SNIPPET: Dog Days of Summer

From DOG DAYS OF SUMMER:

(This story takes place between Dog with a Bone and Heir of the Dog.)

He peeled the label from the bottle of water clenched in his fist. “What do you know about cockatrices?”

The use of a stalling tactic made me wonder if this wasn’t some kind of test. He was my training officer after all.

Staring over my shoulder at him cramped my neck, so I turned to face him. “Enough not to look one in the eye.” Holding their stare would kill you. It was all very Medusa-like. I shifted one hip and pulled out a shiny compact, the clamshell kind with double mirrors, out of my pocket. “I also brought this in case he tries to flog me.”

“Except that seeing its reflection would kill it,” Shaw interrupted me.

“Leave me to my fantasies.” I was ready to wring its stinky neck barehanded.

His toe nudged my thigh. “I’d like to hear more about these fantasies of yours.”

“Not these you wouldn’t.” I pinched his leg through his jeans. “They involve barbeque sauce.”

The thoughtful tilt of his chin should have concerned me more, but one thing I can say is dating an incubus opens your eyes to an entire world of erotic possibility you never imagined existed. What did it say about me that the application of barbeque sauce in the bedroom intrigued me a teensy bit?

I was born and raised in Texas after all.