Chapter One
Eden
Every time I think things can’t get any better, something happens to prove me wrong. This morning is the perfect example and the after-glow is going to keep me on cloud nine for the next week. At least. I have three insanely hot men with off the charts sexual talents. What more could one goddess ever ask for?
That question should be rhetorical, but there’s an answer that rushes through me and doesn’t want to let go. My fourth. I close my eyes and flash back to Logan’s body pressed tight to mine in the back seat of that car, his kiss stealing my breath, and my body tingles all over. I’m supposed to have four lovers. Three will never truly be enough. My heart is carved into four pieces and I’m never going to be whole without the man who holds that last broken part of it.
I’d thought that man was supposed to be Blake, the doctor with the honey-sweet voice and dark eyes full of compassion. His death is an agony I don’t want to linger on. Killed by a Dark Forces Goddess with a grudge against me. It never should have happened.
I groan as I open my eyes, after-glow officially gone.
Don’t think about any of that, Eden. The heartache will only drive you crazy.
I listen to the voice of reason and hope it doesn’t abandon me. I love Asher, and Nick, and Eli. Having them all love me back is more than I ever thought would be possible. That’s what I need to focus on. The men who want to be with me, the three here in this house with me right now.
I can hear the shower running in my bedroom down the hall. I can smell breakfast cooking downstairs in the kitchen. I can hear Eli’s footsteps as he moves down the hall to get dressed.
I have to keep my focus on these things, I have to keep my attention on what’s mine. Not on the new friend and potential lover I lost so suddenly, and not on the man who abandoned me as soon as he could.
Time will heal those wounds. I have to believe that.
I get up when the shower stops, deciding to get ready and join them for breakfast. When I’m with them, everything’s better. The world feels brighter. My heart swells to think of them. I move quickly to get ready for the day ahead, ready to cherish every moment and forget about everything else.
Chapter Two
Eli
Something incredible happened in that bedroom this morning, something that meant more than amazing sex with a gorgeous woman. I felt it when it happened. I know every one of us did. We’re connected now, on a deeper level. All of us.
I just wish I knew what that meant, exactly. If it were the three of us connecting to Eden alone, I don’t think I’d care. But there are four of us now, and one of us isn’t exactly welcome.
I want to ask Eden about Logan, about what this means for all of us, but I’m not sure about how she’ll feel if I try to bring it up. So I get dressed quickly and go downstairs while Eden’s in the shower, hoping to get a chance to talk it over with Nick before our Goddess joins us.
Apparently Asher decided to do the same because he’s already in the kitchen. Shit, wait. Considering he was dead at the time, he won’t even know about this.
I expected Eden had joined him in the shower so I’m thrown at his presence. If he knew, I wouldn’t think twice about launching into this, but now, I’m not so sure.
“How long does bacon take to cook anyway? I don’t need it crispy. Just warm it a little and throw it on my plate.” Asher seems overly anxious to get something to eat. He’s buttering toast and when I eye the plate he narrows his eyes at me. “This is mine. So don’t even think about it.”
“Wasn’t even close,” I tell him, raising an eyebrow at Nick.
Nick shrugs. “Apparently dying is hungry work.”
Asher scowls as he eats like a ravenous bear. I wonder if he would even notice what we talked about as long as it didn’t interfere with his breakfast. Then I realise the clock is ticking down. I can’t waste time thinking about this any longer, I need to just get it out.
I glance at Nick and lower my voice. “You think we should ask about Logan?”
Nick glances at Asher. “Um...”
“Logan?” Asher asks, around a mouthful of toast.
“What about Logan?” Eden asks as she appears at the bottom of the stairs suddenly.
I didn’t even hear her coming. For a second I’m too captured by her beauty to think straight. She looks as gorgeous as ever in a flirty denim sundress that flaunts her curves. I gaze at her face and find her smiling. There was no hint of anything other than happiness in her tone. Maybe, I’ve been worrying too much. Creating a problem where there isn’t one. Or maybe there’s more to this thing with Logan than I realise. Still, I’d like to know how she views the whole ‘fourth’ thing, and I’m sure Nick and Asher would too.
I clear my throat. “What does you taking him as your fourth mean for us?”
Asher reaches for the orange juice and swallows a mouthful straight from the carton with an audible gulp before he blurts, “You took Logan as your fourth?”
She shrugs, giving off a flippant vibe, but her gaze suddenly settles on the food and doesn’t lift back to us. “It had to be done. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
I glance at Nick. He doesn’t seem sure what to make of her shrugging this off either.
“It’s not a casual decision, Eden,” Asher points out, his surprise beginning to melt into horror. “How the hell did this happen?”
“Relax,” she tells him, moving in close and stroking his arm. I know she’s using her Goddess light to calm him down. Her voice softens as she lifts her gaze to his. “It had to be done for me to power up and take Catherine down. I lost my only other real option for a fourth. Catherine did that on purpose. She thought it would destroy me. She didn’t think I’d accept Logan after everything that’s already happened.” She clears her throat and her gaze is steady and full of unshed tears when she slowly moves it to each of us as she speaks. “I have no intention of being in a relationship with Logan. That’s not why I accepted him as my fourth. It was something that had to be done to take Catherine down. He’s not a part of this. He’s not going to be in our lives.”
