Craving Eden

by Tianna Xander

  Youth’s mistakes…

  Eden McGuire is terrified when she discovers the man she’s dating is a living, breathing werewolf. Fearing for the safety of her unborn child, she flees into the night. Pregnant and alone, she meets Edward, a knight in shining armor, or so it appears. But her knight’s promises aren’t all they seem.

  After discovering her hero is a villain, she runs again. With her luck and money fading, Eden returns to the place she once fled—and the only man she can trust to protect her child from a fate worse than death.

  Renewed hope…

  Jake Blackstone mourned the loss of his mate when she abandoned him ten years ago and vanished. Imagine his surprise when she turns up at his birthday party like a long-overdue gift.

  Anger and hope war within him as he sorts through his feelings about his mate returning with a child she didn’t have before. Will Jake offer the little girl the security and protection her terrified mother so desperately seeks? And does Eden have the courage to face a living, breathing werewolf?

  Copyright

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Except where otherwise noted, the images used for the cover image are available under CC licensing as detailed below. The image of the crouching man is © Shutterstock.com, used with permission, and is not part of CC licensing. CC licensed images used in the book cover art include the following: CC BY-SA 2.0: The Old Point Neighborhood, Historic Homes of Beaufort, South Carolina, Ken Lund, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/5811281052/, CC BY 2.0: Full moon, Rachel Kramer, https://www.flickr.com/photos/rkramer62/14408695072/, CC BY 2.0: wolf-142173, Arantza Ansotegui, https://www.flickr.com/photos/121552653@N02/14530661499/

  Craving Eden

  Copyright © 2010 Tianna Xander

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any by any electronic, mechanical, or form other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author or publisher.

  Published by Tianna Xander

  Look for Tianna online at:

  www.tiannaxander.com

  Dedication

  Thanks to my family for their understanding and help.

  Many thanks to my beta readers for telling me like it is.

  Acknowledgements

  Special thanks to S.E. Smith for your words of encouragement and the help you’ve given me over the last couple of years. You’re the greatest!

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Craving Eden

  Extended Edition

  By

  Tianna Xander

  Chapter One

  Eden McGuire tugged her daughter into the old diner and searched for an empty table. She was so hungry, the scent of grilled hamburgers and coffee struck her in the face and made her stomach growl. She expected to see at least one person she knew from her past. She didn't expect to see over twenty of them in the middle of a party with the familiar refrain of a birthday song ringing in the air.

  Heads turned, and people stared when the two of them headed for the only clean place to sit.

  The now-forgotten song faded into oblivion while she and Harper took off their coats and moved to sit in the available booth.

  She glanced around, expecting to see a familiar face looking toward them, but Harper caught her attention, and she looked away.

  Nervously, she smoothed a paper napkin over her lap and moved the condiments from the end of the table to the center where her daughter could easily reach them.

  Posters and streamers hung from the door and windows with Happy Birthday, Sheriff, emblazoned on them all. Some of the guests even held a few hand-drawn signs on large paint stir sticks.

  Norma Collins, who’d been the waitress in the diner ten years ago, stepped from the crowd and moved forward with an order pad in her hand.

  Reaching up and back, she pulled a pencil from the tight bun at the back of her head. Eden couldn't remember a time when the older woman didn't have her blue-tinted, silver hair slicked back in a severe knot, and at least one pen or pencil stuck through the thick bun resting on the back of her head.

  Not much had changed over the years. The diner still boasted grease-stained menus, a puke-green floor, and harvest gold tables with matching upholstered seats. The wooden, high-backed booths lining the outer walls of the dining area still afforded their occupants a measure of privacy and gave the place the unique odor of fried food and aged wood.

  The familiar scent permeated everything and was just as she remembered it. Eden couldn't stop a grin at the expression on Harper’s face. Her daughter sat in the booth across from her, her button-nose wrinkled and a frown on her pretty face.

  “It smells funny in here, Mom.” She picked up the paper napkin in front of her and held it over her nose. “I don’t like it.”

  “What'll ya have,” Norma asked in a brusque, businesslike tone. Her expression spoke volumes. She didn't want to take their order. It was apparent she’d rather be celebrating with everyone else, and she didn't care if they knew it. One thing was clear. There wasn't a glimmer of recognition on her creased face, thank God.

  It was a sure bet that if Norma had recognized her, she would have publicly shamed Eden by pointing those bony, red-tipped fingers her way with the word tramp on her lips.

  Norma had never liked her, and since Eden left Haven and Jake Blackstone behind all those years before, she was sure the older woman thought her barely a step above the anti-Christ.

  Norma glanced over her shoulder for a few seconds, then turned her attention back to Eden. “Look, lady,” she said, snapping her gum, her black-lined brows drawn down. “I don't got all day. I do have other tables, you know.”

