It takes everything inside of me not to burst into tears. It’s been a long time since someone actually bothered to take care of me. Since my mom died, I’ve been the one to take care of everyone else. Finally he sits me down on the side of the bed, dropping to his knees so he’s eye level with me.
“You can keep trying to push me away, Eden, but I’m not going anywhere,” he says when he finally speaks again. “The same way you have that need to take care of Ryan, I have the same for you. Let me take care of you for once. Let me show you things you’ve never seen. Let me love you.”
“You love me?” I sniff. Everything he says sounds so good. I want everything that he’s offering and decide I owe it to myself to let him take care of me. I want it so badly.
“More than anything in this world.” I can see the sincerity in his eyes.
“I love you too,” I tell him, letting the last of the walls I built up around myself crumble and deciding to let him in completely.
Chapter Twenty-One Miles
After giving an anxious Violet a summary of events after I got back home, I left Eden sleeping while I went back to get a taste of my own revenge. I gave her father till the end of the night to have his sorry ass out of this state. Eden doesn’t need to know about that or what happened to the rest of them, but she can sleep without having to worry about them ever again.
I step into our bedroom at the same time that Eden is waking up.
“Hey,” she says, giving me a sleepy smile. “What are you doing?”
“Bringing you some food. You’ve had a rough day.”
“Haven’t we all?”
“Nope. You and Ryan have had it the worst, and so you get ten minutes to feel sorry for yourself, and I want you to do a good job at it. No making excuses and saying others have it worse. I want you to wallow for ten minutes.” I want to show her that I will always take care of her.
She laughs a little. “Why ten minutes?”
“Because after ten minutes, I’m going to make love to you so your primary emotion then should be lust.”
Her cheeks turn pink. “And this?” She points at the plate of brownies.
“To make sure your other appetite is fed. Obviously these aren’t as good as you make, but they’re not terrible.” I place the cup of milk on the side. “My mom always made me hot milk whenever I felt sick and I hated it but never told her because I didn’t want her to feel bad. Don’t do that to me. Tell me if you hate milk or chocolate brownies or pizza.”
“Um, those are all my favorites but I’m going to spill the brownies on the sheets.” She slides into a seated position and accepts the plate from me. “What then?”
“Then we throw it on the floor, and it gets washed and dried with the rest of the stuff by the laundry fairy aka the person that Violet hired to do all the cleaning because we both hate it.”
“Okay then,” she laughs again. “I’m used to doing all the laundry and I guess it seemed like an extra task that I didn’t want to burden myself with.”
“Good news. There are no extra burdens in this house. You’re entering a period of rest. You’ve worked hard all your life to provide for you and Ryan, and now you’re going to take it easy. I’m going to find another job for Clare, so don’t worry about that either.”
She takes a bite of the dessert before saying, “I haven’t even given Clare a second thought.”
“When were you supposed to? In between worrying the Antonovs were going to slit your dad’s throat, assault you and end your brother, you were also supposed to plan out Clare’s retirement party?”
“I’m supposed to be feeling sorry for myself. This is part of it,” she says defensively.
Well, shit. “All right. I’m shutting the fuck up.” I brush away the crumbs that have escaped the plate.
“Ugh, I’m getting it everywhere.” She scrunches her nose. “I think I’m going to have to shower again.”
“Sounds terrible. Let me help you.” I scoop her into my arms and carry her into the bathroom immediately because a wet and naked Eden is my idea of paradise. Since all she’s wearing is my shirt, it’s easy enough to get her down to skin. I close my eyes for a second and pray for patience. She makes a small shy laugh that arrows straight to my cock.
Manfully, I gather my self-control and throw a towel over her. She bursts out laughing. “Really?”
“Yeah. I can’t look at your hot ass self and not want to violate you six ways to Sunday so wear the towel for my peace of mind.” I jerk my head toward the shower on the other side of the room. “We just had sex in there so that’s all I can think about.”
She sinks into the rising water. “I’ll try to be modest.”
“Appreciate the efforts.” I leave the tub and rummage around for a bottle of lotion. Violet keeps the house well stocked and I find something that doesn’t smell like it belongs on a lumberjack. "Sorry I don’t have anything prettier. This”—I sniff the liquid—“citrus and wood shit will have to do.”
“I’ll survive.”
I turn off the spouts now that the water is lapping close to the edge and pull the soaked towel out of the tub and toss it aside. I start with her feet, massaging them and running the soap-slicked towel over her ankles and up her calves.
“I like that you don’t have pretty stuff. It means that you didn’t regularly entertain women in here.”
“Sweetheart, there haven’t been any women in this tub. You’re it. You’re soaking in its maiden voyage.” She is the only woman
