How to Live an Undead Lie (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 5)

by Hailey Edwards

  His frustration was adorable, but I wasn’t going to tell him that while I was straddling him topless.

  Sudden mortification swept through me, and I clamped my hands over my boobs.

  “Cletus can’t see us, right?” I had always equated his eyes going black with his wraith. “Or hear us?”

  As much as I loved Maud, and as fond as I had grown of Cletus, I did not want them watching the show.

  “I can ward the room to keep him out,” Linus offered. “He won’t be able to perceive us beyond them.”

  “That works.” Hands on my breasts, I rose. “I’ll text Lethe and let her know we’ll be spending the day here.”

  Linus rolled to his feet, collected his pen, and set to work while I got out my phone.

  You can head back to Woolly. We’re fine here.

  >>You guys are having sex!

  You can’t text and have sex at the same time.

  >>Hello? Sexting? It’s a thing. Look it up.

  I gotta go.

  >>Gotta go get you some.

  LETHE.

  >>GRIER.

  >>Remember to use protection.

  >>Hood keeps condoms in his wallet. I can loan you some if you want.

  Loan implies I would give them back…

  >>Eww. Eww. Eww.

  I’m muting my phone now.

  >>Call me after, and we’ll dish.

  Turning off now...

  >>Then Linus must not be doing it right.

  After I muted the phone, I kicked off my shoes, socks, and pants, and set it on top of the pile.

  Bent over the threshold, Linus drew on a sigil with painstaking detail that would preserve our privacy while I took the opportunity to apply a contraceptive sigil good for a few hours even if it got smudged.

  Then I stood there in my panties, watching him work. I admired the flex of muscle in his back, the utter focus on his task, and my heart swelled until there was no room not filled with him.

  He must have sensed me staring. Practically drooling. After finishing the design, he capped his pen and tossed it onto his ruined shirt. He met me in the middle of the room, near the foot of the bed, but he didn’t touch me. He just looked and looked and looked until I felt self-conscious.

  “I want to paint you like this,” he murmured, his hands unable to resist wandering over my hipbones.

  “We’re beyond pickup lines,” I joked, and his cheeks pinkened until I almost regretted the comment.

  With his hands on my waist, he guided me to the bed. I sat when the backs of my knees hit the mattress, and he knelt between my legs. With his elegant hands, he traced dueling paths up my sides and over my ribs, his fingertips skimming my breasts. He palmed their slight weight, his calloused thumbs rasping over my nipples until I was panting.

  “Beautiful,” he breathed and dipped his head, closing his mouth over one aching peak, teasing the hard bud with the edge of his teeth before moving to the other.

  He kissed his way down my stomach, south of my navel, and urged me to recline. Hooking his fingers in the sides of my thrift store panties, he eased them down my legs, past my feet, and flung them over his shoulder. He palmed my knees, spreading my thighs the width of his shoulders. Desire flushed his skin, and I fisted the sheets as he sank down and put his mouth on me.

  Then it was my turn to forget how to breathe.

  He explored me with his tongue until the coil of tension ratcheting tighter in my core sprung loose.

  “Linus.”

  Legs quivering, head too heavy to lift, I stared at the ceiling until I saw him stand out of the corner of my eye. He kicked off his shoes, socks. Unfastened his pants, let them hit the floor.

  “I want to look,” I said, a quaver in my voice, “but I don’t seem to have any bones.”

  He climbed over me, his skin cool and firm, and kissed the side of my neck. “You liked it?”

  “I did.” I cupped his face between my palms. “If you tell me you read that in a book…”

  His wicked grin was blinding, the widest, most beautiful smile I had ever seen, and it was all for me.

  Unable to resist tasting it, I kissed it off his face then ran my finger down his ribs. “More.”

  Linus slid down my body on the way back to his knees, but I caught him by the shoulders and urged him over me. The restrained hunger in his eyes asked me a question, and I answered, “Yes.”

