Watching them together has enraged me to breaking point. Bypassing the alarm to get inside was easy. I had a system installed that I knew like the back of my hand. There isn’t a system around that’s airtight to manipulation. This is one of the best, but it’s still vulnerable. Particularly to someone who knows the password the homeowner uses for everything. That’s how well I know Eden. Inside and out. Nothing is secret between her and me. I should be the one out there with her. I should be the one touching her breath-taking body. The only one to ever make love to her.
I turn away as they lie down on the lounger, partially out of sight. I need a plan. I’ve been running on instinct and there’s only so long I can do that without fucking something up. I had to see it for myself. That what had happened, had really happened. Now that I knew, I had to pull it together and work out what the hell I was going to do. I couldn’t stay here. I couldn’t trust myself to do that.
I don’t know what I might do to that fucking hack. I check my phone. Skyler has sent messages, left voicemails. She was expecting me back to work, and she’s worried I haven’t come back to L.A. She doesn’t come right out and say it, but I know she’s wondering if I’ve left Rapture and if I haven’t, what the hell is going through my head.
I’m not sure what I’ll tell her. I don’t want to leave. Cutting my losses would be the smart move but I can’t. Not while I know Eden loves me.
It doesn’t matter if she thinks she loves him more. What they have won’t last. Illusions don’t hold up for long under close scrutiny. She’ll see through his bullshit and it’ll implode. I just have to bide my time. The other option is dark, but not enough to stop me from thinking about it. Ripping his head off in front of Eden won’t do anything to enamour her to me. I’ll have to catch him when he’s alone. Get him off guard. Find a good place to bury the body.
The more I think about it, the more I like my plan to get rid of him. I’ll give it a few days. Give Eden the chance to see through his bullshit. It really would be better if she did. Waiting for her to get over him when he goes missing would mean more time away from her side. It doesn’t matter. This is it now.
I want her. She’s mine. I’m going to do whatever the fuck it takes to claim her.
Chapter Seven
Asher
Seeing Eden haul her clothes back on is disappointing, but she’s still ravishing either way. I put my shirt and pants on, and Eden hangs up the rest, fingering my tie and smiling at me. “Wouldn’t want these to get crumpled, Asher.”
“I don’t care if they’re ruined,” I tell her. “It was worth it.”
“I like you in green,” she tells me, putting the hanger on the door to her basement and brushing the deep emerald coloured material down. “So don’t ruin this one, okay?”
I have to smile. “Okay.”
“Dinner shouldn’t take too long to re-heat.” She moves to the kitchen and gets to work. Her hair has dried off completely. Probably helps that only the ends got damp since it’s in a sexy up style. She takes a bottle of white wine out of the fridge. We usually do red, but I’m guessing white goes better with the meal.
“So where is the dining room in this place anyway?” It’s a joke. I’m not sure there is one, but she smiles and points across the room.
“There’s a humungous table in that room over there. It was dusty as fuck but I cleaned it up just for tonight.”
“You’re kidding.” I moved over there and opened the door. There was indeed a table inside, and lit candles on it, alongside two settings at one side. The room was just big enough for the table and its high-backed chairs. “You weren’t kidding.”
She shrugs when I turn back to her. “What, you don’t trust me now?”
“Of course I do.” I smile, but I can’t help thinking about what’s going to happen when she leaves Rapture, and that thought leaves me cold inside.
“This is ready now.” She puts things into serving bowls and I come over and pick one up. “That’s hot...”
“It’s fine.” My hands are a little red when I put it down, but there’s no harm done. I take the other and she picks up the wine.
“We’re all set.”
I put the other dish on the table as she enters the room and closes the door.
“Mmm, I forgot about this carpet,” she moans, making my dick twitch.
“If you want to actually eat, you should probably stop making sexy noises,” I tell her.
“Sexy noises?” She raises an eyebrow.
“The soft little moan you did right then. You make sounds just like that whenever I put my dick in you.”
