Page 8 of Eden's Joker

“Colder too, I bet,” I say. “I’d love to visit the east coast, but not in winter. I can’t stand the cold.”

We’re just talking about towns in a very general way and it’s one of the most riveting conversations I’ve had in a while.

“I’m not a big fan of winter either. So I think I’ll just stick around here for a while.”

Yay!

I very nearly say that out loud, but manage not to. No one’s come to serve him yet and I wonder if that’s because he sticks out so much in this soft, pleasant place or because not that much time has passed since he got here. I feel like we’ve been here forever—I feel like I’ve known him forever—so that might be messing with my perception.

I pick up my tea and take a sip. His eyes zero in on my lips as I wrap them around the cup’s edge. Such a small thing, but the look makes something so primally intense rush through me that I very nearly forget to swallow.

“What can I get you?” a female voice says beside me. But he doesn’t take his eyes off mine, and doesn’t seem to hear.

I’m pretty sure everyone in this whole place is looking at us again, but I don’t know, because our eyes are glued together. I wonder what he sees in mine. Forests, because they’re green, the way I see ice in his? What a silly, girly thing to think!

The waitress clears her throat. “Do you need a little more time?”

“I think we’re ready to get some of that famous pie now,” he says, his eyes still firmly locked on mine.

I nod. “Yes, I’d like that.”

I’d already paid for my tea right after I got it, so Ijust smiled at the waitress and follow him out to the sidewalk. I feel like everyone’s watching again and I kind of feel like I’m just watching myself too. Watching as I follow this dark and dangerous biker out of the safety and softness of the tea shop and into the wild. Not that the street here is any less safe and pleasant.

But I still feel like I’ve made a huge leap. And I can’t wait to see where it will lead.

6

Joker

Step one of Mission Eden is complete. I met her. It’s going well. I wasn’t prepared for just how vibrant, innocent yet hot she’d be in real life. But I blame that on my lack of getting any for the last couple of months. I’ve been too focused on reeling her in and putting the pieces of the plan into place to even think about women and we hadn’t brought any of the club hoes with us down here. But moving in to Hearts & Fire Inn should take care of that right quick. There’s bound to be plenty of ass free for the taking at that place.

Speaking of ass, Eden’s is just about perfect. The good girl dress she’s wearing isn’t doing it justice, but then again nothing could really hide its glory. When I first hatched the plan to get back at Ice through one of his twin daughters, I was happy to find out theywere a couple of beauties. It’d have been much harder to go through with it if they’d been ugly. But then again, what woman her age is truly ugly? Fresh blooms and all that.

I’m letting her walk about a step ahead of me down the sunny street of this colorful hippie town. To be honest, all the yellow and blue and white around here, coupled with the bright sunshine is making me slightly nauseous. But focusing on Eden and her perfect curves helps. She fits right in here, with her big smile and sparkling green eyes. But I’m sure there’s darkness in her somewhere. And not just in her hair that’s flowing like dark chocolate down her back. I’ll enjoy pulling that darkness out and seeing what she does with it.

“So what’s your favorite kind of pie?” she asks, smiling at me over her shoulder as we stop in front of the pie place, her perfect teeth gleaming and her eyes catching the sun, making them sparkle the way a forest does when the sun penetrates it.

There’s a line outside the pie shop and at least ten people crammed into the small space that I can see. The place is called Cherry on Top and that sounds about right. Eden is definitely the cherry on top of this plan of mine, the plan I’ve been working on since I was old enough to understand revenge is something you can take.

“To be honest, I’m not much of a pie person,” I say. “Never had anyone to make it for me.”

Overshare. Gotta be careful with that.

Her eyes cloud over for a moment, but in the next she smiles and they’re bright with sunlight again. “So it’s a good thing I brought you here. You don’t know what you’ve been missing and you’re about to find out. I suggest we start with cherry.”

I can’t help but crack a grin too. The way she smiles is contagious. “Cherry it is.”

I wonder if her cherry’s been popped yet. I don’t think it has. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

“You’ll love it,” she assures me and moves up a step in line as a family of three come out, carrying three large white boxes, presumably filled with pies. Mom, dad, and a son. I’m glad for the reminder of what my childhood could’ve been—and why I never got pie growing up—if it weren’t for Eden’s father. Because her smiles are doing things to me that they shouldn’t. Or more like, that I shouldn’t allow.

I give her a once over again, my eyes catching on her full breasts and round ass, as they would. “You don’t look like you eat a lot of pie though.”

She laughs, the sound reminding me of birds singing in the morning, for some reason. “I eat plenty of it. The only thing saving my ass is that I’ll forget to eat when I’m deep into a book. And I mean that literally.”

Deep into… ass… and those sparkling full lips of hers. Does she know what she’s saying? And what it’s doing to me? I’ve been half hard since I first saw her and it’s getting worse. If she were any other woman, I’d be eating that pie off her naked body in a motel room somewhere, which we wouldn’t leave for days. We’d probably be skipping the pie altogether.

Another family laden with boxes comes out of the store and now we’re practically next in line. Good.

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