He approached her now and gently started to undress her. Besides her thong, she was still wearing all her clothes from when she had left the office. Lifting her blouse off her shoulders, he unhooked her bra, placing it on the island. His fingers brushed her waist as he moved around her body and lowered the zip in her skirt, letting it fall to the floor. Sebastian held out his hand to help her step out of her heels. Eden was completely naked in front of him, but he made no attempts to touch her. Instead, he gestured for her to lift up her arms so he could slide the nightgown down over her head and arms. It fell perfectly across her skin, and the sensation of the silk against her breasts made her nipples harden. She stared at him, forcing herself not to cover up. He had still not acknowledged what she had said after they had finished on the bed.
“See how well it fits you.”
Eden nodded in capitulation.
“Stop fighting me, Eden. I’m going to take care of you whether you approve or not. You are moving in with me.”
She nodded in agreement and laid her head against his chest, glad to be in his arms, glad that they were together after the past few days of torment. The fatigue came in a wave suddenly—the lack of sleep the night before, her morning with Joachim that she had yet to tell Sebastian about—it was finally taking its toll.
“You’re tired.” Sebastian lifted her up into his arms and walked her back to the bed. Tucking her in, she pulled him toward her to join her.
“I have to make a few phone calls, sort out one or two pending items, but then I’ll be with you,” he whispered. He turned off the light as he left the room and within a few minutes, she was fast asleep.
****
Eden awoke, not surprised to find the space beside her empty. She was getting used to Sebastian’s nocturnal habits, but she needed him now, to be close to him, to erase the tension that still lingered from before his trip. She had woken up briefly when he came to bed earlier, slipping in next to her and pulling her close to him, spooning his body around hers. He had run his fingers up and down her back before sliding his hand across her stomach and pulling her even closer.
She had never slept with someone before she started seeing Sebastian. Joachim had never spent the night in her dorm room and the experience of falling asleep with someone’s body glued to hers—not just someone’s, but Sebastian’s—it made her feel safe and worshipped in a strange way. He had made it clear that he didn’t usually have women sleep over, and although Eden hated the idea of any woman in his room, she cherished the fact that letting her sleep in his bed with him was a first. But Sebastian never slept long and she had yet to wake up and find him next to her, barring that one night when he had told her about his mother’s death.
She suspected she would now find him in the office and tiptoed across the apartment, mostly dark except for the glow of light coming from the hallway nearest the kitchen. The door opposite his office was slightly open and she could just see a weight machine and the edge of what looked like a treadmill. Eden turned and went into the office, expecting to find Sebastian, but it was empty. The lights were still on, so she knew he couldn’t be far. She tiptoed to his desk quickly, smiling as she started to formulate a little plan to arrange herself on his desk so that when he walked in, he would find her perched on the edge, legs slightly ajar. She still wasn’t wearing any underwear, and as she had predicted, the nightgown barely covered her behind. But what she saw on the desk made her change her mind.
Eden’s fingers touched the edge of the files that covered his desk, her eyes focused on the individual names written on each one—Taylor, Tine, Elin, and Young. The names of her attackers. She opened the file closest to her. It didn’t make any sense. Her fingers flicked through paper work, what looked like bank statements and correspondence with the Stone Corporation letterhead. Eden tried to skim over the letters, not fully understanding what they saying, but it was clearly contract negations. She grabbed the next file and found similar documents.
She looked up to see Sebastian standing in the door, wearing only shorts and sneakers, sweaty from having been working out.
“What are you doing in here, Eden?”
He was clearly not pleased to see her in his office and Eden knew she had crossed a boundary, but she didn’t care. “I’m snooping around your office. What the hell does it look like I’m doing?”
“What exactly are you looking for?” Sebastian still hadn’t moved.
“I was looking for you. But I’d like to know what the fuck all this is.” She’d never sworn before at Sebastian, but she had never been this angry at him, even when she’d met Simona. “Are you doing business with these guys?” Eden raised her voice, infuriated that he wasn’t even attempting to explain himself. “How long have you been in business with them?”
“It’s complicated, Eden, you need to calm down. And don’t swear. It doesn’t suit you.” Sebastian’s tone was cool and calm, making her even angrier.
“No, you’re going to tell me now, Sebastian. And I am not going to fucking calm down.” She walked toward him now, grabbing some of the files, as if he wouldn’t know which ones she was referring to. “What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?” She enunciated each word slowly as she approached him.
“Eden. Stop it, calm down. Now.” Sebastian raised his hands to take the files from her and it was more than she could take. “Let go.”
Eden shook her head at him in disbelief. He wasn’t going to answer her. A thousand thoughts ran through her head, but the predominant one was that she had to get out of here—she had been wrong to trust Sebastian. Eden pushed past him, ignoring his calls for her to stop. For once, she was not going to obey him. She swiftly walked to the bedroom, grabbing her purse as she switched on the lights to the closet, where only a few hours ago she had agreed to move in with him.
She was almost fully dressed and was pulling on her blouse by the time Sebastian got to her. He touched her back, whispering her name.
