Beyond Eden (4 page)

Danny hugged her back, his strong arms squeezing her tightly as if he needed the hug as much as she needed to give it. “Missed you,” he whispered into her long hair.

She kissed his clean-shaven cheek once more, her lips lingering for no other reason than the profound need to connect with him. “Missed you too, Danny Boy.”

He laughed, sounding only mildly pained. “I made you dinner. Want some?” “Absolutely.”

Shock of all shocks, Danny could cook!

A guy who looked as good as he did and cooked too, after five glasses of wine Eve was starting to entertain the idea that he was the perfect man. She was giggly,

humming off the buzz of too much alcohol and the warm, comforting feeling of a home-cooked Cuban meal.

“I haven’t had good
picadillo
in years and years.” Eve pushed her plate away from her and slouched lazily in her chair as she rested her hand on her stomach. “So good but I ate too much.”

“It’s good for you. You need some meat on your bones,” Danny said, giving her a sexy grin as he took a long drink out of his wineglass.

She laughed. “You’re channeling your mother.”

“Mmm, perhaps.” Danny tilted his head to study her from across the kitchen table. “You’re pretty good as is—do forgive.”

Eve cracked up, falling over in her chair. She grabbed a handful of long red hair and studied it with mock interest.

He frowned at her. “What’re you doing?”

“Checking to see if it had changed color,” she mumbled, still studying it. “Nope, still red. Perhaps all the wine has you seeing blonde.”

“Fuck you.” He gave her a mock glare, his tone not nearly as fierce as he obviously wanted it to be. “I told you, my tastes have evolved.”

“Whatever,” Eve droned out, rolling her eyes as she reached for her glass of wine. She took a long drink, savoring it. When she and Danny had gone through the chardonnay, Danny got out a bottle of Tuscan red wine he had purchased in Italy. Eve knew it cost more than she would ever pay for a drink but Danny insisted and since he was loaded Eve figured why not. The two of them didn’t have much else to do while they waited for Paul to get home from work. She looked at her watch, seeing it was past nine and frowned. “I thought Paul lived here.”

“In theory, yes.” Danny considered his own glass for a second, appearing almost sad for unknown reasons. “A lawyer’s job is never done. He works overtime—all the time.”

“He should be independently wealthy,” Eve said as she gave Danny another grin. She knew from their dinner conversation that Danny sold cars part time but it was purely for entertainment and social reasons. He really was loaded and spent most of his time enjoying the fruits of his dead father’s labor. “We should all be independently wealthy.”

“This is true,” Danny sighed, still frowning at his wineglass. “I miss the bastard.

He’s never home.” “Terrible of him.”

“Exceedingly so,” Danny agreed, setting his wineglass down and giving her a pointed look. “You want to go fishing?”

“Yes,” Eve squealed in excitement. She used to love fishing. She was feeling sixteen again but the wine had a way of erasing the awkward memories. “I would love it!”

“You are the perfect woman.” Danny gave her another sexy grin. “I always told Paul that. Any woman who looks as good as you and loves to fish is the perfect woman.”

“I can also drive a stick.” Eve grinned smugly. “You know what they say about a woman who can handle a stick shift.”

“I believe you’re flirting with me,” Danny said, laughing at her in a way that didn’t have her feeling self-conscious for getting caught being obvious. “It’s lovely.”

Eve frowned at the very odd and un-Danny-like phrase. He’d been doing that all night. His speech and manners had changed, taking on a polished, more refined air. His Southern accent was gone completely. “Lovely?”

“I hang with a bad crowd,” he sighed heavily. “They’ve influenced my vocabulary.

I was seeing a Brit for several years.”

“Oh, well, nice,” she said, pushing away from the table. “Was there a lake with our name on it?”

Danny stood, leaving the wineglasses and dishes where they were. “There sure is.”

Eve practically fell over the railing of the back porch as Danny reeled in a fish and she cheered enthusiastically, “You finally caught something!”

“Not exactly,” Danny mumbled, putting a cigarette in his mouth as he grabbed the line and pulled the fish closer for inspection. “It’s a mudfish.”

“Eww, throw it back!” she screeched in horror. “We’re not drunk enough to eat that.”

“True,” Danny agreed, still mumbling past the cigarette. He easily unhooked the fish and threw it back. “You’re still ahead. Two bass for you, nothing but shit for me. I’m keeping you around for the fish.”

