Beyond Eden (8 page)

“That’s quite a proposal,” she mumbled as she blinked up at him, waiting for him to say “gotcha!”

The icy-hot waves of need were washing over her, pulsing through her body with alarming urgency. She finally turned her head away because Danny was too gorgeous. He made thinking clearly impossible. Every breath she took was filled with him. Spicy aftershave, tobacco, Cuban coffee, the combination was starting to smell less like Tampa and more like pure, unadulterated sex accentuated with a face that was intoxicating to look at and a body that was completely sinful in its masculine beauty.

“I’m lonely,” he whispered, his voice raw and unrestrained.

She turned back to him, trying to look past his beauty and sex appeal she knew was blocking her ability to think with anything other than her aching body. She swallowed hard as she stared into eyes that were as dark as the devil’s but glowed with a kindness that was impossible to ignore. She remembered his mother again, aching anew over him losing her when he was still so young.

“What about Paul?” Eve whispered, half worrying he’d walk in and find them in the compromising situation. “Is this fair to him?”

“He’s getting married,” Danny said, choking on the words as he said it, making it obvious he wasn’t pleased. “Trust me, he’s dedicated to the bitch. He won’t leave her, not after all this time. He’s determined to create some sort of stereotypical, perfect American life for himself—one that will make his father proud of him.”

“His father is an asshole,” Eve said bitterly, remembering Paul’s father, a brutish bull of a man who ruled his family with fists and pain instead of love. “Why does he still give a shit what that bastard thinks?”

“I dunno,” Danny said, sounding tired. “I just know I’m lonely and finding you feels like the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long time.”

“You’re sweet.” Eve reached up to cup his cheek as a surge of caring mingled with the lust, making her chest ache. “But I just got out of a bad relationship. My life is a mess. I’m living with my parents. I got no job, no money—”

“Give me a shot,” Danny said pleadingly. “I’ll only hang around until you’re sick of me. There’re no strings, Evie Girl. You can tell me to get lost at any time and I will.”

For some reason, Eve knew he was telling the truth. Danny was a lot of things but a liar wasn’t one of them.

Her body throbbed with pent-up frustration so profound she could taste it. It had been a miserable year for her. She was depressed over her life, her mother was driving her insane and what else did she have to do? Sex with a charming man, one of her oldest friends, someone she was comfortable with, who also happened to bleed raw sensuality so potently she could taste it.

She would be a certifiable idiot to turn down an offer like that.

“I want to talk to Paul about it,” Eve said, placing a hand against his bare chest and closing her eyes when she felt a rush of longing to caress him. “It’ll be awkward if I don’t. You two live together. I want to make sure he’s all right with it.”

“He might be an asshole about it.”

“I’m going to honor his wishes,” Eve said warningly. “We were in love once. I owe him that much. I think you know that.”

“Fine,” Danny said, his eyes flaring with something unrecognizable as he let them run over her longingly. “But let me handle him. I’ll talk to him about it and if he says yes, I’ll have him let you know.”

Eve smiled. “Sounds good to me. That wasn’t a conversation I was looking forward

to.”

She pushed away from him, having to forcibly move his arm from where he held

her trapped against the table. She grabbed her coffee, taking a long sip of it, savoring it once more.

“This is one awesome cup of coffee,” she said as she turned to leave, taking another sip because she was in dire need of it. “If the sex isn’t worth it, the coffee may be.”

“Eve.”

She turned around, raising her eyebrows curiously when she saw Danny was following her down the hallway. He leaned against the wall, his eyes running hungrily over her body, scorching her from across the hall.

“The sex’ll be worth it,” he said in that low, silky voice of his that sent tingles dancing across her already sensitive skin. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“Make sure you do,” Eve said in a low, taunting voice of her own. “I have high expectations and in my life expectation almost always leads to disappointment.”

“Not this time, Evie Girl,” Danny said with a sly smile. “I’m gonna rock your world.”

