Leaving Chase at an office meeting, she had been home for some time. Hazel had finished up early for the day, and she was leaving when Eden stepped off the elevator. She decided to go through the mail and have tea, enjoying a little alone time.
Sitting in the kitchen at the table with her new favorite peppermint tea and a letter opener, she sorted through the stack of mail, separating it into neat piles. A letter of thanks plus a standard Christmas card came to her from the women’s shelter that she made her donation to. With thoughts of how happy that much money would make the little ones, she smiled.
“Christmas card from your lover?” Chase joked when he came into the room, seeing the smile on her face. He put his briefcase on the table and leaned down, wrapping his arms around Eden’s shoulders holding her tight.
“You know it!” she said, taunting.
Chase laughed, reaching for his mail pile, sorting through it until he came to one in particular that seemed to disturb him. His brow furrowed and he quickly folded it over and shoved it into his pocket, making Eden look at him in wonder.
“Christmas card from your lover?” she asked, but Eden made no attempt at humor, and Chase made no attempt to laugh.
“Don’t be silly, baby. You know I only have eyes for you.” Chase kissed the top of her head, and crossed the room to retrieve a bottle of water from the refrigerator, drinking nearly the whole thing before excusing himself from the room, explaining that he needed to change.
Eden kicked herself that she had not paid more attention to the contents of his mail pile. Then, maybe she would have an idea as to what he found so unsettling. She kept no secrets from him and thought that he had shared all with her, bar one, so what was he hiding now? She intended to find out.
She made her way up the stairs into their bedroom. Chase was in the shower, and his suit lay on the bed. She searched his pockets, but the letter was gone. She opened his dresser drawers and bedside table in search, but it was nowhere to be found.
She sat on his side of the bed contemplating what had been in the letter. Was it from another woman? A lover? Was it something that would come between them? She didn’t want to think like that, but she so hated secrets.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Chase leaned against the doorframe to the bedroom with a towel wrapped low on his hips, dangling the letter between his index and middle fingers with an angry stare.
Her embarrassment turned her cheeks red. “No,” she lied and then looked up at him, sudden guilt eating at her. “Yes. I mean you made it pretty obvious that it wasn’t something you wanted to show me.”
“And I still don’t. Does that bother you?” he asked, very indignant.
“Yes. I thought we weren’t going to keep secrets?” she asked.
“I’m just not ready to share this one, not right now, but in time, perhaps I will,” he reassured her in a gruff tone, not nearly convincing.
Chase retrieved clothing from his drawers and walked back to the bathroom, locking the door behind him without making any eye contact whatsoever. Her heart sank at his treating her with such distance and keeping a secret from her. Annoyance boiled to the surface. How dare he be keeping something important from her. She rose off the bed and slammed the bedroom door as she took off down the stairs. Eden grabbed her heavy parka and running shoes at the door and thumped the elevator button with her fist.
As she turned in the elevator, she looked up just as Chase came down the stairs. He caught sight of her and increased his stride toward her. “Eden, stop!” he hollered.
“Go to hell!” she shouted as the door closed tight, and it started its descent.
Once on the street, she began to run. No destination in mind, she just ran, needing to escape, needing to be as far away from him as she could get. Tears streamed down her face, and the bitter cold burned against her wet cheeks.
Eden turned the corner and ran straight into what felt like a brick wall. She fell back, slamming the back of her head onto the cold hard sidewalk, knocking the wind right out of her. Sitting up, she gasped for breath.
“Jesus, sweetheart, what the fuck are you doing?” Mason pulled her to her feet without effort and brushed her off. “Let’s get you home.”
“No!” she cried, pulling from his grip and touching the back of her head. Wincing from the pain, she carefully checked for blood.
“Let me see.” Mason turned her and searched through her hair for any signs of blood, and to his relief, there was none. “You have quite the goose egg but no blood. Where are you going in such a hurry, sweetheart?” he asked, a glint of real non-macho concern on his face.
