When she finally returned her attention to Dominic, it was to find his glimmering gaze focused on her, watching her intently and very likely garnering emotions that she could not hide from him. “Did you enjoy the performance?” he inquired, genuine interest coating hard bone features.
“Yes, it was good.” She wasn’t up for small talk, not when the questions from before returned with a vengeance, demanding answers from him. “This…how do you know about this place? I’ve never told you.” They’d never progressed to that intimate part in their relationship.
“This is where I first saw you.”
Startled, Eden looked at him with a frown. That was the last thing she’d expected to hear from him. “What do you mean? I thought—”
“I saw you long before I knew you were involved with Lucas,” he said softly. “I had never wanted anything more than I wanted you that night. I dreamt about you, your voice singing to me about things I needed but did not want to understand. So I allowed my lust to blind me instead, and you consumed my thoughts, became an obsession. I did everything I could to get my hands on you.” There were more than a dozen people around them, the dissonance of their chatter and laughter should’ve impeded on this moment, but all Eden heard was the poignant timbre of Dominic’s voice, all she saw was the grimness of his green gaze as he anchored her gaze, refusing to let her look away. “I wanted to bring you back here because this is where I remembered you being the happiest. I have taken so much of it from you these last five years, that I wanted to return a little of it tonight. Seeing you happy is something that has become very important to me.”
Eden swallowed around the lump in her throat, the words that she wanted to say plummeting back into her stomach, which was just was well because she was sure they wouldn’t have made much sense anyway. A wave of female delight rippled through every inch of her body at his words. She knew they shouldn’t have affected her this much, but they did, burrowing into her racing heart and making a home there. Caught in the trance of his gaze, unable to formulate a concrete thought, she ran her tongue across her lower lip and marveled at how his eyes dilated at that one simple action. For a man who had very little practice in romance, Dominic surely knew how to appeal to a woman’s heart, and he made it so incredibly difficult for Eden to remain unmoved when he did and said things like this. “Thank you, Dominic,” she said, reaching for his hands across the table, and though he seemed surprised by the gesture, he instantly interlaced their fingers, his larger hand engulfing hers. “This means a lot to me.” More than you will probably ever know, she thought silently.
The remainder of the evening continued on in the same the note and though Eden knew this wasn’t his scene, there was nothing in his mannerism that indicated his displeasure at being there with her. In fact, he appeared completely at ease as they listened to poetry and watched the performances. She found that she couldn’t really keep her eyes off him; the rarely seen smile making frequent appearances throughout the evening was like the sun peeking out after a rainstorm, and his laughter, even more warming, roused a series of flutters in her stomach that had nothing to do with the cheap beer they were drinking. When they arrived home a few hours later, Eden was quick to identify that tumultuous thrum in her veins as anticipation. It had been building all night, slow and burning, arcing through her body in search of a proper outlet. Dominic. Her drug in Hugo Boss. In the privacy of her mind, Eden could shamelessly affirm that she was irrevocably addicted to him. She needed the dopamine inducing opiate of his kisses, and the total body orgasm of his touch. At the bottom of the staircase of this palatial home that had been both heaven and hell, he looked at her and she back at him, compelling him to close that gap between them and take her up to the master bedroom to satisfy her withdrawal. But he didn’t move an inch, in fact the space between them only grew wider as he seemed miles away from here.
“Dominic?” she queried expectantly.
When he did finally close the gap between them, it wasn’t to drag her frame to his and ravish her mouth as she’d hoped. He simply pressed a kiss to her cheek, his intoxicating scent invading her senses in the best way possible and turning her brain to mush. “Thank you for letting me share this evening with you, Eden.” He was gone before she could register what just happened, leaving her physically and emotionally unsatisfied.
It was not something he wanted, but it needed to be done in the hopes of salvaging what remained of their marriage. It didn’t make the least bit of sense, at least not in the way some would perceive it, and if it had been years prior, months even, the idea, the very notion would have never crossed Dominic’s mind, let alone bear contemplating. But now it was all that consumed his thoughts. Vacillating more times than he could count but nearly always returning to same conclusion. It did not need to make sense in order to be right. Freedom was what she craved, what she’d always wanted, and so freedom was what Dominic would provide. He peered down at the first page of the documents his attorney had left him nearly an hour ago and the curving scrawl of his signature on the bottom of the page. Legal and notarized. He’d never thought he’d find this day so dissatisfying.