  With his feet on the floor and his elbows supporting his weight on the mattress, I had plenty of room to ease my hand between us. Linus’s groan turned into a growl when I closed my hand over him. Mist curled off his skin, and he rested his forehead on my shoulder. A shudder climbed his spine when I started exploring his length with my fingertips.

  When his breath came in ragged pants and he gritted out my name—a plea, a curse, I wasn’t sure—I fisted him, guiding him into me.

  Linus wrapped his arms around me, cradling me against his chest, and thrust home in a single stroke.

  The pain was sharp but brief, and he murmured soft apologies in my ear as he held me until that bright sting was secondary to the solid feel of him around me, in me. I turned my face toward his, brushed my lips against his, and linked my ankles at his spine. “More.”

  Pleasure raked across my raw nerve endings each time his hips met mine, and soon I was clawing at his skin, begging for a push to hurl me over the edge, and he used his fingers on my core to send me flying.

  His smooth rhythm hitched as I clenched around him, and he groaned my name as he came.

  His full weight hit me then, and our hearts raced against one another, sweat sticking us together.

  Cinching my noodle legs around him, I begged, “Stay.”

  “I’m too heavy,” he protested, but his knees had stopped working, and he was sliding onto the floor.

  Showing mercy, because I was certain I couldn’t stand either, I let him go. “Come to bed with me.”

  I rolled to the far side of the mattress, smiling as I watched him fumble to climb in with me. Linus collapsed with his feet hanging off the end, with his head too far down for more than the ends of his tangled hair to brush his pillow. I scooched lower to make us even, unable to wipe the goofy smile off my face.

  “We had sex,” I whispered, like it was a secret in danger of being overheard.

  “Yes,” he whispered back. “We did.”

  “Do you feel any different?”

  Lines wrinkled his forehead as he looked at me. “Yes.”

  “Me too,” I confessed, and his expression smoothed again.

  He shifted onto his back, hauling me with him, and I sprawled half on top of him. The weight of his arms made him more real than he had ever been. This was the most physical contact we had ever had, and I didn’t mean the sex. I meant him reaching for me, yanking me into his orbit, holding me like I might escape if he loosened his grip. He was initiating for the first time, taking what he needed from me.

  And then it hit me. Until this moment, he hadn’t believed I was his. He hadn’t touched me or kissed me or hinted he might want more. He had followed my lead, given me what I craved, and held his needs in check. He had given me all he could bear, what wouldn’t leave too many scars on his heart if I let him go.

  Oh, Linus.

  “Do you want to shower?” he asked sometime later, his fingers tracing my collarbone.

  “No.” I yawned, snuggling closer, breathing him in. “I want to stay just like this.”

  And we did, until the beat of his heart beneath my ear lulled me into a dreamless sleep.

  Ten

  I woke to a heavy thumping noise that was not the steady thud of Linus’s heart beneath my ear, though I heard that too. I waited a full minute in the hopes our visitor would take the hint and leave before I cracked my eyes open.

  “Hey,” I murmured, vision blurry, “I’m still in bed.”

  Sheets tangled around my ankles, but there was too much give beneath me for hardwood.

  Linus kissed my eyelids, which had slid cl
osed again. “Yes, you are.”

  “That’s…weird.” I yawned, forcing my lashes to untangle and stay that way. “Nice, but strange.”

  “You slept through the day.”

  “Solving the dream’s riddle seems to have worked wonders for me.”

  “I held you all day,” he pointed out. “Don’t I get any credit?”

  “While your arms are very nice—” I looked at Linus, really looked at him. Combed hair, the ends still wet. Brushed teeth, his breath minty. “You showered.”

  Mischief twinkled in his eyes. “I held you all day…minus twenty minutes.”

  “You’re also dressed.” Sheets whispered beneath my leg when I bent it to test my theory. “I’m not.”

  Linus traced a chill finger down the length of my spine. “No, you’re not.”

  Smooshing my face against his chest, I groaned. “You stayed awake.”

  “I did.”

  “You better not have been mentally painting me again.”

  He kept his lips zipped while I thunked my forehead against his chest.

