Tod and Stevie fol owed her and Bobby and Matt went home to their girlfriends (this was a surprise, I didn’t know they had girlfriends).

Vance took a cal that changed the expression on his face, made him send a meaningful glance to Lee and he left.

“Let’s play strip poker,” Al y suggested when the door closed behind Vance.

“That’d be a good idea, Jet’s a shit poker player,” Hank said.

Dear Lord, save me.

“But I’m not playin’ strip poker with my sister,” Hank finished.

Thank you God for one smal favor.

“Time to go home,” Eddie said, pushing his chair back to get up.

I looked at him. He may have been playing at being in the celebratory mood but one look at him told me he simply was not.

I looked at the table.

“Maybe we could play just poker, poker,” I tried.

His hand grabbed mine and he pul ed me up.

“Indy and Lee probably want to be alone,” Eddie said.

He was probably right. The look on Lee’s face said he was definitely right.

Everyone disbursed, more hugs and kisses and Eddie and I went out the front.

“My car is at Fortnum’s,” I told him.

“I’l take you to get it tomorrow morning,” Eddie replied, walking me to the truck. He bleeped its locks and I pul ed hard on my hand in his. It didn’t work.

He stopped at the passenger side door.

“I’m going home,” I said.

“Already told you, I prefer my bed,” he returned.

“Okay, you sleep in your bed and I’l sleep in my bed.” Wrong answer.

He pushed me against the truck with a hand at my bel y.

“You want to have this talk out here in the street or do you want to do it at my place?”

I didn’t want to have the talk at al . But I was wil ing to have the talk in a delayed-type fashion.

I went for it.

“I was thinking, maybe tomorrow.”

“You were thinkin’ wrong.”

Sweet Jesus.

“Eddie…”

He opened the truck door.

“Get in the truck, Jet.”

I pul ed out the attitude. Certainly, the scaredy-cat gambit wasn’t getting me anywhere.

I gave him a glare. “You’re incredibly pushy!” I snapped.

“Get in the truck,” he repeated.

I turned to walk away.

“I’m going to my car,” I announced.

I was pul ed back at the middle, his finger snagging the belt loop of my jeans.

He pushed me back against the side of the truck and got close.

“Remember what I said about no longer bein’ tolerant of your shit?”

He sounded pretty angry, so angry that words escaped me, so I nodded.

“I meant this shit too, now get in the truck.”

“I real y don’t like you,” I told him, stil trying to go with the attitude.

Again, it was the wrong choice.

His body got stil for a beat and then he got even closer.

“Now,” he said quietly, “you just threw down. So, I’m gonna have to prove you wrong. After I do that, we’re gonna talk.”

Eek!

What could I say?

I’d walked right into that one.

Stil , I gave him a glare before I got in the truck.

Just because.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Talk

I came up with a strategy on the silent ride to Eddie’s.

He parked in the garage and we went into the kitchen. I put my purse down on the counter and he walked into the living room. I took a deep breath and fol owed him.

He turned to me, planted his hands on his h*ps and stared at me.

“You wanna explain why I came home to find you’d moved out?”

The good news was, he’d given up on the idea of proving me wrong about not liking him.

The bad news was, we weren’t going to sit down and relax in front of a bal game before our talk.

Oh well , it was now or never.

I walked up to him and slid my arms around his middle. I pressed my body to his. I tucked my face into his neck and, with my lips pressed against the side of his throat I said,

“Not real y.”

“Chiquita…”

I went up on tiptoe, my lips moved and I kissed him behind his ear.

I’d never had to seduce Eddie. Eddie was kind of a take-charge type of guy when it came to sex (wel real y, Eddie was kind of a take-charge type of guy al the time), as in, he wanted it, he took it.

I’d never actual y had to seduce anyone and I didn’t exactly know what to do. I was hoping just to get the bal rol ing and then Eddie could take over.

“Jet, I asked you a question,” he said.

My hands moved up his back. He had a nice back and I could feel the definition of the muscle under my fingers. I could also smel him and the combination of the two was pretty heady stuff.

“I heard you,” I said against his skin and then moved my mouth around the front and kissed his throat in the dent where it met his neck.

“You gonna answer me?” he asked and I got the feeling he wasn’t going to fal in line with my plan. The reason I thought this was because he stil had his hands planted on my hips.

That was a bummer considering I was liking my plan more and more as the seconds ticked by.

I pul ed my arms from his back and put them around his neck, my fingers went in his hair and I tilted my head back as I pressed his down.

“I’l answer… later.”

Then I kissed him.

I should have tried that first.

In the beginning, he didn’t respond, but then I got going and touched the tip of my tongue to his closed lips. The second I did that, his arms went around me and he kissed me back. Then he took over the kiss, his mouth opening over mine, his tongue sliding inside.

My body melted and my stomach curled.

He lifted his head and I said, “Yum.”

I didn’t real y mean to, it just came out.

I opened my eyes and his were liquid.

Then he started walking us toward the bedroom, arms stil around me, I was moving back, he was moving forward, his hands were active and he kissed me again.

This was more like it.

It was awhile later (a long while), after he’d let me take over again (for a little while), then he took over (for a longer while), when he flipped me on my back, spread my legs and final y, slowly, slid inside me.

“Chiquita.”

I opened my eyes at his cal as he pressed deep.

“Yeah?” I whispered, wrapping my calves around his thighs.

“I like where you were goin’ with this but you’re stil gonna talk,” he told me.