Page 79 of Bite Me

An hour later, Pierce shook my hand at the door. “Don’t worry. I don’t poach,” he murmured under his breath and winked.

Luckily, his words were inaudible to human ears. The bodyguards closed the door to the hotel suite, and I turned to Eddie. Shame weighed on me. He’d been clear about what he needed from me, and I failed him after only a few days.

He had his hands on his hips and held his chin high. “What the hell was that?” he demanded.

“That was me being stupid. I apologize.”

Eddie threw his arms in the air. “What is it about Pierce that makes you act like a caveman?”

“We aren’t supposed to talk about these things at work.”

“Oh, sonowyou bring the rule up?”

I walked up to him and reached out to hug him, but he sidestepped my attempt.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Eddie shook his head and sat on the sofa that the trio had vacated. He let out a heavy sigh.

“What are we even doing?”

I lowered myself to his side carefully, afraid he’d move away from me. But he didn’t. He leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

“Why, Russel?”

I pushed a strand of hair off his forehead and ran my fingers down the side of his face. “Because you mess with my head.”

He turned his face to me, and his eyebrows drew together. “I’m not doing any…”

Pressing a finger on his lips, I made him pause before he jumped to conclusions. “When you ignore me at work, a part of me wants to throw a tantrum. It’s silly, and I’m sorry.”

I traced the contour of his upper lip.

“It isn’t your fault. Nothing ever is. It’s just me being a possessive, insecure idiot. I want more than this, Eddie. It’s only been days, and I want so much more.”

He shook his head, his lips moving under my fingertip.

“Eddie, sweetheart, I’m falling…”

Swiftly, he put a hand over my mouth. “No.”

Panic squeezed my chest. Was he angry? He looked angry.

“No, Russel. Even if what we feel is real… And for all you know, maybe it’s just my blood tasting weird. You can’t saythatto me. You can’t do that to me.”

Then he pushed himself up and stomped across the room.

“I’m sorry.” How many times had I said that? I didn’t understand what I’d done, what I should apologize for, but I couldn’t bear him being mad at me.

He pointed a quivering finger at me. “You promised not to hurt me.”

“Am I hurting you, Eddie? How?”

With his hands in fists, he squeezed his eyes shut. “You’re not. I’m not even mad at you.”

“Talk to me, please.”

“Don’t you see how impossible this is? Whenever I’m with you, it’s like I’m floating on clouds. Even you being jealous of Pierce, which should infuriate me, makes me dance on the inside. I can say screw work and screw my future. I can just let myself be swept up in this beautiful dream and forget about everything else. And then in a few months, maybe years if we’re lucky, we wake up from the dream. And I’ll be left with nothing.”