“You vindictive little—” he thundered, but stopped himself before he could say the word that was on the very tip of his tongue. “Be very sure that you are ready to carry out that threat, sweet pet, otherwise you will not like what will come after,” he spelled out with deadly calm, but the tension of at his jawline was a clear indication of his restraint.
Fear breathed down her spine, telling her to tread cautiously, but that warning went unheeded as Eden squared away with him, refusing to back down. There was too much as stake now to allow him the upper hand in this. She couldn’t afford to cower, not when there was Liam to consider. “You don’t like being threatened, Dominic? Welcome to my world. That’s exactly how you’ve made me feel every single moment I was married to you,” she fired back, looking him dead in the eye to convey exactly how serious she was. “I won’t let you bully me anymore. You may have the power and the money, but I know all your secrets. And if you push me, I will go to the press. Now let me go.” She was surprised to find her request obliged when he released her. Eden distanced herself from him quickly enough, putting a hand to her arm to nurse the area where he’d held her. “See, Dominic, I can play just as dirty as you can. Being your wife has taught me a lot.”
In the ensuing silence he was a veritable statue, his face was devoid of any emotion. He simply regarded her, but then the corner of his mouth quirked upwards in a smile that the Cheshire Cat would’ve envied. “Yes, but apparently not enough,” he pointed out with cool temperance, turning his back to her, ambling to the liquor cabinet on the far right that she hadn’t noticed until now. With his body concealing his activity from her, Eden heard rather than saw him pour a drink into the short glass. “But I must say, I’m enjoying this side of you,” he lauded, raising the glass towards her with that damnable grin. “It pleases me immensely to know there’s more to you than what’s between your legs.” He tossed back the drink and scrunched his face a little at the burn. “Although I must admit, I have sorely missed being between your legs.”
The heat that sluiced over Eden’s skin at his candidness was blamed entirely on her anger. “You’re disgusting.”
“No, what I am, is incredibly horny, but more on that later.” He poured himself another shot, but drank it much slower than before. In his progress back to her, Eden took him in, incapable of doing otherwise. A year hadn’t changed him much. He was still agonizingly handsome, his thick dark hair well-coiffed to fit the aesthetics of his sharp, patrician features. The tailored suit he wore, Hugo Boss, if she remembered the name of his favorite designer correctly, fit him to perfection, cut and fitted to his athletic regal physique. He’d always carried himself with an air of superiority that went hand in hand with the understated sex appeal that seemed to lure the fairer sex.
“Or we can do something about now.” Eden’s faced warmed as he cast a knowing glance her way, and she cursed inwardly at being caught staring. “I want to bend you over my desk and—”
“You’re such a pig.” She made to retreat, heading towards the door. She stopped and turned. “You have until tonight to give me back the money and then I want a divorce.” Eden had her hand around the silver handle, all she needed to do was pull down and freedom would’ve been hers, but she knew escaping the devil’s lair couldn’t have been so easy.
“You seem to be under the impression that you’ve bested me in some way, but let us be completely clear on this.” His tone sent a chill down her spine as she foolishly waited for him to continue. “If you so much as speak an unkind word about me or my family, I promise you, Eden, I swear it, that you will never see your son again.” As he cruelly ripped the ground from beneath her feet, she felt him behind her, the warmth of his body radiated sun hot against her back, while the length of him pressed invasively close to her. His hard hand around her wrist whirled her around to face him. He was impervious to the fury alight in her golden honey eyes as he captured her jaw with bruising fingers and leaned down to capture her lips in a hard, punishing kiss. The crack of her palm connecting with his cheek resonated in the next second, and he recoiled slightly, but not enough for Eden to escape. Momentarily stunned, he looked at her and finally saw the revulsion in tear laden golden eyes. Dominic tongued the inside of his cheek and came away with the coppery taste of blood coating his tongue. “I would so hate to see Liam grow up without his mother.”
