Page 22 of Monster
“Spend the next six months here with me, as my wife, and at the end of that time I will have my attorney draw up the divorce papers. I will make sure that you are well and truly cared for afterwards.”
Six months in his company playing a role that Eden had come to find demeaning and intolerable. He’d humiliated her, debased her in front of his friends in the worst way possible. He’d treated her as nothing more than a whore for years, and now he was asking her to do it again. Be his convenient little arm candy and sex doll. But at what cost? Was her freedom worth her degradation? “I won’t play your whore.”
“Not publicly, no. But you will not deny me the pleasures of your body when we are alone.”
“I am not going to sleep with you!” She remained adamant on the subject, the obstinate set of her jaw indicating that she would not yield on the subject. Curbing the kneejerk instinct to fire back and force her to acquiesce to his demands, Dominic found himself relenting, not on the off chance of having suddenly sprouted a conscious, but with the full knowledge that she would eventually end up in his bed.
“Very well, pet, sex will not factor into the agreement without your consent.” He was quite capable of playing nice when he wanted to; being bad, however, got things done a lot quicker.
“My name isn’t pet or sweeting or whatever else your twisted mind might think up to call me. It’s Eden, it has always been Eden, and it will always be Eden, so give me the courtesy of calling me by my given name.”
“Very well…anything else?”
“I want you to call off the bodyguards you put on me. Jenna is my best friend, and she has been really good to me through all this. I want you to hire her, make her Liam’s nanny. You are not allowed to threaten to take Liam from me at any time, and when this is over, you will relinquish all your parental rights and let me leave with him.”
At that proposal, Dominic paused for a moment, seized by a sudden memory. He felt like he was reliving a scene, one that had undoubtedly been an integral part of shaping him into the man he was today. A mother, a prostitute, a drug fiend accepting a paltry sum to sell her child, a child who would’ve stupidly, trustingly remained at her side if she’d given him the choice. A child who had loved and needed her despite the horrendous way she had treated him. Dominic remembered the memory, tasted the pungent acridness of that day like it was sustenance; it coated the walls of his mouth, slithered down his throat, and worked itself through his system, wrapping and constricting a heart that was as black as the night sky. He had never wanted a child, but losing this boy after only knowing him for such a short time produced an emotion so fierce in Dominic that he was nearly bowled over by it.
Eden noted the instant change in him and shuddered at the menacing look in his eyes.
“Let us be clear on this one matter. Regardless of what I have said or how I have felt in the past, Liam’s presence in my life will remain a constant, even if you and I part ways.”
“I won’t let you turn him into you.”
“And what exactly am I?”
“You’re a monster.”
His deep, dark chuckle lacked any humor or warmth as it failed to reach his impenetrable gaze. “I am the monster I was created to be.” The deprecating smile remained in place as he regarded her in kind. “Liam will know me as his father; that is not negotiable,” he said with finality, daring her to challenge him.
But Eden couldn’t challenge him even if she wanted to. There was too much at stake for her to go against him. She would lose, she was sure of it, because his show of knowledge earlier about what happened with Liam in those early weeks of his life, was a warning, a little precaution to Eden that he knew things about her, things he would not be afraid to bring to light and use against her if she did not tread carefully. “Fine, you can spend time with Liam. We both know how fleeting that’s going to be anyways. At least when you lose interest, he’ll be too young to understand.”
“Well, time will tell, wont it?”
“When this is over, we’re done. You’re going to sign the divorce papers and give me back everything you took from me, and we’ll go our separate ways,” she announced.
“As you wish.”
Eden took in a bracing breath, sure that she was doing the wrong thing, sure that she was bargaining with the devil himself and would inevitably burn from this. “Make it legal.” She pushed her chair back and came to her feet. “I want everything on paper, and I want my own copies.”
Dominic stood as well and smoothly walked around the table to stand at her side, temporarily blocking her path. “Of course.” When he looped an arm around her waist to draw her close, Eden gasped at his boldness, her eyes instinctively flying to his face. “Should we kiss to seal the deal?”
