believing me, at least. Potentially.”
“Well, I mean, if you were so concerned, you could have called,” he said. He had been turned away and he spun on his heel to face her. “You didn’t have to come all the way down here, Lydia.”
She couldn’t tell if he was hinting that he was unhappy to see her after all, or if he wanted to know if she’d wanted to see him. Tricky.
The best play was to be honest.
“I had to see you for myself,” she said in a small voice. She couldn’t meet his gaze. “I had to make sure.”
“Did you…” he sighed. “You didn’t talk much about how you’ve been last night. Like your life? You kept changing the subject.”
“I’ve been getting by,” she said tightly.
“Getting by? What does that mean?’
“What do you want me to say, Eric?” Lydia said, sighing. She crossed her arms, feeling defensive. “I was dirt poor when we were kids. Nothing’s changed. I’m just dirt poor in a different town. Sometimes, it’s easier to live as a bear out in the woods somewhere. You don’t need money. But it gets dangerous. Other bigger predators, hunters, development everywhere… It’s harder and harder and shifters aren’t really meant to live that way all the time as much as we might think we are. We’re people too.”
“Yeah,” he muttered. He turned away and sniffed, cleared his throat. “Did you…Cody said you told him some stuff. That you’ve been working some telemarketing job in Washington and you quit just to come here.”
Lydia groaned. “He wasn’t supposed to tell you. That was just…You make a big deal out of stuff-”
“I mean, did you have a place to live?” he asked. She could hear him trying to hold himself together and it killed her a little. “Were you okay? Were you safe?”
“I had a car I lived in for a while,” she whispered. “I don’t know. I never fully cracked the human thing. I could’ve done better but humans scare me sometimes. Made it hard to get anywhere.”
“Oh, Lydia…”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m pathetic,” she snapped.
“I’m not, I’m…” He walked up to her, stopping just short of coming right up against her. She’d thought he was about to kiss her. “I just wish you’d asked me for help. That’s all you had to do. You could’ve come back. I would’ve given you a job. I would’ve given you…If you’d just stayed in the first place-”
“I don’t want to talk about that!” she cried, throwing up her hands. “Please! I don’t want to talk about the past!”
“You don’t want to talk about anything!” he snapped, growling under his breath.
There was his bear.
She had a sudden desperate urge to rile his bear up, make him angry, make him heated, make that primal bear nature come out and ravish her, if he dared.
So, she pushed him and hissed, “I don’t want to talk at all.”
She saw his eyes flash immediately.
“What are you doing?” he said flatly.
“Do you remember when we were teenagers, how I’d push you into the snow in winter?” she asked. She shoved him again and he stumbled back a step. “It was so easy to rile you up. You’d growl and tackle me. I’d feel you pop wood-”
“Lydia,” Eric said under his breath. “Don’t start what you’re not going to finish. Don’t talk about-”
“I told you.” She walked right up to him, close enough that she could feel the puff of his breath on her neck. She tipped her head, their lips nearly brushing. “I don’t want to talk.”
Eric growled and he clutched her shoulders, his fingers digging into the soft flesh. She would have bruises there later, she thought. But they were bruises she wanted. She wanted him to mark her. At least give her something to remember.
“Be with me,” she whispered. “Eric…”
“Are you sure-”
“Be with me,” she said more fiercely. Her tongue snuck between her lips and she saw his gaze follow. When his mouth finally covered hers, plundering her, she whimpered against his lips and let herself fall against him so that he was forced to take her in his arms. “Take me,” she whispered. “Take all of me. Right now. Please...Why do you think I came here?”
It was a slip of the tongue. She hadn’t meant to admit that much. The nightmares had been a lovely excuse. But she had thought of Eric Strauss every single day since she’d left him. To pretend otherwise seemed absurd.
Eric’s clever tongue explored her mouth. She had dreamed of it