He rose to his feet and expelled an exasperated breath, a deep contemplative crease settled between his dark brows while his mouth compressed into a grim line. He moved to the full length window of his office without really seeing, his mind too far away to admire the sprawling metropolis at his feet with its kaleidoscope of twinkling lights and the death of the sun splashed across the horizon. Everything in him rebelled at this decision and even his attorney had questioned him several times when Dominic had requested the divorce papers be finalized. But regardless of his misgivings, Dominic had scrawled his name before he could talk himself out of it. He had been selfish for far too long. And as much as it pained him to let her go, Dominic wanted her happiness more than anything. This was a step in the right direction. There were things that needed to be done, steps he personally had to take if he hoped to find his way to back her again. And he would find her again.
“Mr. Armstrong?” a monotone voice inquired, drawing a reluctant Dominic from his thoughts. He gave a heaving sigh before turning around to finally acknowledge the woman seated primly on the aesthetically pleasing but wholly uncomfortable leather couch in the corner of his office. He regarded Naomi Stanford with an analytical stare, she came highly recommended, one of the best in her field, but not at all what Dominic had expected for a psychiatrist. She appeared quite young for one thing, pegging her somewhere in her late twenties. She was pretty in the prim and proper sort of way, blond with a pair of horned rimmed glasses poised on her button nose. She didn’t flinch away from his stare or react to the skepticism that he made no point in hiding. “Should we get started?” she asked after a time, placing her tablet on her lap and looking at him expectantly.
Dominic moved around to the front of his desk and leaned back against it. Crossing his legs at the ankles, he folded his arms and asked, “You’ve been seeing, Bruce?” He was clearly insinuating something, knowing fully that she was too much temptation for Bruce not to sample. If his best friend was fucking the prim Dr. Stanford then Dominic needed to know before he revealed anything to her that could inadvertently spill out during late night pillow talks. Despite his ongoing efforts to change, under no circumstances did Dominic want his past revealed to the philandering politician. Best friend or not.
“What exactly are you asking, Mr. Armstrong?”
“Have you slept with Bruce?”
The appalled look of indignation that swept over her pale features was answer enough for Dominic. “I think we’re done here.” She rose to her feet in a huff and stuffed her tablet in her bag before hastening toward the door.
“Come back, Dr. Stanford,” he called, and she hesitated, “I apologize for my rudeness, please have a seat.”
“Another comment like that and you can find yourself another psychiatrist,” she bit out coolly.
“Of course,” he assured, “should we start again?”
Once again settled, she held her tablet on her lap and regarded him. “Why don’t we start with why you’ve requested to see me today.” The note of anger in her voice couldn’t easily be quelled, but she was anything if not a professional and well worth the two hundred dollar an hour she was being paid. “Anything significant in your life you wish to discuss?”
Dominic chuckled drily, returning to his chair he pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment in an effort to gather his thoughts. When he finally looked at her, it was with unfailing certainty that he said, “I want to be a better man.”
She searched him out, not really knowing she was doing it until she stood outside his office door. The handle gave beneath the downward push of her hand, and she entered without a second thought. Missing him had become a debilitating thing that lived inside her now, so Eden had convinced herself that if she only had one good look at him she could put the thing to rest and leave. She’d expected him to be alone, but the sight of his half-brother put an immediate halt to her progression. She’d walked in on something deep apparently, because the energy in the air was so palpable that it settled on her skin like mist. Dominic sat behind his desk; darkly handsome, hard boned features set in granite but seemed to soften slightly when his green gaze flicked in her direction. The look was a minor one, barely discernable unless one was really looking, and it seemed Lucas had been doing just that as he turned to see what had brought on the sudden change in his brother. Lucas looked at her, but she only had eyes for his brother. Always his damnable brother, the proverbial pain in his ass. How did someone who should’ve had nothing end up with so much? Even the devotion of a woman who should’ve rightfully despised him? Eden should’ve been his to begin with, but Lucas had dulled the ache of losing her with good liquor, countless women, and a few good rounds at the poker tables. Through every bout of disappointment, he’d had his family’s wealth to make him happy. But now it appeared that too was gone. All thanks to Dominic.