“No. It is really nice to see,” Melissa replied.
“We have lost them. They will be staring oddly at each other until we arrive at the premiere. Trust me on that,” Chandler said. “We might as well go.” Chandler extended out his arm to Melissa. She took it without hesitation. In a very dapper manner, Chandler escorted Melissa to the limo that was waiting for us.
The drive to the premiere didn’t seem long to me, maybe it was due to the fact Cayden was at my side, holding my hand in his lap, making small circles with his thumb on the top of my thumb. And in truth, we were lost in each other’s eyes. Once the limo stopped, I heard screaming, screeching, and shrieks mixed in with high-pitched squeals. The sound of the crowd was overwhelming. It was bizarre to think all of these people were here to see the love of my life. When I turned to peer out the window of the limo, all I saw was wave after wave of people. I felt my face turn ashen. Sheer panic must have covered my demeanor as I flipped my head around to focus on Langdon and Jayden. Terrified for Cayden’s safety, that specific horrifying fear of losing him to violence overtook me.
“Both of you stay close to Cayden,” I instructed.
“Winter.” Cayden squeezed my hand lightly. “Jayden needs to stay with you.”
“No. Can’t you see? Don’t you hear how many people are out there? They are here to see you. There are too many people, Cayden. What if someone in the crowd wants to hurt you? If someone would hurt you….” I had to stop speaking. I closed my eyes. Every fear I ever had for his safety flooded me. It played out behind my lids in full color terror. “I cannot handle this, Cayden. I cannot.”
“Winter, baby, it is going to be okay, I promise. Please don’t be so upset,” Cayden urged.
I placed my hand to his face. With every bit of fear I had, I released it while I gazed into his clear blue eyes with pleading intensity. “For me Cayden, do this for me. Please take both Jayden and Langdon with you. I will be fine. Chandler will be with me.”
Cayden looked at me, his face none too happy. His brow furrowed for a bit then he nodded. “Okay,” he said.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
I watched Zander and Melissa exit the limo. My stomach churned, and my hands shook, but I pulled in the breath that eluded me earlier. I gazed over at Jayden. “Please, keep Cayden safe.” Jayden nodded once in assurance of my request. I took in another deep breath and turned to look at Cayden. “I love you, Cayden,” I said, taking Chandler’s hand.
“You are my heart.” Cayden touched his chest. I blew Cayden a kiss. “Chandler,” Cayden said, “you are holding someone I cannot live without.”
“I know,” Chandler assured then Chandler and I exited the confines of the limo.
The sound was ear piercing once we stepped out. Like an opera of pain with a crescendo from hell. People were screaming for Cayden in a fevered pitch. It became a cacophony of madness to the senses. Camera’s flashing, news commentators with their camera crews, people swirling around us asking us to look at them, telling us to smile, asking when we were going to get married. It all became a mash of sound, noise and more noise, flashing bulbs with more flashing, bright lights from the news cameras melting into more bright lights. I was lightheaded, my ears rang, my body submerged within the depths of this operatic deluge. I tried to tighten my grip on Chandler but I felt someone grab at Chandler’s arm. I closed my eyes in an attempt to gain my equilibrium. I moved forward a bit, letting go of Chandler’s hand. My fingers slipped away….
The streets were filled with hundreds and hundreds of people all stopped by barrier walls. On either side of me were velvet ropes with hundreds more all screaming and yelling. I looked at their arms, flying outward, in and over other arms and pressing past the ropes. It was as though looking into a mangle of roots all twisted together in a macabre twist that pressed through to the surface of the ground. These people were screaming, writhing against each other, some crying as they screamed. Some held pictures or magazines with Cayden’s photo on the front cover. Others had cameras trying to jockey for the best position in hope of gaining a picture. Staring at the crowds, I became more than aware they had lost any semblance of self-control. It seemed like mad crazy lustful chaos. It was like a snapshot within one of the nine circles of Dante’s Inferno.