She bites on her lip, eyes going to the bulge in my pants. “Oh, hell. I wish I wasn’t so hungry right now.”
“This is just like being a teenager again,” I murmur, trying to adjust myself.
“Um, what?” She picks up the bottle of wine.
“I have no control over my dick around you, Eden. It does whatever the hell it wants.”
“Well, I like that. But tell it to hold off for an hour would you? A girl needs to keep her strength up.”
“I’ll try. No promises.”
She’s right about the carpet. Neither of us put shoes back on after the pool. It feels soft under my feet. “I think I like this room, even if I didn’t know it was here.”
She smiles as she pours the wine. “So sit down.”
I wait, and pull her chair out for her when she’s ready to sit down. I lean down and kiss her bared shoulder before I move around to my chair. “I’m actually starving now. This smells amazing.”
We start to eat, and I realise how much I want this, how much I’ve needed it. Spending the night with her isn’t enough. I want to spend every night with her... and that isn’t going to happen. Shit. I’m going to fuck this up. I can’t ask this of her.
“How long do you think you’ll be in L.A.?” She didn’t say, exactly, and I’m not sure I really want to know, but I need to ask. I’ll go crazy waiting for her to return if I don’t know when she’ll be back.
She takes a sip of wine before she speaks, looking at her plate as she does. “I’m not sure. A week, at most.”
My heart sinks. A week? I realise I’m being selfish, of course, but I can’t seem to help it. She’s my addiction. I will never get enough of Eden. I try to curb the downward spiral of my thoughts. By the time she leaves I’ll have had a week with her all to myself. She missed the other guy’s club opening for a date with me. Wanting more would be greedy. The sigh that escapes my lips brings Eden’s attention to my face.
She meets my gaze as I put my fork down. “Asher, I love you, but I’ve missed him too. I know this is a messed up situation. I don’t expect you to understand. I just...”
“I understand. I’m just not used to it.” I don’t know what else to say, so I don’t say anything.
“Well, if we’re being completely honest, I’m not either,” she says, taking a long gulp of wine.
I smile. “We can get used to it together.”
“I’ll call you when I’m away. And you’ve got me all to yourself until then.”
Until then. I get the feeling those words are going to become something of a mantra.
Chapter Eight
Eden
I call Sky the morning after Asher helped me christen the pool. He’s still sleeping and I’m worried about our conversation last night. He’s not happy about me going to L.A., even if he won’t come right out and tell me. It’ll kill me if he decides he can’t deal with this. I don’t think I could handle losing him. I would let it destroy me, I’m sure. I wonder what giving up my immortality would mean for him. Since he’s a part of that now, because I saved his life.
Sky picks up after about five minutes. “Eden? What’s wrong?”
“Um, nothing. I’m just calling because I’ll be coming to L.A. in a couple of days.”
“Seriously?” She sounds shocked. “You are? How... Wait. You’re coming to see Nick?”
“I am.”
&n
bsp; “That’s awesome. We can go out, and we can go shopping, and...”
“Slow down, Sky.” I laugh. “We can figure that out when I get there.”
“So, are you staying at Nick’s place? Or do you want to crash with me?”
“Um...” I realise Nick didn’t specifically invite me to stay. It must be what he meant though. Right? Hmm.
“Nick is such an idiot. I bet he didn’t even ask. Just told you to come see him.”
“He said he’d pick me up from the airport.”
“Well, that’s a start.”
“How’s Cain?”
She makes a disgusted noise and I’m sorry I asked.
“He quit.”
“Um, what?”
“You heard me. I got a new guy. Bigger muscles. Better attitude. Beats Cain hands down.” She sounds happy, but I can hear the pain buried under it.
I wonder what happened. I wonder if I can help. Maybe spending a week together will be enough if I can use my abilities to help heal what’s hurting her. I don’t care if she decides to settle down or not, but I don’t like knowing she’s in pain if I could stop that.
