Lovestruck

by Romy Lockhart

There’s no way in hell those chapters didn’t bother her. The truth of her upbringing was her darkest secret. The press had only uncovered part of it. Her publishers had pushed me into revealing some of the rest. I should have dropped it then. But I’d been afraid of what would be written if someone else was left to do it. My intentions had been to protect her. For all that was worth.

  “Your mother…” And those two words were all it took to sour the night.

  “You fucking didn’t.” She stares at me, her eyes widening. “Asher, tell me you didn’t.”

  “I’m sorry.” I don’t know what else to say. I fucked up. How could I think for a minute she’d forgive me for that? I have to be a moron.

  She hit me with her purse and purposefully began striding away from me. I follow without trying to speak to her. I’m definitely dead the minute her bodyguard sees her now. I commit myself to that fate, keeping close enough to help her if she trips but not enough to make her tell me to get lost. She sobs a little as she walks up the path to her porch. I wish there was something I could say to make this better, but there really isn’t.

  She turns when she gets to the door. “I can’t believe…” She shakes her head. “I thought you loved me.” She goes inside.

  My heart feels like it’s breaking into pieces. I leave, knowing it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d kept my mouth shut about it tonight. I still did something unforgivable. Having a door slammed in my face is what I deserve.

  Chapter Twelve

  *

  LOGAN

  I don’t like this. Any of it. This town, Eden’s under-protected house, the creep she’s decided to date. It’s even worse than if it had been a complete stranger. At least if he had been I could run a search and pulled up dirt worse than he’s a gold-digging twat who’d betrayed her confidence. Apparently, that wasn’t enough to turn her off.

  I kept an eye on where they were. It was a little harder than when she’d had a smart phone. I’d had to plant a device in her purse and hope she took it. She had, but probably only because she’d waited until the last moment to get ready. No time to check her purse matched her outfit, something women usually seemed to care about.

  Waiting always drove me crazy. I could see where they were. They stayed there for hours. That was a relief. She hadn’t gone home with him. Seeing them move, they were slower on the way here than they’d been going. He’d left his car at the restaurant, most likely. They’d been drinking then.

  I took a few calming breaths. It didn’t have to mean anything.

  My thoughts kept going to the sexy outfit she’d been wearing. She’d worn that for the writer. For a guy who walked around looking like an accountant out of a twenties gangster movie. The kind of guy who’d break like glass if I punched him in the jaw. What the hell did she see in him?

  It wasn’t money, that was for sure. Aside from the hefty pay-check from the book, which he didn’t even seem to be putting to use, he wasn’t loaded. He had a house his grandmother had left him when she died, and a fancy car he’d apparently bought with money from re-mortgaging the house.

  Eden had never been interested in men with money, besides. She was far more attracted to talent. The number one reason she’d fallen so hard for that idiot Hunter in the first place. It had blinded her to his faults.

  Maybe that’s it. She sees Asher as talented? The thought makes me grimace. The guy’s a hack.

  I get up when the sensor seems to show them arriving back at the house. As much as I want to open the door, I don’t want to catch them sucking face. The door opens and Eden walks in.

  “Hey,” I say.

  She takes off her heels and dumps them with her bag at the door. “Hey.”

  I frown as she walks past me. “You okay?”

  She turns and rolls her eyes. “You don’t need to kill him.”

  I lock the door and check out the peephole until he disappears into the distance. She’s gone when I turn around. I don’t need to kill him tonight. We’ll see what happens later.

  Chapter Thirteen

  *

  EDEN

  I force my warring emotions under control as I walk into the house. This is the moment I’d usually let the tears flow, but I hold them in and maintain a poker face as I go upstairs. Someone I love had hurt my heart. It’s taking everything I have to keep myself pulled together. The only thing that would have made it worse would have been Logan hugging me. I hate it when he’s right about someone. It makes me think about Hunter. All the things he’d done to stir Logan’s anger. Things I should have noticed. Clues to who Hunter really was. It makes me sick to think about it. I feel the tears come after I take my make-up off.