From nowhere, a large framed dark-haired man jumped over the velvet red rope. He stood in front of me, yelling incoherently. It was hard to understand what he was saying. The sounds of the crowd muted his tirade. I was confused. My head swam within the chaos. I’d lost Chandler somewhere behind me. I turned to find him, only to see Chandler was a step or two away. Three photographers had him cornered. I tried to walk back toward him. I even reached out, but was stopped. I experienced the sensation of someone latch onto my arm as if talons took the place of hands.
I jerked around to see this large wild looking man inches from my face. He held my arm. I was unsure if he was trying to shake it or pull it. The man acted crazy. His eyes feral, dark. He was on something or perhaps drunk. He said something to me; however, I wasn’t sure what he was saying. Then I heard him. As if my senses clicked into gear.
“I love you. How can you give yourself to him like a whore? He’s a demon!” he yelled.
I yanked my arm free. Within a blink of an eye, Cayden was standing directly in front of me, taking a clearly protective stance. Cayden’s right arm shot around his back. He held onto my waist. Cayden put himself between me and the man.
“Back off!” Cayden said through clenched jaw, inches from this man’s face.
I started shaking. It was complete unadulterated panic. Worried this crazy man was going to try to hurt Cayden. My fears flooded me. Not necessarily fear this man could physically overtake Cayden, who was young and strong and could hold his own in a fight, but what if this man had a weapon? I pulled at Cayden’s arm in fear. I was trying, all be it unsuccessfully, to move him back from the man. I felt the adrenalin coursing through him. A storm rolled through his body. The man seemed to move forward, but Cayden stood his ground. He never broke his grip from my waist.
“I will take her from you, demon,” the man said.
Cayden tensed as though he were going to rip this man apart. “You will never touch her!” Cayden practically spit the words.
The man threw his hands up into the air saying, “She has always been your whore! You breathed your last breath, and you still took her. You can’t have her soul!”
Jayden shot forward. He was standing in front of Cayden then Langdon swooped in. “Sir, you need to leave,” Jayden instructed in a harsh tone.
Langdon positioned himself right beside Jayden. They were creating a wall between the man and Cayden. Chandler broke free and ran to my side. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“It’s okay. Everything is okay,” he whispered in my ear.
Flashbulbs went off in constant blinding bursts. News commentators with their camera crews were still coming toward us, and the crowd screamed nonstop for Cayden. Strange. No one cared about the scene that played out on the red carpet. Being frenzied themselves, they only cared to see or touch Cayden. There was so much noise no one but the few of us could even hear the man. The crowd would have no real idea of what he was saying, and they seemed uncaring or oblivious to this crazy man as though he wasn’t even there. The photographers on the other hand focused on us, the man, and kept clicking their cameras.
The man yelled. “I love her! He’s a demon, a demon! I need to save Winter from the demon!”
Jayden moved forward in a quick preemptive strike before this crazed man started lunging toward him like some sort of animal. Cayden turned around. He looked at me with sheer panic on his face before smoothing out his expression. I had never seen him so unhinged before. My nightmares of someone hurting Cayden were nonstop. They played out in my head. A knife, a gun…. I shook intently and knew the exact moment my eyes glazed over.
“Winter, just look at me,” Cayden said. He lightly shook me. “Look at me and no one else. F
ocus on me.” He stared at me intently. In the back of my mind, I realized he was trying to keep me calm, trying to pull me out of my fears, trying to protect me from the chaos that was breaking out like a scene from a horror movie. “Winter, please baby, look at me.”
I shook my head in agreement. I gazed into his face, into his eyes. “Cayden.”
“There you are, baby,” he said with a sense of relief. “I’m here, and I have you. Stay with me, look at me.” Cayden’s voice was calm and quiet as he spoke.
Chandler stood with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. Cayden had his right hand around my waist, and he kept his gaze locked with mine. I do not know how long we stood this way. The sound of the crowd crammed my ears, but Cayden’s perfect face flooded my eyes. Langdon came over and whispered something in Cayden’s ear. Cayden nodded his head in agreement. He glared at Chandler.
“He’s gone. He has been arrested. Let’s go, Chandler.” Cayden looked back at me. “I have you,” he assured.
