Page 45 of Unhallowed Murder
However, Josef’s friends were huggers, and not easily intimidated, so she’d had to get used to it. On this night, she hugged them and was happy to do it. His friends had become her friends, and her friends had become his.
She still didn’t hug her coworkers, but that was different.
Speaking of her team, she saw Myers first, dressed as The Incredible Hulk, complete with bulging muscles that weren’t fake. His girlfriend was Betty Ross, in a red unitardwith a fancy black buttoned leotard over it. Ronnie hugged his girlfriend and welcomed her. She’d met her at the bar a few times — it might be time to research the girl and see if she was worthy of dating her best deputy. Speaking of which, she looked at Myers. “You ready for the exam next week?”
“I am, LT. I’ll do you proud.”
He was taking the detective’s exam, and if he failed it she’d give him shit jobs until he passed it — and she’d told him as much. Many times.
He was going to pass it, though. Myers didn’t do anything halfway.
“Of course he is. He’s had you teaching him.”
Ronnie turned at Sergeant Perry’s gruff voice, and frowned. He was in his usual tweed pants and dress shirt. “Who are you dressed as?”
“Myself. I’m a goddamned superhero. Didn’t you know?”
“Of course you are,” Josef said as he stepped to them. “We’ll call you Grumpy Man, able to tell when someone’s lying with a single frown.”
Perry glowered at him, but his eyes were happy, and that didn’t happen often. “Every group has a smart ass. The Joker fits you.”
Carter and Henderson walked up together — Henderson an absolutely stunning Black Panther, while Carter was in jeans and a supertight black t-shirt that showed every muscle. And Carter has alotof muscles.
“Twoof my team didn’t dress up? Really?” Ronnie said with a laugh. “Ya’ll are a disappointment!”
“What?” said Carter, indignant. “I’m Luke Cage!”
Ronnie shook her head at him, and then turned at RaeLynn’s voice. “Nathan pulled the same stunt. He’s dressed as he always is, but with a shiny yellow glove on one hand. He says he’s Iron Fist.” She waved at her navy blue unitard with pale yellow sewn into the right places up top, and said, “I’m Kitty Pryde. Seemed fitting.”
“It’s perfect,” Ronnie said, hugging her friend. Nathan had taken Ronnie to RaeLynn’s grandmother the morning after that horrible night, so RaeLynn felt a little like a cousin.
Ronnie played pool and drank beer with her team. She did shots and danced with her girlfriends. She drank margaritas with the women from the coterie house, and she took Josef downstairs to make him take a few sips of her while she was tipsy. She didn’t often drink enough to feel it, and she knew it wouldn’t last long, but sheneededto share it with him.
If someone had told her a year earlier that she’d be downstairs with the aloof vampire, taking her Harley Quinn sequined panties off in a downstairs office of TBC and demanding a quickie feed-and-fuck, she’d have thought them delusional.
And yet, here she was, doing just that while she unzipped his pants and pulled him out.
“What time is it?” she asked. “About the time we first saw each other, right? We’ll call it an anniversary fuck.”
“Oh, I have plans after the party to celebrate our one-year anniversary, and there will benothingquick about them, but for now…” He lifted her, pressed her against the wall, and drove into her. “I believe I can accommodate your request. The office is soundproof, feel free to scream in three, two…”
He scraped acrossthe spotinside her, jackhammer fast, and she was just tipsy enough that within seconds she was swept away in bliss.
* * * *
Josef walked to the back wall and looked in the mirror behind the huge plant. He was amazed the lip dye hadn’t smeared. The same couldn’t be said of his little tiger’s lipstick.
She put her sequined panties back on, adjusted the belt over them, and pulled a tube of lipstick from her bra. She glanced in the mirror, saw the lipstick all around her mouth, and sighed.
“This is a vampire’s office. Where are the baby wipes?”
He chuckled and retrieved them. “Not a vampire’s office, but close enough.”
She casually repaired the bottom part of her face — so matter of fact on the outside, but he knew she wanted him again already. That was okay, he wanted her again, too. They’d stay until the end, take her friends home, and the wait would make the rest of their evening even sweeter.
“Nathan made a short appearance and didn’t stay long. He and Abbott in the same room is still…” She sighed, and Josef agreed with the sentiment.
The Abbott and Amakhosi had a treaty in place once again, but there was zero trust between them.
