Hyde, an Urban Fantasy (30 page)

If her life was in tatters, she could accept it. Somewhere in her mind, she figured she deserved this. And Mitch? He was offering her nothing more than a prison bed. Whether that was enough for her or not didn’t really matter.

Keep it just business.
She laughed at the absurdity of that thought. The sound was foreign to her ears. When was the last time she laughed? Mitch was . . . a very confusing personality she tried not to spend too much time thinking about.

Carter was different.
Carter is—
She searched for a word other than the one that always appeared in her mind to describe him, the one Mitch had poked fun at with a steel finger. He was more than good, he was . . .
great
. Okay, that just sucked. Why was it so hard to pinpoint who he was? Why had she never thought of more than that before? He was honest, loyal, and brave. He was also too generous, with his life and his heart.

He’d never walk away, never open himself up to anyone else without a big shove. She could give him that. Having something to focus on helped push back the fear pulsing through her veins, taking a ride-along with her infected blood. Yes, that’s how she saw it—infected. With whatever brought Chastity out.

On day four, while Carter was at work, she dialed Mitch’s office number.

“Good morning, Mitchell—”

“Jolie? It’s Eden.”

A sigh answered her across the line. “Mitch isn’t here.”

“That’s okay. I wanted to talk to you.”

Another sigh. “What?”

What had she done to piss the woman off so badly? “Are you doing anything tonight?” she stammered.

Jolie laughed. “Are you asking me out?”

“Sorry, but you’re not my type. It’s for . . . Do you remember Carter?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he’s too chicken to ask, so I’m going to do it for him.” She played with a thread hanging from the couch, feeling like she was asking someone to the prom.

“Do what?”

Stop stalling and speak, Eden.
“I saw the way you two got along at the party, and I’d hoped you might want to continue the conversation you were having.”

“You want me to date your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

“I don’t date cast-offs.”

“You
know
he’s never really been my boyfriend. Jeez, Jolie. Help me out here. I want him to be happy.”

“You think
I
would make him happy?”

“It’s worth a try. Maybe both of you could get something out of it.” Eden waited for a response. And waited. She opened her mouth to declare the entire idea had been the result of a momentary lapse in brain-function.

“Maybe,” Jolie said. “He’s not in love with you or anything, is he?”

“No.” The lie came out so easily, it shocked her. She rationalized it by focusing on the facts: what he felt for her wasn’t love—co-dependency and loyalty weren’t the same as romantic love. And the person Carter loved was a fantasy, not who she really was.

“Does he know you’re asking me?”

Eden imagined Jolie leaning back in her chair, deciding which questions to ask to make this more difficult. “No, he doesn’t.”

“So, what, you want me to pretend I never spoke to you and ask him out?”

“Yes, but it seemed like a better idea before this call.”

“He’s younger and poorer than I usually go for, but he’s cute.” A pause. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

Eden let out her breath. “That’s fantastic. Thank you.”

“But I’m not paying. And I don’t do Dutch.”

“Ok-ay.” That wasn’t a concern—Carter wasn’t the kind of guy who would let a woman pay for anything. Now she just had to figure out a place for them to go. “Do you like movies?”

“No.”

“Parks?”

“No.”

“Restaurants?”

“As long as it isn’t Chili’s, that’ll do. Are you going to chaperone?”

“No. And it won’t be Chili’s.”

“Better not be, Eden.”

God, the woman was more like Mitch than Eden had realized. “Don’t tell him I asked you to call, okay?”

“I thought you didn’t lie.”

Eden took her time answering. “People change, I guess.”

“Hey, Eden. I was just messing with you. We already spoke.” She laughed.

Eden almost dropped the phone. “You what?”

“We have plans for tonight. But it was so fun to make you work for it, I couldn’t resist. You’re not mad, are you?”

As if she even cared.
“Mad? Um . . . no, I guess not. Confused, yes. And glad. But that wasn’t nice, Jolie.”

She giggled. “I know, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. No hard feelings?”

“None.”
At least no new ones.
“Have a good time tonight . . . and be nice to him.”

“Oh, I will.” She sighed, the giddiness of her big joke disappearing from her voice. “With us being out and Mitch being human, maybe you should go over to his house and ask him to keep you company.”

That was unexpected. Eden had always thought the reason for Jolie’s dislike of her was the time she spent with Mitch. Maybe everyone was changing.

“Yeah, I think I might.” She didn’t mention that she’d already set up a date between Mitch and Chastity. Thankfully, with bars between them.

“Oh, and he thinks it’s annoying when women talk while he’s fucking them, so keep your mouth shut. Unless it’s otherwise occupied.” She chuckled.

Eden had no words to respond with.

“Another joke, Eden. I’m sure he’ll be gentle with you. You’ve gotten under his skin. Maybe all the way to his heart, who knows? I think you’d make a”—she paused—“
magnificent
couple.”

Not believing that in the slightest, Eden finally found her voice. “Thank you. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“Why not? What are you, twenty-three? You’re allowed to live a little. Have fun. I know I will.”

