“How much are the tickets.”
“Twenty thousand a ticket.”
Oh yes, a mere twenty thousand dollars a ticket. No problem. Eden inwardly snorted. She couldn’t even wrap her mind around spending that much money when she had so little of it herself. God that meant Dominic spent forty thousand dollars on them being here tonight. Well, at least it was for a good cause. With Millicent attempting a hand at cordiality, Eden lowered her guard for a moment, grabbing a drink from a passing waiter to better allay the nervous tension tautening her shoulders. There was a group of women gathered near the entrance of the dining room and this was where Millicent ended their miniature tour.
“Good evening, ladies.” They all turned at the all too cheerful greeting, pasting on smiles that were far from authentic. “I do hope you are all enjoying yourselves.”
“Of course, Millicent, your charities are always so very inspired. We were just remarking on the newly attained Matisse on the west wall. It’s quite breathtaking. Will it be auctioned?”
Millicent’s laughter was not a pleasant sound; it had the same effect of nails on a chalkboard. “Of course not, Beatrice, it’s just like you to say something so absurd.” The remark was a thinly veiled insult that even said in jest cut deep, the shallow laughter of the women around them further added insult to injury. The one named Beatrice, thoroughly embarrassed, hid her discomfort behind a tremulous smile after she’d taken a long sip of her drink. “Ladies, please allow me to introduce you to Dominic’s wife, Eden.”
All eyes turned to her and Eden felt the heat rise in her cheeks. She attempted a smile with the hope it wasn’t as terrible as she imagined. “Hello, everyone.” It felt like high school, being invited to sit at the popular table all the while knowing that you did not belong there. She felt out of her depth, swimming among creatures that were more likely foe than friend, ready to make a meal of her. No one said anything for a very long time as they sized her up, staring at her from head to toe, trying to find fault with her, something they could use to detract from her worth. It was the furthest thing from a friendly atmosphere, and though Eden knew she could very well be imagining all this, seeing the disingenuous looks in those eyes as nothing more than her failings, she knew it wasn’t her imagination.
“We did not realize Dominic had married,” this from the matronly woman standing beside Beatrice, who, upon taking a hard look at Eden, had instantly found her lacking.
“Well, it was rather a small affair. Dominic isn’t one for frill. But they’ve been together for quite some time now. How long has it been, dear?”
“Five years.” There was a collective gasp and eyes widening considerably at that response.
“How lovely for you.” It felt like a firing squad, the snarky condescension aimed at her, this time from another woman in the circle with crystalline blue eyes and raven black hair. “Dominic has attended this dinner since its inception, yet this is the first time we’ve seen you in the five years of your marriage, Eden.”
“I don’t get out much,” she said with brevity, wishing that she’d followed after Dominic the instant he’d left her.
“Clearly.” The acerbic reply was uttered with a smile that was the furthest thing from inviting.
“Ignore her, Eden. Carissa has been vying for Dominic’s attention for a very long time, and as much as it’s been entertaining watching him rebuff her advances, now we all know why,” Beatrice explained.
“So what do you do, darling?”
“Eden is a dancer,” Millicent pronounced grandly, staring down at Eden with a small smile.
They perked up at that, especially the one standing at Eden’s right who appeared much younger than the rest of the women in the circle. “How lovely, where did you train? Are you a classical dancer or lyrical?”
“Heaven’s no, nothing so refined, Lucia.” Millicent laughed sharply. “I’m afraid Eden’s dancing skills lean more to the exotic than anything so cultured, isn’t that right, dear?”
It was a trap—a well-crafted trap that Millicent had facilitated—and Eden unwittingly walked right into it. Cold sweat formed and beaded on her skin making her uncomfortable as they all expectantly waited on her to reveal herself for the classless, unrefined stripper Millicent had all but accused her of being. “I—”
“How very gauche of you to pick on my brother’s wife in such a way, Mother,” chided a voice from the not too distant past. “This color is very unbecoming of you.” Lucas Armstrong was nothing like his brother. Where Dominic was darkly menacing, broody and infinitely more complex, Lucas was fair, careless and shallow. There was no commonality between the two except for the dark green eyes they’d inherited from their father. Lucas was as equally tall as his brother but lacked Dominic’s powerful physique; he was built wirier with a longer torso and arms that fit nicely into the suit he wore. He’d let his ginger blond hair grow longer than what Eden remembered so that it skimmed at the collar of the suit jacket he wore. There was a faint bruise on his right cheek and a cut near his mouth that spoke of his latest drunken brawl. He stood at Eden’s side now, her temporary champion, as he smiled irreverently at the women in their circle, all the while ignoring his mother’s disparaging look.