  I close the door to the bathroom and go to bed. Literally cry myself to sleep.

  Asher pulled his window open. I climbed the trellis and he helped me climb in, his chair placed at his desk to act as a makeshift stairway. He’d been sleeping, his hair was all over the place, and his eyes looked tired. His glasses tended to magnify any signs of weariness.

  “What happened?” He hadn’t let go of my hand, and he looked it over as if he was checking for bruises.

  I pulled it back. Knew I should have put on a jacket before I came over. I would have too, if my mom hadn’t been hiding in beside the coats.

  “What is it, Eden?” He started to sound worried.

  I shushed him. “Keep your voice down.”

  He sighed. “Are you okay?”

  His meaning was obvious. Had she hurt me? This time?

  “I’m okay,” I lie. She didn’t bruise me. That doesn’t mean I’m fine. But it’s what he’s asking.

  “She’s having an episode?”

  I nod. “I had to get out. She was saying all this weird shit. I couldn’t deal with it.”

  He raises his eyebrows when I swear, but that’s it. He doesn’t know what to say. I don’t blame him. His parents are normal. I only have one, and she’s defective. I’d tell someone who could help if it didn’t mean I’d end up in a foster home. That was a lottery a girl on the cusp of puberty who got told she was very pretty by strange men a lot did not want to be subjected to.

  “Come on,” he hugged me once and tugged my hand.

  I kicked off my sneakers, and got into his bed. He laid down next to me, and put a pillow between us.

  “Girls have cooties,” he joked.

  “Ha ha.” I smile in the dark. “Remember and set your alarm an hour early.” I have to get out of here before it’s light outside. I only live down the street and Asher always gets up and watches me go, making sure I don’t go missing.

  “I never forget,” he tells me, turning to do it.

  That night is when I started to realize I loved him. We’d been best friends for years. There weren’t lots of kids our age in town, and most of them seemed less mature. We’d clicked from the moment we met in the first grade. But the first sparks of attraction came later, and I’d ignored them, because I was afraid. Losing him wasn’t something I wanted to have to go through, and that seemed par for the course as soon as girls and boys started to date. Couples didn’t stay together through high school, certainly not beyond. It wasn’t worth trying. So, I blanked the looks he gave me that told me he wanted to try. He stopped giving them. In our senior year, he asked another girl to the prom. I went with another boy. And the last dinner we had before I moved to L.A. was sad and awkward. I’d lost him. We were moving in separate directions and I’d already lost the one person I trusted more than anyone.

  I wake up to darkness. The alarm clock shows it’s five in the morning. I close my eyes, but sleep refuses to claim me. All I can think about is what I’ve just lost. I get up as quietly as I can, but I know it will never be quiet enough. Not for Logan.

  I go into the bathroom and shut and lock both doors. This is worse than Hunter. That had been a delusion. I’d tricked myself into thinking he was someone he wasn’t. The truth had been within my reach the entire time and I’d ignored it. Finding out Asher wasn’t who I’d thought he wa
s hurt so much more.

  I ran the shower and got in, washing my hair and standing under the hot stream until my stomach starts to grumble. Drinking always makes me hungry. When the hangover hit, it’d be a different story. Right now, I’m in the mood to raid my fridge. So, I get out, dry off and throw on track-pants and a loose T-shirt, and head down the stairs.

  Two slices of toast, a yogurt, and a few slices of bacon later, and I’m sort of full. Give it five minutes. I’ll be looking for seconds. I sit at the kitchen counter, wondering if Logan is actually asleep, or just staying out of my way. I decide to style my hair, and by the time I’m done it’s almost eight.

  I go into the hall and get my purse. I’ve had enough of feeling sorry for myself. I send Skyler a text, asking her when she’s coming to visit. She’s been touring but I know it’s finishing soon. She’d told me she’d come visit once it was over. She was due a break. It has to be why she’d let Logan take a break too. I send her a second text, accusing her of sic’ing Logan on me.