Eve thought that was funny, her mind going to dirty, unholy places. “For the fish,” she crackled, dropping her pole and falling back to laugh harder. “That’s wrong, wrong, wrong!”

“Evie Girl?”

She gasped, spinning around so quickly she would have lost her footing if someone hadn’t surged forward and caught her and it wasn’t Danny either. His reflexes were as dimmed as hers.

“Whoa, you’re fast.” Eve blinked heavily as she looked into stunned, bright blue eyes. Fear, lust, expectation, they all collided together as she stared into the eyes of the boy she had loved her entire childhood. She swallowed hard, forcing her breathing to steady and her voice to remain light. “We didn’t hear you get here. Hey, Paul Guy.”

“Eve.” Paul stared down at her, his eyes wide and stunned as unreadable emotions flashed in them. His face was still tan, his lips lush and delicious looking. He swallowed

hard, blinking several times and then shook his head as if to clear it. “This is a shock. What’re you doing here?”

“What?” She frowned, still staring up at him longingly as his big, strong hands held her waist. He was wearing a black suit and a gold silk tie. She would never have guessed Paul was made to wear a suit, but he was. She reached up, running her hands over his large shoulders lovingly because she couldn’t resist touching him. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears and what seemed like a whole lifetime of memories that had him in them flashed back at her. His sandy-blond hair was cut short in an expensive, executive-type hairstyle. He was shorter than Danny by several inches but much broader. Even underneath his expensive business suit it was obvious he was extremely muscular, far more so than he was when she had left. Like Danny and fine wine, Paul aged nicely. “I see you’re still yummy.”

Danny snorted, coughing out smoke as he tried and failed to take another drag of his cigarette. “Look who I found wandering aimlessly down the grocery store aisles looking for vanilla ice cream.”

Eve grinned impishly at Paul. “All the better for you to lick.”

“I’m jealous,” Danny said, frowning at both of them. “I haven’t gotten an offer that good all night and I was the one who fed you and diligently refilled your wineglass.”

Eve blew a kiss at Danny before she turned back to Paul, whose arms were still around her waist. “Baby, what kinda lawyer are you?” She looked at her wrist, frowning at it for a moment before she reached for her beer resting on the balcony. After two bottles of wine, Eve and Danny’s fine tastes had been dimmed considerably. She took a long drink and mumbled against the rim of the bottle, “It’s past eleven.”

Paul snorted, giving her a handsome, boy-next-door grin that made her heart flutter. “How much have you had?” he asked, frowning at the bottle in her hand. “And I got news for you, Evie, that ain’t wine. No matter what this asshole tells you.”

Eve pulled back, looking at her bottle of beer with mock indignation. “No shit?”

Paul laughed, the sound warm and masculine, sending a small shiver shimmering down her spine as more memories of him assailed her.

“No shit,” he said, his blue eyes dancing in amusement as he looked down at her. Eve didn’t miss the way his gaze flitted over her body. “You’re a very nice surprise. I thought you were still in New York. When’d you get home?”

“Mmm,” Eve hummed, pushing away from Paul to take a deep breath. She wavered and realized she was actually quite drunk. She was unable to deal with the sudden rush of longing caused from hearing Paul’s voice and feeling his large, strong hands on her waist. She backed up to get away from the scent of his cologne that was earthy and enticing. “New York sucked.” She looked down at her hands when her eyes stung. She thought about the disaster of her last relationship and the fact she was living with her parents once more. Then her inner musings turned to Danny’s mother, gone for the past five years without her knowing it. “Why’d you let me go, Paul Guy? You weren’t supposed to do that.”

Paul sighed, looking away from her, his broad shoulders slumping. “Going to New York was your dream. What kind of friend would I have been to hold you back?”

“Thanks tons,” she mumbled, blinking furiously to fight the tears. “I’ve ruined my life.”

“I doubt that.”

“That’s why I came back.” Eve looked back at Paul with hazy eyes. He was so very handsome but in a different way than Danny, whose striking, dark good looks made him seem almost unapproachable. Paul reminded her of a big, strong teddy bear. She looked at those muscular arms, those large shoulders underneath the lines of his well-tailored suit and thought it would be easy to hide from her life with her face buried against the hard muscles of his chest. “Now I’m home and trying to put my life back together,” she explained and then reminded herself he was more than a friend, he was also an ex-boyfriend. She couldn’t cry on his shoulder over another man. She winced, searching for some stable ground. “My dog died. He was such a sweet dog. You would have loved him.”

