Monster (13 page)

He didn’t give her a chance to deny him as he slanted his head and touched his lips to hers. It was rather unfortunate how easily she responded to him, how embarrassingly pliant and willing she became when he traced the seam her lips with his tongue demanding access to delve deeper. “If I can’t be buried inside you, at least I can have these sets of lips instead,” he murmured raggedly, his voice a low growl against her warm, wet mouth.

The instant he slackened his hold, Eden did not struggle long before he released her completely. She didn’t linger but rather fled to her bedroom, refusing to look back even at the sound of the throaty laughter that followed her.

Eden was finally getting into the swing of things at Carver’s three weeks later. Her first night on the job had been far more challenging than Eden had anticipated. And rather than being assigned to April for her training like she’d initially thought she was going to be, Lena had placed her with Sara, the woman who Eden remembered running into when she’d come for her interview. From the moment they were introduced, Eden had been laden with the other woman’s derision and could not understand why. Eden had apologized more than once for running into her and had even attempted to make a joke out of it where she was the butt of that joke, but all she’d received was a glare. Sara had made that Friday evening a nightmare for Eden with her dismissive and downright rude replies in front of customers, to the way she would completely ignore Eden when she asked a question. It had been a difficult evening to be sure, but it’d made Eden stronger. Hell, she’d gone up against far worse than a prickly bitch of a waitress who disliked her for no particular reason.

Luckily for Eden, Sara had taken a vacation after that disastrous Friday and April had taken charge of her training. It should’ve been this way from the start, in Eden’s opinion. April showed her the ropes: taught her how to jot down orders so that she didn’t get any wrong; she explained the menu, the specials, and pointed out the regulars and how they preferred their meals; and she introduced her to Mickey, the bartender, and how to butter him up to get your drink orders in quickly when it was busy. It was essentially one big display of flirting—playing up the vapid, amply endowed, giggly girl who was there solely to fetch, serve, and entertain.

April and the other girls had it down to an art form. Eden, on the other hand, found it difficult to acclimate to the role, and thought maybe it was because it hit too close to home. The women at Carver’s were, in every sense, being objectified, parading around in those tight, short uniforms and seen as nothing more than a pretty face and body meant to be ogled and touched, meanwhile they were to take it with a smile and hope the men who frequented Carver’s found them adequate enough to fork over some money. Eden was far too familiar with this. The more she thought on it, the more it made her ill, because suddenly she was faced with the fact that maybe she’d picked this job because it was so close to what she was used to, so close to her marriage with Dominic.

But then, didn’t it go further than Dominic? Wasn’t her job at Crazy Pussy the beginning of it all? What did it say about her that she had begun using her body simply to get by, and then again to marry a wealthy man, and now resorting to old habits to work for scraps? It was a habit, easy, a crutch. She
didn’t need Dominic to make her feel less than she was, because Eden was quite good at doing it herself. Honestly, what did it say about her? About her self-worth?

In a desperate grab for financial freedom and independence from her overbearing, demeaning spouse, she found herself back at square one. Eden sighed miserably, raking a hand through her hair. Most of the time she could push those thoughts away, and she could manage the daily grind without being bogged down by all this self-incrimination, but sometimes it got the better of her, sometimes it was just too much.

Hopping out of her car, she headed for Carver’s. She forced herself to think of the bigger picture, the ultimate prize that awaited her. A divorce from Dominic and money enough to start her own business. The papers had been drawn up, spelled out to her in very plain English, and signed by the attorney, herself, and Dominic. There would be no loophole for him to weasel out of giving her what was in the contract, what was rightfully hers. All she needed to do was withstand the next six months with him, and she would be free. The only downside was the clause that prevented her from suing him for sole custody of Liam in the future. But Eden was sure Dominic would lose interest in their son soon enough.

Saturday night was packed, but Eden expected no less. And with what she hoped was her best smile, she dove right into the job, leaving her baggage at door to be picked up once again on her way to the mansion later this evening. Confident enough that she could handle her own section, Lena had taken April away and Eden was left to her own devices. But maybe, Eden thought dejectedly, that move had been made too premature as she found herself dropping yet another plate of food—her fourth one so far—and it wasn’t even two hours into her shift. Muttering a curse under her breath, she stooped down to clean up the mess, all the while attempting to hide the rising heat in her cheeks as she felt a dozen or so pair of eyes on her. Okay, so maybe she hadn’t left her shit at the door.