  Eden cringed at Norma’s horrible grammar, ignored Harper's wide grin, and then shook her head. Knowing her luck, her daughter would point out Norma’s colorful way of putting things and draw more attention to them.

  Luckily, her daughter took the hint, pressed her lips tight, and shifted her attention to the menu in her hands. Eden gave the nine-year-old one last warning glare before turning her attention back to Norma.

  “We'll both take a cheeseburger all the way and an order of fries. I'll take an unsweetened iced tea, and my daughter will have a small glass of cola.”

  When Norma moved off with their order, the partygoers decided their show was over and began talking amongst themselves again.

  Eden rested her chin in her hand a
nd stared straight ahead, not daring to look back toward the group again.

  There was no telling who was in that cluster of people. Nor was there any way of knowing if someone would recognize her. Besides, what if he was there? It would make sense for him to attend the sheriff’s birthday celebration. The last Eden knew Jake was still a part-time deputy.

  For some reason, it was a Blackstone family tradition to become law enforcement in this town. Haven was more like a monarchy, with the sheriff’s family being the rulers.

  Unless things had changed or he’d retired, Jake’s father was sheriff and would be until his son was ready to take over. How they managed to run a successful business, and the sheriff’s office was anyone’s guess.

  While she’d returned to Haven to talk to him, she wasn’t ready. Not yet. She wanted to shower off the dirt from the road and attempt to look her best before she saw him again. Eden was sure there wasn’t much of a possibility that things between them would pick up where they left off, it still didn’t make seeing him any less intimidating.

  When they first arrived at the diner, she’d stared through the front window. She searched the crowd of people at the party, hoping Jake wasn't in the group.

  The last thing she thought she’d have to do was to confront him in front of a crowd. Facing Jake, and telling him about Harper, was going to be difficult enough without an audience.

  How did a woman tell a man, an ex-lover, that she had hidden his child from him for nearly ten years? How could she explain to him why she'd cheated father and daughter out of so much time together?

  She gazed at Harper for a minute. Anyone who looked at her would realize her paternity. She had his eyes. Emerald green and slightly almond-shaped and fringed with thick lashes, they looked so much like Jake’s, it made her heart ache sometimes. Her sable-brown hair was the exact shade of his, and she had his easy smile.

  Like her father, the little devil used that smile shamelessly to get whatever she wanted. Eden cast another glance through the window and then returned her gaze to Harper, who watched her with wisdom well beyond her years.

  How did she tell her daughter, she was afraid to find and talk to her father? What if he didn’t believe her? What if he couldn’t see the truth when Harper stared him in the face?

  “What's wrong, Mom?”

  God, she looked so much like her father just then. Her birth father. Not the animal who had claimed her as his, the day she was born.

  When they first met, Edward had looked like a knight in shining armor. It wasn't every day a woman on the run found a man willing to take in and care for a young, unwed mother-to-be.

  He’d promised to love her and her illegitimate child unconditionally. What she hadn't known was that what Edward had really wanted was a slave. He wanted a helpless child, whom he could manipulate to cook and clean for him. One he could mold into the ideal trophy wife. Too bad for him that her thirty-pound weight gain, in her last few month of pregnancy had ruined his plans.

  It had taken less than a year for Edward James Horton the third to show his true colors. After ten months, the honeymoon had come to a final and abrupt end.

  Eden spent the last nine-and-a-half years running with the huge amount of money she'd withdrawn from the joint bank account he'd set up for her to use for shopping and redecorating his home. After that, they lived on monies awarded to her by the court when she finally gathered the courage to divorce him while he was in prison. Thank goodness for the legal enterprises, Edward’s father left him. The courts couldn’t touch the money from those.

  Now, she was almost broke with nowhere else to go.

  Out of money and her resources soon depleted, she must find someone to care for her baby. Eden loved her daughter with every cell of her being.

  She would give her up before she would allow Edward to get his hands on her. The cruel and manipulative jerk would make her daughter's life a living hell.

  Harper's biological father was her last and only hope.

  If there was one person whom she believed could protect her daughter from Edward, it was Jake Blackstone.

  “Your lunch will be ready in a few minutes.” Norma dropped Eden's drink on the table with a sharp crack of the glass against the tabletop and an attitude that screamed she would rather be with her friends, celebrating.

  The glare the other woman threw their way made Eden wonder if the waitress was vindictive enough to people she perceived as strangers to spit in their meal. She hoped not.

  “Thank you,” Eden murmured, then picked up her tea to take a sip as she watched Norma scurry over to the crowd in the back of the dining room.