“I don’t know. I was just running,” she said, wiping her tear-stained face and nose on the back of her sleeve, very unladylike. Mason laughed.
“Fuck you!” she roared at him with an angry thump to his chest. His brows raised in the air as he smiled at this little imp pounding on his huge chest with no effect.
“If you’re finished? Let’s go for a coffee and get outta this cold. There’s a Starbucks across the street.” He took her by the hand and pulled her with him. She stared up at him in shock due to the fact that he rarely touched her intentionally.
It was warm in the coffee shop, and she welcomed it, not realizing just how cold it was at this very moment. Mason placed their order and suggested that she go wash her face, freshen up, and he’d get them a seat. She figured it couldn’t hurt. She probably looked a fright.
In the restroom, Eden straightened herself, and smoothed her hair before wiping her face with a wet paper towel and fixing the smudged mascara from under her eyes. She picked up her coat, found Mason as she emerged from the washroom, and walked over to the window seat where he sat.
“That’s better, sweetheart. You look a bit more like yourself. How’s the head?” he asked, handing her a plastic baggy containing ice and a warm mug of cocoa with a candy cane sitting in it for decoration. Immediately, she pulled the red and white swirled confection from the mug and licked the cream from it before setting it aside. She winced when she put the ice on her head. Mason reached over with a paper napkin and wiped the cream from the corner of her mouth. She blushed at his attention.
“My head hurts, but I’ll live.”
“You do blush easily, don’t you?” Mason asked, surprised at how provocative it really was, now knowing what it did for Chase and his libido.
“Drink your coffee,” she said, looking into her mug, thinking of how much Chase loved her stupid blushing.
Mason’s arm settled across the back of her chair, and he leaned closer. “So are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked.
Her eyes lazily met his. “Chase probably wouldn’t be too thrilled with me if I discussed it with you, you being best friends,” she explained, even though she needed to get it out of her system.
“Suit yourself, sweetheart, but I don’t intend on discussing our private conversations with anyone.” He winked and she smiled, becoming well aware that this big tough brute was her friend, too.
With the candy cane, she stirred the last of her hot chocolate and took a sip. “He’s keeping a secret from me. Actually, a few.”
Mason asked, rather impassively, as he finished his coffee, “What kind of secret?”
“Well if I knew that, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now, would we?” she asked rolling her eyes toward the ceiling.
Mason laughed as he stood, collecting their mugs for a refill. “Did you honestly just roll your eyes at me?” She had to bite the inside of her mouth to hold back her laughter. He gave her a shake of his head and walked away.
When he returned with their freshly filled mugs, he looked at her, waiting. “Well? And without rolling your eyes, what kind of secret are we talking about? Because if you think he’s screwing around or something, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The man is loyal like a dog. He loves you, sweetheart.”
“I know he loves me, I love him…he got something in the mail. He looked angry when he saw it, t
hen he hid it from me…and he kinda caught me looking for it.” She held her head down, moving her attention to her mug, ashamed of herself.
“And you’re the one pissed off? You don’t think that he should be pissed at you for being a nosy bitch?”
“Who you calling bitch, asshole? Yeah I’m pissed, he basically told me to mind my own business, that he wouldn’t discuss it until he was good and ready,” she explained, trying to convince Mason that in some small way, she was right in her thinking, but she was failing miserably.
“What’s really got you riled? Is it the fact that he’s hiding something or the fact that you, as a female species, need to know absolutely everything?” he asked with a smart-ass look on his face, never taking his eyes off of her. He was enjoying this cat and mouse, back and forth, tit for tat game going on, and her temper was spiking to lethal levels.
“Well, aren’t you the condescending asshole?” she asked with a furrowed brow and pursed lips, before taking a moment or two to see the big picture Mason was painting for her.
