Then again, looks were deceiving. Elijah was extremely good-looking. He could have been a model or an actor, but instead, he chose to be a psycho.
Erik sat back down. “Somehow, the day always gets away from us, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” I replied.
“Well, I supposed I should bring the water inside,” Erik said, slapping his thighs. “Had to shove everything in the garage with those guys coming.”
I stood. “Let me help.”
“That’s not necessary,” Erik said, his eyes darting to the table. “Go eat something. Looks like you and Sam were going to concoct some kind of meal.”
“It was Sam’s idea.”
“Figured as much.” Erik raised a brow. “Hope you weren’t going to go outside to heat something up alone.”
I bit my lip. “Oh, no. Of course, not.”
“Right,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I probably shouldn’t take my eyes off you even for a second.”
“Sam wouldn’t like that kind of talk,” I said with a smile. “She’d call that weirdo stalker talk or something.”
Erik looked down and laughed.
“Let me help you,” I said, almost begged. “Keeping busy helps.”
“Tell me about it,” Erik said with a snort. “That’s what I’ve done all my life. Kept busy.”
“Do you have family?” I asked.
Erik shrugged. “It’s been just me for a while. I work too much for relationships.”
“Worked.”
“Sorry?”
“Past tense. Worked. You don’t have that job anymore,” I said, my eyebrows squeezing together sympathetically.
He stood. “I guess you’re right.”
I got to my feet. We were only inches apart.
Erik’s breathing slowed as he looked into my eyes. “I have all this stuff, though. Look at what good it’s done for me.”
“I inherited a lot of stuff,” I said, trying to cut the tension. “If stuff helped anything, I wouldn’t need medication or anything. No one has more stuff than me.”
“Fine,” Erik said. “You can help.”
He turned and headed toward the door. I was thankful I could breathe again.
I hated feeling anything toward a guy. After what I’d been through, it felt wrong.
Scary.
It wasn’t like anything would happen between us, but maybe a little fun wouldn’t be so bad. I didn’t hate men. Erik wasn’t Elijah. No one was Elijah.
Of course, it was foolish of me to even think that Erik was interested in anything at all. He was just being neighborly.
We brought the water into the basement. It didn’t take long before we had everything stored in his giant storage closet with all the bottles of booze.
He used the microwave to warm up some packaged dinners. He brought them upstairs to the dining room table.
Rain tapped the window as we ate by candlelight and sipped our Riesling. It would have been extremely romantic any other time, but knowing why we were eating at candlelight made it quite different.
Every so often, I could hear a dart smacking into the board through the basement door. Playing games was one of Dorian’s ways of keeping busy.
“What will we really do if his dad comes looking for him?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Erik said. “I wouldn’t let that gorilla in my house even if Dorian wasn’t here.”
I smiled, barely remembering anything about Dorian’s dad, but the description seemed fitting from what I did remember.
“I’m just hoping he’ll just let it go.” Erik hesitated, waiting for the darts to hit the board again. At the first thud, he continued. “It seems like the ape should be thrilled to have what he considers a thorn out of his side.”
“It was really nice of you to take him in,” I said.
“What was I going to do?” Erik asked, looking down at his food. “I guess that’s just the kind of guy I am.”
His eyes shifted up and landed on mine. The candlelight glimmered in his glossy eyes. His lips curled into a warm smile as he held my gaze.
“Sorry, I didn’t have anything better to serve you,” Erik said, looking down at the food again. “I normally would do a much better job when I cook for a woman.”
“Did you cook for a lot of women?”
Erik huffed. “I wish. I was far too busy. The last date I had was at least a year ago.”
“Are you calling this a date?” I asked.
“Are you?” Erik raised a brow.
“I hadn’t really classified it beyond having a meal,” I said, ignoring the heat filling my cheeks. I shoved my hands under the table and cleared my throat. “It seems like it’s raining more often since the solar storm, don’t you think?”
Erik turned to the window. “Maybe. Doesn’t seem like more rain than usual to me for this time of year.”
“Let me clean up,” I said, noticing he was finished.
“I got it,” Erik said, tipping his head toward the living room. “You can go relax. It’s been a busy day.”
“Please let me do something to feel useful,” I said, pressing my palms together. “You’re already feeding us and giving us a roof.”
Erik grinned. “You’ve provided us lots of water.”
“I’ll clean up,” I said firmly as I walked to his side of the table and picked up the empty plastic container.
He stood, our bodies nearly touching. “Let’s do it together.”
My breaths came quicker. I stared up into his eyes as the temperature around us rose ten degrees.
The intensity of the way he looked at me prickled my skin. I was even sure he knew what he was doing to me.
“Okay,” I said, taking a step back. “I’ll clean up my own mess.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Erik said.
He followed me, dropping his plastic container into the trash a second after I did. I could feel the warmth radiating from his body as he stood inches behind me, waiting to rinse off his fork.
I turned and slid away, keeping my eyes