We all look at each other, then back at Eden. Relief comes first, then something resembling elation, but there’s nagging doubt underneath it all. I want to be convinced that her words are all there is to this, but it feels like there’s something that’s been left out.
“Seriously. I only have three lovers and it’s staying that way.” She sounds so sure. “I love you all. We’re connected now. Didn’t you feel it up there?”
“But he’s your...” Nick begins, a frown growing on his face.
“Lawson taught me that sex doesn’t have to be part of the equation,” she says, reaching out to touch his arm too. “Logan’s not a part of my life. He never will be. You three...” She smiles at me. “You three are everything to me. I’ll be making my declaration to the world soon, and that’s exactly what they’re going to know.”
I try to relax. She isn’t interested in Logan becoming part of this, and she seems certain about that. Nick doesn’t seem completely convinced, though his frown has faded now. Asher still looks like he could spit nails, but Logan did actually try to kill him.
Eden sits down at the breakfast bar, brushing her hand over my arm. “What are we eating?”
“Um, there’s bacon and toast. The eggs were bad. I mean, I screwed them up. So that’s pretty much it,” Nick tells her.
“Sounds good to me,” she says, reaching for a glass and the orange juice.
Her gaze isn’t focused as she starts to eat. She smiles when Nick makes jokes, and she strokes Asher’s hand unconsciously from time to time, but she’s
not totally present. Our Goddess is hiding her pain, while she tries to soothe our worries. I lock eyes with Asher as she excuses herself to take a phone call. I know instantly he’s anxious about Eden’s refusal to see the problem for what it is.
Logan might not be here right now, but if he’s her fourth he’s never going to go away.
Chapter Three
Eden
Amy’s call couldn’t come at a better time. Explaining the situation with Logan to my guys was as hard as I’d thought it would be, and it didn’t quite take all of the tension out of the air. I get why. They hate him. He’s the worst pick for a fourth that I could have made.
“Are you listening to me, Eden?” Amy’s tone is strained.
Considering I have no clue what she was just talking about, I guess I really wasn’t listening. I glance around the bedroom as if that’ll give me some kind of clue. All it does is remind me what happened in here earlier and that isn’t helpful when I’m trying to concentrate on mundane conversational topics like work stuff. I blow out a breath.
“Um, can you repeat what you were saying? The line was kind of crackly.”
“You need to come to L.A. in a couple of days to start the promo work for the tour.”
“A couple of days?” Damn, that’s soon.
“I can get you on that late show with the female host in two days time, and there are a couple weeks of that kind of stuff as well as getting your new album recorded so we can release it to coincide with the start of the tour.” She rattles off more, but I’m still stuck on the two days part.
My heart sinks at the thought of leaving my guys again so soon, even if it soars at the thought of performing for stadiums again in little over a month. I can’t wait to get back on the tour trail. I could just do without all of the promotional BS that goes along with it.
“Two days,” I murmur. I know what show she’s talking about. The red-head who hosts is probably the best I could ask for when it comes to breaking the news about my love-life. She might crack wise a little, but it’s better than giving some old guy a heart-attack or putting up with snide looks from that creepy womanizer on the other big late show. Once it’s out, there’s no coming back. Every other interviewer will ask about it. The dread I expect to feel at that realisation doesn’t come.
Let them ask. The world’s about to know the real me. Whether they can handle it or not is their problem.
“So I’ll see you then?” Amy’s question snaps me back out of my thoughts.
“Sure. Text me a reminder. I need to go.” I hang up and head back into the kitchen. If I’m about to head back to L.A. I want a proper send off.
Chapter Four
Asher
Logan is Eden’s fourth? My seemingly insatiable hunger deserts me as soon as Eli announces it. Can’t be true. No, wait, it can. I just don’t want to believe it. Dire circumstances had to lead to this. I know that. Eden’s explanation is breezy, almost blasé. Like it was just something she had to do to get the job done. Like it doesn’t matter now. Like he means nothing to her.
I know that’s not true. She loved him. He loved her. Things didn’t work out, but their feelings were real. She can pretend it means nothing, but I know differently. I catch Eli’s eye and I know he’s thinking along the same lines. I could have spoken to him when Eden left to take her call, but I didn’t want to. Speaking to Eli and Nick solves nothing.
It’s Eden who’s lying to herself. And to all of us.
I follow her upstairs and wait outside the room she steps into to take the call. It’s her manager, I can tell by her tone. It’s warmer for Skyler, and downright hot for any of her men. If it were Logan calling, I’d know how she felt about him instantly.
“Two days?” She sounds shocked.
My guts twist up inside. She’s going away again. This time for work. That she apparently wants to get back to. She wants to leave Rapture again. To tour with Skyler’s band and her own and who the hell knows how many body guards and back up musicians.
