The two hour trip was mercifully brief, with the late hour the interstate was quiet, making it easy for Eden to get where she needed to be quickly. She hurried up the concrete stairs, paying no mind to the stench of urine or the loud arguing coming from the closed doors.
“Jen!” She knocked on the door, hoping desperately that in her two hour trip over, Alex hadn’t returned to finish what he’d started. “Jenna, it’s Eden.” She raised her fisted hand to knock again, but the door opened before her hand made contact. The sight of Jenna’s face broke her heart.
“Jesus.” Eden followed her inside the dark apartment, closing the door behind her. “Let me see.” She put a hand on Jenna’s arm stopping the other woman from picking up an overturned chair.
Eden had never actually seen Jenna’s injuries without the passage of time or the added effect of makeup to conceal them. Seeing them now, in the raw, was something else. Her ordinarily pale face was a patchwork of bruises; her left eye was swollen shut, blackness haloing the perimeter; and there was a big purpling gash on her cheek that had congealed with blood. She tried smiling at Eden, undoubtedly attempting to alleviate the horror she saw in honey eyes, but her smile came out as a wince.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said instead of smiling, the effort it took to talk was even worse than when she tried smiling.
“You need to leave him.” It was an old song, one Eden had been singing since they’d met. Jenna was probably the only person Eden would consider her friend. Hell, she was practically family. Their instant friendship at the strip club hadn’t been a fluke; there’d been a kindred spirit in each other that had been hard to resist and still it persisted, making it hard for them to turn their backs on each other. Eden could no more ignore Jenna than if she were her own blood. “Come live with me,” she said suddenly. “I have an extra room that I won’t need until Liam is older. You and I can live together, at least for a little while. Take a break from, Alex.”
“I don’t know…”
Sighting her opportunity, Eden jumped on it. “Rent free, you can just watch Liam as payment.”
Jenna’s eyes lit up at the mention of Eden’s baby. “I can watch over the little porker?”
Eden laughed. “Yeah.”
Jenna looked over at the woman who she’d known for such a short time, yet treated her like a sister, and the tears in her eyes began anew. Eden was offering her the change she so desperately needed, and she was doing it simply because she wanted to. It wasn’t the way of her world to have someone do something for nothing. But Jenna knew there was no ulterior motive here. There rarely ever was when Eden was concerned. She’d done so much for Jenna so far, more than she could even begin to say. She sniffled and reached out to embrace Eden mindful of her injuries. “Thank you, Ede,” she uttered through the tears. “Thank you for this.”
Eden drew away slightly. “Thank me by not packing anything. Let’s just get out of here before Alex gets back.” When Eden headed for the entrance, Jenna stopped her.
“Wait…” She left Eden’s side and hastened to the bedroom just around the corner from the living room and returned a few minutes later. She held up a roll of cash. “My tips from CP.”
“I taught you well. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
With a heavy sigh Eden fell back on her large bed, the down comforter breaking her fall. She was drowning in it all, drowning in clouds impersonating pillows. Heaven was royal blue Egyptian cotton sheets against her naked skin. With a long, body deflating sigh, her eyes fluttered close, and the events of the last forty-eight hours bled out of her. It’d been a hell of a few days. It had begun with one of her biggest clients failing to close on a commercial property because the financers decided to back out at the last minute. The agency was looking into litigation, but all Eden saw was failure. This would’ve been huge for her had she been able to pull it off and regardless of her best efforts, everything just fell apart. This was supposed to be cake. It should’ve been an easy commission for her, with both sides getting what they wanted. It just didn’t make sense that they would simply walk away, even with the threat of a lawsuit for breach of contract. Eden knew that these investors were going to get a good deal. She just couldn’t figure out what could’ve possibly made them change their minds.
And then, as though that hadn’t been bad enough, Eden had been called home by a frantic Jenna while in the middle of an emergency meeting with Annie Banks, telling her she needed to hurry home because she hadn’t been able to get Liam’s fever down. With her heart in her throat, Eden had instructed Jenna to call an ambulance and would meet her at the local hospital. It’d taken her twenty minutes to get to Amesbury General and another two hours sitting with Liam while they ran tests.