Cayden turned around. Without pause, he took a hold of my right hand and intertwined his fingers with mine. Chandler took ahold of my left hand. Jayden and Langdon lead the way up the red carpet into the theater, cameras flashing the entire time.
Once we were inside the theater, Cayden stopped walking. He squeezed my hand as he turned his attention to Jayden. “Jayden,” he said, quietly, “we need to get Winter out of here.”
Jayden nodded. He started speaking to Langdon. I was unable to hear what he and Langdon were saying.
“No. I’m not leaving you here,” I protested quietly to Cayden.
“We are all leaving,” Cayden replied as he squeezed my hand once more.
Zander and Melissa came out from the darkened theater and walked over to us. “What happened?” Zander asked.
“Some crazy man,” Chandler said. “Winter and I got separated for a few seconds.”
“He got close enough to touch her,” Cayden interjected, his voice flat.
“He got to Winter?” Zander asked.
I witnessed something flash between Cayden and Zander.
Cayden nodded his head slightly. “Yes.”
From behind us, Cheryl Lynn along with her entourage entered. I heard her voice cutting though the panic in my mind.
“The crowds are wild tonight. I simply love it!” She walked around Chandler and faced us. Her gaze immediately went to Cayden’s face then to his hand intertwined in mine. “What are you doing?”
“We had an incident coming in. Someone got to Winter.” Cayden practically hissed the words in response to her question.
She sniffed.
“Why are you holding her hand? Cayden, have you totally lost your mind? I thought I was wrong, but I’m not. You are….” Cheryl Lynn looked mortified. She stopped talking. She stood in her sheer golden dress like a picture perfect statue of a goddess, a tribute to sex, staring at Cayden then at me.
“I’m holding her hand, too,” Chandler interjected. “Someone tried to attack her. We are making sure she is safe, Cheryl Lynn. It was very confusing and upsetting. Winter isn’t a pro like you.”
She laughed. I watched her flick her long hair over her shoulder as though she never heard Chandler.
“You are in love with her,” she said to Cayden in a statement.
He stared at me for a long moment. He smiled tenderly before he returned his attention to Cheryl Lynn. “Yes,” he replied without any hesitation.
“We need to go, Cayden,” Chandler prompted.
Cheryl Lynn looked strange, her porcelain features smoothed. “People try to attack me all the time. That’s what bodyguards are for. No reason to make such a big deal of it. Winter looks perfectly fine. No harm done.”
“Leave!” Cayden said to her.
Cheryl Lynn had a dumfounded expression for all of a minute. Her mouth open, jaw dropped, she gawked at Cayden as if he had picked up a gun and shot her.
“Excuse me?” she finally said, her eyelashes fluttering.
“Now is not the time,” Cayden replied.
Jayden came over and whispered something into Chandler’s ear then moved to stand behind me.
“The limo is back, we are leaving now.” Chandler made the announcement to all of us.
“We have to go back out there?” I asked.
Cayden turned to look at me. “I’m here,” he said while he held my gaze.
“I will stay, do some damage control,” Zander said.
Melissa looked aghast.
“They arrested him,” Cayden said. Zander nodded.
Cheryl Lynn was taking it all in with wide eyes. “You can’t leave, Cayden. This is our premiere!”
Cayden’s voice became hard, and his blue eyes flashed thunder in her direction. “Goodnight, Cheryl,” Cayden said. We all turned to follow while Jayden and Langdon led the way back down the red carpet.
Once we were securely in the limo, Cayden pulled me onto his lap. The warm gust of his breath skipped across my cheek. “Baby, I am so sorry. Are you okay?” he whispered in my ear.
“Yes,” I said.
“Winter, I am sorry,” Chandler added. “I felt your hand slip out of mine, but then I was cornered. I thought you would stay next to me. Cayden got to you before I could. Are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt.” I was surprised at how calm I was. “It was my fault. I moved forward, away from you, Chandler.”
I was never scared for myself only terrified someone would hurt Cayden. My head spun. I thought for sure I was going to faint. Cayden must have felt the shift of my body within his arms.
“Winter, are you all right?” Cayden’s voice was almost panicked. “Baby,” he said as my eyes closed.
