it or not, you are the first woman I’ve ever had in here.”

Dell playfully gasped. “Scandal indeed. So wait, that doesn’t mean you’re a...?”

“Of course not. But I was until college. Bit of a late bloomer.” He sunk his mouth to her neck and traced an artery with the tip of his tongue, as if to show he’d fully bloomed now.

Dell let out a moan and yanked his tie from his collar. She unbuttoned the top of his shirt and pulled it open to reveal his long collarbone and a dusting of chest hair. “Stop being so adorable,” she muttered as she kissed his neck.

He cradled her head in his hands and pulled her mouth back to his. His tongue parted her lips, and he kissed her so deeply, so expertly, her mind momentarily went blank. “I should have you know,” he paused to say, “I did a semester abroad in France, andadorableisn’t exactly their thing there.”

God bless the French, Dell thought when he repossessed her mouth with his. She already worshipped their food. She was more than ready to find out what kind of lessons they taught in bed.

Cole’s warm hands moved from her hair to tug her nightgown’s straps from her shoulders. She released his mouth long enough to speak when a thought struck her.

“Cole, do we need, um, protection?”

He paused, his face glowing with want and his hair disheveled, and tilted his head. “Dell, we’re dead.”

A wave that was equal parts embarrassment and relief washed over her. “Right. That’s what I thought. Just checking.” She returned her attention to his mouth, which was soft and warm and all kinds of perfect. His hands moved to her thighs and found their way under her nightgown’s hem. She was lost in the feel of it all, her blood looping and head spinning, when another thought struck her.