Rock Chick Rescue (Rock Chick #2)(24)

Chapter Five

I Couldn’t Buy a Break

(Even if I had the money)

I saw the wrecker hooking up to my car when Eddie drove into the parking lot at my apartment building. Eddie saw it too.

I jumped down from the truck, wincing as my stil angry feet protested and looked at the wrecker. Eddie walked around to my side of the truck, his eyes on the wrecker.

Smithie’s friend was doing the tow, looking like he was wearing the same pair of filthy blue coveral s as yesterday.

He saw me and gave a smal wave. I waved back.

“You know him?” Eddie asked.

“That’s my car. I’m having slight car problems.” Eddie’s eyes moved to me. “Slight car problems require a jump. Serious car problems require a tow,” he said.

I shrugged. I wasn’t going to argue about it. I’d probably lose mainly because he was right and I was trying not to think about what serious car problems would mean.

I walked to the building and turned to stop at the front door. “Thanks for bringing me home,” I said to Eddie, making it clear that the front door was as far as he was going to go.

He looked at the doors, then at me, then his mouth turned up a little at the corners and he shook his head.

“Just Jet, my ass,” he muttered.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothin’.”

I heard him. I wasn’t going to argue about that either. It wasn’t as if I got held at knifepoint and was in bar brawls every day but I wasn’t going to point that out. Not a lot of girls would go out of their way to defend how boring they real y were, especial y not to guys like Eddie. Anyway, I’d gone that route and I didn’t win that battle either.

He took his wal et out of his back pocket and held a card out to me, putting the wal et back in his pocket.

“You need a lift, you cal me,” he said.

I didn’t take the card.

“I’l be okay.”

“Jet.”

“Seriously. I’l be okay.”

Al of a sudden, he took three steps forward, backing me into the corner of the overhang that shielded the front doors.

My back hit the wal , I stopped and Eddie came in close.

I looked up at him to protest and kept my silence when I saw his eyes al pissed off glittery.

“Someone offers to do something nice for you, you take

‘em up on it.”

“I’l be okay,” I repeated, kinda angry myself then too.

“I think it’s pretty clear you won’t be okay. You’re workin’

two jobs; one of them isn’t safe. You don’t have time to sleep. You don’t have a car. You’re taking care of your Mom who isn’t well . Your Dad blows into town, cleans out your bank account and makes you the target of a thug. That’s not okay.”

“It’l get better,” I told him.

“When?”

“I don’t know but I have to believe that because if I don’t…”

Damn!

Tears started to fil my eyes; I bit my lip and turned my face away. Now was not the time to lose my cool. Not in front of Eddie.

“I have to go in,” I said and I did. I had to get away from him.

There was no getting away from him because his arms went around me and he drew me into his body.

I looked up at him, surprised, and saw his eyes had gone liquid.

My body tensed when it came into contact with his from our chests down our bel ies to our hips. Electricity shot through me, I tried to pul away, but one of his arms slid up my back, holding me in position while his head came down and he kissed me.

It was the worst kiss in the history of the world. I could not believe he was kissing me. Hot, handsome Eddie Chavez kissing me, plain, boring Henrietta Louise McAlister. It freaked me out; I went al stiff and this was not a good combination.

His head came up and he looked down at me.

I felt the heat in my face.

Such a bad kiss was humiliating and I knew it was al my fault. I would have been happy to be running from a charging elephant. Dancing around in a g-string at Smithie’s. Anywhere but there.

He didn’t say anything, he was just watching me and I started to squirm to get away but he held on tight.

“Let’s try that again,” he murmured.

“No, I don’t—” I started to say and then his mouth was on mine.

Since I was talking when his lips connected with mine, my mouth was open and, right away, his tongue slid inside.

Dear Lord.

The instant his tongue touched mine, my stomach curled, my bones turned to water and I melted into him. My arms went around his neck, my fingers slid into his hair, I tilted my head to the side and that was it.

His hands went under my camisole, I could feel them sliding across the skin of my back and it made me shiver. I pressed deeper into him, kept one of my hands in his hair and tucked another one under his arm, pul ing his t-shirt free of his jeans and then I slid it across the skin at his back. His warm skin felt yummy. In fact, the kiss was pure yum and I wanted it to go on forever.

“Jeez, Jet, get a room.”

I jumped and pul ed back; Eddie’s arms went slack (though not that slack, he didn’t let me go). Both Eddie and I turned to see RJ, one of my neighbors, maneuvering out the front door in his wheelchair.

My face felt like it was on fire.