The green-eyed demon inside me rears his monstrous head. Eden isn’t going to hook up with whoever she feels like sleeping with on tour. I know that. Yet, I can’t stop picturing her surrounded by men like Nick, muscular and tattooed, with heads full of kinky ideas.
She’ll be gone for months. I’ll only be able to visit sporadically. It kills me every time she goes away. Not seeing her for weeks? I don’t think I can do it. So what’s the alternative?
She sighs wearily as she hangs up the phone. I tap on the door and she pulls it open.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” she echoes back, giving me a small smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
“I know you have to go back to work.” I say it as I take her hand and pull her toward me.
“I wish it didn’t have to be so soon.” She wraps her arms around my waist and places her head on my chest. “But we’ll find a way to see each other. I’m not going to go weeks without seeing you.”
I wish I could say that reassured me. I want to tell her why this thing with Logan isn’t going to just go away, but I can’t make the words come to start that conversation. Not now. She’s about to leave again. I just want to hold on to her. “I know. We’ll work it out.”
Chapter Five
Logan
Skyler looks me over suspiciously when I arrive at her apartment. Her sly smirk makes my stomach churn. It’s typical that my first day back would mean working for her. Out of all the celebrities in L.A., she has to be the one in need of a new bodyguard.
“You saw me die, right?” she asks, her tone flippant. It’s the last thing I expect her to ask, but it doesn’t bother me to answer that question.
“You blew your brains out two feet away from me.”
“Why didn’t you stop me?” She raises her eyebrows and folds her arms.
“I was being possessed by the same bitch who made you do it. I had no control over anything right then.” It’s only the truth, but acknowledging it makes me grind my teeth. Being powerless and out of control of your own damn body isn’t a pleasant feeling.
“Right,” she says. “Why didn’t you stay in Rapture with Eden?”
I’m not prepared for the ache her second question creates in my gut. I’m still in love with Eden, but that doesn’t matter right now. She was forced to accept me as her fourth lover to enable her powers to fully manifest. She wasn’t going to make that decision. Lawson pushed us onto a path that I wasn’t ready for and she wasn’t interested in taking.
“The woman I was going to spend my life with died,” I tell her, watching her flinch at my tone. “That town and everything in it is dead to me.”
She’s silent for a few long seconds. I’m not sure what she’s thinking. She was always a bit of a wild card. I never envied Cain. He had his work cut out for him with this one.
Finally, she opens her mouth. “You get that I don’t really need a body guard now, right?”
“You’re immortal.”
She nods. “This is an appearances thing. It’ll keep the creeps who think I’m defenceless from trying to get to me. I picked you because you know that. And because you’re fast and you’ll keep them from getting close enough to find out I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
Sounds like a cake-walk. My brain catches on the fact that she ‘picked’ me. I try to shake it off. She must have asked who they had available, that’s all. My unease at this situation only deepens. There’s something I’m missing here. I get that she’d pick me because I have insider knowledge that makes being herself around me easier, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to it than that.
“I have meetings all damn day,” she tells me with a weary sigh. “Get ready to drive me around town.”
Back to the grindstone, I guess. I watch her make calls and move in and out of her bedroom a half dozen times, her clothes changing with each exit into the living room area of the apartment. I take a walk around the room as I wait, checking the entry points and clo
sing a window. I have to wipe my fingers on my jeans after. Everything is dusty, and the only thing hiding that is the mess of clothes and random trash scattered around. This place costs an absolute fortune to rent and it looks like a pig sty.
“You don’t have a cleaner?” I call out, not quite able to keep the thought to myself.
“I do, but she’s been drinking on the job. Clearly I need to fire her,” she says, rolling her eyes at me when she comes out of her bedroom in the sixth and, I hope, final outfit of the day. The black top and purple leggings are pretty understated for the woman who’s been known to go clubbing in see-through dresses and very little else. I prefer day-time Skyler to that.
“You’re ready to leave?” I have my car keys in my hand a second later.
“I guess so.” She looks me over, something in her gaze that makes me frown. “Hairdressers first. Same girl Eden uses. You know the way.”
I do, and I wish I didn’t. Should have known this would be a special kind of torture when I took the job. She knows Eden as well as I do. They like a bunch of the same things, known a ton of the same people. I get the feeling this job is going to test my last nerve. I should walk away. Right now. Turn it down, wait for the next gig. Get the hell away from everything that reminds me of Eden.
“You’re ready, right?” Sky raises an eyebrow at me as she heads toward the door.
Not yet, I think as I picture Eden walking back into my life. Not yet, but I will be.
“Let’s go.”
Chapter Six
Eden
Asher’s kiss is slow, but insistent, as if he’s desperate to make it last. If I didn’t already know how much he’d miss me, this would tell me everything I needed to know. My hand rests against his chest as he pulls me in closer at the waist. His hands are on my back, keeping my body pressed firmly to his as his kiss becomes ravenous. I moan into his mouth as his tongue slicks over mine. His heart is pounding out of control and I can feel the hard swell of his cock against my body.
Bad Blood (Rock Goddess Reverse Harem Book 5) Page 1