Eden rubbed her hands over her face, frustrated that this man, whose closest relationship with a female was with his gun he named Shirley, understood more about women than most guys. She still wanted to slap his smug kisser on behalf of all women out there, for his acurate perception of the female populace.
Pointing her finger in his face without fear of him nipping it off as his eyes followed it, she gave him what for. “For your information, I don’t need to know everything! Maybe I’m just jealous the letter is from a woman, maybe it’s fear. I don’t know. I guess I’m afraid,” she confided.
“Afraid of what? Chase fucking around? Are you kidding me? He’d never hurt you like that, sweetheart,” Mason said, defending the honor of his best friend. He knew him like no one else. He could guarantee on his life that the man was rock solid, salt of the earth and all. No man was more loyal to a fault than Chase Dean.
Eden put her head on his shoulder and sniffled back a tear. “Mason…what if there is someone else? I know you say he’s faithful, but would he really tell you if he was seeing someone else? What if he doesn’t want me anymore, Mason? Maybe he’s tired of me. What if he met someone more exciting?”
Mason shrugged her head off his shoulder. “Don’t be stupid. I would know. I practically go everywhere the man goes,” he blurted out, causing her mouth to drop open, letting out a puff of air to prove her exasperation. “Where do you women get this shit from? You start imagining that we’re screwing someone else and sneaking around if you find a pubic hair out of place. For Christ’s sake, Eden it was a letter, not a fucking naked chick in his bed.”
“Thanks, Mason. You have such an encouraging way with words.” She reached for her coat, finished with the conversation, and fully intending to make a dash for it, until Mason grabbed her forearm, forcing her to sit back down with a raw thump. He pinned her in place; she had nowhere to go.
Mason held her tight. “Why do you do that? Why do you always take flight the minute a situation gets a little sticky? It drives me absolutely off my rocker. And people wonder why I avoid getting serious with a woman. Fuck!”
“Because us woman are all nuts? Is that what you’re saying?” Her feathers were definitely getting ruffled.
“Yep!” he declared.
“Well, you’ll never get a woman with an attitude like that…how the hell did you ever end up married?” The words were out before she realized, and she looked at him with pure regret. Her face paled, and she held her breath before speaking again. “Oh god, Mason, I’m sorry.”
He looked at her puzzled at first, quickly replaced by angry eyes. “How the hell would you know that? I guess our friend, Chase, has a big fucking mouth.”
“No. Chase didn’t tell me anything. He never told me a thing, I promise you.” She felt so bad. “I overheard you and Chase talking about Gloria at the house. Please don’t be mad?”
Mason carefully contemplated his next words in his mind, sitting quietly for the longest time. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs to capacity, letting the air out slowly in search of calm before twisting his head from side to side. Eden watched him, saying nothing in fear that he would reach down and squash her like a grape, but all the while wanting to ask him unanswered questions she had about his wife.
“Ok, so you know. I can live with that. Yeah I was married for five years…end of.” He cut the conversation off, figuring she would leave it at that.
“What happened?” Eden asked, the nosy side of her taking over. He had to have expected that. After all, he accused her of being a nosy bitch. Payback, as they say.
He wouldn’t make eye contact. “She died.” He stared at his fist resting at the edge of the table.
“How did she die?”
“Fuck! You’re not going to let it go at that, are you? She fucking OD-ed, ok?” he snarled, his voice rising, but not to the level anyone around them would hear. “Are you happy now? You understand why I’m so fucked up? Do you have any more questions? Perhaps you’d like to know all the fucking gory details. How I found her dead, curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor? The color of the nightgown she died in? How the door to that room hasn’t been opened since?”
Eden’s lip began to quiver, and she fought back tears listening to his bitter words. He was in pain and hurting, so she understood his lashing out at her. He stared at her as she waited for more of his verbal assault. She could see that his anger was disappearing, and he seemed suddenly sedate.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have talked to you like that.” He offered his apologies. “I just don’t want to talk about my private life and family, ok?”