“Lucas, darling, we were not expecting you.”
“No of course not, this is why I decided to crash. It’s so much more fun this way,” he looked down at Eden, “don’t you agree?”
Eden frowned, hating her position in the middle of all this. “I think I need a drink,” she murmured.
“Well, I know just the place. You will excuse us won’t you, Mother? Ladies?” With that, he tugged her away from the pit of vipers and led her to a very far corner where he handed her a champagne flute he’d confiscated from the tray of a passing waiter. “A second longer and my mother was going to unhinge her jaw and swallow you whole,” he quipped, standing just in front of her as he watched her guzzle down her drink.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she said quietly, feeling lightheaded.
“I can be pretty useful when I’m not drunk.” He grinned lopsidedly. “It’s been a long time, Eden.” He raised a hand to ghost his cool fingers across her fevered cheek. “God, you’re still so beautiful. I guess I can’t blame Dominic for keeping you all to himself.” He took a step closer to her, invading her personal space and assaulting her senses with the sharp, acrid scent of the alcohol that permeated from him. “If he hadn’t taken you from me, I would’ve probably done the same thing.” He wasn’t drunk, Eden had seen a drunk Lucas before, and thankfully this wasn’t it, but she could tell that he’d had more than a few. While his actions were wholly unappreciated, she knew someone else who would appreciate them far less. Sensing the eyes of several and knowing they were garnering the attentions of several others, Eden prudently set a hand at the center of Lucas’s chest to push him away from her. In doing so, she sidestepped him and wrapped her arm around his.
“Come get some water with me.” She led them to the bar, and while Eden ordered herself a glass of water, Lucas requested a shot, taking a seat beside her.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she enquired of the whiskey that was set in front of him.
Disregarding her question, he wrapped his fingers around the glass, raised it up to her, and tossed it back with a grimace. “I saw you first,” he said after a moment, the petulance in his voice making him sound much younger than his twenty eight years. “You were supposed to be married to me.” He raised a hand to flag the bartender for another. “But then I can’t say I’m surprised. My irreproachable bastard brother has always been very good at taking everything that belongs to me.” He nursed the shot glass, oblivious to her presence. He seemed lost in thought as he spoke, looking straight ahead at a memory only he could see.
“He’s always been infuriatingly good at everything, outshining me in every aspect. He even managed to gain the respect and affections of our grandfather, a feat neither me nor our father could accomplish even when the old curmudgeon had been alive. But do you want you want to know the funny part in all this?” When he turned those glassy green eyes on her, Eden saw so much more than the alcoholism that coated his ruddy features. “I wanted a brother. I begged my parents for a brother. And then one day, I had one. But he wasn’t what I’d expected, nothing like I’d hoped. There was something wrong with him, something off about him… But then what was to be expected from the son a prostitute who was sold to his own family? His mother took everything away from him, including his humanity, so is it any wonder that he wishes to take everything that belongs to me as well, just so he can make himself feel better? It’s always been this way, Eden. He took you from me because that’s what he does.”
Eden reeled from what she’d just heard, stunned into complete silence she stared at Lucas disbelievingly, and then she was thrown into another tailspin of emotion when the hairs at the back of her neck stood on end. Even before she heard the lethal intonation of his voice, she knew he was near. “Another word, Lucas, and you will find how extremely tolerant I’ve been towards you.” He kept a tight rein on a fury that burned like a blaze, but Eden felt it, felt the tension that seized his entire frame, coiled so tautly beneath the impeccable suit he wore that she feared it would erupt at any given moment. And from a face that was as dark and ominous as thunderclouds, Eden saw the way he clenched his jaw from the effort not to rip into his drunken sibling. Without warning, he brusquely apprehended her, wrapping a hand around her arm, drawing her into the unyielding strength and encompassing warmth of his body. “You will leave the premises of your own accord within the next two minutes, or I will have James escort you out.” He did not linger a moment longer but rather urged her to the expansive dining room where the guests were now seated at their respective tables.