“Okay. Well, I’ll stay with Nick, but maybe I could crash at your place a couple of nights if we’re going shopping and stuff.”
“Sounds good. Call me when you get here. I’m in the studio a couple of days next week but that’s about it.”
“Great.”
“Oh wait. Maybe I shouldn’t ask this, but I’m kind of worried about it.” She blows out a breath before she gets to her question. “Have you seen Logan? He’s supposed to come back to work, but no-one’s heard from him.”
My blood runs cold as I answer, “Logan? No, I haven’t.”
It’s not a lie. Not exactly. I haven’t seen him since he shot Asher. He’s supposed to be dead, but I haven’t been able to find the body. I just can’t tell her any of that.
“Okay, good. I’m glad he’s not sticking around there causing you any hassle.”
“You thought he might still be here?”
“Not really, but it’s weird that no-one here has heard from him.”
Shit. Now I’m imagining police descending on Rapture. They find the body and there’ll be an investigation. I feel guilty enough about Logan without having to deal with that. I have no idea how well I’d hold up under interrogation. Just the thought of it makes me queasy. My guilt would probably overpower me and I’d end up confessing to murder.
“I’ll call you if he does show up.” It’s all I can really promise.
“Okay. Call me when you get to L.A.”
“I will.” We say our goodbyes and I hang up.
Chapter Nine
Logan
She’s going to L.A. I hear that much before the banging inside my skull threatens to knock me unconscious. I should have grabbed more painkillers from the vampire woman’s stash. Should have known the migraine from hell would be back. I rush down the hall and hole up in the furthest bedroom from Eden’s. I toss my bag under the bed and close the bedroom door as quietly as I can. The pounding is becoming too much to bear. I’m going to pass out, or worse. I dash into the bathroom and puke my guts up into the toilet. The noise of emptying my stomach seems deafening, but I don’t get too long to worry about that. I fall back when I’m done and the lights go straight out.
My neck is stiff and my body aches all over when I wake up on the bathroom floor, hours later, if the sudden lack of natural light is anything to go by. A pair of black heels are in my eye-line and for a second my heart stops cold.
“Eden?” I know it’s not her, but she’s all that’s in my head.
“Try again, big boy.”
“Santanico Pandemonium?” I frown at her, the thumping in my head has dialled down to a dull roar but it hasn’t disappeared entirely.
She snorts at the joke. “My name is Diana, actually.” She doesn’t offer a hand to help me up. She just stares down at me, bitchy pout in place. “What do you think you’re doing here, exactly?”
I realize I can hear the house alarm beeping in the background and the noise pulls me to my feet. Wait a second. “How did you get in?”
“How did you?” She rolls her eyes and shows me a key. “I know a good locksmith. Unfortunately, the damned alarm needs to be disabled before it alerts Eden to come running home.”
I move past her and pick up my pace as I rush down the hallway and into Eden’s bedroom. There really isn’t much time to get the damned alarm turned off. I see that the balcony door is open. I close it and disable the alarm.
I turn and find Diana has followed me into the room and is leaning lazily against the wall by the door.
“You have a key to this door?” Where the hell did she get it?
“I got a copy from the locksmith she got out to change the lock.” She snorts. “Men are so damn easy. One little suggestive glance and I can have anything I want.”
“Give me the damned key.” I won’t let her be a threat to Eden.
“I come here to rescue you, and you make demands? I don’t think so.”
“Rescue me?” I can’t help the burst of laughter. She’s as crazy as she is beautiful.
“Laugh all you want. It’s true.”
“What did you do to me?” I narrow my eyes at her. Every time I’ve seen her I’ve had this damned migraine. It has to be her.
“All I’ve ever done is save you.” She smiles as she comes closer.
I want to move, but I can’t. She touches my face and I get a flash of memory. Intense pain in my chest, the world starting to go dark. Falling down the last few steps to Eden’s poolside. Staring up at the stars. This woman kneeling over me, placing her hand on my chest and erasing the pain with her touch.
