“I cannot believe you just said pussy.” I laughed as I moved across the booth and slid into the seat opposite her.
“Really?” She looked across at me in amusement, raising a brow in the process
“You just don’t seem like someone who would cuss.”
“Guess what? I say fuck, shit, asshole, and cock too.”
My laughter gained the attention of Aunt Carole who glided to the table with two large slices of her famous chocolate cake. Eden’s widened glance took in the cake and then she delivered me the sweetest, most excited smile.
“This one told me that you said this was your favorite cake, so here you go sweetie. Enjoy.” Aunt Carole nodded toward me.
“I told you I’d tell her.”
We dug into our cake and silence fell over the table, well until Eden started sighing and doing the most innocent little moans as she enjoyed every bite of the cake. I thought of cats dying to try and stop thinking about the sounds coming from her deliciously enticing mouth, that was how fucked up this situation was. Nothing helped.
“So when we are finished I should walk you back to the hotel.”
“I want to stay. I want to play twenty questions,” she shot out, completely shocking me with her outburst.
“What?” I stammered back at her, confused.
She stuttered in response and started jabbing at the half eaten piece of cake. “I meant sure that would be nice. I should probably get some sleep. I have a big day tomorrow.”
“You want to play twenty questions with me?” Humor lingered in my question.
Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes dropped from mine.
“Eden, look at me,” I demanded and instantly her eyes found mine again. “You want to play twenty questions?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Why?”
“I want to know you. If I am spending all this time with you, I don’t want it to be weird, and I thought if I knew things about you that I’d feel more comfortable.”
Well fuck me. I leaned back against the cushion of the booth and locked my hands behind my head. Eden, locked in my gaze, clasped her hands together on the table, but she didn’t waver. How did I get myself into this situation? For an outsider, I would expect them to think I was an asshole who was preying on a girl who couldn’t say no, but here she was taking the reins and dragging us closer together.
One month.
“Twenty questions, hey?”
The smile that lit up her face was the only answer I needed.
“I want to go and get a hot chocolate first. Do you want anything?”
“Coffee. Aunt Carole knows how I like it.”
I watched her closely as she weaved her way through the crowd, completely oblivious to the sideways glances she was receiving from every single guy in the room. As she stood at the counter, she gazed back at me over her shoulder. Innocence and sex appeal oozed off her in a terrifyingly intense wave. One minute she seemed like she was flirting, the next she was reserved and hiding behind a wall. She was pure confusion, and I felt like I was getting whiplash trying to keep up with her.
Every single plan I had was completely fucking up, and it was all due to me not being able to reign in my insecurities. I was obsessively attracted to this girl, but mostly she intrigued me. My ultimate fear was that my secret could be her biggest downfall, yet here I was coming up with stupid ideas and scenarios to try and have her in my life.
Once our order was ready she floated through the room and slid back into the booth opposite me, sliding my steaming hot cappuccino toward me.
“How do you know Chris?” she asked quietly.
Fuck.
How could I possibly answer this? I hesitated over my response before finally looking at her through concerned eyes.
“He is the cousin of someone I went to college with. He is an asshole, and you don’t need to have anything to do with him. Please promise me that no matter what you will say no to anything he says to you, if he ever approaches you again. I don’t think he will, but just in case.”
“What did you say to him?”
“I warned him that it would be in his best interest to stay away from you.”
“You did it again.”
I didn’t understand what she was implying. My brow furrowed as I looked at her over my mug. “Did what?” I finally asked.
“You saved me again.”
My heart twisted at her words. If only they were true. Those words were the most obvious lie in the world, but she would never know that. I couldn’t get into a conversation like this without freaking the fuck out. It was either leave her here for the likes of Chris who I knew would be lurking around somewhere, or quickly change where this conversation was headed.
We were here for a reason.
Twenty fucking questions.
“What’s your favorite food?”
“Excuse me?”
“Twenty questions Eden. What’s your favorite food?”
“Oh, um as you have gathered from the Facebook stalking you had done I do love pizza, but also home cooked spaghetti.”
Noted.
“How old are you?” She continued with the game.
“I’m twenty-six. Birthday is August 15th,” I admitted with a smile and then continued with my next question. “Where are you from?”
“New Jersey. My parents are out of town though. I don’t come back so when I said I would be here for six weeks they had already had their trip to Australia booked and couldn’t back out.”
Her voice dropped low as she spoke. “Do you do this with all the people you hire?”
“What’s that?” I questioned, not exactly sure where she was going with this.
“Ask them to spend a month with you, take them out for coffee. It seems by Josh’s reaction the other day, you barely leave the office.”
“I can hand on heart say you are the only woman who I’ve asked to spend a month with, and it’s quite alarming how quickly you are learning things about me.”
“I’m just observant.” She smiled and lifted her mug to her lips, a perfect sigh escaping as she took a large sip of hot chocolate.
Eden being observant frightened me.
Her eyes lifted from mine and looked over my shoulder. “Why is your aunt staring at us like that? Actually why are all the staff staring at us?”
I twisted in my seat and sure enough Aunt Carole stood behind the counter flanked with two other ladies, all eyes latched onto Eden and me. As soon as they saw that they had been busted, they all of a sudden got busy and rushed off to different corners of the diner.
“You are the first girl I’ve brought here. You are officially the talk of Joe’s Place.”
“Do I want to be the talk of Joe’s Place?”
“You have no choice babe.”
She lifted the mug back to her lips to hide her smile behind the porcelain. I took a moment to admire her in silence. Her gaze faded away as a distant thought overtook her. It seemed to drag her away from reality right before me. My thoughts battled with each other, and I didn’t know whether to pull her back or let her succumb to her memories. Eden Rivers was the most tightly shut book I had ever encountered. I wanted to rip open the cover, disband the spine, and tear the pages of her story into a million pieces. More than anything I wanted to help her write new words, on perfectly crisp untouched paper, and to come up with the perfect title, for the perfect story.
Ky: Will I be seeing you tonight at Josh’s?
Eden: I’ll be the girl in the red jacket.
For two days Ky and I had been talking nonstop via text message. He was out of town on business so this was how it had to be. He did warn me that even though he wasn’t in town, he was still going to get his months’ worth of me. It was now routine for me to wake to a text and fall asleep after sending him a goodnight text.