Read Romancing The Dead for Free Online

getting out of bed. Barney hopped up on the kitchen table where I’d spread out my books and lay down on the chart I was working on. Absently, I scratched her belly. She snapped at my fingers, reminding me that I’d neglected to fill her food bowl. I was in the middle of shaking the last of the kibbles from the box when Sebastian came in searching for coffee.
    “Morning,” Sebastian murmured. He detoured slightly from his trajectory to give me a peck on the cheek. The sunlight did nice things to his half-naked body, highlighting lines and angles. He looked like a rumpled Adonis in need of a shave. Yummy. I let my hands, which had automatically reached around to encircle his waist, slowly caress his rib cage and flat, hard stomach. As my hand rested against his taut belly, I flashed to what William had said. How weird would sex be when I was all wrinkles and gray and he was still hard and lean? How impotent would I feel when he went off to feed on his twentysomething ghouls then?
    Sebastian’s fingertips brushed my hair. “What are you thinking?”
    Just then Barney sneezed wetly on Sebastian’s bare feet. She started to hack dryly as if she planned to toss a hairball onto his toes. I gently nudged her with my foot until she got the hint and padded off to sun herself in the tower room. Barney especially disliked Sebastian because, unlike other vampires, he had been made by alchemical sorcery. She rather liked my ex, Parrish, and I always figured that, because he was dead, he smelled like something a cat would drag in. Sebastian ’s magic flowed continually through his veins, and, well, it apparently made Barney gag.
    “She’s not going to like living at my house, is she?”
    His house? I hadn’t really considered it, but I supposed it didn’t make sense for Sebastian to move into my tiny little apartment. No, no, of course I’d move into his place, I practically lived there now.
    Before I could reply, a soft munching sound came from the tower room where I kept all my plants. “Barney,” I yelled, grabbing the squirt bottle from its place next to the bread maker. “Stop eating the lucky bamboo!”
    “Maybe she could live in the barn,” Sebastian murmured, leaning against the counter, cup of coffee cradled in both hands. I aimed the nozzle at Barney. Her face was buried in my tattered bamboo. Seeing the bottle armed and ready in my hands, she bolted. The force of her leap set the plant stand rocking, but I was able to grab it before it toppled.
    “Barney is an indoor cat,” I yelled over my shoulder as I straightened the pot and checked on the violas and pansies. The tower room had windows on all sides, and they were all open to let in the morning air. The heat had broken and I could hear seagulls crying in the distance.
    Sebastian shook his head with apparent bewilderment. “A barn would be perfect for her. Cats should live where they can catch mice and rats. It’s their job. It’s what they do.”
    “You still think dogs should be used only for hunting,” I said with a fond smile as I came back into the kitchen. I reached around him to refill my own cup. What would I do with the coffeemaker? I’d bought it at an estate sale because it was teal. I’d never seen such a hideous plastic monstrosity in my life; it was love at first sight. I’d brought it home and lovingly decorated it with purple stickon rhinestones. In his kitchen Sebastian had one of those fancy espresso machines that I’d never learned how to operate. He made cold press for his “everyday” coffee. Damn good coffee; weird machine. I’d have to learn how to use it if I was going to live there every day for the rest of my life.
    The rest of my life.
    Sebastian smiled at me. “You still have that curious dread on your face. What’s on your mind?”
    I shrugged and looked around my tiny kitchen. Chipped cheap veneer covered the cabinets. Maroon and black carpeting speckled with a multitude of stains shrouded the floor. I never quite