Lyssa studied him with soft, gentle eyes. “You always surprise me when you say things like that. When I’m with you. . I can’t imagine you ever not having your life in order.”
“Order doesn’t mean normal. The job I do. . it’s often violent. I’m always on the outskirts of things. Watching backs. Making sure everything is okay.”
“You protect.”
Eddie hesitated. “I try. If I can keep someone safe. . that’s important to me. You know why.”
Lyssa leaned over and kissed his cheek. Eddie turned his head before she could pull away, capturing her mouth, sinking into her sweet taste and heat. Just being near her was comforting and erotic — like, even thinking about holding her hand gave him a hard-on — but kissing her was something else entirely.
Eddie pulled back. Lyssa gave him a dreamy smile that made him want to drag her into the backseat.
He couldn’t help himself. His hand slipped under her sweatshirt, tracing a path up her side until he touched her heavy, full breast. She shivered, pushing against him, and in a voice too rough to possibly belong to him, he said, “Put down your seat.”
Amazingly, she didn’t argue, fumbling until her chair reclined all the way down. Eddie stared at her, heart pounding, overcome with lust and hunger, and — and love—and it drove him a little insane, realizing that the moment belonged to them.
That somehow, in his crazy, lonely life, he had finally gotten touched with luck beyond his wildest dreams.
Lyssa smiled. “Hi, over there.”
Eddie grinned, leaning over her. “Hi.”
His lips met hers, soft at first, then hard, tongues slipping together as pleasure stormed through him in a hard, throbbing ache. His hand slipped beneath the band of her sweatpants. He knew she wasn’t wearing underwear, and he loved the sigh and whimper that drifted from her mouth as his fingers pressed and rubbed between her shifting legs.
“Eddie,” she whispered, tugging down his own sweatpants. “I really want you inside me.”
He groaned as her hand wrapped around him, and bit back a deeper, louder cry when her fingers squeezed. If anyone walked or drove past, they would be seen. . but right then, he didn’t care.
He kissed her harder, slipping his fingers inside her body and rotating them in a deep, circular motion. Lyssa rubbed against his hand, moaning against his mouth. Her grip on his penis loosened, but only enough to drag her fingers to his sensitive head, caressing him so perfectly in that one, fleeting touch, he almost came in her palm.
“Your breasts,” Eddie said in a ragged voice, and Lyssa pulled up her sweatshirt, exposing herself to him. He dipped his head, drawing her hard nipple into his mouth and suckling. Lyssa’s back arched, sharp nails digging into his scalp.
He pulled his fingers from the slick, wet heat of her body, and started flicking the hard nub of her clitoris.
Lyssa’s hips jerked, and her soft grunts of pleasure were so sexy he thought he could climax just as easily from listening to her. He rubbed her harder, faster, taking her cries into his mouth with long, breathless kisses — and when she finally came, he muffled her scream, and her eyes glowed golden hot.
“Eddie,” she whispered raggedly, sagging against the seat. “Take me someplace where there’s a bed, please.”
He laughed, but it turned into a groan when her hand found his penis again. Her fingers kneaded his shaft in light movements that stole every coherent thought from his head.
Lyssa leaned over the gearshift and licked him. Her tongue was so hot. Eddie couldn’t breathe.
“Did you mean it? About not leaving San Francisco?” His voice was hoarse, and broken.
Her smile turned serious. “Yes. Was that. . should I have asked you first?”
“No.” Eddie thought for a moment about what to say next. It was difficult, given that she was still touching him. “If you want to stay in a hotel, I—”
She started laughing and clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Okay,” he said, smiling. “I’ll take you to my place.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lyssa was surprised when Eddie drove to the waterfront and parked in the underground lot of what had to be a very expensive apartment building.
“You’re rich?” she said to him.
Eddie shrugged as if embarrassed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I get paid well. It’s nice.”
She smiled, shaking her head.
They stood close, holding hands, as the elevator took them up the fifteenth floor. Lyssa was suddenly too nervous to look at him, but she kept her cheek pressed against his shoulder, her other hand buried in his sweatshirt. His body radiated heat. So did hers, she realized. The air around them shimmered with it, like an oven.
“Are we going to set off fire alarms?” she asked, with real concern.
“Uh,” he said, and laughed. “I hope not.”
His apartment was a roomy studio with large windows that overlooked the Bay Bridge. Tidy, without much furniture. Just a bed, a couple soft chairs, and a small table near the kitchen.
“I’m not here a lot,” he said.
“Do you travel all the time?”
“I’m gone a week or two or a month, typically. But sometimes I need that. . room. The one I told you about. Where I can burn.”
Lyssa nodded, chewing the inside of her cheek. “I don’t know. . how I fit into your life, exactly. Being with me won’t be easy, you know. Your friends. .”
Eddie had been standing by the door, watching her, but he crossed the distance in moments. He didn’t touch her, but instead he loomed, holding her gaze with a dangerous intensity that made her feel like she was the only person in the world who mattered.
“If they can’t accept you,” he said quietly, “they are not my friends.”
Lyssa backed away. “Don’t say that. My father lost all his friends because he felt the same way. It hurt him, and my mother.”
“But it didn’t damage the two of them together, did it?”
“No,” she said, after a moment. “No, it didn’t. They loved each other very much.”
Eddie’s eyes softened. “Would you believe me if I said I loved you?”
Her breath caught. “If you say it. . I’ll believe.”
“I love you,” he whispered, in a low, rough voice. “I love you.”
I love you. Words that resonated, and flowed. Words that she had been feeling, and holding in her own heart, afraid to think them because it was more than she had imagined ever feeling. More than she had imagined anyone feeling about her.
But she did believe him. He was too much in her blood, not to believe.
Lyssa swallowed hard, burning up with a fever.
“You know. . there’s this thing about shape-shifters,” she said, slowly. “We sort of. . stick with one person for our entire lives. So it means something when we love. We don’t. . take that lightly.” She raised a trembling hand to touch his cheek. “When I’m with you. . everything inside me says yes.”
Eddie captured her hand. “Is that instinct or love?”
Lyssa smiled. “It’s like. . feeling as though every sappy love song I’ve ever heard is my theme song.”
His nose crinkled, and he laughed. “Choose one.”
She tangled her fingers in his sweatshirt. “Take off your clothes, and maybe I will.”
His cheeks turned red, but he stripped. Lyssa stood back, biting back a smile that felt full and rich, and heavy with her heart.