  “I don’t want to come home and find Woolly plastered in nudes.”

  “You entertain too many guests for that,” he said, sounding perfectly reasonable. “However, the basement…”

  “You’re not transforming the basement into a seedy love den.”

  “Nudes are art.” His fingers tickled over my ribs. “I was thinking more along the lines of a gallery.”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  There was no graceful way to climb off Linus, not when he had draped me over him like a living blanket sometime during the day, but the door kept rattling, and he clearly had no intention of answering it while I was warm and naked on top of him. “Who is that?”

  “Whoever it is, they can wait.”

  Calling out wouldn’t do any good. They wouldn’t be able to hear us. “You don’t sound concerned about our unexpected guest.”

  “The wards are sound.” His eyes twinkled. “I borrowed the design from a brilliant necromancer I know.”

  “You used Woolly’s design here?” Flushed with pleasure at the compliment, I sent my awareness out into the house, but it met no resistance to indicate the dwelling was becoming aware. “Can you tell who or what entered the building?”

  “The wards on the bottom floor are light to allow in customers and future staff. The upper floor will be impossible for anyone to attain who has malicious intent.” Linus frowned at the door. “I left stewardship of the wards unclaimed, for you. I assumed, if my proposal interested you, that you would want the bond since you would spend the most time here. All I can say for certain is our guest wishes us no harm.”

  Truthfully, it could only be two or three people. Most likely, it was Lethe or Hood checking in.

  “I’ll grab a shower.” The only thing stopping me from wrapping myself in the wrinkled sheet to make my grand exit was the look in his eyes. “You can deal with whoever is out there.”

  That was the point when I remembered the bathroom was across the hall here, past our early visitor.

  “New plan.” I snatched the sheet and made myself a toga. “You distract our guest while I slip past them into the bathroom.”

  “All right.” He straightened his clothes as he stood then followed me to the door. Instead of opening it, he pinned me against it with his hips while he ducked his head to claim my mouth. “I didn’t know it was possible to love you more than I already did.”

  “That’s the sex talking.” I patted his cheek. “Your hormones will behave after I get on clothes, and you’ll return to regular levels of loving me.”

  Loving me.

  Linus Andreas Lawson II loved me.

  That, to me, was more of a revelation than the sex. And the sex had been…perfect.

  “After last night,” he murmured, “that’s not possible.”

  A blush warmed every inch of my exposed skin, and I had plenty. “Are you going to get that?”

  Whoever was out there wasn’t taking silence for an answer. They wanted in, or for us to come out.

  Linus tucked me behind the door, erased the sigil ensuring our privacy, and pulled it open. The light in his eyes extinguished, and the mask of Scion Lawson clicked into place. “Can I help you?”

  “Where is she?”

  The blood warming my complexion a second ago drained from my face. “Boaz?”

  “Step aside, Lawson.”

  “No,” Linus said, his voice gone cold. “I don’t think I will.”

  Before they came to blows, I stuck my head around Linus. “What are you doing here?”

  “You didn’t come home. Amelie called this morning, frantic. Woolly had been ringing the phone at the carriage house off the hook, but she couldn’t go to the main house to see what was wrong, so I went to talk to Woolly.” His gaze roved over me, and I saw the moment understanding dawned. “You spent the day here.” Boaz gritted his teeth. “With him.”

  Bumping Linus aside with my hip, I got between them before it got ugly. Uglier. “I appreciate you coming to check on me. I feel like a dirt sandwich for not checking in with Woolly, and I’m sorry I worried Amelie, but I’m fine.” The fact he was standing on the doorstep of a purchase I had just learned about made me ask, “How did you know to look for us here?”

  “I was assigned to you, remember?” Boaz raked his fingers through his hair. “I keep tabs on your movements.”

  The violation stung anew, and that surprised me even more. I ought to be used to his strings of tiny betrayals. “I need to shower, and we need to get home to reassure Woolly.”

  The plan was to inch past him and shut the door behind me, putting a slab of wood between them, but I hadn’t noticed the sheet was stained crimson on the edge until Boaz fisted the material, staggering like someone had punched him. He dropped the cloth, his eyes glinting with cold fury.