“Damn it.” She shook her hands, attempting to rid herself of the tension that tightened her body, but she found it futile as her hands continued to tremble terribly. Stress, she reasoned, it was only stress. Everything was coming to a head, and she couldn’t stop the emotions from leaking out.

“What the hell is the matter with you?”

Eden spun around at Lena’s blistering tone. “I’m sorry…I’m just…” She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry, Lena. I’m fine now.”

“Get your shit together, Eden. I don’t have time to babysit you. You told me you could handle this job…”

“I can…I’m sorry.”

The other woman softened a little, but her frown remained. “I don’t want you to apologize. I want you to do the job you were hired to do. Whatever you’re going through, get over it. Cry, slap someone, grab a shot at the bar, I don’t care, just fucking get over it and get your ass on the floor, got it?”

“Yeah…yeah, I got it.”

“Good. Now look alive, Carver is going to be here in the next half hour, and I need this shit to run as smoothly as possible.”

“You alright, Eden?” April asked worriedly, sidling up to her when Eden emerged from the backroom some time later.

“Just a little breakdown.”

April laughed. “Look at it this way, at least you didn’t spill drinks on customers. Trust me everyone here has their horror stories. Come on, let’s do a shot.” Eden wasn’t given a moment to protest as April dragged her to the bar.

Two hours later and Eden was back into her groove, decidedly tipsy because her one shot had turned into several others, but that was because Lena had stuck her at the bar, where her easy rapport with customers earned her a shot that they boisterously encouraged her to take.

“Easy there, kid,” Mickey, a lumberjack of a man with an easy smile under his grizzled face, grabbed the shot glass from her hand and poured the contents beneath the bar. “You got to water the hell out of those shots; otherwise we’ll be picking your ass off the ground in no time.” He poured her a cup of water over ice and handed it to her. “They want a shot, you take this.”

With a grateful smile, Eden took a mouthful of water before getting back to her bartending duties. Of course she couldn’t sling drinks to save her life, but at least she was more helpful here than on the floor. Thankfully, Mickey didn’t mind her being in his space; in fact, he had her man the taps while he mixed the fancier drinks.

There was a lull in the crowd a few hours later giving Eden time to clean the glasses that had accumulated and wipe down the bar. It was while she took a moment to drink from her cup of iced water that she saw him, and as Lena previously said, he was very hard to miss. The eyes of nearly every woman in the vicinity were fixated on the man who had the perfect combination of rugged and sexy stamped on nearly every inch of his incredibly built, well-proportioned physique. He was linebacker big, broad in the shoulders and chest, the navy blue v-neck t-shirt he wore fitted him perfectly, accentuating his pecs and what was assumedly a rock hard abdomen that tapered off into a waist that held boot-cut dark rinsed jeans. His arms were as big as she was, muscled, and covered from bicep to wrists with tattoos. His hair was cut short to his head, too short to discern the color, but looking at the shadowing of facial hair around his chiseled jawline one could easily make out dark hue.

Beneath slightly angled thick dark brows was a pair of deep set bedroom eyes that were as riveting as the man himself. He had a wide, full mouth that held a grin as he spoke to one of the girls on the floor. There was easygoing air about him as he made his way through the crowd, greeting customers like they were old friends and sharing in their laughter when appropriate. Too soon he was at the bar, standing just to the side of her as he engaged Mickey in conversation, and then for the briefest of moments his gaze veered slightly in her direction, and that full mouth turned up into a crooked grin. Eden silently cursed at getting caught looking before quickly scrambling to find something to occupy herself with.

“So, you’re the new girl.” She heard seconds later, his voice like a shot of bourbon going down.

Eden turned back to face him now, far more in control of herself than she’d been a moment ago. “Yeah…I’m Eden.”

“I thought Lena put you on the floor,” he stated, his steel blue eyes trained on her.