“Don’t touch me!” Eden saw him step back, clearly shocked by the force in her voice. “You think I’m such a pushover that you can do anything? That you can just leave me in the dark and expect me to put up with it? Well, I won’t!” She pulled on her heels, glancing around for her purse that she had thrown onto the floor in her haste to get dressed. “I may have been in the past, but not now. I won’t let anyone treat me like this anymore. Not you, not my parents, not Joachim. God, he was right about you. Only this morning he told me how you didn’t know what I needed and he was right! You don’t know me and I know nothing about you!”
“When did you see Joachim?” Sebastian glared at her now.
“What the hell does that matter? Do you hear what I’m saying to you, Seb? Has this been some sick revenge thing? For what my parents did to your mother? Is this you getting back at them by messing with me?” She was shouting now. She could barely control her voice.
Sebastian stepped toward her. “Did you see Joachim while I was away?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. He showed up at my apartment after I cancelled. Stop changing the subject.”
“What did he want, Eden?” Sebastian was clearly going to lose his temper, but she didn’t care. How could he possibly be thinking about his jealousy of Joachim when she was yelling at him about how he had betrayed her in the worst possible way?
She was borderline hysterical with rage at the thought that not only was Sebastian in business with the men who had attacked her and gotten away with it, but that he didn’t even seem to acknowledge that she was upset about it. Just that his stupid alpha male pride was being injured because another man was sniffing around her.
“What did he want? He wanted to marry me, that’s what!” Sebastian flinched as Eden shouted those words. “He wanted me to know that he still loved me and wanted me to be his wife. That’s what he wanted. But none of that matters to you. I’m just a piece of ass that you get to push around and dress up like some stupid doll!” She yanked open one of the drawers in the island and grabbed and handful of
lingerie, throwing it at Sebastian. “I’m not a toy! I’m not your plaything! I let you…”
She could barely get the words out as a sob caught in her throat. She knew she had to get away from him. She moved to get out of the closet, but he stepped to the side, blocking the doorframe with his shoulders.
“I don’t want you seeing Joachim ever again.” He held up his hands, about to grab her shoulders.
“If you touch me, Sebastian, so help me, I will scream.”
Sebastian glared down at her. “And then what, Eden? Who will hear you scream? You’re in the penthouse.”
“You will, Sebastian. You will hear me scream.” She stepped forward now, daring him to stop her and he didn’t. He stepped out of the doorframe, letting her pass.
“You don’t know what you saw, it’s not what you think,” he finally said just as she had reached the bedroom door. “You promised you wouldn’t run from me again.”
“Are you going to tell me what I saw?” Eden asked without turning to face him.
“No.”
“You promised that you would never hurt me. I gave you everything, Sebastian. Every part of me. And you’ve given me nothing. If you don’t tell me what’s going on, we’re over.” Tears were streaming down her face and she kept walking even when he started to talk again, knowing already it wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
“Eden, I forbid you to see Joachim again.”
Eden barely made it to the elevator before the sobs wracked through her body, and she held her purse against her mouth to stop from screaming. She had walked away from Sebastian Stone, from the man she loved, and he hadn’t even tried to stop her.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eden sat on the couch, her face swollen from the hours of crying she had endured over the past two days. She couldn’t imagine a future without Sebastian Stone. When she had walked away from him, part of her truly expected him to follow her, to grab her and tell her she would always be his, just like he had so many times before, that he would explain everything to her—that he wasn’t simply using her to get back at her parents and doing business with the four men she hated most in the world.
She didn’t want the words she’d said to mean anything, because she knew that without Sebastian, she could feel nothing. Without him, she returned to being the scared little girl she had been before she met him. And yes, she wanted the sex. He made her feel alive again, his touch, his caress, it was as if the electricity she felt under his fingertips literally brought her to life. It was this fact that she settled on and she remembered again why she had walked away.
Eden knew she couldn’t live her life only when Sebastian was near her. He filled her field of vision and nothing else mattered to her. Her work at the archives was simply a time-filler between waking up in Sebastian’s arms in the mornings to when she returned to his apartment in the evenings and held her again. She hadn’t been in her apartment for more than a few nights since they had met and even then Sebastian had stayed for most of the evening, only leaving after she had fallen asleep.
Every move, every decision, everything in her life suddenly seemed to only function with Sebastian being with her. Away from him, she stopped functioning and all the hard work she had done, all of Dr. Shepherd’s advice, seemed to fall to the wayside with Sebastian by her side. Wasn’t her current state proof of that? And yet she was completely in the dark when it came to Sebastian. As far as she knew, she was simply a distraction on the sidelines of his life. While he filled her life, as far as she could tell, she was a hobby that barely got past his peripheral vision. She had no idea who he really was. Besides his mother’s death and the role Simona played in his life, she knew nothing. Eden didn’t even fully understand what Stone Corporations did. That fact was made all the more evident by her total confusion when she had tried to understand the documents she’d found in his office.
Eden sobbed again as she remembered the words she had let slip out on his bed. Even after telling him that she loved him, he couldn’t be honest with her. She had misinterpreted his possessiveness and jealousy as true emotions. She had been nothing but a challenge. She’d been a virgin, for God’s sake!
