Page 19 of Fractured Dreams

Lying in bed later, knowing Tex was just down the hall, Eden tossed restlessly. She turned onto her back, staring sightlessly up at the shadowed ceiling, her mind as unsettled as her body.

As she lay there, she let herself think about what it might be like, to be with a man like Tex. Unlike anything she’d experienced before, she imagined. Her two previous boyfriends had been okay sexually, but they’d never driven her crazy with desire. Her body had never heated up from a single look, the way it had when Tex’s gaze had wandered over her face, lingered on her lips. A man like Tex would know how to make a woman feel good; there was no way he wouldn’t. It was something in the way he carried himself, all easy confidence, completely at home in his own body, not a single ounce of insecurity in him.

And his hands, those big hands that moved so smoothly over the strings of his guitar, they would know how to move over a woman’s skin, how to play her body the way he played the instrument—like it was instinctive.

Eden’s breathing picked up. She shouldn’t want Tex, she shouldn’t. As well as being Noah’s friendandbandmate, he was almost a decade older than her. Not to mention a huge rock star constantly surrounded by more beautiful women than you could poke a stick at. But even knowing all of that, knowing all the reasons she should keep her distance, she did want him—more than she’d ever wanted anyone in her whole life, sheltered as that might have been. And she couldn’t stop herself from wondering if, after the way he’d acted that night, there might be a small chance he wanted her too.

Chapter 10

The next morning, Eden walked cautiously downstairs, wondering if Tex would remember the night before. If he’d revert to the way he’d been the last few days—distant and aloof—or whether after his drunken apology he’d go right back to how he’d always been with her.

When she got downstairs, she soon realized Tex was in Noah’s music room, so he obviously wasn’t too hungover. She wandered into the kitchen, deciding to make pancakes, hoping he might join her this time so they could have breakfast together.

Eden started humming to herself as she whipped up the batter, smiling when she realized it was one of the new Fractured songs she’d played with the band the other night.

She was halfway through cooking the pancakes when Tex’s voice came from behind her. “Smells good darlin’, there enough there for me?”

His smooth-as-honey southern drawl sent shivers down her spine, and she took a deep breath to calm her suddenly live-wire nerves before turning to him with a smile. “Depends on if you’re going to sit down and have a full conversation with me while we eat or not.”

She’d meant to be flippant, but Tex’s expression sobered, and he sighed. “I’m sorry I’ve been bad company Eden; I’ve had something on my mind I’ve been dealing with.”

Guilt washed through her and she hurried to reassure him. “No, really, it’s okay Tex. I know you’re doing this as a favor to Noah, so he doesn’t worry about me, and I really appreciate you being here. I’m sorry if I made you feel bad for having things to do other than babysit me.”

“Hey.” He took two steps forward and caught her chin between his thumb and finger, tilting her head back and making her look him in the eye. “Don’t ever think spending time with you is a hardship, sweetheart. I can promise you it isn’t.”

Eden blinked at his sudden proximity, at the feel of his fingers on her, the heat rolling off his big body as he crowded close. Her mouth suddenly dry, she licked her lips, and his eyes dropped to watch for a second before returning to meet her gaze.

He let her chin go and stepped back. “I want to be here with you, don’t let me catch you thinking otherwise, okay?”

Reassured, Eden nodded and gave him a small smile. “Okay.”

“Good. Now what can I do to help?”

“Well, I’m almost done cooking these. If you want to set the table, I’ll be finished in a minute or so.”

“Done.”

A few minutes later, they were sitting down to a stack of blueberry pancakes, and even though she still wanted to strip him naked and lick him all over, Eden found herself enjoying just talking to him, telling him stories from college and hearing his stories about life on the road—which included far more amusing anecdotes about Noah’s antics than her brother usually shared with her.

After breakfast, they cleared up together. Tex wanted to do a bit more work on a song he was playing around with, and Eden wanted to get a few more groceries, so they went their separate ways. And this time she didn’t feel like he was avoiding her.

When she got back from her shopping and had finished putting everything away, she decided to go for a swim. She hesitated outside Noah’s music room, wondering if she should invite Tex. After taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door, and if she thought she might have become immune to him over the last few hours, she was disabused of that notion when he opened it.

His tight, white T-shirt hugged his hard muscles, while revealing the swirls of ink extending down both arms. His sheer size compared to her meant she had to tip her head back to meet his gaze, and when she did, she was once again struck by the masculine perfection of his face, sucked in by the beauty of his darkly lashed eyes.

Eden tucked her hair behind her ear, suddenly wishing she hadn’t decided to invite him after all. “I’m going to go for a swim, and I was wondering if you wanted to take a break and join me?” She reassured herself with the thought that, based on the last few days, he probably wouldn’t accept anyway.

Eden waited for him to turn her down, poised to smile and sayoh well, maybe next time.She was shocked when instead he stretched, his shirt riding up and revealing the tantalizingly smooth skin of his lower abdomen, and said, “Sure, I could use a break.”

“Oh, okay,” she replied, weakly, wondering how she was going to get through the next little while being close to a wet and nearly naked Tex.

They both headed upstairs to change, but Tex beat her out to the pool and was already in the water by the time Eden came out. She was a mass of nerves, realizing what a bad idea it was to expose herself to any more of him than absolutely necessary, and suddenly finding herself wishing he’d go back to doing his own thing and ignoring her. But it was too late now. She’d just have to keep her eyes averted as much as possible and try not to let on that she’d developed a huge, ill-timed crush.

As Eden dropped the cover-up she’d put on over her bikini a flush crept over her cheeks. No matter how hard she tried not to, she still felt like she was performing a bad striptease as the mostly sheer material slid from her shoulders.

Not looking at Tex, she quickly climbed down the steps into the pool and submerged herself, ducking her head under the water in the hopes it would cool her burning cheeks.

When she came back up for air, Tex had waded closer to her. Of course, he was still touching bottom while she was treading water, which meant the broad expanse of his tattooed chest, with water trickling seductively over his hard muscles, was right in front of her.

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