She froze not exactly sure of how to convey that she was a walking disaster as a waitress, but could sling drinks with the best of them behind the bar. It seemed Mickey had overheard the conversation, and much to Eden’s relief, spoke up for her. “She’s better behind the bar, boss man. Just look at that tip jar.” He wandered over and set a large hand on her shoulder. “She’s green, but I can teach her the ropes back here. She’ll be bringing in the big bucks in no time.”

“You ever mixed drinks?”

“No, but I’m a quick learner,” she recovered, putting a smile for added effect, although she was sure it wasn’t executed as smoothly as she wanted to believe.

“Good, at least that’ll keep you from breaking anymore of my dishes and wasting my food.” There was wry humor in the jab, and Eden’s face went up in flames as he chuckled. “Welcome to the team,” he said over his shoulder before turning to leave.

* * *

A few days later, Eden readied Liam for a walk out in the park. As requested, Dominic had appointed Jenna Liam’s nanny, but with the increasing sourness of her best friend’s mood over the last few weeks, Eden had decided to give Jenna some time to herself. It was the least she could do after having imposed on her time for so long. Jenna had readily accepted the chauffeured ride that Eden had offered and had squealed with delight when she’d been told that her day of shopping and beauty would be covered. Eden hadn’t exactly told her best friend who would be covering it, choosing instead to let her friend assume that Dominic was picking up the tab. But in reality, Eden had spent quite a lot on the spa package, the expenses had put a large dent in her savings, but she knew she could recover it quickly enough with her tips from Carver’s. The way she looked at it, this was a small price to pay for everything Jenna had done for her, and it would be well worth it if the blond haired woman retuned feeling like her old self again. It hadn’t even crossed Eden’s mind for a moment to ask Dominic for help. She did not want to owe him more than she was already indebted; she was here solely for one reason, and Eden did not want to give him reason to curtail her endgame.

Settling Liam inside the ridiculously fancy and undoubtedly expensive stroller, Eden was faced once again with Dominic’s increasing influence in Liam’s life, and she wasn’t sure whether she liked it or not. First the crib and now the stroller, these were two of hundreds upon hundreds of things Dominic had had purchased for Liam over the last few weeks. There were the abundance of clothes and shoes that were nearly as costly as Eden’s car and then there were the toys, so many of them they had a room of their own. Eden wasn’t sure exactly what it was Dominic was trying to accomplish, but she knew it was too much too fast. But then, wasn’t this the only way she knew him to be? His wealth, his power, this was the only form of affection there would ever be from Dominic Armstrong. He’d showered Eden with materialistic things at first, too, but then had deprived her of the one thing she’d craved far more from him than the endless parade of trinkets, but that craving had ebbed considerably over the years, soured even in the face of his debasement and cruelty. Now all she wanted to do was get as far away from him as possible and attempt to protect Liam as much as she could from the inevitable disappointment.

God, she was starting to sound bitter. Eden sighed, she wasn’t this person. Too much had happened in the last five years, but she couldn’t allow her resentment and bitterness to eat away at her like this. It wasn’t good for either herself or Liam. Determined to start their day off on a better note, Eden applied the brakes to the stroller and jogged to the living room to grab Liam’s diaper bag, her wallet, and the small basket she’d prepared earlier, then hastened back to the foyer. She loaded Liam in the car seat first, making sure he was well and truly strapped in before putting the rest of the items she had in the ample truck space of her car, including the stroller.

She drove to a local flower shop and spent some time picking out a few arrangements, and with the salesperson eager to help her find whatever it was she was looking for, Eden was out of there in no time. After four months of motherhood, she was damn proud of herself in being able to multitask with an infant constantly vying for her attention. Case and point, readying the stroller, taking the car seat out with Liam in tow and locking it in place, all the while carrying the baby bag and the bouquets was one
hell of an accomplishment. Feeling decidedly proud of herself, Eden smiled broadly as she pushed the stroller through the open wrought iron gates of the cemetery. It was peaceful here, quiet, and as they steadily made their way to her mother’s grave, the warm summer breeze gently swept through the trees above, and Eden believed it was her mother welcoming them.