Monster(19)

“No,” Bruce said curtly, already aware of Dominic’s results. “I’ll take care of it.”

“It was only a one time affair. It meant nothing. You’ve been under a great amount of stress recently and she—”

“I said I got it,” he ground out impatiently. Shooting to his feet, he trudged back to the ornate liquor cabinet. “Tell me,” Bruce began casually, “how’s it going with your wife?” At the flash of those narrowed green eyes, Bruce knew he’d hit a nerve which was exactly what he’d intended. He was just drunk enough to disregard the fact that he was walking into dangerous territory. Given the current state of his own marriage, it cheered Bruce to know that his best friend was also failing at his. What was the adage? Ah yes, misery did love company. “Should we toast to your fatherhood?” At Dominic’s abrupt curse, Bruce tossed his head back and laughed.

“By all means continue, Bruce, I would so love to provide the rope with which you might hang yourself with,” Dominic murmured darkly, bringing his glass to his mouth.

“Don’t be like that, Dom,” he said laughter in his voice. “I was only remarking on the irony. Is the child even yours?”

That was a question Dominic had asked himself the instant he’d learned of the child’s presence in Eden’s life. It hadn’t taken long to obtain the answer, one which had made it possible for him to move along with his plans. An extensive search into her life in the year long course of her absence had revealed no lovers, except for the male nurse, who she’d seen only a handful of times. From Dominic’s knowledge, they hadn’t slept together; a notion that had cheered him immensely.

“He’s…” he faltered a deep frown creasing his brow, “he’s mine.” Hearing the admission was halting, so was the emotion that came along with it. It was foreign thing, difficult to process and knowing this wasn’t the place for, Dominic tamped it down, refusing to give it further thought.

Bruce whistled. “I never thought I see the day.” Dominic hadn’t either. Being anyone’s father had never been in his plans, and if he could help it, those plans would not change. “What are you going to do? You guys have an even more dysfunctional marriage than Cassie and I do.” That was mildly stating things. What he and Eden had was a business arrangement that she’d complicated by bringing this child into the world.

“Divorce seems to be rather popular these days.”

“You’re going to let her go?”

“Popular, but not an option as far as I am concerned.” Letting Eden go was something Dominic would never do, not unless of course she killed him herself, a notion he realized could very well happen considering her surmounting hatred for him. But it was a small price to pay. He would rather have her at his side, bathed in her enmity, than away from him where he knew happiness awaited her. It was selfish and petty of him, but Dominic never professed to be anything else.



Insomnia was a fickle mistress that denied him sleep, and though he should’ve spent this time in his office working on ways to appease his finicky investors, Dominic walked the darkened halls of his home with only one destination is mind. He stood outside of the guestroom door, vacillating like a recalcitrant puppy on whether to enter or turn back with his tail between his legs. He contemplated long and hard before irrational need won over logic, and he silently opened the door to creep into the room. He approached the bed silently and watched her sleep.

She shifted slightly, and he held his breath, releasing it only when she settled again, her steady breathing reassuring him that she was once again fully asleep. His brooding gaze swept over her delicate features, running lasciviously across the contours of her body, knowing fully that just beneath the royal blue sheets, was skin that he hungered to taste. His hand reached out before he could stop himself, the need for contact far too great. The gentle sweep of his fingers along her soft cheek had her moaning softly. She did not wake, but shifted restlessly, moving her body in an unconscious effort to get closer to him.

He sucked in a breath, instantly aroused. He could feel himself hardening, hot, potent blood rushing through his veins to settle like lead in his cock. His thumb skated tantalizing slow across her bottom lip, tugging it down gently to feel the wet warmness of her mouth, an inadequate substitution for the hot set of lips he knew lied between her caramel thighs. Dominic craved her, hungered to slide his tongue down her wet clit and savor the ambrosial essence of the pleasure only he could bring her. He wanted to pull away the sheet and tear at her measly nightgown, to feel the weight of her breasts in his hands, he wanted to lower his mouth to her dusky nipples until she begged him to enter the welcoming heat of her wet pussy and bury himself to the balls.

