Free Cora's Secret: A Vampire Ménage Urban Fantasy Romance by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page A

drop you somewhere?” Rhys said.
    “You’re leaving?” Cora had been braced for an argument.
    “I think we all need a little time to adjust.”
    “Speak for yourself,” Aithan said.
    Rhys sighed. “Very well, Cora and I need time. So let’s leave the lady’s house, just like she asked. We’ll agree to meet later.” He glanced out the window. “It’s past noon. Let’s meet for dinner. There’s a diner out by the highway that is cheap and good. Agreed?” He looked at them both.
    Aithan seemed amused. “If that’s what you think you need.”
    “I do.”
    Cora held her breath as they both glanced at her then headed to the front door. She didn’t release her breath until she hurried to shut the door behind them and put the chain on it.
    She went back to the kitchen and into the butler’s pantry and pulled out her cleaning supplies. She kept tight control on her thoughts, not allowing anything but the job at hand to enter. She went upstairs and pulled all the towels and mats out of the bathroom and began to scrub it, starting at the ceiling.
    While she was the only person in the house she could move as fast as she wanted to. She was down to scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees when the front door bell chimed, twenty minutes later.
    She dropped the sponge in the bucket and got to her feet. By concentrating on the next step and the one after that, she could block out everything. So she focused on walking downstairs and putting her boots back on so she didn’t answer the door barefoot. She pushed her hair back into place with automatic movements, without bothering to look in a mirror. She went to the door, already listing out the steps after that—getting rid of the caller, then returning to the bathroom and finishing the scrubbing, then washing the mats, then….
    Rhys stood on the concrete step, leaning with one hand against the doorframe. He straightened up as she opened the door.
    Cora drew in an unsteady breath as her concentration broke and all the unwelcome thoughts barreled back into her mind. “I don’t want you here.”
    His blue eyes were grave. “I couldn’t stay away. Let me in, Cora. I don’t like being exposed out here.”
    She couldn’t refute that. So she stepped aside and shut the door after him.
    Rhys didn’t step into the room. He stayed right where he was—in front of her and far too close.
    Cora stepped back out of the way, until her ass came up against the back of the wingchair.
    “I don’t get it,” Rhys said, pushing his jacket aside and propping his fist on his hip, close to the badge on his belt. “I can’t put it together properly.”
    “Put what together?”
    “It makes sense that Aithan would have no objections to this.”
    Her laugh caught her by surprise. “Free sex, forever. Of course he would like it.”
    “It probably isn’t a shock that the idea of being shoved around by some all-powerful and invisible force doesn’t thrill me, either. What I don’t get is why you have such strong objections.”
    Cora dropped her gaze to the carpet as her chest tightened unpleasantly and realized that the movement told Rhys more than she had intended. He was a lawman, used to watching people for tell-tale signs. So she lifted her head again and looked him in the eye.
    “You’re not going to tell me,” he interpreted. “You still don’t trust me. But these are your people, Cora. Your clansmen.”
    “No, they’re not.”
    “Okay, fine. I don’t know much about anything, but at least I know I don’t know. You’re not even trying to figure it out, are you?”
    She thought of the bathroom upstairs. She could smell the cleaning solution from here. “There’s nothing to work out. I won’t go through with this. That’s all I’m gonna say on the matter.”
    Rhys let out a heavy breath. “Very well. But before I go, can I kiss you?”
    Her heart jumped. It was a purely human reaction. She only ever seemed to experience human reactions when Rhys was near.
    “I