Eternal (6 page)
Authors: London Saint James
“Why are you so afraid someone will hurt me? The
photographers are rude and more than bold, pushy even but—”
“For my own sanity, please, Winter, don’t go out
without Jayden or the rest of us.”
“I love you, Cayden. You will never need to
worry. I promise, I will never even think about doing something like that
again.”
My cell phone rang. I started to ignore it but
Cayden was insistent I answer. He let me loose from his arms. I went to pull my
phone out of my bag.
“Hello, Jewel,” I said quietly. “Are you okay?”
Cayden was standing behind me. He brushed his hands through my hair while I
spoke to her.
“I’m fine, how about you? I have been so worried
about you, Winter.”
“I am fine and safe, but I really can’t talk
right now,” I told her. I turned to look at Cayden. He stared at me with some
outlining emotion on his face that I didn’t recognize. This new emotion played
around the edges of his eyes.
“Winter, I’m so sorry for everything. Will you
be all right?”
“Yes, I will.”
“Okay,” Jewel said quietly. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Jewel. Goodnight,” I ended.
Cayden sighed. He skimmed the back of his hand
down the surface of my cheek. “Now, tell me. Where did you go, and how bad did
it really get with the paparazzi?” Cayden must have felt my body stiffen. “I
need to know, baby. I promise I’m not going to be angry any longer since I have
you safely here with me.”
“It’s a long story,” I admitted.
“We have nothing but time,” he assured before he
kissed the top of my head.
Chapter Three
Seeing Red
I woke to another beautiful day. The sun shown
bright and came in through the windows like an invited guest. It fell in large
beams across the foot of my bed. Cayden was gone, back into the city to finish
filming where he had left off yesterday. I stretched and ran my hand over the
spot he’d slept. He left a letter lying on his pillow along with one single
pink rose. I smiled and picked the letter up. It was written on crisp white
paper with dark blue ink. His handwriting was a perfect match to
should shock me.
Cayden wrote….
I’m sorry I did not wake you but I wanted to
watch you sleep. Please keep yourself safe for me, and don’t do anything crazy
while I’m gone. Relax, breathe, and remember how important you are to me. I
know I must seem crazy or fanatic about you and your safety, but you need to
understand I have waited far too long to find you, and I never want to go back
to an existence before you. I was not fully living until I found you, Winter.
Forgive me for scaring you. I’m not trying to be a tyrant, just trying to
protect the most precious part of my life. And in case you haven’t figured that
out yet, the most precious part is you. Winter, you are the very breathe of my
life, for without you I am nothing. I love you, nothing can ever change that.
Cayden
I cried. The tears streamed down my cheeks. I
was beyond lucky to have Cayden in my life.
I was blessed. I needed to do whatever I could to ensure his happiness.
In retrospect, I knew how ridiculous I had been. I knew my worries about Cheryl
Lynn were more than stupid. I knew Cayden loved me.
“Winter, are you decent?” I heard
outside my door.
“Yes,” I said, placing my black silk robe around
my shoulders.
“Can I please come in?” he asked.
“Sure.”
and familiar flip-flops. He looked tired, not his usual self any way. “You
might want to sit down,” he said quite serious.
“All right.”
I took a seat in one of the chairs by the
balcony doors. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around
them.
“This reporter has confirmed filming on Cayden
Cain’s latest movie was put on hold yet again yesterday after quite an angry
outburst by Cayden himself which resulted in some property damage. Sources
revealed Cayden became extremely upset after making a phone call. No one could
confirm who he called but interestingly across town in an apartment building
located in the
spotted trying to leave an undisclosed apartment. Sources confirmed Cayden
Cain’s personal bodyguard arrived on-scene and escorted Ms. Wells out the fire
escape of the building. In a further twist, I have confirmed Ms. Wells is
really writing under a pen name. She is, in fact, Winter Shae Perri who resides
currently in Baily,
Ms. Perri was once engaged to an up and coming young star who was tragically
killed sixteen years ago. In an even stranger turn of events, the man to whom
she was engaged to marry looks much like our current
the resemblance when investigating this piece. And after finding pictures of
Mr. Austin Wells Carlyle one must begin to speculate. There might be something
more to this story regarding Ms. Wells and Mr. Cayden Cain. Cayden, say it
isn’t so. We can understand Ms. Wells’s attraction here but please tell us you
have not just broken every female heart in the
brother’s love interest. Let’s face it, if Cayden is perusing Ms. Wells his
poor brother does not stand a chance....”
I felt the heat come to my cheeks and ears. I
was not flushing red with my usual embarrassment but turning hot under the
collar from complete and total anger. I was seeing red.
“Stop!” I said to
article.
“I am sorry, Winter. I thought you should know,”
“I can handle anything they say about me, but
how dare they bring up Austin and Cayden. That is going way too far.” I balled
up my fist at my side. I wanted to hit something.
