Eden's Pleasure (Pulse Book 1) (43 page)

When he reached for her hand and placed it on his bulging arousal, she moaned against his ear, stroking him up and down through his jeans. He pushed his hips forward to increase the pressure.

“I’m wet,” Eden purred, licking his earlobe,“wet and ready for you, only you.”

“Downstairs now!” he demanded, rushing her below deck with urgency into one of the staterooms, forcing her harshly to the wall. He was rough and greedy, and she could barely catch her breath. His demand was so titillating.

His gruff tone demanded her immediate attention. “Take your pants off.” Her shoes flung across the stateroom, and she slipped out of her pants and panties hastily.

His jeans and briefs were at his ankles before she had time to register. His fingers slid between her legs and tested her readiness. He lifted her up around his waist, holding her tightly to the wall, his hands gripping her thighs just below her ass. “Wrap your legs around me.”

Eden reached between them and held the head of his cock to her opening. He pushed up, sitting just inside her opening, waiting for her to adjust slightly, but he was so aroused, he couldn’t see straight.

“Forgive me, baby, I can’t wait,” He thrust his cock into her hard. She whimpered into his ear and held her breath. Her heart beat in her ears, blocking all sounds around her. The burning pain she felt was exceptional. She clawed at his back every time he plunged a little deeper. He growled and groaned in low quiet tones, his excitement building as his climax approached.

“Oh, baby, I’m going to cum,” he warned through gritted teeth. His orgasm came fast, shocking her as he shoved her hard into the wall with each wave. She held on tight as he pushed his seed deep into her with a blaze of passion.

He turned her in the air and lowered her onto the bed, remaining inside her as he softened and ambled kisses across her lips and face.

“Forgive me for being selfish…my control got away from me, baby,” he told her as he smoothed his hand over her cheek, his eyes full of regret and shame.

“I liked it,” she said quietly, almost whispering in his ear. Biting his earlobe with a slight smirk on her face, he pulled away and looked at her, startled. The blush in her cheeks gave away that she had enjoyed a bit of the rough stuff.

“But you didn’t get off.”

“I don’t always have to orgasm to enjoy myself.”

During the three weeks since Eden officially moved into the penthouse, a lot had happened in their lives.

Eden had sold her tiny house in Texas through a private real-estate company. Chase’s lawyers took care of everything so she didn’t have to be in attendance for the sale or see it again, which was a great relief to her. She gave the profits to a local women’s shelter as a final gesture of closure to that chapter of her life. And as strange as it was, the bad dreams finally stopped.

Chase sold the country house for a nice profit. The total disclosure clause caused it to remain on the market far too long for Chase’s liking. The extremely nice, large family of eight that bought it seemed not too worried about a little spilled blood. They actually seemed quite intrigued with the whole story. Even one of the daughters had hopes of ghost sightings. Chase had simply shaken his head and wished them well.

Rheanna had to leave the house after the sale, of course, quite pissed at the idea, but moved in with her mother for a very short time. After a battle with her mother and Chase over yet another scandal involving a male client’s wife catching a very drunk Rheanna in bed with her husband, she was thrown out. She was immediately transferred from the home offices in Boston and shipped off to her much older, much stricter brother, Sable, in London. She would be placed in rehab, and upon completion, she would work for Sable at the London offices in a diminished capacity. Eden couldn’t have been happier to see the dragon lady disappear from her life, if only temporarily.

It was terribly cold in Boston. Not a lot of snow had fallen, but it was most certainly winter. Any activity that involved being outside was done hastily. Christmas was around the corner, but it was not a focus to Eden, never had been since she was a very small child. Like she had said many times before,
you don’t miss what you don’t remember.
She had planned on buying Chase, Mason, and Hazel something, of course, and a little something for Mrs. Dean and Mikala, but other than that, she hadn’t even bothered with the idea of celebrating Christmas.

Leaving Chase at an office meeting, she had been home for some time. Hazel had finished up early for the day, and she was leaving when Eden stepped off the elevator. She decided to go through the mail and have tea, enjoying a little alone time.

Sitting in the kitchen at the table with her new favorite peppermint tea and a letter opener, she sorted through the stack of mail, separating it into neat piles. A letter of thanks plus a standard Christmas card came to her from the women’s shelter that she made her donation to. With thoughts of how happy that much money would make the little ones, she smiled.

“Christmas card from your lover?” Chase joked when he came into the room, seeing the smile on her face. He put his briefcase on the table and leaned down, wrapping his arms around Eden’s shoulders holding her tight.

“You know it!” she said, taunting.

Chase laughed, reaching for his mail pile, sorting through it until he came to one in particular that seemed to disturb him. His brow furrowed and he quickly folded it over and shoved it into his pocket, making Eden look at him in wonder.

“Christmas card from your lover?” she asked, but Eden made no attempt at humor, and Chase made no attempt to laugh.

“Don’t be silly, baby. You know I only have eyes for you.” Chase kissed the top of her head, and crossed the room to retrieve a bottle of water from the refrigerator, drinking nearly the whole thing before excusing himself from the room, explaining that he needed to change.

Eden kicked herself that she had not paid more attention to the contents of his mail pile. Then, maybe she would have an idea as to what he found so unsettling. She kept no secrets from him and thought that he had shared all with her, bar one, so what was he hiding now? She intended to find out.

She made her way up the stairs into their bedroom. Chase was in the shower, and his suit lay on the bed. She searched his pockets, but the letter was gone. She opened his dresser drawers and bedside table in search, but it was nowhere to be found.