  She won’t reply until at least noon. But it makes me feel better to send her the messages.

  “Feeling rough?” Logan’s voice makes me turn. He’s in a tight black T-shirt today, the leather jacket he didn’t remove all day yesterday nowhere to be seen. I do like a moody blond in leather, but his muscles are way more visible without it.

  “Not in the slightest.”

  He nods. “Uh-huh.”

  “I don’t get hangovers.” It’s a claim I’ve made many times. Always makes him snort.

  His lips remain in a line. “Okay then.”

  Is he going to stay like this? I can’t stand it. “What crawled up your ass?”

  He sighs. “Why are you dating that writer? He’s a…”

  “He’s none of your business,” I tell him, not sure why I don’t just tell him. I don’t want to admit he was right. It feels off. I still don’t quite believe what Asher did.

  Logan scowls. “I assume you won’t want more bacon since you’re not hung-over?”

  I shrug. “It’s my bacon. I’ll have more if I want it.”

  He rolls his eyes and starts to make more food. My stomach grumbles as the smell hits me. I could eat a freaking horse today. Or at least a whole pig. It’s ridiculous.

  “How many slices?” He sounds less annoyed, so that’s a good start.

  “Three. No, four. Yeah, that should do it.”

  He shakes his head at me. “Never gets hung-over.” His snort fills me with relief. I just want everything to be normal. I can’t stand things being off kilter. I push all thoughts of Asher out of my head. I don’t want to be driven crazy right now.

  “When’s your security guy coming?” I hope it’s soon. I need something to focus on.

  “Glazier’s coming tomorrow. Alarm guys coming the day after. Takes time to order the stuff in or it’d be sooner.”

  “That’s fast.” I don’t know what he’s complaining about, but I know when something’s bothering him he needs an immediate solution or his aggravation levels go through the roof.

  “It’s not as fast as I’d like.”

  “Keen to get out of here?” It feels like baiting an angry bear. An angry bear who owes me bacon.

  He takes a breath. “I’ll be around for a while. I need to get a crew set up for you before I leave.”

  “A crew?” I cringe at the thought of it.

  “Or you can call the guy you got to replace me.” He gives me a look and I feel like punching him.

  I shrug. “Seems mean to do that when you’re already here.”

  He slings my bacon onto a plate. “Saying you’d miss my company?”

  I would, if he wasn’t so consumed with jealousy that he was being pissy as hell.

  “Maybe.” I’m not willing to commit.

  He rolls his eyes. “Make me feel more welcome, why don’t you?”

  I have a thought about what I could do to make him feel more welcome, but not while I’m hung-over and mad at another guy. Logan really picked the time to show up here. A day earlier, and things might have been different. I ate and got up, stretching.

  “Where are you going?”

  Great. I’m not going to get out of his sight, am I?

  “I was going to change and go for a walk.”

  He narrows his eyes. “Where?”

  “Around town. You want to come?”

  He seems shocked. “You want me to come?”

  Oh, God, yes. But that’s for later. Mind out of the gutter, Eden. Hah. No chance, I think it lives there now.

  “Wear your jacket.”

  He frowns.

  I point to the piece on his hip. “Unless you don’t have a permit? You’ll freak the locals.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Nice little backwards town you’ve got here.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  *

  LOGAN

  Eden is wearing tight jeans and a top that makes her breasts seem even larger than they are. I hadn’t expected her to pull out actual walking gear for the tour around town, but hell, does she have to look this good? All the damned time. Even the thing she’d been wearing this morning had been hot on her. That was the problem. She made everything sexy. How any hot-blooded man could spend any time with her and not end up with a desperate obsession was more beyond me than how she could make non-sexy clothes seem desirable.

  She points out places as we walk, things that have changed and things that haven’t. She gets a few glances and a wave or two on the trip around, but there’s no creepy assholes so far. Besides the writer, and he doesn’t seem to be out today.