I tried to gain control. It took me a moment.
“A little lightheaded,” I admitted.
“Relax, breathe,” Cayden whispered. “I have you.” He secured me tighter to his chest. I rested my head on top his shoulder. “This is why you need Jayden, baby. I should have never agreed to let you go out without him. I know better, this is entirely my fault.”
“No. You need both of them with you. If someone would hurt you I could not live.” I closed my eyes. “Cayden, it terrifies me, the thought of someone trying to hurt you.”
“Shh…my love.” He rubbed my back in small soothing circles.
“You know they have pictures of us tonight. You know this is going to get bad for you, not to mention you told Cheryl Lynn.”
“Winter, I don’t care what Cheryl knows. I don’t care what kind of pictures they have either. You were in danger. I could not allow that strange man to touch you, hurt you.” Cayden had distress breaking through his usual smooth voice. “When I saw what was happening I almost lost my mind. You have no idea how hard it was not to lunge out and kill that man.”
“Mr. Cain,” Jayden said, “it was the same man we encountered in New York outside the café. He traveled from New York to California, so he knew Winter would be here.”
“What?” Cayden asked, shock playing strongly through his voice.
“I don’t like that fact any more than you do, Mr. Cain,” Jayden replied.
“Are you sure, Jayden?” Chandler asked, “It was the same man?”
“Yes, I am positive,” Jayden replied.
“Cayden, he could have been dangerous. He could have hurt you,” I said, hiding my face into Cayden’s shoulder. He held me close and rubbed my back.
Chapter Twelve
How do I hold on?
The rest of the drive was quiet, tomb-like quiet. I stayed locked in Cayden’s arms. I pressed my face into his shoulder and neck. All I could think about was losing him. And the press was going to make things so much harder. They had pictures of Cayden protecting me, of him holding my waist, my hand. I knew what the world would see in those pictures when Cayden and I looked into each other’s eyes. It would be the truth. People would know I loved Cayden as well he loved me. Within those few seconds, within a flash, we were exposed.
He carried me from the
limo, into the house then up the stairs into his bedroom. He held me in his arms, not saying a word. I clung to him. Soon my world was going to change. I felt it. It had already changed. I didn’t know how to hold on. Cayden sat down on the end of his bed. He kept me cradled against his chest. He rocked me there for a moment. The only sound in the room was the ticking of a clock and the slight hum of the air conditioner.
Cayden reached down and started untying the straps around my ankles. He let one spiked heel fall with a dull thud to the ground and then the next. He placed his fingers to the scar around my right ankle. He outlined it gently. I’d never told him how much I disliked wearing heels or the pain they cause me yet he seemed to know, somehow. Cayden tenderly rubbed the scar. He did this for a long moment before he held his hand palm down against it, cradling my ankle within his large hand.
My fingers wrapped around the collar of his shirt. I pulled his tie loose before undoing the buttons from his neck. My fingertips roamed over his collarbone, outlining the shape. His tie fell, hit the corner of the bed, dangled there. In the next moment his hand wrapped around my ankle, securing it, shackling my flesh for his possession. He massaged the arch of my left foot. Cayden laid me back onto the bed and took my right foot. He pressed his fingers into the arches, balls, and heels of my feet. Something like electricity shot from my feet, through my loins, to my head. I bit at my bottom lip.
Cayden continued massaging my feet sinuously. Like magic, the ache left. He placed my ankle to his mouth. His lips kissed my scare.
“Don’t, it’s ugly,” I contested, becoming self-conscious and moving my marred flesh from him.
“Shh…,” Cayden soothed. “It’s not ugly, baby, no…. It shows you were strong enough to survive, Winter. You did not die. Winter Perri did survive. You lived baby. You lived for me.” I began to cry. “We all have scares, Winter. Let go of yours, give them to me.” Cayden took my ankle and kissed the scar again, only this time he ran his mouth tenderly up the blemished line. “We have healed each other, Winter. The scars we carry on the inside and on the outside don’t exist between us. You are beautiful, my perfection.” Cayden leaned forward and kissed the tears from my cheeks.
Eternal Page 14
