Chapter 4

He crossed to the table with an armload of books and then plopped himself down in a large red leather chair.

I took the one next to him in front of the pie and coffee, dangling my black leather jacket over the back.

He leaned away slightly and pulled a book across the table toward him. "We'll probably want to start with this one."

"Does my smell bother you?" I asked.

"Not in the way you think it does." His orange-yellow gaze dipped to my lips as he slowly turned pages with his long, agile fingers. "Besides, you've already saturated the entire house."

I half smiled since I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "You make it sound like I marked my territory here."

His eyebrow twitched as he frowned down at the pages.

"What is it that I smell like?" I asked, eyeing the pie and coffee. Was it worth the risk? My mouth watered. My stomach rumbled. Damn it, pie was like kryptonite. I took the fork and dug in.

"Entrails," Eddie muttered.

I stopped the fork midair before I'd taken my first bite and stared at him. "I smell like entrails?" I tried to secretly sniff my armpit and pass it off as a shrug. "Still?"

Eddie turned his book toward me so I could see a drawn image of a woman lying on a stone slab with her entrails sliding out. Shaking his head, he turned the page. "No, these are virgin entrails, not slayer entrails. I'm trying to see why the devil wants you for his bride."

"The demon said I owed the devil since he's been sending me checks since I was nine years old," I said. "The demon also said that something dark is coming to kill me, and that the devil was offering me a way out of being the slayer so I wouldn't have to. Any idea what that something dark might be?"

Eddie gazed at me for a long moment with his eyebrows drawn together. "I've heard rumblings, but I don't have any specifics."

"Hmm." I sighed. Lots of things could be deemed "dark," especially in my line of work. This was going to be a long night. "You can tell the difference between virgin and slayer entrails just by looking?"

He shot me a smile. "I read the caption."

"Genius." I leaned closer to peer at the book again. "What language is that?"

"Italian." He turned his head, his lips now inches from mine. His amber eyes darkened into pools of honeyed hunger. "The language of love."

My breaths hitching at his nearness, I sat back under his watchful gaze, memorizing the way he looked at me. The way it rushed my blood faster and thrummed a steady flutter in my lower belly. I pressed my thighs together and squirmed in the chair, the soft leather sliding over my body like a caress. Even those slight movements heightened the sensations coursing through me.

His jaw muscles twitched as he seemed to force himself to look away, breaking only a fraction of the spell I was obviously under. And I hadn't even tried the pie or coffee yet, so I couldn't blame this feeling on that. What the hell was wrong with me? He was a vampire. I was a slayer. I should fire myself for letting him get to me this way, then rehire myself just to make sure I didn't really like what he was doing to me, and then fire myself again.

To distract myself, I dug into the pie. The cinnamon-apple and flaky, buttery crust exploded with flavor onto my tongue, and I moaned into bite after bite.

Eddie turned a page. "You're making it hard to concentrate."

"Did you make this?" I asked, pushing the empty plate away.

"No. I'm the knowledge guy, not the apple pie guy."

"The knowledge guy..." I sipped the coffee, watching him over the rim of the mug. "But you seem so...dangerous."

His lips twitched. "Knowledge is dangerous when you know how to use it."

I grinned and leaned a little closer, a dare on the tip of my tongue. "And do you know how to use it?"

He wrapped one foot around the leg of my chair and swiveled both our chairs around so we faced each other. It all happened so fast, I only had time to gasp and cling to the arms of the chair.

"Take a guess," he growled.

"Yes?"

He leaned in, his gaze pinned to my lips. "You wanted to know what you smell like?"

"Yes," I breathed.

"Like desire." He moved one hand to the spot where my neck met my shoulder. His fingertips glided like ice across my hot skin, and I released a shuddery breath at the sensation. "Like hot, dripping desire mixed with sunshine."

"Wow." I swallowed hard, barely keeping from flinging myself at him and ripping off all of his clothes. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." He sat back, his mouth twitching, and moved my chair back to the table with his foot.

I blinked at the piles of books, my breaths heaving, all thoughts spiraling around the vampire beside me. He'd wound me up with just a touch. Imagine what he could do with his whole body. A low pulse started between my legs, humming need through my blood so loud, I was sure he could hear it.

"Um, so." I forced myself to focus on something, anything other than him, because I shouldn't want to fuck a vampire's brains out. Staking him like a pin cushion, yes. Riding him like a motorcycle, no.

"So," Eddie said, a smile in his voice, and fixed his chair as well.

My gaze landed on one of the open books on the table that had a drawing of a lethal-looking knife on the page.

"Seraph knife," I read. "Used to kill demons."

Eddie nodded and raked both hands through his hair, spiking it up even more. God, he was hotter than sin. "I thought about that, but even if you killed the one coming for you, the devil would just send another. And another."

"Good point." I glanced at my watch and gasped. Shit. It was nearly two o'clock in the morning, and that economics paper wasn't going to write itself. "I have to go, but do you mind if I borrow a few of these?"

He turned in his seat to face me, his dangerous, wild, brilliant vibe thrilling me from head to toe. "Only if you promise to return them tomorrow night."

So I did promise, because I didn't want to lose my Eddie privileges.