She nodded as she pushed open the door to the guest bedroom. Her heart was pounding wildly out of control. She closed the door and sucked in an unsteady breath now that she was safely out of sight. Her body pulsed and throbbed from the images running rampant through her mind. Danny was handsome, wealthy and had the golden ability to make everything he did seem effortlessly cool. He had been easily the most popular boy in high school, one of those guys girls idolized like a rock star. He was supposed to be nothing more than fantasy material, not a man that women who lived in the real world had any chance of fucking, let alone landing for more than a one-night stand. The fact that he was suddenly realistically within arm’s reach, not just available, but desperate and hungry for her to the point of begging had Eve wondering, with no small amount of hope, if her luck was changing.

Eve’s car had to be the biggest piece of shit on four wheels. It was a miracle it was still running, though running was probably an overstatement. There were so many things wrong with it Paul felt like fixing it was the equivalent to putting a bandage on a dead man.

But he stood there anyway, with the sun shining on his bare back, causing sweat to roll down the line of his spine as he worked under the hood. The car was a hazard. If Eve had to drive it, he’d attempt to make it as safe as possible.

In truth, he was hiding from her because looking at Eve, who was every bit as radiant at twenty-eight as she was when she was eighteen, felt as if a knife were being driven into his heart. He had forgotten how much he loved her, how all encompassing his adoration of her was. Every word out of her mouth, every smile, every laugh that left her lips, it enchanted and enslaved him. Time and separation hadn’t loosened her hold on him, it just made it easier to hide.

Why did she have to come back now?

He had reached the point in his life where he felt as if he were going to achieve something worthwhile. He had a law degree, a job with a successful and reputable law firm and a fiancée he was ready to marry. His parents liked Trisha. His father thought she was the woman who could keep Paul in line. She was a military brat like him. Her

father had retired a general in the Marine Corps. She came from a family that had wealth and esteem his father could appreciate.

If he married Trisha, his father might forgive him for being a pansy lawyer instead of a Marine because a linebacker with too much enthusiasm had broken his knee.

Like loving Eve enough to let her go, playing college ball had been a mistake.

Paul could have been a good solider like his brothers. He could be fighting in Iraq instead of sitting in fancy boardrooms mediating business mergers. But he had loved football and what had that love given him in return? He was a disappointment to his family who lived and breathed for the honor to fight for their country. His brothers had medals marking them as heroes. Paul had a stupid law degree, a bum knee and a heart that beat for a girl his best friend had just put on his “to do” list.

Love of any kind had always been a bad investment for Paul.

It mattered little to him that he didn’t love Trisha. He was brought up to love pain and discipline. No one ever had to know Paul still had a flame in his heart that burned brightly for Eve. Only he knew that when he had told a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl with a sunburned nose he would love her forever—he had meant it.

Trisha was what he needed, someone who shared his ideals and wanted what he wanted out of life. Success, children, social standing and parents who were proud of what the two of them could achieve together. Trisha didn’t require love notes and flowers. She required a man who understood the rigors of life and was willing to endure them with her in a way that served both of them well. Trisha may not be as cuddly as Eve, but she had honor, integrity and a steel spine that had made her one of the youngest prosecuting attorneys in Tampa.

With the right planning, one or both of them could go into politics. Once they got married and had a few good-looking, well-behaved children they would have all the right ingredients to be a powerful political couple.

Paul could still serve his country and make his father proud. “Paul Guy.”

He sighed in frustration and then rested his hand on the hood of Eve’s car and turned to look back toward the house to see Danny step off the porch. Paul closed his eyes as a ripple of lust washed over him. Danny was beautiful in the sunlight, wearing only a faded pair of jeans. His hair was still mussed, his eyes heavy lidded, reminding Paul of the way he looked after fucking when he was sated and lazy.

The weak link in the chain of Paul’s life had the name Danny Boy etched all over it. He was his liability, his Achilles’ heel. Every politician had a skeleton in their closet. Paul’s would be Danny until the day he died. He wanted to hate him for carving his own niche in Paul’s already Eve-scarred heart, but Danny was a hard person to hate.