Reflecting over the past weeks, she shuddered at the thought that she had been part of a revenge plan. A community that had for over a decade treated Sebastian and his mother like family had turned their backs on them, left them to become destitute. And it had resulted in the brutal death of his mother. No wonder he wanted revenge on them. He must have thought he’d hit the jackpot when she told him she was a virgin. And she’d fallen in love with him.
What a perfectly twisted way to make her parents suffer. They had treated his mother like trash and now he had done the same to her—treated her like she was nothing, a bit of fun to dispose of when he was done. Eden couldn’t help but laugh out loud suddenly. Sebastian Stone had literally and metaphorically screwed her.
She was wearing the silk turquoise skirt he had admired on her. In some sort of masochistic punishment, she had worn it knowing how much he liked it. He had noticed it in her closet once and told her how much he loved silk on her. She looked down at the crumpled outfit, now tear-stained and ruined. Had all of it been an act? Had it been nothing but simply good sex? There was no way he could have faked that part of it, but everything else, all the sweet words, little terms of endearment, was that just part of the revenge plan? Had he deliberately tried to get her to fall in love with him?
Eden hadn’t eaten more than a few bites since she walked out of his apartment. She was lightheaded and knew she would have to do something soon. Her phone buzzed and she leapt up for the first time since getting home, praying it was him. He had sent her one text since then and nothing else—It’s not what you think. Let me know you are ok. Don’t see Joachim. She had ignored it.
Instead, it was Joachim. Are you ok? I’ve been calling you for days xx.
She quickly looked at her missed calls and realized he had called over six times since yesterday. After their awkward breakfast date, Eden hadn’t wanted to talk to him. Not good, it’s over with Seb. Can’t talk, will call you later in the week. Xx.
Eden didn’t expect a response, but her phone buzzed again.
I’m here for you Eden, whenever you need me, whatever you need xx.
She shook her head. No, she didn’t want to see Joachim. She didn’t want to see anyone. She just wanted to lie on the couch and try to figure out how she was going to put one foot in front of the other, how she was going to even breathe without Sebastian in her life. She had worked so hard to get her life back on track, and now it seemed like she was losing everything—her relationship with her parents was worse than ever, Joachim wanted something she couldn’t give him, and Sebastian didn’t want her at all. Or he had wanted her, but not for what she thought. She kept picturing him in the doorway of his office, irritated that she was looking at his desk, involving herself in parts of his life that he hadn’t let her into, without a trace of concern about what she had discovered.
Eden stood and finally went to her bedroom, falling into the bed and pulling the covers over her head. She stayed there the next day, only getting up to go to the bathroom. She had work the following day and she managed to get up and shower. If nothing else was working out, she at least still had a job. Her face looked like hell, huge dark circles under her eyes, but she didn’t put on any makeup. Instead, she simply tied her hair up in a messy bun and got dressed, not caring what she wore. It didn’t matter anymore. She ran her fingers over her old jeans and sweaters, wishing she could wear more informal clothes to work. She knew she would feel better if she could put on her old armor that let her disappear from the world.
In the archives, she had hoped she could lose herself in the work, focus on the images and stop the ache in her chest and the black pit that was expanding in her stomach. It grew with each breath, and she knew that if it continued, it would consume her, drag her into herself, and she would shut down. She looked at her hands, clenching them into small f
ists until they started to turn white. She would fight it, no matter what. She would fight this time. The last time, she let it eat her alive she almost hadn’t survived.
The days crawled by and, somehow, she survived the weekend without the mild distraction of work to keep her busy. Eden stayed in the apartment. She had been subsisting on crackers and an old jar of peanut butter she’d found in the cupboard. Whenever she ate, though, it made her feel nauseous, sick with the thought of how careless she had been, how stupid she had been to trust Sebastian.
He finally texted her on Sunday. Remember what I said about Joachim. Eat something.
She threw the jar of peanut butter across the kitchen, disappointed when it didn’t break. She had told Sebastian that she couldn’t eat when she was upset. She had lost almost 30 pounds during her breakdown and spent months trying to build her strength back up. She hated that she had revealed so much of herself to him. Even now he was able to tell what she was doing. Eden especially hated that he knew she was upset. Of course he knew. She had told him she loved him.
Screw him, she thought. He didn’t want her. She had been right that first night when she told him about the attack. He hadn’t really wanted her. He wanted to use her, just like every other man did. Except Joachim. Sweet Joachim. Even with the information she had found out about her father’s deal with the Benedicts, she didn’t doubt that Joachim’s feelings for her were genuine.
Eden wondered if that was why Sebastian wanted her to not see Joachim. Did he think that she might realize what a bastard he was when compared with Joachim, the one man who had never hurt her, never betrayed her? Part of Eden desperately wished in that moment, curled up on her kitchen floor, that she could love Joachim in the way that he wanted her to. At least then she would be safe, there would be no more real drama. He was everything that a woman could ask for—handsome, kind, generous. He always seemed genuinely interested in what she was doing. And he knew her, he knew what had happened, and despite all that, he still loved her. What was wrong with her that she couldn’t love him back?
Trusting Stone Page 21