He didn’t give her a chance to deny him as he slanted his head and touched his lips to hers. It was rather unfortunate how easily she responded to him, how embarrassingly pliant and willing she became when he traced the seam her lips with his tongue demanding access to delve deeper. “If I can’t be buried inside you, at least I can have these sets of lips instead,” he murmured raggedly, his voice a low growl against her warm, wet mouth.
The instant he slackened his hold, Eden did not struggle long before he released her completely. She didn’t linger but rather fled to her bedroom, refusing to look back even at the sound of the throaty laughter that followed her.
Chapter Eleven
Eden was finally getting into the swing of things at Carver’s three weeks later. Her first night on the job had been far more challenging than Eden had anticipated. And rather than being assigned to April for her training like she’d initially thought she was going to be, Lena had placed her with Sara, the woman who Eden remembered running into when she’d come for her interview. From the moment they were introduced, Eden had been laden with the other woman’s derision and could not understand why. Eden had apologized more than once for running into her and had even attempted to make a joke out of it where she was the butt of that joke, but all she’d received was a glare. Sara had made that Friday evening a nightmare for Eden with her dismissive and downright rude replies in front of customers, to the way she would completely ignore Eden when she asked a question. It had been a difficult evening to be sure, but it’d made Eden stronger. Hell, she’d gone up against far worse than a prickly bitch of a waitress who disliked her for no particular reason.
Luckily for Eden, Sara had taken a vacation after that disastrous Friday and April had taken charge of her training. It should’ve been this way from the start, in Eden’s opinion. April showed her the ropes: taught her how to jot down orders so that she didn’t get any wrong; she explained the menu, the specials, and pointed out the regulars and how they preferred their meals; and she introduced her to Mickey, the bartender, and how to butter him up to get your drink orders in quickly when it was busy. It was essentially one big display of flirting—playing up the vapid, amply endowed, giggly girl who was there solely to fetch, serve, and entertain.
April and the other girls had it down to an art form. Eden, on the other hand, found it difficult to acclimate to the role, and thought maybe it was because it hit too close to home. The women at Carver’s were, in every sense, being objectified, parading around in those tight, short uniforms and seen as nothing more than a pretty face and body meant to be ogled and touched, meanwhile they were to take it with a smile and hope the men who frequented Carver’s found them adequate enough to fork over some money. Eden was far too familiar with this. The more she thought on it, the more it made her ill, because suddenly she was faced with the fact that maybe she’d picked this job because it was so close to what she was used to, so close to her marriage with Dominic.
But then, didn’t it go further than Dominic? Wasn’t her job at Crazy Pussy the beginning of it all? What did it say about her that she had begun using her body simply to get by, and then again to marry a wealthy man, and now resorting to old habits to work for scraps? It was a habit, easy, a crutch. Shedidn’t need Dominic to make her feel less than she was, because Eden was quite good at doing it herself. Honestly, what did it say about her? About her self-worth?
In a desperate grab for financial freedom and independence from her overbearing, demeaning spouse, she found herself back at square one. Eden sighed miserably, raking a hand through her hair. Most of the time she could push those thoughts away, and she could manage the daily grind without being bogged down by all this self-incrimination, but sometimes it got the better of her, sometimes it was just too much.
Hopping out of her car, she headed for Carver’s. She forced herself to think of the bigger picture, the ultimate prize that awaited her. A divorce from Dominic and money enough to start her own business. The papers had been drawn up, spelled out to her in very plain English, and signed by the attorney, herself, and Dominic. There would be no loophole for him to weasel out of giving her what was in the contract, what was rightfully hers. All she needed to do was withstand the next six months with him, and she would be free. The only downside was the clause that prevented her from suing him for sole custody of Liam in the future. But Eden was sure Dominic would lose interest in their son soon enough.