“I’m the one that’s sorry, Mason. I deserve worse than you gave me, I’m afraid. I really wasn’t trying to pry into your personal life. It’s just you’re my friend. I worry about you like I worry about Chase…and I don’t think you’re fucked up.”
Mason let her words sink in, but he knew he was fucked up. He was as big a mess as he accused her of being in the past. He was a grumpy prick with a chip on his shoulder.
He watched her closely, studying her face because he had never bothered to before. He thought she was a pretty little thing. Her bright, fiery eyes filled with strong emotions, a heart full of passion, her plump lips that he could only imagine touching against his own, and a body he dreamed of nightly, if she only knew. She was a woman he could gladly fall for, and deep down, he had. But that was a secret that he’d take to his grave. He’d respectfully stand at a distance and admire her, love her the only way he could.
“No more about me, ok? This conversation stays between us, alright?” She nodded, and he seemed happy enough with that. “But you, you need to have faith in the Chase. He’s not going anywhere, sweetheart…and if he does, you got me as a backup. What more could you ask for?” He joked, knowing sadly that his secret love for her would stay just that. He wrapped his arm over her shoulders and gave her a little squeeze.
“Thanks, Mason.”
“Now I’m going to take you home without any arguments, got it?” He was as commanding in his authority as Chase. She slipped on her parka when he held it out to her. Eden leaned forward while he was fighting with the zipper and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. To her amazement, he didn’t flinch or object.
“Could I borrow your phone, Mason, to call Chase and let him know I’m alright?” she asked.
“He knows, sweetheart.”
“You called him?”
“When you were in the ladies. Shit, I couldn’t have him running around the streets of Boston looking for you, could I?” he asked as he buttoned up his coat, then held out his hand to her.
“Thank you.” She smiled, slipping her hand into his, happy that she had such a good friend in Mason.
***
The elevator opened to an empty foyer, and Eden looked up at Mason, apprehensive to enter any further. He tugged at her zipper and slid her out of her parka, throwing it onto one of the pegs on the wall with his. They r
emoved their shoes, and he put them to the side, took her hand, and pulled her with him as he made his way through each room in pursuit of Chase’s whereabouts.
“Maybe he left,” Eden whispered, scared to make a sound.
“No, he wouldn’t leave without letting me know,” Mason assured her as he took to the stairs. “There’s only one other place he’d be.”
When they got to the bedroom door Mason looked at Eden sadly and slipped a lock of her hair behind her ear, wishing that things had been different, and it was him that she was going in search of. The one whose name she cried during sex. It drove him mad when he heard them making love. He’d learn to get past it in time.
Then he opened the door and walked in, not waiting to knock or seek permission to enter. He figured that formality wasn’t needed in this situation. They both saw Chase sitting on the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands. He looked up at the pair, his glassy eyes moved to their hands, still holding tight. Eden pulled her hand loose, and Mason kissed the top of her head.
“I’m outta here. You two need to talk. Bye, sweetheart.” Mason was gone before either of them could say a word.
Chase stood, and Eden ran into his open arms. They held each other in silence, neither of them knowing quite what to say for the longest time.
“I’m so sorry, Chase,” Eden uttered finally, keeping her face against his chest so she didn’t have to look at him, and see the anger in his eyes again.
“Don’t be sorry, baby. I shouldn’t hide things from you. It’s not right. You need to know because it’s not going to go away so easily.” He took her face in his hands, the anger gone, replaced with a look of sorrow, and he kissed her lips, licking his own after he released her. “Mmm, chocolate.”
“Mason bought me cocoa,” she said, offering an answer.
“He took good care of you? And how’s your head? Need an aspirin?” He put a hand to the back of her head, and she flinched in pain. He was gone and back with water and two aspirin before she could even reply to his query. She took the pills and smiled her thanks.
Eden's Pleasure (Pulse Book 1) Page 33