“Don’t you dare—”
“What you have failed to learn, sweet pet,” when he reached out to caress her face with his hand, she instantly recoiled, “is that I always win.” She made to strike him again, but Dominic was ready, catching her wrist mid-swing. “You are mine, Eden. Till death do us part.”
Chapter Six
He took great satisfaction from having her cornered, completely at his mercy. Dominic took a moment to bask in his victory. He would collect his spoils soon enough. It was all a matter of patience. He’d given her space, taken a step back to allow her time to process her current predicament, but not far enough that he couldn’t reach for her if he wanted. Tension saturated the air between them as the silence swelled, but Dominic did not mind as it gave him the opportunity to take her in. His emerald gaze ate her up, not missing for a second the shorter length of her hair. Upon closer inspection, Dominic found that he preferred this haircut much more than the long tresses that had been a signature. The darker shade suited her dusky complexion as it drew attention to those fiery bourbon eyes that regarded him with absolute contempt. He could read her like a label, her emotions playing across the face that had plagued his dreams for the better part of a year. There was nothing Dominic wanted more in that instant than to take her in his arms and ravage the angry pout from her coral lips.
He curbed the impulse by slipping his hands inside the pockets of his slacks and continued his silent perusal. Dominic had never known her to wear anything other than the designer clothes she’d sheathed herself in since he’d married her, but the simple cream colored blouse and dark rinsed skinny jeans she wore seemed off the rack. She looked…comfortable. Even the dark sandals at her feet were far removed from the precariously high heels she’d previously worn. For just an instant, Dominic was taken back to the innocent she’d been just before their marriage. But then just as quickly as the thought came, another more cynical and jaded one soon followed. How quickly that innocence betrayed itself the instant he’d added money to the equation.
But that had been the crux of their marriage, hadn’t it? They’d both gotten something out of the arrangement. He, the unrestricted use of her delectable little body and she in turn had been given unlimited access to his bank account, all the while pawning the innumerable jewelries he’d showered upon her and squirreling away the money to make her grand escape. All without his knowledge. It still gnawed at him to have been bested so easily by his seemingly vapid little wife, but Dominic was spirited enough to appreciate her guile. He was cheered enough to find that there was more to her than her substantial beauty. He could even go so far as to call her a worthy adversary; her impromptu visit to his office has been quite bold, a move he would have never expected from her. It took a lot to unhinge a man of his stature and the fact that she’d so fearlessly accomplished the feat, twice now, had Dominic quickly reassessing his wife. She’d taken a firm stand against him, refusing to cower in the face of his imperiousness. There were layers to this woman—who looked at him as though he were the devil himself—that he wanted to unravel. Admittedly, Dominic was quite intrigued by this latest discovery.
“Have dinner with me,” he said without preamble, switching tactics. Dominic could tell that he’d shocked her, the unexpected invitation instantly putting her on edge. But she was right to be distrustful of him. Dominic could be the first to admit that his intentions were rarely pure, especially when it came to Eden.
“What?”
“Dinner,” he pressed on, speaking so quietly that she could barely hear him. “I want you to have dinner with me.”
The incredulous look on her face was completely justified. The unladylike snort however drew Dominic’s brows together. “Have you completely lost your mind?” she nearly screeched.
“I assure you, my mental state is well intact, pet. What I want is your company for dinner.”
“Hell would freeze over before I’d willingly sit down to dinner with you.”
“Well then, considering your unwillingness, I’d say you are now being coerced into this. You will stay at The Roosevelt Hotel until this evening. James will pick you up promptly at seven and bring you to Hyacinth where you and I will sit down and have a nice meal. Conversation naturally will be played by ear.”
She scowled. “You can go fu—”
“None of that, pet. Crassness does not become you,” he chided mildly although his expression spoke of his seriousness.
“You think you can threaten to take my child, take away my livelihood, and I’m just going to cordially sit down and have a peaceful meal with you—”