Page 16 of Lust

Chapter

Five

For the second morning in a row, Eddie woke to being poked in the eye. This time, she spoke before opening her eyes. “Stop it, Yesterday.”

Despite his declaration of helping her close the gate, when they’d gone downstairs, he’d bolted into the depths of the theatre and disappeared. Eddie had spent the morning hours in which she should have been working at her real job trying to find him. No luck until now.

It would also be super if the gremlin looking little fucker let her sleep until sunrise. She’d dragged her ass through a full day of diva wrangling and stumbled into bed late. Yesterday had appeared just as she was locking up for the night. A quick chant, a bit more salt tossed at the hell gate and no more demons would be arriving to spoil her day.

Poke.

Hard enough this time to make her eye water, and Eddie batted him away.

A thump followed by a yelp got her eyes open.

Yesterday was struggling back to his feet. “Open them.” He pointed to her face. “Open them and come with me.”

That sounded like a thing she really shouldn’t be doing. “Why?”

“Why what?”

Jesus, not this again. “Why should I follow you?”

“Why not?” Yesterday blinked at her.

Clearly, yes, this again. They needed a more effective communication technique if Yesterday was going to hang around. Then again, the suggestion of efficient communications might encourage him to stay longer. She’d been so grateful for his help in closing the hell gate, she hadn’t thought to ask how he was going to get back through if it was now closed. It was another problem Eddie laid in Dee’s growing pile. God, she wished Dee had sent her for that guardian training. She might have some idea how to deal with her current predicament if she had. All Dee would say about that was that it had to be Rosabella. And it had been working fine for them, until Bianca had given play selection a go.

The more she thought about Bianca, the more Eddie got the idea that Bianca had manipulated the bored meeting to get her way. Was Macbeth just an inconvenient coincidence, or had Bianca wanted that specific play to be staged?

Recent events had her getting suspicious.

After hauling her reluctant ass out of bed, Eddie found her robe and slippers and pulled them on. Managing a theatre had the unfortunate side effect of being pulled out of bed at all hours, and wandering around in panties and a T-shirt didn’t work for her. By the constipated look on Rodney’s face, the one time it had happened, it hadn’t worked for him either. And Eddie refused to think about what that said about her ass.

“Come, come.” Yesterday hopped from one stubby leg to the other. “It is bad, very bad.”

Bad like the rakshasa bite? Which was looking nastier this morning. The skin on either side of her bite was puffy and shiny, and it hurt like shit. “Are you sure about the salt on my bite?”

“No problem.” Ears twitching, Yesterday puffed his chest. “I am an imp; I know these things. These are things I know.”

He did come from hell, and given the resounding silence from Dee, was pretty much her only source of information.

Yesterday leapt and opened her door. “Come now.”

Eddie flipped on the light switch over the stairwell leading down to the theatre. Yesterday didn’t seem to struggle with the dark, but she wasn’t compounding her wee hours meanderings with a faceplant down the stairs.

As expected, he led her into the basement and through the secret door, which was open. Again. Dammit! What was the point in having a fucking app if it never—

Eddie stopped in the doorway and blinked. “Um, Yesterday.”

“See.” Yesterday pointed to the problem.

Not that pointing was necessary. At all.

A naked man lay beside the hell gate. He was lying on his side, facing away from her. Broad shoulders topped a muscular back, which tapered into a slim waist. Eddie tried not to look at his tight, muscular ass. Powerful thighs were tucked up in a near fetal position. Rust streaked his biceps and forearms.

“Very bad,” Yesterday whispered. “And you are definitely not big enough.”

This was the problem she had to be big enough to handle. Total fail! Even lying down, naked guy was a big ’un. “Who is he?”

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