“Fuck,” he uttered harshly, taking a step back from her slumbering form. The curse came from a very dark, very primal place. It was the curse of an unsatisfied male. It was the curse of a man who knew if he continued, he would not be able to stop. What was it about Eden Mercer that enthralled him so thoroughly? Why wasn’t he able to satiate this burning hunger for her? His desire for her was so potent, so prevalent that Dominic felt her beneath his skin, in his blood. He should’ve gotten her out of his system by now. It had been his plan all along. Marrying her was not supposed to have been a long term thing. But one taste and she’d become his drug of choice. She had his dick on lock, coming to life for no one else but her. When it came to sex, she was his weakness, and Dominic hated that he wanted her this much.

A sound, a whimper from the far right of the bed drew his gaze to the crib that he’d sent his personal assistant to purchase. If Gina had been at all surprised by her boss’s odd request, she’d been professional enough to conceal it as she’d swiftly carried out his wants with the proficiency he’d associated her with. No expense was spared and the result was a hand crafted, rich espresso sleigh crib that contained one Liam Bennett Mercer, who was fully awake now and flailing arms and legs. It was with a sick sense of curiosity that prodded Dominic to move forward, slowly closing the space between himself and the crib.

When he finally stood close enough to peer into the crib, Dominic cast his critical gaze on the child. He was illuminated by a soft night light emanating from somewhere on the crib. Looking at him, staring into his large, round, hunter green eyes that were so inherently like his own, Dominic was once more taken by that foreign emotion. But unlike before, wrestling the emotion down proved rather difficult as he was forced to acknowledge it. What was it? Dominic couldn’t put a name to it, but it stirred something, something he hadn’t thought existed in himself. While he stood over the crib, scrutinizing pale cherubic features and a small body encased in a light blue onesie with tiny brown bears, Dominic waited for the indifference and the detachment to come, but he was sorely disappointed. Impulse, sheer stupid impulse, made him reach down, made Dominic awkwardly scoop up his son and hold him up to his eye level. His child. His son. He was a father. And in his hands was his child. Terror. Dominic was finally able to identify the emotion. It was pure, unadulterated terror that coursed through him as he looked into eyes that were a mirror reflection of his own.

“Hello,” he murmured thickly, “I’m sure your mother has not spoken much to you about me, and for good reason I would say,” Dominic brought him closer, his heart shifting uncomfortably fast in his chest. “But I am your father, and I am terrified of you.”



But I am your father and I am terrified of you.

In the dimly lit stillness of the room, Eden had heard the softly uttered admission. The instant she’d felt his touch, she’d come awake beneath the intimate brush of his fingers on her cheek. And when she felt the slow, enticing sweep of his thumb on her bottom lip, her body had flared with instant recognition. Fear of her body’s inevitable betrayal, Eden hadn’t dared open her eyes but had remained utterly still, fighting to control her breathing even as unwanted desire tautened her nipples and pooled between her thighs. It had been sheer torture having him stand over her, touching her as he had, and part of her had questioned whether he’d been aware of her feigned slumber and was doing this to test her nerve. But then as quickly as he’d roused her passion, he’d been quick to temper it as he’d stepped away from her with a roughened curse. In the lapse of those eternal seconds when nothing but her own heartbeats had echoed through the silence, Eden had fought to keep her eyes closed.

It was only when she’d finally felt the weight of his gaze stray away from her that Eden had dared to open her eyes. From beneath the veil of her darkened lashes she’d watched him carefully as he’d stood over the crib. When he’d reached inside to take Liam, Eden’s heart had battered fitfully in her chest, while motherly instinct to protect her child had urged her to intervene. But something had kept her rooted as she’d been force to watch Dominic handle their child. He’d held the infant as one would a foreign object, at a distance, and to Eden it’d been such an awkward display to witness. And then she’d heard him speak, the deep reverberation of his voice filling the silence as he’d uttered those words that had Eden in her current state of confusion.