Monster (28 page)

Eden swallowed around the lump in her throat, the words that she wanted to say plummeting back into her stomach, which was just was well because she was sure they wouldn’t have made much sense anyway. A wave of female delight rippled through every inch of her body at his words. She knew they shouldn’t have affected her this much, but they did, burrowing into her racing heart and making a home there. Caught in the trance of his gaze, unable to formulate a concrete thought, she ran her tongue across her lower lip and marveled at how his eyes dilated at that one simple action. For a man who had very little practice in romance, Dominic surely knew how to appeal to a woman’s heart, and he made it so incredibly difficult for Eden to remain unmoved when he did and said things like this. “Thank you, Dominic,” she said, reaching for his hands across the table, and though he seemed surprised by the gesture, he instantly interlaced their fingers, his larger hand engulfing hers. “This means a lot to me.” More than you will probably ever know, she thought silently.

The remainder of the evening continued on in the same the note and though Eden knew this wasn’t his scene, there was nothing in his mannerism that indicated his displeasure at being there with her. In fact, he appeared completely at ease as they listened to poetry and watched the performances. She found that she couldn’t really keep her eyes off him; the rarely seen smile making frequent appearances throughout the evening was like the sun peeking out after a rainstorm, and his laughter, even more warming, roused a series of flutters in her stomach that had nothing to do with the cheap beer they were drinking. When they arrived home a few hours later, Eden was quick to identify that tumultuous thrum in her veins as anticipation. It had been building all night, slow and burning, arcing through her body in search of a proper outlet. Dominic. Her drug in Hugo Boss. In the privacy of her mind, Eden could shamelessly affirm that she was irrevocably addicted to him. She needed the dopamine inducing opiate of his kisses, and the total body orgasm of his touch. At the bottom of the staircase of this palatial home that had been both heaven and hell, he looked at her and she back at him, compelling him to close that gap between them and take her up to the master bedroom to satisfy her withdrawal. But he didn’t move an inch, in fact the space between them only grew wider as he seemed miles away from here.

“Dominic?” she queried expectantly.

When he did finally close the gap between them, it wasn’t to drag her frame to his and ravish her mouth as she’d hoped. He simply pressed a kiss to her cheek, his intoxicating scent invading her senses in the best way possible and turning her brain to mush. “Thank you for letting me share this evening with you, Eden.” He was gone before she could register what just happened, leaving her physically and emotionally unsatisfied.

* * *

It was not something he wanted, but it needed to be done in the hopes of salvaging what remained of their marriage. It didn’t make the least bit of sense, at least not in the way some would perceive it, and if it had been years prior, months even, the idea, the very notion would have never crossed Dominic’s mind, let alone bear contemplating. But now it was all that consumed his thoughts. Vacillating more times than he could count but nearly always returning to same conclusion. It did not need to make sense in order to be right. Freedom was what she craved, what she’d always wanted, and so freedom was what Dominic would provide. He peered down at the first page of the documents his attorney had left him nearly an hour ago and the curving scrawl of his signature on the bottom of the page. Legal and notarized. He’d never thought he’d find this day so dissatisfying.

He rose to his feet and expelled an exasperated breath, a deep contemplative crease settled between his dark brows while his mouth compressed into a grim line. He moved to the full length window of his office without really seeing, his mind too far away to admire the sprawling metropolis at his feet with its kaleidoscope of twinkling lights and the death of the sun splashed across the horizon. Everything in him rebelled at this decision and even his attorney had questioned him several times when Dominic had requested the divorce papers be finalized. But regardless of his misgivings, Dominic had scrawled his name before he could talk himself out of it. He had been selfish for far too long. And as much as it pained him to let her go, Dominic wanted her happiness more than anything. This was a step
in the right direction. There were things that needed to be done, steps he personally had to take if he hoped to find his way to back her again. And he would find her again.

