Waking the Dead by Kylie Brant Read Free Book Online Page A

she parted them, just a little. Her eyes went slumberous and her expression . . .
    Her expression was pure sex. The come-on as easy to read as neon against a starless sky. And brutally effective. Even knowing he was being had, Zach felt himself harden on cue. Which royally pissed him off.
    “Well, my kind is best at seduction, but if that isn’t going to work, I guess I won’t be able to convince Barnes”—she touched the base of her throat in a way guaranteed to draw a man’s gaze—“to do much of anything. Which will be a shame.” When her hands dropped to the hem of her T-shirt, his pulse gave a leap like a stallion lurching from the starting gate. She dragged it up over an impossibly slender torso to expose a ribbed tank that clung to curves that had been fashioned by a very benevolent god. “I guess that means I’ll just have to”—she leaned forward, giving him a tongue-lolling view of cleavage—“ask him nicely and hope that’s enough.”
    With barely restrained violence, he grabbed for his water bottle again, chugged enough to wash down that boulder-sized knot in his throat. “You do that.”
    Her voice normal now, she shoved her shirt into her pack, her movements rife with temper. “You are a complete and utter tool, Sharper. It’s hard to believe you could build a business that depends on tourism, given your personality. I can only figure that your employees do an admirable job of covering for the fact that you’re devoid of any redeeming qualities.”
    He could have told her that he’d once had a few redeeming qualities. But that was before . He wasn’t sure that Zach Sharper existed anymore.
    Instead he remained silent, which was what he should have done before eliciting that little scene. She didn’t seem to expect a response. With movements jerky with fury, she was pulling her hair back again, donning the cap and sunglasses.
    Shoving the now-empty bottle back into his pack, he followed her lead and got ready to move out. She took off without waiting for him, unerringly taking the path that would lead to the switchback heading down the other side of Castle Rock. He followed more slowly, gritting his teeth against the discomfort from the tighter fit of his jeans.
    And knowing he had no one but himself to blame for his state didn’t improve his mood one damn bit.

    “Fast work.” Marin Andrews, trailed by Mitch Barnes, paused at the foot of each gurney before throwing Cait an approving glance. “I’m impressed.”
    The sheriff’s reaction helped dissipate a bit of the exhaustion riding her. Cait and Kristy had been working nearly round the clock for forty-eight hours on the remains at the morgue. She was pleased with the progress they’d made, even while she was less thrilled with the growing flirtation between the ME and her assistant.
    But Cait was willing to admit that might have something to do with the irritation she still felt when she recalled the time spent with Zach Sharper. Throwing herself into the lab work to be done with the bones had distracted her from the annoyance she felt every time she thought of the man. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t bumped up against that sort of Neander thal attitude before. She’d spent years in a career where she’d been seen as little more than a face, a body, a shell to be posed and photographed and stamped with someone else’s brand. And it hadn’t only been men who had treated her that way.
    So it wasn’t Sharper she was angry at. Not really. It was herself, for reacting to his baiting in a similarly juvenile fashion. She’d thought she was well beyond behavior fueled by self-indulgence. Although this hardly ranked up there with some of the more self-destructive choices of her past, it still stung to discover she could respond without thought to her position.
    And it suited her to share the blame of that with Sharper.
    She stepped aside to allow Barnes room to view the bones. “These are definitely human remains,” she began.