Monster (16 page)

“I don’t get out much,” she said with brevity, wishing that she’d followed after Dominic the instant he’d left her.

“Clearly.” The acerbic reply was uttered with a smile that was the furthest thing from inviting.

“Ignore her, Eden. Carissa has been vying for Dominic’s attention for a very long time, and as much as it’s been entertaining watching him rebuff her advances, now we all know why,” Beatrice explained.

“So what do you do, darling?”

“Eden is a dancer,” Millicent pronounced grandly, staring down at Eden with a small smile.

They perked up at that, especially the one standing at Eden’s right who appeared much younger than the rest of the women in the circle. “How lovely, where did you train? Are you a classical dancer or lyrical?”

“Heaven’s no, nothing so refined, Lucia.” Millicent laughed sharply. “I’m afraid Eden’s dancing skills lean more to the exotic than anything so cultured, isn’t that right, dear?”

It was a trap—a well-crafted trap that Millicent had facilitated—and Eden unwittingly walked right into it. Cold sweat formed and beaded on her skin making her uncomfortable as they all expectantly waited on her to reveal herself for the classless, unrefined stripper Millicent had all but accused her of being. “I—”

“How very gauche of you to pick on my brother’s wife in such a way, Mother,” chided a voice from the not too distant past. “This color is very unbecoming of you.” Lucas Armstrong was nothing like his brother. Where Dominic was darkly menacing, broody and infinitely more complex, Lucas was fair, careless and shallow. There was no commonality between the two except for the dark green eyes they’d inherited from their father. Lucas was as equally tall as his brother but lacked Dominic’s powerful physique; he was built wirier with a longer torso and arms that fit nicely into the suit he wore. He’d let his ginger blond hair grow longer than what Eden remembered so that it skimmed at the collar of the suit jacket he wore. There was a faint bruise on his right cheek and a cut near his mouth that spoke of his latest drunken brawl. He stood at Eden’s side now, her temporary champion, as he smiled irreverently at the women in their circle, all the while ignoring his mother’s disparaging look.

“Lucas, darling, we were not expecting you.”

“No of course not, this is why I decided to crash. It’s so much more fun this way,” he looked down at Eden, “don’t you agree?”

Eden frowned, hating her position in the middle of all this. “I think I need a drink,” she murmured.

“Well, I know just the place. You will excuse us won’t you, Mother? Ladies?” With that, he tugged her away from the pit of vipers and led her to a very far corner where he handed her a champagne flute he’d confiscated from the tray of a passing waiter. “A second longer and my mother was going to unhinge her jaw and swallow you whole,” he quipped, standing just in front of her as he watched her guzzle down her drink.

“Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she said quietly, feeling lightheaded.

“I can be pretty useful when I’m not drunk.” He grinned lopsidedly. “It’s been a long time, Eden.” He raised a hand to ghost his cool fingers across her fevered cheek. “God, you’re still so beautiful. I guess I can’t blame Dominic for keeping you all to himself.” He took a step closer to her, invading her personal space and assaulting her senses with the sharp, acrid scent of the alcohol that permeated from him. “If he hadn’t taken you from me, I would’ve probably done the same thing.” He wasn’t drunk, Eden had seen a drunk Lucas before, and thankfully this wasn’t it, but she could tell that he’d had more than a few. While his actions were wholly unappreciated, she knew someone else who would appreciate them far less. Sensing the eyes of several and knowing they were garnering the attentions of several others, Eden prudently set a hand at the center of Lucas’s chest to push him away from her. In doing so, she sidestepped him and wrapped her arm around his.

“Come get some water with me.” She led them to the bar, and while Eden ordered herself a glass of water, Lucas requested a shot, taking a seat beside her.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she enquired of the whiskey that was set in front of him.

