“Good.” Chris nodded to the door beside her. “Well, I won’t keep you. Break a leg and all that.” He strode away without looking back.
Eddie and Shade came up behind her.
“What did he want?” Eddie glared after Chris, still not reconciled to what he’d done to her and Shade.
“I’m not sure,” Sophia said. They had trouble enough without her airing her concerns.
“Watch that one.” Shade growled. “I don’t trust him.”
Hardly surprising since Chris had held Eddie captive and shoved Shade through the hell gate when he was wounded. And then there had been a fight when Shade and Eddie had returned with an incapacitated Wrath. “I’ll be careful.”
Eddie waited for Sophia to enter the stage door before she turned to Shade. “You think he’s up to something?”
“Maybe.” Shade scowled. “He’s suddenly being more cooperative and less of a dick. It makes me nervous.”
“You and me both.” Eddie wasn’t going to forget in a hurry who had tied her up and wanted to interrogate her. Not to mention what Chris had done to Shade and then Dee.
Shade took a deep breath and shook his head as if clearing his thoughts. “Look, with the children here, I think I should stay here instead of the B&B.”
The idea of Shade under the same roof as her sent a rush of heat through Eddie. Him being so close raised a dizzying number of options, especially after that kiss the other night. The kiss, combined with weeks of hand holding, cuddling, casual touches and smoldering looks, had Eddie’s hormones doing cartwheels. “Really?”
Shade smirked as if he knew exactly what was happening behind her poker face. “Yes, really.” He dipped his face closer to hers. “I can share the spare room with Daniel, or the sofa in the greenroom is comfy enough.” His knowing gray eyes twinkled, at odds with his serious tone. “Sophia is staying too, and we don’t need as much sleep as you do.”
“I know that.” Her tone came out a lot more waspish than she’d intended. She missed the Shade she’d first met. The Shade who would press her against the nearest flat surface and make her crave dirty, sweaty things. Shade’s wooing seemed to be a glacially slow activity.
With him staying at the theatre, there was an opportunity to tell him he could share her bed, but the words got stuck in her throat. She’d never been the kind of woman who could state her desires confidently. God, she wished she had an ounce of Rosabella’s sexual confidence.
“That’s a lot of thinking you’re doing.” Shade’s gaze turned molten. “Anything you’d care to share?”
“Maybe.” He’d given her every indication he wanted her. For fuck’s sake, he’d come right out and told her as much. Yet she still couldn’t tell him what she wanted.
“When that maybe becomes a yes, then I want to hear every one of those thoughts,” Shade said. He stepped back. “But until then, Daniel is getting a roommate.”
That thing flying past her head was opportunity. Mustering what courage she had, she blurted, “What if I want a roommate?”
“Eddie.” He looked pained. “You can’t even get the words out.”
“I’m shy.” More words rushed out of her. “I’m not like my mother. I don’t believe that people want me.”
“And that’s why,” Shade said.
Eddie made an inarticulate noise of frustration.
Shade gripped her nape and tugged her forehead against his. “I’m a hell prince. I’m not a human male who you can have a relationship with and then walk away. I am not Wrath. Once you give yourself to me, you are mine. Forever.”
“But what if you change your mind?” Her insecure little girl put in an appearance.
“I won’t,” he said without hesitation. “This may surprise you, but I’ve had offers before.”
She snorted. She’d seen firsthand the effect he had on other beings.
“I’ve waited all this time for the right one.” He tightened his grip on her nape. “For you, Eddie. I have waited for you.”
She forgot to breathe. “But you’re still waiting.”
“Yes.” His voice grew deep and rumbly. “Now I’m waiting for you to be ready. Loving me means taking on all that I am. My demesne, my seal, the way my seal affects others—all of that and more. There can’t be any doubt on your part.”
When he put it all out there like that, it made her want to retreat to safety. “I’m not ready.”
He chuckled hoarsely. “You’re killing me, Eddie.”
Same, Shade, same.
Putting some distance between their faces, he flung an arm around her shoulder. “In the meantime, we can enjoy watching Lucifer fall fast and hard.”
It was the distraction she needed. “For Bianca?”
“For Bianca.” He nodded. “He’s going to fight it tooth and nail, but Lucifer wants that witch, and he wants her badly.”
Eddie was still low key mad with Bianca, but she didn’t wish her harm. “He won’t hurt her, will he?”
“Lucifer?” Shade reared back and looked aghast. “Hells no. He likes to pretend he’s all impenetrable and powerful, but beneath those designer clothes,” he whispered in her ear, “one hundred percent marshmallow.”
Chapter Twelve