“Winter, I told you. Cayden has told you. Zander
has told you. The press can be ruthless, cruel, and heartless. Gossip sells,
scandal sells so this keeps them constantly looking for juicy stories. The fact
you are a successful writer. The fact you have kept yourself from being known,
turned down offers for your books, refused book tours, written under a pen
name, kept your image one of mystery, and the fact you are now surfacing and
with us, will send the sharks into the murky water. Just the fact they got one
picture of the reclusive romance writer was a scoop let alone they now have
more. Now they have found a portion of your past. They will use it, twist it,
God knows. This is just a piece of what Cayden has feared for you.”
“What do you mean a piece?”
“Cayden will be upset if I tell this to you.”
“Tell me,
I insisted.
“Last year when all the press came out about
Cayden and Cheryl Lynn….” My alarm clock went off, snarling through the room.
walked over the bedside table, and turned off the screeching beast.
“Sorry, please continue,” I said. I could tell
sure if he should continue but he did.
“All right,” he said. “Of course you know it was
totally untrue but people believe what they read. The large majority of
Cayden’s fans are really great, but there are those few disturbed people who
take things too far. Cheryl Lynn received a death threat due to her so-called
relationship with Cayden. Since then her security has been stepped up, and the
case has been investigated.”
“Death threat?”
“Yes.”
send my brother over the edge. He could not handle it. Someone threatening you
or trying to hurt you is one of his greatest fears. Cayden worries about you
more than you can ever know.”
Cayden’s fears
for me made more sense now. That’s why he has been acting so strange.
“I am so stupid,” I replied. “I did not fully
understand why he has been so worried.”
“I know. All of this is much more complicated
than you or he ever bargained for.”
I immediately became panicked for Cayden.
What if someone threatened him? What if
someone would try to harm him? I could not survive losing him
.
“
has anyone ever threatened Cayden?”
“Not like that,”
relief, but it was short-lived.
“I could not live without him. If someone would
hurt him it would kill me. I know I could not survive, not a second time.”
“Winter, please calm down. I did not tell this
to you to upset you.”
“I know,
I know.”
When
grabbed some dark sunglasses and placed them on my face. I pulled all of my
hair up into a ball cap that Cayden had left lying around. I found Jayden and
begged him to take me jogging. I had to find a way to escape my current stress
and worry about Cayden’s safety. I wanted to think. I was going to be thinking
about some hard things so I needed to be outside in the cool air, moving, or I
would go insane.
Jayden agreed to go with me. He went to change
his clothes while I paced in the foyer, biting the inside of my cheek. From
behind me, I heard the door open. I turned to see Richard, my driver.
“Winter, are you all right?” Richard inquired.
The look on his face was one of concern.
With a nod, I indicated yes, but I was far from
all right.
“Are you sure? I've been a bit worried for you.”
“I'll be fine, Richard.”
With tilt to mouth, he smiled then inclined his
head like an English gentleman. “I was thinking of sprucing up the car. Giving
it a proper wash but I shall put off the endeavor if you need me today?”
“No, I’m waiting for Jayden. We are going to
take a jog, so I’ll be sticking around today, but thank you.”
“All right,” he said then gazed up to see Jayden
coming down the stairs. “Enjoy your jog.”
Jayden and I made our way out the gates and
followed the secluded bike paths. As we ran, all I could think about was
Cayden. I wondered what I would do if my presence in his life caused someone to
threaten him. I was not concerned for myself, because nothing could harm me
other than someone harming Cayden. Things were much more complicated than I had
ever realized. I’d been worried for Cayden and his image, yes, but never his
safety. To know someone could threaten him or try to harm him was far too much.
I told myself I would be much more careful. I
would do what I needed to do in order to divert any further speculation from
Cayden, but then I decided my decisions would need to be much more deliberate
than just being careful. I thought about the lies we had allowed regarding the
possibility of a relationship between
tangled like a web.
Can I go further
with this lie in order to protect Cayden?
I could I decided. Once you tell
one lie, you begin to tell others. Before you know it, you have a very
intricate and delicate string of them. But I had no choice but to lie if I
wanted to be with Cayden. There in lied the crux.
Maybe I was being far too selfish. And as much
as it would kill me to do it, perhaps I should tell an even bigger lie. Make it
clear to the press I’m not interested in Cayden. Set him free from their
ruthless pursuits for gossip. I had to consider it. Maybe I should let go of my
selfishness, break my heart and his, and walk away to keep Cayden safe. Could I
do that? I thought about
While it is not the same scenario, I had to ask myself.
If leaving
There was no
question, no other answer.
“Winter, we should head back,” Jayden said,
breaking my thoughts.
“So soon?”
“We have been jogging for over an hour, and the
sky is looking ominous. I think we are too far out. I would feel better if we
were back at the estate,” Jayden replied.
“Sure.” We turned around on the narrow path. I
felt my phone vibrate inside the pocket of my sweatshirt. I pulled it out and
stopped running. “Hello,” I answered, breathless.