Disregarding her question, he wrapped his fingers around the glass, raised it up to her, and tossed it back with a grimace. “I saw you first,” he said after a moment, the petulance in his voice making him sound much younger than his twenty eight years. “You were supposed to be married to me.” He raised a hand to flag the bartender for another. “But then I can’t say I’m surprised. My irreproachable bastard brother has always been very good at taking everything that belongs to me.” He nursed the shot glass, oblivious to her presence. He seemed lost in thought as he spoke, looking straight ahead at a memory only he could see.

“He’s always been infuriatingly good at everything, outshining me in every aspect. He even managed to gain the respect and affections of our grandfather, a feat neither me nor our father could accomplish even when the old curmudgeon had been alive. But do you want you want to know the funny part in all this?” When he turned those glassy green eyes on her, Eden saw so much more than the alcoholism that coated his ruddy features. “I wanted a brother. I begged my parents for a brother. And then one day, I had one. But he wasn’t what I’d expected, nothing like I’d hoped. There was something wrong with him, something off about him… But then what was to be expected from the son a prostitute who was sold to his own family? His mother took everything away from him, including his humanity, so is it any wonder that he wishes to take everything that belongs to me as well, just so he can make himself feel better? It’s always been this way, Eden. He took you from me because that’s what he does.”

Eden reeled from what she’d just heard, stunned into complete silence she stared at Lucas disbelievingly, and then she was thrown into another tailspin of emotion when the hairs at the back of her neck stood on end. Even before she heard the lethal intonation of his voice, she knew he was near. “Another word, Lucas, and you will find how extremely tolerant I’ve been towards you.” He kept a tight rein on a fury that burned like a blaze, but Eden felt it, felt the tension that seized his entire frame, coiled so tautly beneath the impeccable suit he wore that she feared it would erupt at any given moment. And from a face that was as dark and ominous as thunderclouds, Eden saw the way he clenched his jaw from the effort not to rip into his drunken sibling. Without warning, he brusquely apprehended her, wrapping a hand around her arm, drawing her into the unyielding strength and encompassing warmth of his body. “You will leave the premises of your own accord within the next two minutes, or I will have James escort you out.” He did not linger a moment longer but rather urged her to the expansive dining room where the guests were now seated at their respective tables.

Dinner came and went, and through it all, Eden expected him to say something to her; for him to refute or condemn any of the things his brother had spoken. But he remained infuriatingly quiet completely disregarding her presence despite the fact that she was sitting right next to him. Though her attention was intermittently diverted by the gentleman to her left who wished to engage her in conversation, Eden ultimately found herself staring at Dominic’s profile throughout the evening, wondering not for the first time exactly who he was. She knew this man, knew the lengths of his cruelty, knew the ruthless determination that coursed through his veins when he desired something and did everything within his power to obtain it, regardless of who he hurt in the process. Eden knew of his insurmountable wealth, knew the sort of power that came hand in hand with that wealth and how expertly Dominic wielded it for his own selfish means.

His immorality was infamous; having witnessed it firsthand, she knew how limitless it could be. She knew that he was gorgeous as sin and knew that despite how much she denied it, she was incredibly attracted to him, inexplicably drawn to the seductive darkness that lay prevalent in him. It was a
darkness that both repelled and intrigued her, and it was for this reason that Eden would never openly admit it to anyone else; even now, internally conceding to the notion, made her question the state of her mind. There were things she thought she knew of this man, things that were intrinsically true, things that she’d learned in the five years of their ill-fated marriage, but really Eden knew nothing about Dominic Armstrong. They’d been virtual strangers to each other when they’d married and continued to be so now, stuck in a limbo of their own making.

Lucas’s words rang in her mind, the things he’d said of Dominic’s biological mother…had she really been a prostitute? And even more startling was the question of whether she’d really sold her son to the Armstrong’s. How much of what Lucas had said had been truth, and how much had been simply Lucas’s own failings heaped upon his half-brother? A part of Eden wanted answers, wanted to find Lucas and have him divulge every sordid secret of Dominic’s past. But she knew embarking on that path, opening that Pandora’s Box would inevitably suck her into a reality she didn’t want any part of. To know was to care and caring about Dominic Armstrong wasn’t in her MO.