  “Come on, birthday boy,” Norma said as she held her arms open. “Get your skinny ass over here and give your Aunt Norma a hug.”

  Aunt Norma? Oh, God, no! It can't be. Frantic, Eden searched her mind for the date, then closed her eyes with a sigh. Shit, shit, and triple shit. “Come on, sweetie, we have to go.” She grabbed her jacket and purse, then slid to the edge of her seat.

  “Before we eat?” Harper gave her a look that promised a temper tantrum. Tears filled her eyes, and she thrust her bottom lip out. “But I'm so hungry.” She drew the last two words out in her most pathetic-sounding whine.

  Eden tried not to look their way, but she couldn't help it. Even unknowing, Jake’s dark good looks drew her gaze just as surely as a moth seeks light.

  He hadn't just gotten older. By the look of him, he'd gotten better, much better. His shoulders seemed wider, and his biceps had gotten larger, and his eyes seemed different, older somehow.

  Still, Jake didn't show his age nearly as much as she did. He wouldn't. Jake wasn't entirely human. That discovery was what had her running into the night ten years ago, scared and pregnant with less than nine-hundred dollars to her name.

  Shaking herself from her reverie, Eden watched as Jake pushed his way through the good-natured crowd of people. He grinned at Norma, then gave her a hug that lifted her off her feet. It wasn't too much of a feat. Norma probably weighed ninety-two pounds in a soaking wet sleeping bag.

  What would have impressed Eden was if he lifted her more substantial bodyweight off the ground so easily.

  Eden couldn't help it. Her gaze stayed glued on Norma. Her back was to them as she hugged the most handsome man Eden had ever seen in her life.

  Jake.

  Liquid heat rushed from her middle, straight to her core. She squeezed her thighs together, hoping her sex wouldn't throb as it always had in his presence.

  Just the memory of his hands on her body was enough to kick her temperature up a few degrees.

  While time had been kind to Jake, it hadn't been quite so considerate to her. She’d gained thirty pounds while she was pregnant with Harper, and every bit of the extra weight clung to her hips and ass like contact cement.

  Eden knew the precise moment Jake recognized her. Their eyes met, and his smile faded. She watched as he sniffed the air in the room, no doubt finally catching her scent and separating it from the others. Something indiscernible filled his expression as his eyes narrowed, and he focused his complete attention on her for a moment.

  In an instant, she felt like the most insignificant kind of prey while he was the big, bad wolf.

  Almost unconsciously, her fingers tightened around her glass of tea. She fisted her other hand in her lap to hide its telltale trembling.

  If all of the people in the diner were like him—and they must be—she couldn't afford to show them any form of weakness.

  Eden sat almost as if frozen when Jake turned, murmured something to his family and friends, then made his way over to her table.

  “Eden Joy McGuire.” The tone of his voice turned her name into more of an accusation than an inquiry.

  He barely spared his daughter a glance before turning his accusing glare back to Eden. “You left me.”

  Of course, she had. He’d told her something outrageous, something she couldn't possibly believe until she'd seen the evidence. “Don't start. Not
here, Jake.”

  She cast a meaningful glance toward the people who came to help him celebrate his birthday. Eden wondered how old he was now. He hadn't aged a day since she left. He might have gotten a little thicker, more muscular, perhaps, but nothing more. Hell, she could still see the six-pack he’d always had beneath his uniform shirt and the t-shirt he wore under it.

  She clenched her fingers tighter to suppress the urge to reach out and trace the sculpted muscular ridges he sported above his belt.

  “Please, Jake. Let's not discuss this here.”

  The look he gave her spoke volumes. “Then where pray tell, can we discuss it?” A muscle jumped in his jaw as he looked straight ahead, through the front window of the restaurant.

  It was obvious he didn't want to look at Harper again. Perhaps he couldn't bear to look at her child, whom he must think belonged to another man. He had wanted to marry her all those years ago, and she had run away.

  Eden didn't entertain the idea that he still cared, but she hoped he could come to love his own flesh and blood.

  He has to.

  Eden placed her hand on his forearm, a gesture she had often made when he was angry when they were together before. She pulled it away when he looked down, the muscles of his arm tightening beneath his tanned skin.

  “How about the park?” His lips quirked up in a parody of a smile. “Will that do? It’s still public, but private enough for you to give me whatever excuse you have for being such a bi—.” He glanced at Harper before meeting her gaze again. “For leaving the way you did.”

  That’s okay. Eden took a deep breath and fought the urge to retaliate. She was the one at fault and deserved every name he could call her.

  The park was in the center of town, near his parent's home, if they hadn't moved since she’d seen them last. It was the most logical place she could think of for their conversation, considering he would most likely want to introduce his newfound daughter to her grandparents.