  “I’m just going to grab a bottle of water.” She ducks into a shop with a low door frame.

  I hang back outside the store, observing the locals. Nice enough town. I’d already suspected as much. If it wasn’t, something bad would have happened to her before now. Her house is woefully under-protected. It doesn’t make sense for her not to have a bodyguard.

  “Wait!” She calls out as she leaves the shop, frowning as she glances around. She looks at me. “Did you see the guy in sunglasses? He just ran out after he said something really freaking weird.”

  I look her over. There are no signs that this is a joke. She seems genuinely distressed. “The door didn’t open before you came out.”

  She shakes her head. “No. I saw him, he went out the door.”

  I shake my head. “I didn’t see anyone.”

  She sighs. “This is driving me crazy.”

  “What is?”

  “I’ve seen him three times now. He’s been kind of creepy, kind of weird. I don’t know how else to describe it. He says strange things, he asks me questions.” She opens her water and drinks it.

  “Okay, I think we should get you home. And you need to tell me everything about this creep.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  *

  EDEN

  The episode with the weird sunglasses guy is still freaking me out when we get home. He’d told me I was almost ready. I don’t know what the hell he meant, but it sure as shit sounded like a threat.

  “What else?” Logan is writing it down on a pad on the kitchen counter.

  I swallow, my throat feels incredibly dry. “He said the fates will align at noon.”

  He glances at his watch. “Shit. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  “What did he mean?” I shiver. “Please, don’t tell me…”

  “He’s going to do something at noon. It might not be something to you. It could have meant anything.” And yet he’s drawing his gun and checking the chamber.

  Please don’t let this be like before. I feel like I’m going to throw up in my mouth. I don’t want some weirdo sneaking into my house to stroke my hair and whatever else. Glancing around, I remember the basement door.

  “We don’t have a lock on that door. The window’s still broken.”

  Logan moves towards it and turns the handle slowly before he pushes it inwards and carefully rounds the corner. He pulls the door back closed
and shakes his head. “Nothing.”

  “Is it noon yet?” It feels like it’s getting brighter in the room somehow. I don’t know how that can be possible when the shades are drawn.

  “In a few seconds.” He turns to me and his jaw drops. His arm falls to his side and the gun clatters to the floor.

  “What is it?” Something is happening. Something huge. It feels like I’m standing outside directly under the sun. When I look at my arms, they seem to be glowing with glittering golden light. “Oh my…”

  There’s a flash as whispered words rush through my ears. An incantation as beautiful as a song, even if I can’t understand the words themselves. It brings tears to my eyes, forcing them closed. When I open them again the glow is gone, the room has darkened and Logan is on the ground. I rush to him, falling to my knees.

  “Logan, what happened?” I shake him, but he isn’t moving. I lean in. His heart isn’t beating. He isn’t breathing. No! Whatever this is, it can’t be real.

  I place a hand over his heart. “Wake up, Logan. I love you. You have to wake up.”

  A crackle of electricity, a spark, burns my fingers. The light seems to bathe him. Then it fades and the steady thump of Logan’s heart reassures me that he’s alive. “Oh thank…”

  “You’ll want to thank yourself for that, Goddess.”

  I jerk away from Logan and see the creep in the sunglasses smiling at me from where he’s leaning against the kitchen counter.

  “What the hell?”

  “Are you listening now?”

  “You have no right to be here.” How the hell did he get in?

  He sighs. “There’s just no helping some of you damned awakened ones.”

  I glance back at Logan as he takes a breath and the guy with the sunglasses is gone when I look back. I start to get worried about my state of mind. First, Logan doesn’t seem to see him. Then, he gets into my house and disappears again? Not to mention all the weirdness with the light. I don’t like this. Not one little bit.

  Logan sits up, squinting. “Shit, what happened? Did he show up?”

  “No,” I say, realizing how bad it would be if I said yes and we found out the guy was a figment of my imagination. Think waking up with a stalker in my bed is bad? This is a million times worse.