“Did you know Lucas was going to be there?” Eden found herself asking on the quiet, tension filled ride back to the mansion a while later. In fact, she hadn’t meant to say anything at all and inwardly cursed her wayward mouth, hating that she’d goaded herself to filling the deafening silence. Seated once more across from him, she was privy to his facial expressions for only the briefest of moments before he schooled them back to granite, closing her off like he was always did. Withdrawn and mired in silent introspection, he appeared unaware of her presence in the car, and for once Eden wanted to know what he was thinking, wanted insight into that detached expression that shadowed his rawboned features. If they were to have any sort of peace in the ensuing six months of this contract, then they would need to come to some common ground. Never mind that her curiosity was highly piqued now, her mind refusing to ruminate on anything other than what Lucas had told her. It changed nothing of course, but Eden wanted to know what had happened. How that little boy Lucas had described ended up being this brutally contemptuous man who relished controlling every aspect of her life.

Dominic settled narrowed eyes on her beautiful face to find her luminous golden stare focused on him and quickly realized that she was trying to read him, glean secrets he was nowhere ready to share. Never having been the object of sympathy, Dominic’s pride resented the notion that he was the subject of her pity. He wanted nothing more from her than what she could do for him in the bedroom. He wanted her pliant and supple body writhing beneath him as he rode them both to delirium, and in return, Dominic could shower her with jewels and every materialistic thing she could possibly desire. That was all he was equipped to give her, all he could provide. Anything else…there was nothing else. Lucas’s words dragged on with fervor, reminding Dominic of a dismal childhood that had been filled with more fear and agony than any child should ever experience.

It had taken a great exercise in restraint not to violently hurt his younger brother and even still, Dominic was filled with the undeniable urge for vengeance—the inescapable emotion that came so naturally to him—to retaliate in the worst possible way and make his brother pay for divulging secrets that Dominic himself had vowed would never see the light of day. From the very moment he’d come into his inheritance, he’d gone to great lengths to see that his past with Sheila Swanson was eradicated, not only to insure that no one ever learned the extent of his mother’s abuse, but to also exorcise himself from that upbringing. He’d worked tirelessly to forget, to bury and remember only when they manifested themselves in his dreams. Those memories, his demons and the shame they brought, were
solely for him to contend with, but one careless, or rather deliberate slip of the tongue from a brother who would sooner see him hang, had left Dominic utterly exposed, vulnerable to the one person who had the means to use it against him if she wanted. It unsettled him that she was privy to this information, that along with her already low opinion of him, she now had knowledge of this, too. That unwelcome reminder dragged contempt and savage hatred to the surface, and it burned with acidic rage, wanting him to unleash it.

“What the hell were you doing with my brother?” he queried in a voice edged with unveiled savagery. “Convening on how to take down a mutual enemy? Or scheduling that long overdue rendezvous for the next time you decide to run?”

Taken aback by the unprovoked attack, Eden stared bemusedly at him, astonished at the thunderous expression of anger that clouded his features. She didn’t know why she was so surprised. Dominic didn’t need any particular reason to be malicious; he wasn’t at all content unless he was being a complete dick at some point. “Yes, of course because you think me so incapable of having a conversation with any man, least of all your brother without it involving sex. I am amazed of how very little you think of me,” she shot back with biting sarcasm.

“I did not enjoy seeing you with him,” he groused darkly, showing very little sign of contrition. “And it would appall you to learn just how much you consume my thoughts.” He shot her a look so raw and primitive that she wanted to open the car door and flee. But imprisoned as she was inside the confines of the limousine, Eden could only avert her gaze and silently sustain the palpable heat of what that look implied.

“I wasn’t putting him on my ‘who wants to fuck Eden schedule’. Lucas was saving my ass from his snake of a mother and her pit of vipers. He took me to the bar and—”

“And told you an origin story.” His mouth twisted. “It’s one Lucas is very fond of telling.”