Every day without Danny was a test of resistance. Every step back from him was a trial of endurance. Paul was getting better. He was slowly and efficiently building up the barriers around his heart against him. He and Trisha planned to announce their engagement next month. They planned to get married on New Year’s Day. That gave

Paul six months to clear his head of Danny and all the tempting, deviant sexual activities that came with him.

Paul really doubted his country or his father would appreciate what he was planning on sacrificing for them. Once he married Trisha he planned to close off his mind and body to the fetishes he enjoyed more than anything. His one escape from the world would be gone and he was going to have to spend the rest of his days being a servant in a way that most certainly didn’t get his dick hard.

That thought was almost as depressing as the knowledge that his Achilles’ heel was about to fuck the love of his life senseless.

He really had to give it up for his father. When he had yelled and screamed at Paul that he could fuck up his life better than anyone, he sure had pegged it. Life didn’t get much more fucked up than this.

“I need to talk to you,” Danny said as he walked up to Eve’s car.

Paul looked back to the engine rather than stare at Danny with the morning sun shining off his shoulders. “So talk.”

“I want permission to do Eve,” Danny said in a rush of breathless excitement. “She said she needs your approval. You’d do that for me, right? You won’t be an asshole.”

Paul looked at his watch. “Wow, that took you less than an hour.”

“Will you give her permission to date me?” Danny asked pleadingly, sounding like a child begging for a new toy. “Please.”

“No,” Paul said, not meeting his eyes as he leaned farther under the hood and used a wrench to tighten a loose nut. “Giving Eve permission to fuck you would be the equivalent of throwing her to the wolves. I’m not doing that to her.”

“I knew you’d be an asshole,” Danny growled under his breath. “Why can’t you do this for me? You’re marrying Trisha. You can’t have Eve even if you wanted her— which you don’t.”

Paul turned around to glare at Danny. “Wanting and having are two different things. Just because I can’t have her doesn’t mean I don’t still want her.”

“I need her,” Danny whispered in anguish. “I’ll die without her.” “You won’t die.”

“What am I going to do when you move out? I don’t want to be alone. I get mean when I’m lonely. I don’t want to be mean.”

“You are mean, lonely or not,” Paul said simply as he reached down and rubbed one hand against his shorts to get the dirt and sweat off his suddenly clammy palms. “Anyone with a pain fetish and the means to pay you two thousand dollars an hour knows that.”

“That’s not nice,” Danny whispered behind him. “You know I’m retired. I haven’t had a client in ten months.”

“Are you gonna tell Eve you used to rent yourself out to kinky politicians and millionaires? Will you key her into the fact that there are rich men and women all over the world who masturbate to the memory of calling you Master?”

“No,” Danny said softly. “She’s not into the scene. I don’t see a reason to tell her about that.”

“You expect me to believe you’re gonna have vanilla sex with one woman and be happy with that?” Paul asked, laughing incredulously. “I’d sooner believe you’d hang up your whip and become a priest than be convinced for one minute that you could commit yourself to Eve. You forget, Danny Boy, I know you better than you know yourself.”

“I could commit to her,” Danny said as his voice became wispy and enthralled. “She’s beautiful and adorable. I want to spoil her rotten. She’s so unhappy right now. I could take care of her.”

Paul turned around to lean against the car as he considered his best friend thoughtfully. He folded his arms over his bare chest and then looked up into Danny’s eyes that were unfocused in desire.

“She needs a new car. You should buy her one.”

“I will,” Danny said instantly as he turned around to stare at Eve’s car with a look of disdain on his face. He reached out and ran his fingers over the hood of the car and then pulled back to stare at the pad of his finger that was black with dirt. “Wash this car for her. It’s disgusting.”

“I planned on it.”

“Yes, good,” Danny said, lifting his eyes back to Paul. “Are you going to say yes?” “I might be convinced if I thought you could care for her properly,” Paul went on in

his best lawyer’s voice. “What other things are you going to spoil her with? Are you

going to buy her nice clothes?”

“Yes,” Danny said, his gaze becoming unfocused once more. “Lots of them.” “Leather would look good on her,” Paul said lightly, lifting his eyebrows as though