After Jolie hung up on her, Eden wondered if she’d chosen the right woman for Carter. Or if Carter had chosen the right woman for himself.

Ever.

“Live a little,” she repeated. It was a fairly new concept for her. She’d always prided herself on making the right decisions, being “good” all the time. But that had nothing to do with “living a little”. It had never occurred to her to include that in her life-plan. Would she be a bad person if she chose to sleep with someone she was incredibly attracted to and had feelings for? Sure, not all those feelings were positive, but, somehow, that made the idea even more intriguing.

Maybe Mitch was the one she’d been waiting for. At least he was honest with himself. Which was more than she could say for herself. Maybe denying her own wants and needs was part of why she was in this mess to begin with. Like Mitch had theorized about Hyde—if she let that emotion out in daily doses, it might keep it from dumping out all at once in the form of a red-headed menace. She knew where she stood with Mitch and where she would stand if they did come together.
If
he’d have her.

One step at a time. Cross one hurdle before worrying about the next one.

She waited about thirty minutes before calling Carter. She got his voice mail and left a quick message, letting him know that she’d spoken to Jolie.
True.
That the idea of a date had come up.
Also true.
And that he’d better pick a nice place to take Jolie to.
All true. Hurray for me.

An hour later, he called her back, skepticism seeping through his voice.

“Hey, Jolie and I spoke before I got your message. It took me a while to get my mind moving again and check my voice mail. So this is okay with you?”

Darn it, why did he still assume she had some sort of say in his love life? “I think it’s great. It would be good for you to get out. And who knows what will happen.”

“She wants to meet tonight, but tonight is . . .”

Tonight is Chastity’s.
“I know. I’m still not sure why Mitch wants you there, anyway. I’ll be in a cage for goodness sake. I’ll talk to him.”

“I already tried that. It’s a condition he isn’t budging on, but I’ll be there by the time you go to sleep. Just stay up a bit later than usual.”

Eden didn’t say it, but she was glad Carter would be there. She needed a buffer between Chastity and Mitch, so Eden would know for sure that they didn’t do it through the bars. The line went silent for so long, Eden thought they’d lost the connection.

“Eden, I should have checked with you first. I’m sorry. You sure you’re okay with this?”

“Absolutely. Jolie is”—she struggled to find the right word—“a catch.”
Kind of.
“But she doesn’t know about Chastity so, if you can, could you drop her off before going to Mitch’s? Oh, and whatever you do, don’t take her to Chili’s.”

After he agreed not to bring Jolie to Mitch’s or to any restaurant that had paper placemats, they said a quick goodbye, and Eden went back to worrying about what the evening held for her. What could she wear that Chastity wouldn’t pull off? Nothing. She’d have to make the men promise to keep their eyes closed. Yeah, like that’d work. She repeated, “The human body is beautiful, and it’s nothing they haven’t seen before,” to herself and hoped it would sink in before bedtime. Heck, she knew Chastity had displayed all of their parts to the men before, so her body was
definitely
something they’d seen before.

Since Carter hadn’t moved out yet, and Eden wanted to be gone when he came home to get ready for his date, she left her apartment at six o’clock. The walk to Mitch’s took longer than it needed to. She stopped to window shop without really seeing and watched people on the street whose biggest worries were what they would make for dinner.

She’d lost her appetite weeks ago. Well, she’d lost her appetite for
food
weeks ago, but her hunger for the man she would be seeing soon was starting to overwhelm her.

Mitch got home to find Eden sitting on his driveway. She stood and brushed herself off as his car pulled in.

“Reporting for duty, sir.” A quick salute with the wrong hand and half a smile. It was nice to see her smile.

“Yeah.” After days of wondering how he could keep her safe while still pushing her away, he was still no closer to an answer. Thank goodness he was a people-person. Riiight. Maybe he could lock her up early and spend the evening in his room . . . jerking off.

She followed him inside, taking nervous little steps like she didn’t know what to do with herself. Which made two of them.

“Carter’s coming, right?” he asked.

“Later, yes. He has plans, but he’ll be here.”

“Plans, huh?” Mitch had his own plans—keeping the idiot awake even if it involved some Clockwork Orange-esque equipment.

She wasn’t hungry, but he would force her to eat if he had to. Her eyes had dark rings under them and she looked thinner. In four days.

“Eat.” He plopped a plate of left-over Chinese food in front of her and sat down with his own.

She picked at the Chow Mein until she succumbed to his glare and put a few noodles into her mouth.

“Do I need to tell you to chew?”

She shook her head and ate.

He shoveled some hard rice into his mouth and winced. “Yeah. Not good.” Picking up both of their plates, he threw them into the trash and went in search of something palatable.

“How was your day?” she asked.

“You wanna play house? Fine. My day sucked. How was yours?”

“It sucked.”

He smirked. “When do you go back to school?”

She blinked. “Um . . . Wow, I hadn’t even thought about it. I guess classes start in late August, but I’m not sure I’m going.”