“So you tell it,” she invited softly, running her tongue across her lips in nervous habit. “What Lucas said—”

“Bears no relevance to our contract, therefore, it is not your concern,” he said flatly, his stony expression putting an end to her line of questioning. The limo came to a stop at exactly that moment, and he descended without a word. That he could dismiss her so abruptly, so callously and reduce her to nothing more than the contract that they’d both signed was telling of the endless dynamic of their relationship. In a sense, it was sobering for him to do this, to keep her at arm’s length, so that she remembered exactly where she fit in his life and what role she was designated to play. And she’d forgotten that, hadn’t she? For one ephemeral moment she’d wanted to know a little bit about the man
she had married, the man who had fathered her child. She’d felt moved to feel something for him, and he’d ungraciously tossed it back in her face. Well, now that Eden was cured of her momentary lapse of insanity, she was once again focused on her goal: the divorce.

Once she’d showered and dressed, she set Liam inside his crib and returned to her bed, collapsing on the yielding mattress with a big sigh. It didn’t take long for sleep to weigh her eyes down and slacken her body, and while she tried not to think about Dominic and the shadowy details of his past, Eden slept fitfully while plagued with dreams of a little boy who looked like her Liam and some unknown specter trying to take him from her.

* * *

It was odd that they would both come to the same unspoken truce in the ensuing weeks, where they tried not to antagonize each other, yet worked seamlessly towards a mutual purpose: Liam. Liam was their common ground, and Dominic demanded to be involved in every aspect of Liam’s life. From mundane monthly doctor appointments to giving, sometimes unwelcomed input, as to what his child would be wearing. If Eden was annoyed by his highhanded intrusiveness, she kept it to herself. She did however execute his requirements of her with quiet resolve, playing the hostess to his rare and illustrious parties, where she laughed easily and charmed his guests into enjoying themselves.

The parties were very exclusive, very private, attended solely by the city’s elite and held almost always on Dominic’s yacht. They were daunting of course, and faced with these affluent people who were worldlier and far more educated than she could be, Eden relied solely on her intuition and charm to get her through it. It wasn’t anything new to her. She’d done this before, had been paraded around these people more times than she could count. But there was a glaring difference now than before—Dominic’s attentiveness—his undeniable presence by her side when they attended these events. For one thing, he’d called her “his wife” more times than she could ever remember him saying. There was not only a quiet possession there, but it was said with the authority of a man who understood the significance of the word. There were no piercing glances of reproach or even a hint of that air of entitlement when he introduced her to his guests. For once, Dominic Armstrong did not outright demean his wife or make her feel completely inferior to him. And for all of Eden’s confidence and façade of indifference, Dominic’s mannerisms disconcerted her. She didn’t know what to think or how to react to this side of him, so she said nothing, choosing to ignore the conflicting emotions this sudden change produced.

With sleep eluding him and a stack of neglected work clamoring for attention on his desk, Dominic made his way to his home office to attempt to get some work done. Finding that he did his best work with a little incentive, he ambled to his liquor cabinet to pour himself a glass of his best scotch and that was when he heard it. It was faint, barely discernable at such a distance, so he paused for a moment, thinking he’d imagined it. Standing at the threshold of his office door, he strained to listen from where the sound was coming from. It was louder in the hallway and grew louder as he followed it, drawn like an ill-fated sailor to the siren’s call that compelled him closer, lured him until all that mattered, all that existed for him was that sound.

Up the stairs, around the corner, until finally he stood outside the closed doors from where the sound originated. He drew it open with one smooth yet forceful tug and was instantly besieged with the strains of piano chords, ascending and descending, skimming effortlessly over complex intervals with dexterity. The melody was a soft one, sad, and her voice accompanied it, fused so perfectly with her playing that Dominic stood arrested. God, she could sing. He’d forgotten she held this pure and natural talent. There was a soulful quality to her voice, one that she possessed with brilliant control, and while the song emphasized the warmth and resonance of her voice, it also stirred something in Dominic, reaching down to the center of him, touching his core, and providing a glimmer of warmth to his otherwise bleak and dark soul.