By then, Eden had been hysterical, with Jenna doing all she could to keep her from wearing a hole through the waiting room carpet. It’d taken a variety of blood tests before the ER pediatrician informed Eden that he had an infection that they could to treat with IV antibiotics. It wasn’t until late the following day that Eden was allowed to take Liam home. He’d thankfully returned to normal and had eaten more than usual much to Eden’s delight. She’d just settled him down for the night, and after eating her own well cooked meal, compliments of Jenna’s excellent culinary skills, Eden had been ready to crash. She turned on her side, teetering between slumber and wakefulness as a dream lured her deeper into sleep. With a furrowed brow, she tossed and turned, consumed now by the lurid nightmare.
From the shadows of the candlelit room, she stood spectator to her own debauchment. On a bed that was meant for more than the two people it had been purchased for, Eden saw herself splayed out like some Dionysian offering, naked and aching for something. That something had yet to make itself known, but one didn’t need much thought to decipher exactly what that something was. The air in the dimly lit room crackled with passion so potent that one need only inhale to taste it. Eden watched herself, hoisted by a bevy of pillows while smooth caramel legs fell akimbo, golden eyes riveted by something between those parted legs, something—or rather someone—holding her complete attention.
“Are you ready, my sweet?” Dominic inquired silkily from the shadows, his voice like sex with the right bit of growl that made dream Eden jump.
“Yes,” came out on an exhale, like it needed to be said.
“Then fuck yourself for me.”
Dream Eden eagerly pleasured herself for him. Without pause, without even a single thought, one hand crept down of its own accord, eager fingers sliding a path down her neck to find and gently cup her breast.
Eden gasped inaudibly, eyes widening marginally upon the realization that she felt everything that dream Eden did. She was suddenly there, no longer a spectator, but a participant in every way possible. She saw him behind her lids, descending upon her, mastering her with large hands that knew nearly every supple inch of her body. Between her middle finger and thumb, Eden tugged and twisted her nipples to tender peaks, imagining it was him playing with her.
It was so real, so pronounced. It was as though Dominic was there, on the bed with his solid frame looming over hers, surrounding her. He was gloriously naked, his physique something of legends, while his long, thick cock enticed her mouth and her cunt. The emotions running through her were carnal, and Eden submitted as her fantasy intensified. Wetness pooled between her thighs, dampening her panties. Her body was on fire, scalding hot, and there was only one man who could temper the fever, assuage the inferno.
With her right hand on her breasts, the left slid down the flat of her belly, the goal the honeyed sex between her trembling thighs. Breathy moans filled the room as she inserted first one finger and then another, lifting her hips off the bed to meet the stroking motion of her hand. It was inadequate, but Eden’s imagination was remarkable in making it feel like the real thing. It was Dominic fucking her, and she melted around his generous cock.
She panted, her fingers delving deeper while she arched and fell, writhing and moaning with the sweetest abandon, entangling her limbs in her sheets. Her orgasm hit her hard, and Eden rode the delicious tremors that rocked her entire body.
She came awake with a gasp, rising up in bed with wide eyes staring into the dark. She scrambled for the night light and frantically searched the room. Dear Lord, it had felt like he was here! Like he’d been in her bedroom with her, touching her...fucking her. With her heart beating too fast out of her chest, Eden felt like she was going to faint. She brought a hand to chest, while sweeping another through her hair. How is it that he could affect her after a year apart? Why did he continue to haunt and plague her dreams when all she wanted was to be rid of him? What sort of freak…what sort of woman was she to want a man who’d lived to degrade her? Eden was beginning to suspect that she wasn’t quite normal. She’d fought so hard to escape him, had done all she could to elude him, yet she continued to have these dreams—nightmares—about him and his depraved sexual appetite. What did that say about her? For goodness sakes, she’d practically performed for him! All that had been missing was a big top and a whip. Even now she could feel the evidence of her arousal between her legs. She sighed in disgust. She needed a shower if for nothing else than to at least wash away her shame.