“Mr. Armstrong?” a monotone voice inquired, drawing a reluctant Dominic from his thoughts. He gave a heaving sigh before turning around to finally acknowledge the woman seated primly on the aesthetically pleasing but wholly uncomfortable leather couch in the corner of his office. He regarded Naomi Stanford with an analytical stare, she came highly recommended, one of the best in her field, but not at all what Dominic had expected for a psychiatrist. She appeared quite young for one thing, pegging her somewhere in her late twenties. She was pretty in the prim and proper sort of way, blond with a pair of horned rimmed glasses poised on her button nose. She didn’t flinch away from his stare or react to the skepticism that he made no point in hiding. “Should we get started?” she asked after a time, placing her tablet on her lap and looking at him expectantly.

Dominic moved around to the front of his desk and leaned back against it. Crossing his legs at the ankles, he folded his arms and asked, “You’ve been seeing, Bruce?” He was clearly insinuating something, knowing fully that she was too much temptation for Bruce not to sample. If his best friend was fucking the prim Dr. Stanford then Dominic needed to know before he revealed anything to her that could inadvertently spill out during late night pillow talks. Despite his ongoing efforts to change, under no circumstances did Dominic want his past revealed to the philandering politician. Best friend or not.

“What exactly are you asking, Mr. Armstrong?”

“Have you slept with Bruce?”

The appalled look of indignation that swept over her pale features was answer enough for Dominic. “I think we’re done here.” She rose to her feet in a huff and stuffed her tablet in her bag before hastening toward the door.

“Come back, Dr. Stanford,” he called, and she hesitated, “I apologize for my rudeness, please have a seat.”

“Another comment like that and you can find yourself another psychiatrist,” she bit out coolly.

“Of course,” he assured, “should we start again?”

Once again settled, she held her tablet on her lap and regarded him. “Why don’t we start with why you’ve requested to see me
today.” The note of anger in her voice couldn’t easily be quelled, but she was anything if not a professional and well worth the two hundred dollar an hour she was being paid. “Anything significant in your life you wish to discuss?”

Dominic chuckled drily, returning to his chair he pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment in an effort to gather his thoughts. When he finally looked at her, it was with unfailing certainty that he said, “I want to be a better man.”

* * *

She searched him out, not really knowing she was doing it until she stood outside his office door. The handle gave beneath the downward push of her hand, and she entered without a second thought. Missing him had become a debilitating thing that lived inside her now, so Eden had convinced herself that if she only had one good look at him she could put the thing to rest and leave. She’d expected him to be alone, but the sight of his half-brother put an immediate halt to her progression. She’d walked in on something deep apparently, because the energy in the air was so palpable that it settled on her skin like mist. Dominic sat behind his desk; darkly handsome, hard boned features set in granite but seemed to soften slightly when his green gaze flicked in her direction. The look was a minor one, barely discernable unless one was really looking, and it seemed Lucas had been doing just that as he turned to see what had brought on the sudden change in his brother. Lucas looked at her, but she only had eyes for his brother. Always his damnable brother, the proverbial pain in his ass. How did someone who should’ve had nothing end up with so much? Even the devotion of a woman who should’ve rightfully despised him? Eden should’ve been his to begin with, but Lucas had dulled the ache of losing her with good liquor, countless women, and a few good rounds at the poker tables. Through every bout of disappointment, he’d had his family’s wealth to make him happy. But now it appeared that too was gone. All thanks to Dominic.

“You have no legal right to cut me off.”

“Actually I do,” Dominic retorted with infallible calm, leaning back in his chair to regard Lucas in that imperious way that made one feel like they were nothing beneath his gaze. “I have been named the trustee to your trust fund, and as I’ve said earlier, you are to meet certain requirements before I will consider relinquishing it back to you.”

“Rehab,” Lucas spat the word. “I’m not an alcoholic!” he roared, rising he swung his arm and everything on Dominic’s desk came crashing to the ground, causing Eden to jump at the loud clatter.

Dominic stood. “It appears alcoholism is the least of your problems, Lucas.”

