Dread poured ice water in her veins and while anxiousness pushed her heart into a full gallop. She tried swallowing around the constriction in her throat, but even that proved difficult. “What it is?” She was too afraid to ask and even more afraid to hear the answer.
“The divorce document, signed, sealed and reluctantly delivered,” he quipped without much humor, extending the document to her. It took Eden a short eternity before reaching for it with trembling fingers. She unfolded it and looked down without really seeing much of anything, except his signature at the bottom of the page and the seal that made it official. “You don’t have to worry about the contract.Everything we have agreed on will be upheld. I have transferred everything I took from you back into your possession.”
“Dominic—”
He held up a hand. “Please, let me get this out before I lose my nerve,” he beseeched in a low voice, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. “In the five years that we’ve been married, I have not been a good husband to you. Hurting you as I have, disappointing you to this degree, has been my greatest failing as a man, and for that I am deeply regretful. You deserve better than me, undoubtedly. There are far better men out there who are free to love you in the way that you need. And I know when you walk out that door you will live and thrive and laugh and smile because that is the sort of person you are. And however much I want that for you, I can honestly say that everything will stop for me.”
Blood rushed between her ears and Eden knew she wasn’t breathing as he closed the space between them and tenderly cupped the side of her face. She saw only him and the glimmering intensity in his green gaze. “I don’t know what love is, Eden, but if I did, I know it would not come close to how deeply I feel for you. This thing, this feeling I have is unconventional.It’s emotion right down to its most basic element, and it rules me, it controls every aspect of my life until all I can see, all I can taste, all I can feel is you,” he breathed huskily. Taking hold of her hand, he placed it on his chest, right over his beating heart. “You’ve given my heart its rhythm and it beats only because of you. I come to you in fractured pieces with the hope that you will have the patience to help put me back together again.” He made himself emotionally naked to her, finally permitting Eden to see him, see the rawness of emotions he felt for her, see how deeply it ran and how fiercely it burned. “I am not worthy of you, but how can I live when you hold my heart in your hands, Eden?”
Tears gathered in her eyes as she attempted to gain control of her own emotions, but Eden was altogether overcome with awe and exhilaration when she gazed into the very depths of his eyes and saw his soul. “I…” she drew in a shuddering breath and tried again, “I’m…” words…words were not enough to express what she felt, so Eden rose up on her toes and sealed her mouth to his, needing to speak in lips and tongue everything she could not say. She spoke and he listened in a kiss that rocked the ground beneath their feet. Their tongues tangled in hot, frenzied carnality, shattering all reservations, crumbling all of Eden’s barriers. And in a state of absolute madness to feel him, to have him, to claim him and jump into his skin if need be, Eden frantically pulled at his shirt and pants. Buttons were sacrificed; the very loud tearing of clothes splintered through the breath laden silence as he too blindingly tore at her clothes, drove her back and scooped her up on his desk. She reclined backwards, her torn dress hanging haphazardly at her sides as she slowly propped herself on her elbows in offering Dominic a banquet ofsumptuous breasts with nipples puckered to delightful peaks, the macchiato river of her flat belly led to the bare ocean of her salted caramel pussy. His mouth watered but the desire to sink into her won out as he fell upon her, wrapping his arms around her parted legs to yank her towards him until her bottom hung off the edge of the desk and without a second’s hesitation Dominic slid and sunk in deep swallowing her sweet feminine gasp.
She was full of him, yet not satiated, but it was problem easily rectified as his long, even thrusts slammed into her with delicious accuracy, jarring every nerve ending in her body. He set a punishing speed that she fought desperately to match, her legs dangling at his sides as he drove hard and fast into her hot melting passage. She was the ebb and he the flow, her gasping whimpers harmonizing with his grunts and groans. He toyed with her clit, a very slow and deliberate brush of fingers that brought the world shattering down on her. He flooded her with his own release muffling his groan between her breasts.
How was he able to shatter her so completely and put her back together again? Eden breathed in deep, and with her head on his chest, she listened to the steady beats of his heart. They were on the carpeted floor now and her body covered his like a blanket while his arm curved around her waist. They said nothing. Eden bit her lip, remembering the forgotten divorce paper that he’d handed her a while ago. He’d finally given her what she’d asked for, but it appeared it was no longer what she wanted.
“Stay,” he murmured huskily above her, almost reading her thoughts. When he shuffled beneath her, moving forward to bring Eden up to a sitting position, he curved fingers beneath her chin so that she looked into his green eyes that had darkened considerably. “I love you more than words can ever begin to define. I know I have no right to ask, but I’m asking you to please stay with me, Eden.” He leaned his forehead against hers and whispered a kiss on her quivering lips.
Tears filled her eyes and leaked down her cheeks from beneath her shuttered lids, overwhelmed beyond words. Eden had never once believed that she would ever hear these words from Dominic’s beautiful mouth. All that had been endured for this one moment of complete perfection.
“Stay…”
That decision had been made for her a very long time ago, maybe even before she’d been ready to admit to it.
Epilogue
“Is that the last of the boxes?”
“Just this one left.” Eden replied handing Jenna the box marked ‘Liam’s Toys’. She grabbed the duffel bag from the back seat of her car and hurried after the blond haired woman.
“I’m so glad we’re done. I hate moving.”
“Me too, but just think, now we get to decorate!” she said cheerfully, toeing the door closed behind her, and depositing the duffel bag on the lone futon in the living room.
Jenna groaned, “I’m leaving all that up to you. Do you want something to drink?”
“Just a bottle of water.” Walking around the partially furnished apartment, ideas flitted around in Eden’s head. She wasn’t exactly interior decorating inclined, but she’d staged a few homes in the past to know what would work, and besides that, she and Jenna had similar taste when it came to décor. “Are you sure it’s okay to have Liam’s toys here?” she asked, accepting the bottle of water from Jenna.
Jenna rolled her eyes. “For the umpteenth time, its fine! It’s not like I have a roommate who’s going to mind anyways,” she teased, giving Eden a sidelong stare.
Eden had the good grace to look sheepish. “I’m really sorry, Jen.”
Jenna laughed. “I’m just kidding. I hold no grudge whatsoever. I’m just glad you finally made up your mind. So you’re really staying?”
Eden nodded. “We owe it to ourselves to see where it goes.”
“So did you get the divorce?”
“Yeah…I’m a single woman dating my husband,” she quipped, “He’s been really good.” That was an understatement and color tinted her cheeks at the thought.
“I can see the love all over your face, skank,” Jenna tsked. “You are so far gone, you’re oozing it.”
Eden had to agree. She’d fallen quite hard for Dominic, and there really was no cure for what she had. She had yet to say those three little words to him, but he hadn’t pushed and that made Eden love him all the more for it. “Yeah,” she said simply, refusing to say anymore. She would save the words for tonight, for him. He would hear them first.
“What time are you dropping off the butterball?”
“Probably around eight. Now, let’s get out of here. We need to grab you some stuff before tonight.”
* * *
