Chapter Thirteen

Piper stood in Eric’s study. The same study where they’d made love on the desk. Wait, no, that hadn’t been making love. It had just been fucking. Wild sex. Eric wasn’t in love with her.

Her arms locked around her stomach. Eric paced just a few feet away from her. He seemed uncharacteristically unnerved. Eric never got unnerved. Did he?

But he had been at a murder scene that day. He’d seen her ex, found her ex’s body.

And now he was probably trying to figure out what words he should give to her. Her breath sighed out. “You don’t need to think about how to handle me.”

He stopped pacing. Frowned at her.

“I’m not expecting you to make some grand declaration to me.” Jumping out of the car could have been an overreaction. Sue her. She was a wee bit stressed. She’d found out Grady had been tortured and that Jessica was dead. Being rational wasn’t exactly possible every second. So, she’d flipped out. Piper had her control back, for the moment. “I was just trying to explain that…I like you, okay? You’re not the big, bad jerk that I thought you were.”

“Good to know.” A rough growl. And he strode toward her.

Her shoulders stiffened. “Eric?”

“I am not trying to figure out how to handle you. I will never figure out how to handle you. Because you never say or do what I expect. Just one of the things I enjoy about you.”

“You have…other things?”

His smile came, moving slowly across his face, making that sexy slash appear in his cheek. Who needed dimples? She was all about the slash. “I have a list,” Eric assured her.

She wanted to know what was on that list. She wanted to keep talking to him. She wanted to do anything to keep her mind off the fact that a killer was out there.

I’m sorry, Grady. And Jessica—God, Jess!

Eric’s head tilted as he studied her. “And you probably have a list, too. A list of the things I’ve always done to make you insane.”

She shook her head. “I don’t make lists.” That would require more organization. She tended to wing it.

His hand lifted and slid over her cheek. “I’m glad that you need me. I’m fucking grateful as hell that you want me.”

Her heart jerked. When he touched her, she could count on that quick leap. Maybe she should have been making a list all this time.

“I want you, Piper, and that desire didn’t lessen because I had you in my bed. It just got stronger.”

She felt the same way.

She just wished all of this had happened under different circumstances. Circumstances that didn’t involve death and some psycho stalker.

“I need you, too, Piper.”

She was inching toward him.