  “Did he bother taking off his fancy clothes before he fucked you?” His hands balled at his sides, knuckles popping as he faced Linus. “Did he take your virginity, or did you have to do it yourself? He’s fantasized about this for so long, he probably creamed his pants before he touched you.”

  Using what Midas had drummed into me about being a woman taking on a male opponent, I drew back my arm and launched a right hook that snapped his head to one side. Something cracked. I think it was my hand, but I didn’t care. I threw my shoulder into the next punch before he shook off the first hit, and his utter shock was comical.

  “Get out.” Knuckles throbbing, I massaged my hand. “Now.”

  “Grier—”

  “Do you hear yourself?” I cradled my arm against my chest. “You’ve lost your ever-lovin’ mind, Boaz.”

  “This is not how it was supposed to happen.” He swept out his hand, indicating the sheet. “You let him take it. Him. Goddessdamn it.” He wiped a hand over his mouth. “Are you getting back at me? Is that it?”

  “Linus didn’t take anything from me,” I said, sad and tired and over this. “And this has nothing to do with you.”

  Eyes tight, he shook his head. “You don’t mean that.”

  “Lethe.” I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t have to. “Come here, please.”

  There was only one reason why Woolly would have fretted enough to reach out to Amelie, and that was if the gwyllgi had stayed to protect me. Hood and Lethe must have slept, among other things, in the van. And they wouldn’t have let Boaz or anyone else in without escorting them, whether our guest knew he had been tailed or not.

  I spotted her blue hair first and her furious scowl next. “Escort him out of the building.”

  “Sure thing.” She moseyed over to us. “Just one thing I have to do first.”

  Lethe snapped out a roundhouse kick to his jaw so fast her leg blurred.

  Boaz hit the floor on his back with a grunt, and she put her foot on his throat, pressing to make sure she had his attention. And then she smiled, and I almost wet my pants for him.

  “You might think you’re insultin
g Linus when you talk smack about him, but you’re really insulting Grier. She wouldn’t be with a guy who treats her like dirt. Note how she’s not with you anymore?” She applied pressure, and he sucked in air between his teeth. “Even if Linus were literal pond scum, he would still be floating above the waterline. Even if he was a water snail eating pond scum, or water snail poop made of pond scum? Yep. Still better than you. You’ve sunk low before, but stay down there much longer, and you’ll drown.”

  Hood walked up behind her, and he smiled down at Boaz, all teeth. Lethe ignored him and kept venting.

  “Grier loves Linus. That’s all you get to know about them. That’s all you need to know. She. Loves. Him. And you know the best part? He loves her back. Actually loves her. Puts her needs ahead of his own, that kind of thing. I would go into more detail, really break down how badly you’ve failed as a man, but it would fly right over your pig head, and I’m too hungry for this BS.” She rubbed her belly. “And now I’m thinking about bacon.”

  “I’ll handle this.” Hood bent down and fisted the front of Boaz’s shirt, using it to yank him to his feet. “You order breakfast.”

  “I love you,” she said, stomach growling.

  “You love bacon.”

  “I have a big heart,” she protested. “There’s room enough for both of you in it.”

  After they had gone, Lethe turned back to me. “He’s an asshat. Don’t let him get under your skin.”

  “I screwed up,” I admitted. “I should have called Woolly or Oscar.”

  “Grier.” She clamped her hands on my shoulders. “You’re allowed to make mistakes. You’re allowed to live your life. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself.” She shook me. “So you forgot to check in. It happens. Apologize and move on.” She smiled. “I’m proud of you. You put yourself first for like twelve whole hours. That’s got to be a record.” She shot a look at Linus from under her lashes. “I want all the deets, but let’s wait until we get back to Woolly. I’m going to need popcorn for this.”

  With a wink, she set off down the stairs, leaving Linus and me alone.

  His chill fingertips skated across my shoulders before drawing me against him. “Are you all right?”