She sat on his side of the bed contemplating what had been in the letter. Was it from another woman? A lover? Was it something that would come between them? She didn’t want to think like that, but she so hated secrets.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” Chase leaned against the doorframe to the bedroom with a towel wrapped low on his hips, dangling the letter between his index and middle fingers with an angry stare.

Her embarrassment turned her cheeks red. “No,” she lied and then looked up at him, sudden guilt eating at her. “Yes. I mean you made it pretty obvious that it wasn’t something you wanted to show me.”

“And I still don’t. Does that bother you?” he asked, very indignant.

“Yes. I thought we weren’t going to keep secrets?” she asked.

“I’m just not ready to share this one, not right now, but in time, perhaps I will,” he reassured her in a gruff tone, not nearly convincing.

Chase retrieved clothing from his drawers and walked back to the bathroom, locking the door behind him without making any eye contact whatsoever. Her heart sank at his treating her with such distance and keeping a secret from her. Annoyance boiled to the surface. How dare he be keeping something important from her. She rose off the bed and slammed the bedroom door as she took off down the stairs. Eden grabbed her heavy parka and running shoes at the door and thumped the elevator button with her fist.

As she turned in the elevator, she looked up just as Chase came down the stairs. He caught sight of her and increased his stride toward her. “Eden, stop!” he hollered.

“Go to hell!” she shouted as the door closed tight, and it started its descent.

Once on the street, she began to run. No destination in mind, she just ran, needing to escape, needing to be as far away from him as she could get. Tears streamed down her face, and the bitter cold burned against her wet cheeks.

Eden turned the corner and ran straight into what felt like a brick wall. She fell back, slamming the back of her head onto the cold hard sidewalk, knocking the wind right out of her. Sitting up, she gasped for breath.

“Jesus, sweetheart, what the fuck are you doing?” Mason pulled her to her feet without effort and brushed her off. “Let’s get you home.”

“No!” she cried, pulling from his grip and touching the back of her head. Wincing from the pain, she carefully checked for blood.

“Let me see.” Mason turned her and searched through her hair for any signs of blood, and to his relief, there was none. “You have quite the goose egg but no blood. Where are you going in such a hurry, sweetheart?” he asked, a glint of real non-macho concern on his face.

“I don’t know. I was just running,” she said, wiping her tear-stained face and nose on the back of her sleeve, very unladylike. Mason laughed.

“Fuck you!” she roared at him with an angry thump to his chest. His brows raised in the air as he smiled at this little imp pounding on his huge chest with no effect.

“If you’re finished? Let’s go for a coffee and get outta this cold. There’s a Starbucks across the street.” He took her by the hand and pulled her with him. She stared up at him in shock due to the fact that he rarely touched her intentionally.

It was warm in the coffee shop, and she welcomed it, not realizing just how cold it was at this very moment. Mason placed their order and suggested that she go wash her face, freshen up, and he’d get them a seat. She figured it couldn’t hurt. She probably looked a fright.

In the restroom, Eden straightened herself, and smoothed her hair before wiping her face with a wet paper towel and fixing the smudged mascara from under her eyes. She picked up her coat, found Mason as she emerged from the washroom, and walked over to the window seat where he sat.

“That’s better, sweetheart. You look a bit more like yourself. How’s the head?” he asked, handing her a plastic baggy containing ice and a warm mug of cocoa with a candy cane sitting in it for decoration. Immediately, she pulled the red and white swirled confection from the mug and licked the cream from it before setting it aside. She winced when she put the ice on her head. Mason reached over with a paper napkin and wiped the cream from the corner of her mouth. She blushed at his attention.

“My head hurts, but I’ll live.”

“You do blush easily, don’t you?” Mason asked, surprised at how provocative it really was, now knowing what it did for Chase and his libido.

“Drink your coffee,” she said, looking into her mug, thinking of how much Chase loved her stupid blushing.

Mason’s arm settled across the back of her chair, and he leaned closer. “So are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked.

Her eyes lazily met his. “Chase probably wouldn’t be too thrilled with me if I discussed it with you, you being best friends,” she explained, even though she needed to get it out of her system.

“Suit yourself, sweetheart, but I don’t intend on discussing our private conversations with
anyone
.” He winked and she smiled, becoming well aware that this big tough brute was her friend, too.

With the candy cane, she stirred the last of her hot chocolate and took a sip. “He’s keeping a secret from me. Actually, a few.”

Mason asked, rather impassively, as he finished his coffee, “What kind of secret?”

“Well if I knew that, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now, would we?” she asked rolling her eyes toward the ceiling.

Mason laughed as he stood, collecting their mugs for a refill. “Did you honestly just roll your eyes at me?” She had to bite the inside of her mouth to hold back her laughter. He gave her a shake of his head and walked away.

When he returned with their freshly filled mugs, he looked at her, waiting. “Well? And without rolling your eyes, what kind of secret are we talking about? Because if you think he’s screwing around or something, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The man is loyal like a dog. He loves you, sweetheart.”

“I know he loves me, I love him…he got something in the mail. He looked angry when he saw it, then he hid it from me…and he kinda caught me looking for it.” She held her head down, moving her attention to her mug, ashamed of herself.

“And you’re the one pissed off? You don’t think that he should be pissed at you for being a nosy bitch?”

“Who you calling bitch, asshole? Yeah I’m pissed, he basically told me to mind my own business, that he wouldn’t discuss it until
he
was good and ready,” she explained, trying to convince Mason that in some small way, she was right in her thinking, but she was failing miserably.

“What’s really got you riled? Is it the fact that he’s hiding something or the fact that you, as a female species, need to know absolutely everything?” he asked with a smart-ass look on his face, never taking his eyes off of her. He was enjoying this cat and mouse, back and forth, tit for tat game going on, and her temper was spiking to lethal levels.