Breath left his lungs and he felt like he was being choked as memories from his childhood flashed through his mind, where pain, violence, and fear from so long ago contested with the crushing warmth and tenderness that her voice evoked. He must’ve done something, probably made a noise that put an immediate stop to the song, to her voice, to the torturous memories that left him hating the world. She turned to look at him. He looked at her and then was in front of her. Lightning fast reflexes kept her from leaving; he trapped her, cornered her against the baby grand and his large body. He fisted his hands into her unbound hair, his fingers gripping the silken mass to bring her to him even as his mouth found hers with scorching urgency.

He tasted her, her sweetness his undoing as he groaned, the sound rumbling through his chest. He claimed her, forgoing tender kisses for plunging his tongue into her, angling her head to gain better access. Dominic wanted more, he wanted it all, needed her like he needed his next breath. He nipped at her lips, at her chin, and drew her head back to gain access to her delicate neck, grazing his teeth and licking until he left marks. She was braless, her nipples hardening as he cupped a hand around the shape of her breast. She gasped as Dominic clamped down over that pert little nub between his teeth. She released a sweet little sound that was between whimper and mewl as her back arched reflexively, her chest rising to meet the unarguably arousing heat of his persistent mouth that suckled her breast through the thin layer of her shirt. He couldn’t get enough, ravenous, Dominic wanted to consume her. In the silence, there was nothing but his harsh breaths coming short and fast as he quickly lost his grip on control. His searching hands slid up her smooth legs and as he eased between her parted thighs, he gripped her hips and impaled her on his cock.

Eden choked on a gasp, her eyes wide she stared into the unfathomable vortex of his green gaze and found herself desperate to jump. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, needing to keep the moan she knew he yearned to hear to herself as he moved against her. It was appallingly erotic, devastatingly sensual, and as he moved, sensually thrusting his hips forward, making sure that she felt his length stroking right down the center of her, the disjointed sound of the piano keys punctuated every stroke. God… she felt every single velvet steel inch of him through the layers of the clothes that separated them. And just because he knew she refused to share the symphony of pleasure he so easily evoked, he gripped her jaw, inserting just the right bit of pressure to have her mouth fall open and release that whimper that was music to his soul. She needed him to stop. She needed to push him away. But he deprived her of speech, impeded her actions as he threaded a hand through her hair and took possession of her, filling her mouth in the same manner he wanted to fill her cunt.

“If you won’t let me fuck you, then let me taste you.” The primitive growl of his voice was unrecognizable as he breathed against her mouth only to astonish her when he lowered himself before her. “Just a taste…” He sounded tortured, agonized, like life in that moment was contingent on her acquiescence. It shouldn’t have been a very difficult choice at all, and any other woman, a stronger, saner woman, would’ve denied him this request, yet Eden found that she could not lie to herself in that instant, not when every atom in her body strained for his touch. In his all-consuming gaze, she saw her own weakness. Fascination and fear ceaselessly warred inside her, and Eden knew just as much as she hated him, she yearned for him with a raw, unfettered intensity that threatened to burn her from the inside out. But she couldn’t say the words, she couldn’t give her consent because to do so was to openly admit this weakness to him, to give him access to hurt her again.

Dominic however didn’t need her spoken assent as he spied it in her luminous golden eyes, and he relished the small tremor that shot through her when he pressed his mouth to her inner thighs. With all the expertise of an experienced lover, he stripped her of the shorts while the piano keys provided a soundtrack. With the barrier of her shorts gone, his lustful gaze feasted on her with such gluttonous avarice, Eden flushed. Instinct impelled her to close her legs to him, but he put a stop that action instantly with one strong sturdy hand to her thigh. “No...
don’t…”