Eric's Edge by Holley Trent Read Free Book Online

turned, then hissed at him. “You didn’t need to come in here.”
    “You were taking too long.”
    The guy in the line in front of her finished paying. Eric nodded his head toward the register to get her moving.
    “Ugh.” She turned, completed her transaction, and hurried to the door with Eric close at her heels.
    “Stop following me!” She stomped across the lot, the hem of her too-damn-long skirt catching under her feet as she moved.
    “What’d you get?”
    “What’s it to you?”
    “Remember what I said about protein?”
    “I heard you perfectly well. My hearing is probably better than yours.”
    That might have been the case before he’d been infected and changed into a Bear, but he didn’t believe it was true anymore. He could hear a dog fart from fifty feet away.
    She hurried up the RV steps and he closed them in, watching as she deposited her purchases on the tabletop and hurriedly kicked off her shoes as if they were burning her flesh.
    He left the key in the ignition but moved to the table to see what she’d bought.
    Vegetarian burritos. Cheese, beans, and way too damn much salt. They were the kind of stuff that contributed to peoples’ illusions of being healthy without actually having any true nutritional benefits.
    “Do they meet your exacting specifications, Mr. Falk?” She tucked one into the microwave and input in the cook time on the panel.
    He leaned his butt against the counter, crossed his arms over his chest again, and stared down at her.
    Her dark gaze narrowed, and that cheek started twitching.
    He kept on staring.
    She clapped a hand over her eyes and growled out her frustration. “Goddamn it, move , would you?”
    “Does my presence here really bother you that much?”
    “Yes. Yes it does.”
    “Why?”
    “Who cares why?”
    “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know. If we have to work together, there are going to be a lot of times when I’ll have to get in your way.”
    “I don’t like it.”
    “Why?”
    The microwave beeped, and he leaned just enough to the side for her to open the door without smacking him in the face with the handle.
    She put the second burrito into the machine and headed to the table with the first one.
    “I asked you why,” he said.
    She didn’t look up from her task of peeling the packaging away from her dinner. “Shouldn’t you be driving?”
    “We’ve got enough time for you to answer that question.”
    And many other ones. They needed to get into Jersey early so they could familiarize themselves with the area around the school before going in for the kids, but getting there by the hour school started wasn’t strictly necessary.
    “Are you just going to stand there staring until I answer?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, I hope you like what you’re seeing. You’re going to be staring for a while.”
    “Fine.”
    The microwave beeped, but she ignored it. She tucked her hair behind her ears and ate that sorry excuse for sustenance while fiddling with her cell phone.
    And he did stare. It wasn’t a huge imposition, and he rarely got the chance to indulge. She was always moving, and he’d been so busy trying to keep Astrid and the other Shrews from figuring out there was something going on between the two of them to spend too much time looking at her. If anyone could have made a connection, it would have been Astrid. All Eric had to do was look at Maria for too long or in the wrong way.
    She was pretty. Sweet-looking, with that heart-shaped face, and round, dark eyes. She looked five years younger than her age, which was probably an asset in some work scenarios and a detriment in others.
    Beneath those mousy clothes, she had a sick body, but nobody else would have been able to guess. She kept her sex appeal tamped down, calling it a distraction, whereas a couple of the other Shrews might have called it a weapon.
    She doesn’t like that. Why doesn’t she like that?
    “You don’t want people looking at you,” he said softly. “Or