“You would have died that night.” As crazy as it seems, I know the instant she tells me this, it’s true.
“How is that even possible?”
She smirks and shrugs. “I guess it was just meant to be. Like Eden and Asher. Sitting in a tree, K.I...”
I shut her up with a kiss. She submits willingly. I don’t know where Eden is, or when she’ll be back, and right in this moment I don’t give a shit. I want to fuck this bitch on her bed. So I pick her up and throw her onto the sheets. She gasps and rises onto her elbows to watch me undress. I climb over her, grabbing a fistful of her long dark hair and pulling her up to crush my mouth to hers. She tastes like black cherries and smoke. There’s something darkly intoxicating about her. Something that I’m not going to fight any longer.
Her eyes are wild as I release her lips to look her over and decide exactly what I want. She’s not wearing underwear, the dress is tight enough to show me that. I’m not even going to tell her to take it off.
“Turn around, get on your hands and knees.” I unzip, knowing this is going to be fast. I’m rock-hard already. It’s twisted, but Diana’s eagerness to obey makes my cock throb in my hand. I can hardly wait to be inside of her.
She moves quickly, a saucy smile on her pink lips as she gazes back at me. “Anything you say.”
I keep a firm grip on her hair as I pull up her skirt and begin to thrust into her, taking her as hard as I want. The moan she gives when I first slam into her is low and desperate enough to force me to slow down. I don’t want this to be over in seconds, so I slow it down. She makes pleased noises under me, pushing me closer to the edge with her gasps. She’ll do anything I want. It’s a powerful temptation, and one I won’t refuse. I use her and I know I’ll do it over and over again. When I’m done, I let go and realise my headache has disappeared. I pull my clothes back on as she gets up slowly, letting her skirt fall back to cover her naked ass before she moves off the bed.
She smiles knowingly at me. “Feeling better, are we?”
“Almost,” I say, going to Eden’s nightstand drawer. I pick the book out and look at her. “Got a match?”
Chapter Ten
Eden
The Italian restaurant is busier than the last time we’d come. More gawkers this time,
more people interrupting for autographs and this time photos. I’m used to that stuff in L.A., but it feels weird since it hasn’t been like this while I’ve been back in Rapture. I should have known that wouldn’t last.
“It’s been a little busier since the night club opened,” Asher tells me, with a bemused smile.
“So I’ve noticed.”
“Maybe we should try someplace else next time.” He takes a sip of his wine. “So everyone in town doesn’t think this is our place.”
“But this is our place, Asher.”
He smiles. “It is, but something tells me it’s going to get busier and busier if we keep coming here.”
He’s probably right. I shrug. “I think it’s too late to worry about that.”
“I’m kind of surprised there haven’t been any paparazzi yet. It’s been a couple of weeks.”
“There’s no news here. I wasn’t visibly upset over Hunter. They gave up hounding me for pictures before I left L.A. They’re probably crawling all over him to find out who broke us up.”
“This isn’t news?” He raises an eyebrow.
“Hot local guy takes rock star out for dinner? It’s a nice night out, but this hardly qualifies as news.” But I knew what would. Rock Goddess plays the field. Eden Rose Masterson seen out with two different men. I swallow down the anxiety the thought creates. Why should I care what those assholes think of me? Why should I care what the entire world thinks? It’s my life, not theirs.
“Damn,” he says, feigning hurt feelings with a pout and a sad expression. “I’m not newsworthy.”
I laugh. “That’s not what I said.”
“It’s what you meant.” He leans in, a wicked smile twitching the corners of his lips. “You think what we did last night would be?”
Fuck, yes. “Asher, if the paparazzi were already here, we wouldn’t have been able to do any of that. What do you think?”
His grin comes out as his eyes light up. “Almost wish they had been then.”
Wild Hearts (Rock Goddess Reverse Harem Book 2) Page 3