Page 67 of The Hangman's Rope

We kissed for a time, but then I started to overthink things, and skittishly moved back.

“Sorry,” he breathed, chest heaving. “Too much?” he asked.

I swallowed hard and took stock of how I felt.

“Yes and no,” I answered honestly. “Everything is just a lot right now it feels like.”

He nodded, searching my face, and said, “You want to stop, we stop. Just like that. You hear me?”

I nodded.

“Need you to say it, Sweetpea.”

“I hear you,” I said carefully. “I need to stop, we stop.”

“Good girl,” he murmured and pressed his lips to my forehead andgood lord, why did that make me want to melt?

I swooned into him, laying my head on his chest and he wrapped his solid arms around me, holding me close but not tightly, rocking me gently for a moment before easing back and saying, “Let’s go home.”

I nodded and let him guide me out the side door and out into the sultry heat once more.

The sun was hanging low in the sky, but it wasn’t getting darker, not yet.

A breeze swept down the street beneath the shade of the overhanging trees with their swaying Spanish Moss. It carried with it the green scent of the river, and swept out the locked cemetery gates. When we reached them, Hangman hefted my bag up onto his shoulder to make certain it was secure and slid the proper key into the lock to open the man-sized door gate within the larger cemetery car gate. He held it open for me and gestured for me to go through.

I stepped over the lip across the bottom and he followed me through.

You would think watching him close the gate behind us, locking usinsidethe old cemetery, would be ominous… but no, it was the exact opposite for me. As soon as that gate clanged shut, the lock engaging, I felt a tension in my shoulders that I hadn’t even realized I’d been carrying, ease almost completely away.

There must have been some physical tell, because he turned as though catching some motion from me out of the corner of his eye and looking me over, he asked, “Are you okay?”

I smiled, genuinely, and told the truth, “Never better.”

That earned an answering smile from him, which I realized I didn’t see too often, as he reached out a hand to me. I took it, and we fell into step with one another, making a slow stroll to the steps leading up to his second-floor apartment of the old caretaker’s house.

Inside was a blessed respite from the heat and choking humidity and I almost sighed with relief.

“The cameras are gone,” I said with mild interest and he shook his head.

“Relocated, downstairs. The one is still up outside up here, front, and back; but the rest are down below.”

“Oh, nice,” I said mildly. He led me over to my spot on his big leather couch and urged me, “Sit.”

I sank down onto the couch and shrugged out of my couture leather jacket and he reached out his free hand and took it from me.

“I’ll be right back,” he declared. “Going to put these in the bedroom. Don’t go anywhere.”

I looked up at him with a half-smile and asked him like I had so many times before, “Where would I go?”

That gained me an answering smile that actually lit up his face, his golden ringed green eyes lighting up and his teeth very straight and very white where his lips split into its wide grin and I felt my heart squeeze down just a little in my chest from howgorgeousthis man became when he smiled at me like that.

He slipped down the hall and ducked into his room for several moments. When he crossed into the bathroom, it was without his jacket and the colorfully patched vest that went over it, and he’d lost the leather covering his legs and the denim of his jeans.

I bent and began to unlace my own boots that went almost all the way up to my knees. They were stylish, but they were a form of horseback riding boots and much less intended for riding anironhorse – but I’d figured they would be the best out of all the pairs of boots that I owned should I take an unfortunate spill or anything else.

“Here, let me,” his voice was gentle but a little rough with an emotion I couldn’t define. He stepped out of the alcove of the mouth of the hallway and dropped to his knees in front of me, putting my booted foot atop my thigh. He picked at the double knot I’d been trying to loosen.

These boots didn’t have any zippers along the side to ruin the line of them. They only laced up the front, and while it was a pain in the ass, I fully admit I liked them quite a bit.

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