“Like the ghostbusters?” His eyes glint with humor.
“Something like that. If I call Tom, he’s going to expect a deposit, and the rest once the harpy is gone.”
“But you won’t take money from me.” He lifts his brows. “Miss Stubborn living up to her name.”
“I told you—”
He kisses my shoulder again, putting an arm around me and giving me a squeeze. “I know. I understand. I’ll pay. It’s fine.”
“It won’t be cheap.”
“I have money.”
I figured, but still. “I’ll call, then.” I smile at him and then sigh because it’s hard to leave the bed. More difficult to walk away from Lyre, but I get up and leave anyway, snagging my pants as I do. I turn back at I reach the door. “Stay right there on the bed. I won’t be long.”
He lays back down and puts his hands behind his head. “Not moving an inch.” He smiles. “I’m not sure why Stephan finds it so hard to take orders from a woman. You can tell me what to do and how to do it all day every day.”
I choke out a laugh even though my chest feels tight. Then I head down the hall, find my phone, and call Tom.
20
The next day…
Morgan
Lyre puts the last of my things into the trunk and closes it. He pushes out a breath. “You don’t have to take every little thing you own. You can leave some things here.”
“I know, but…” I shrug. “May as well.” I could be gone a while. I don’t say it.
Lyre sticks his thumbs in his pockets and winces. “Don’t be mad.” He gets this guilty look.
“About what?” I’m instantly nervous. What has he done?
“You already sound mad when I asked you not to be.”
“I’m not mad, I’m apprehensive.”
He takes a step towards me and takes my hand “I don’t want you driving six or seven hours. Your car could break down or—”
“My car will be just fine.”
“You don’t know that. It isn’t safe to…”
I fold my arms, breaking the contact. “It’s perfectly safe.” I narrow my eyes on him. “I can fix it if anything happens. Having said that, nothing is going to happen.” I shrug.
“I bought you a ticket.”
I frown. “What kind of ticket?”
He cups my face in his warm hands, and I feel myself melting. “I know you’re bad-ass. I know you can take care of yourself. Please humor me here. I bought you a plane ticket.”
“No.” I shake my head, even though his hands are still framing my face. “You didn’t have to do that.” I reach up and kiss him. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the effort, but it’s too much. We’re only just dating.”
He lets me go and cocks his head, giving me this look. “We’re not dating. You’re my girlfriend. There’s a difference. I was considering buying you a new car.”
I choke out a bewildered-sounding laugh.
“That would have been too much,” he admits.
“A plane ticket is verging on too much, a car would have been insane.”
“I didn’t get the car, but I want you to accept the ticket.”
“If I fly, I won’t be able to get around when I get—”
“I also rented you a car.” He looks sheepish.
“Lyre…thank you, but…I don’t want to take advantage of you. Your friends don’t like me much as it is, next they’ll think I’m using you for your money.”
Lyre smiles. He’s gorgeous. “When in actual fact you’re using me for my cock.” He grabs a handful of my ass.
I laugh. “That’s very true. I’m definitely using you for your body and maybe your mind…but as a far off second.”
“My mind…as in, my expertise in anatomy?” He bobs his brows.
I laugh some more. “You hit the nail on the head. I also like the useless information you like to throw out there every now and then. It still brightens my day.”
“Things like, you have a one in five thousand chance of dying in a car crash and only one in eleven thousand chance of dying in an airplane crash. If you sit at the back of the plane, your chances of survival go up by forty percent.”
“Is that so?” I press up against all his muscle and inhale his woodsy scent. There’s also peppermint and soap mixed in. We had sex twice more yesterday. During the night and again this morning. I don’t know Lyre very well yet, but I do know that he’s under my skin. That I’m falling for him. That I would do anything for him, even leave him…indefinitely…to keep him and the others safe. Until Lilith is gone, one way or the other, I need to stay away from here. The thought is more difficult to handle than I imagined it would be. That’s how I know I’m falling hard for this man. My chest hurts. My eyes sting.
“Hey,” he murmurs, putting his arms around me. “You suddenly look sad. We’ll see each other soon.”
“I know.” I plaster a smile on my face.
“We’ll text each other often,” he says. “Maybe you’ll even respond once in a while.”
I giggle. “That depends.”
“On what, exactly?”
“How pushy you’re being.”
He chuckles. “More like how stubborn you’re feeling.”
“Maybe a bit of both.”
He turns serious and lets me go. Then he makes this face. I narrow my eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?” I can see it written all over him. “There’s something else.”
“I deposited money into your account.”
“We agreed on a small loan,” I say. Lyre wanted me to have some money. I grudgingly accepted a loan since I’m completely broke. I literally won’t be able to eat otherwise. I’m going to pay him back though and every last cent. “Thankfully, Mrs. Golding has asked me to stay with them.” I feel a lump form in my throat. “They’re being so nice to me.”
“You and Andy are really close. It makes sense that they would invite you. It’s what Andy would want.”
“I just feel his time slipping away. I wish I could do more. I hate relying on others. I hate leaving you—”
“I can be a bad-ass too, you know?”
“I know,” I say. “Lilith is something else, though. She’s…evil and ruthless.”
“I’ve met her. I’m ready for her.”
“It’s just, I know how easy it is to seduce you.” I smirk at him.
He glowers at me so hard, I think I might have seriously pissed him off this time. He closes the space between us and clasps my hip. His eyes are burning into mine. “That isn’t going to happen. There’s only one—”
There is a hard knock at the front door.
Lyre looks up. “That must be them,” he says.
I’m still wondering what he was going to say. Only one what? I think I can guess, but I might be wrong.
They knock again, louder this time. “I’ll go and get it,” I say. “Just to be sure.”