“I didn’t have a fucking problem until you came into my life!” he roared, and when he rounded the desk and invaded Dominic’s personal space, Eden knew they would come to blows. She didn’t know what good she was going to do, but she at least needed to try and diffuse the situation before it got completely out of hand.

“Dominic…” she called tentatively.

Dominic ignored her. “The problem with you is that you are an entitled, spoiled little boy too lazy to get off his mother’s teat and do something with your life.”

Lucas shoved at Dominic’s chest with enough force to have the other man stumbling backwards and when he grabbed the lapels of Dominic’s shirt bringing them face to face, he snarled, “Your goddamn cum bucket of a mother should’ve killed you the very second she found out about you. You’re nothing but a mistake, Dominic, no wonder why she wanted nothing to do with you.”

“Lucas!” Eden grabbed at his arm to try and pry him off, the words he’d just uttered more than hateful, provoked her protective instincts and she wanted to physically attack him for hurting Dominic this way. “Let him go!” she railed tugging for all she was worth on Lucas’s arm.

“Fuck off!” he jerked his arm back and shoved hard so that she went sailing, crashing first into the desk before falling to the floor from the impact. With her eyes closed from the pain, she didn’t see exactly what happened next but when she did reopen them, Dominic was pummeling at Lucas, fists crashing down connecting with the sickening crunch of bone hitting bone. Eden knew she wasn’t in a condition to move with her head spinning and her back screaming in protest, but she had to get Dominic to stop, otherwise he was going to kill his brother.

“No more…” She crawled to where he stood grounded and wrapped her arms around his leg because that was all her body would allow and held on. “Please…stop…” He did.

“Be very grateful for this day,” he grated, his laborious breath coming in short and fast. “Because the next time you come at me like this, you had better be ready to kill me yourself, Lucas.”

When Lucas finally stumbled out of Dominic’s office, it was not only with a bloodied and battered face, but his bruised pride kept his head down. Eden didn’t pay much attention to him, all that mattered to her was seeing to Dominic. She called for someone in the kitchen to bring up a towel and some ice which thankfully they weren’t made to wait too long for. Seated in front of him on the carpeted floor, with her legs curled beneath her buttocks, Eden put a few cubes of ice in the towel and folded it tightly closed before gently applying it to his bruised knuckles. The adrenaline was wearing off now, but she was still shaken by the display of violence she’d witnessed.

Dominic watched her work almost too diligently on his wounds and knew he’d up screwed once again. He had known when he’d called Lucas over to notify him of his inevitable visit to rehab, that things would get out of hand, given Lucas’s explosive temper, and the very real possibility of losing his
trust. The situation had been volatile from the start. Which was why Dominic had endeavored to remain calm. A calm that abandoned him the very second Lucas made the mistake of shoving Eden. He’d lost it there for a second, admittedly. However inadvertent the shove may have been, Dominic had failed to see the difference. There’d been a haze of red and the undeniable need for violence. It had taken her touch and her voice to clear that haze and draw him back from the edge of the consuming violence that had felt too good to be right. He didn’t like himself that way. Dominic didn’t relish her seeing that violent side of him. But these were the demons he was attempting to exorcise.

“There’s no bleeding,” she whispered unevenly. “Just some bruising…”

Dominic peered down at her auburn head, her hair concealing her face from his view, but he could tell that she was visibly shaken, even if the tremors of her hands didn’t give her away.

“Eden.”

“I think we need more ice.” She didn’t meet his gaze when she came to her feet. Her legs felt like jelly beneath her she wavered, but his fast reflexes caught her before she could tumble back down.

With his hand at her hip, he interlaced their fingers together. “We don’t need more ice,” he murmured.

She blinked. “But your hands…”

“Will heal. I just…don’t leave.” The slightest tug brought her to his lap. He gently pried the towel of ice from her cold, damp hands and set it down on the edge of his desk, before drawing in a ragged sigh. “I’m sorry you had to see that.” His arm banded possessively around her waist, but he didn’t need to do much to keep her there because Eden wouldn’t have moved if he wanted her to. “I could have handled it better.”