“Okay,” Paul said slowly, raising his eyebrows as he looked down at her. “Do you want me to drive you home?”

“God, no,” she insisted, knowing she was in a tough situation. Stumbling back home drunk would create a headache with her mother she didn’t need. “I shouldn’t have drank so much. I’ll just sleep in my car.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said as he cast a long, dark look at Danny. “You can sleep here.”

“Is that an invitation?” she couldn’t help asking, hating the sound of hope in her voice.

“I’ve, um—” Paul started, his cheeks flushing. He looked away, his shoulders slumping in what appeared to be genuine disappointment. “I got a girlfriend.”

“Good on you,” she said, hiding the disappointment easily. Paul was successful, good looking and incredibly sweet and considerate. She wasn’t surprised he had found someone. “Do you love her?”

“I suppose,” he said distractedly. “I’m going to have to insist you stay here tonight.

Do you want me to call your mother?”

“Sure.” She shrugged. “Always the boy scout. You never change.” He frowned at her. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“You’re fine,” she said tiredly. “You want to fish with us?”

“Not particularly. I’ve been at work all day. I wanna eat and pass out.”

“I got some
picadillo
left over,” Danny said, his voice showing concern. “You want me to heat it up for you?”

“Yes, fine,” Paul said, his eyes still on Eve. “You look real good, Evie Girl. I’ve missed you.”

She raised her eyebrows thoughtfully and hummed over the long drink she took of her beer. “I’ve missed you too, Paul Guy. Probably more than I should.”

Danny leaned against the doorway, taking a long drag off his cigarette and watching Paul tuck Eve into bed as if she were a little girl instead of a gorgeous, twenty-eight-year-old woman. Paul’s voice was soft and supportive as he reassured Eve he set everything right with her mother when he called, having used the excuse of a broken-down car rather than drunkenness as the reason she couldn’t get home. His large hands were gentle as they brushed stray strands of hair off her forehead and the sides of her neck. To Danny, who knew Paul better than anyone, his emotions were plain to see. He looked down at Eve as a man starved for the sight of the girl who had run away with his heart to New York when he was still too young to understand he could lose it so easily.

As Danny silently studied them, white-hot jealousy swirled up from a dormant place inside him where he’d kept the dark, painful feelings of his youth locked away for the past ten years. It seemed like a lifetime ago he felt the crushing weight of envy and hurt but his body and soul remembered it easily. He was older, he was wiser but it made no difference as turbulent emotions swirled inside him.

“Thanks to you, she drank way too much,” Paul said as he stood and looked to Danny leaning casually against the doorway. “And the smoke bothers her. It’ll make her nauseated.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Eve turned onto her side, giving Danny a bright smile. She had deep dimples in both cheeks. When she smiled, it made her so beautiful and precious Danny actually felt a stab of pain in his chest from the feelings rushing through him. Still smiling, she said in a whimsical voice, “I like the way you smell, Danny Boy. You smell like Tampa.”

Danny frowned. “Is that a good thing?”

“Very good.” Eve yawned, putting a hand over her mouth. “T-tomorrow, Paul Guy… We’ll catch up tomorrow. It’s Saturday. You don’t work on Saturdays, do you?”

“Sometimes, but not this Saturday.” Paul ran a hand through his hair as he looked down at Eve. “We’ll catch up tomorrow. That’s a good plan.”

Danny glared at Paul, knowing he hadn’t taken a Saturday off in at least six months but said nothing. Instead he turned to look at Eve, whose eyes were closed. She was humming under her breath, making her seem young and innocent. She looked like a goddess right then with her hair the color of dark copper, falling like a veil around her and standing out starkly against the white sheets in their guestroom. Her eye makeup was smudged, accentuating her long eyelashes resting like twin half-moons on her pale cheeks. Her hand was tucked under her cheek as she relaxed in near sleep. The scene was endearingly sweet, if not full of contradictions, which was something Danny had

missed profoundly about Eve. Once again, he reeled over the level of emotions finding her had caused. There was just something about Eve that made him want to snatch her up and keep her as his own forever.