Page 26 of Tormented Bastard
So Close but So Far
Eden
I was so close to getting Chase on board. The questions he asked seemed to be pointing him to saying yes. I wasn’t lying when I said I would lose everything. No melodrama there.
His brows drew down. “What do you mean you lose everything?”
I dried my hands on a towel and threw it on the counter before I started to pace, finally stopping by the stove. “I mean that if I lose this event, my business will most likely go under. No, that’s not right. It will absolutely go under.”
“How did that happen? Last time I saw you, business was thriving.”
“I made some…let’s call them bad judgment calls over the last year, year and a half. And now I’m strapped for cash. I’ve had to lay out a lot more money than I anticipated on some things, and I haven’t recouped yet. But this event is going to pay enough to take care of some stupid loans I took out that are draining me.”
He locked his hands behind his neck and pulled down. “Damn it, Eden. No pressure or anything, right?” His voice was colored with anger, and I couldn’t blame him. He had left New York under less than ideal circumstances if the papers were to be believed. Hell, we hadn’t parted under the best of circumstances. I ran out on him the last time I saw him and never returned his calls. Now I was back and asking him for a favor this size?
For the first time, the enormity of what I was asking of him set in. It wasn’t a small thing, what I needed from him. It wasn’t fair to put this burden on him for mistakes I’d made that he hadn’t been a part of. The fact that thought crossed my mind pissed me off. Why hadn’t it bothered me to ask Mason Jackstone to do it? This was business. Would I be so conflicted about this if we didn’t share a history?
I didn’t even need to answer that. Because all kinds of emotions were involved with what I was asking Chase to do.
Still…I had people depending on me. They had families and lives.
But so did Chase.
What a fucking mess.
He shoved the stool back and walked over to where I stood. “I need to think it over, okay?”
“Fair enough.” I picked up the dirty egg pan. “I’ll just finish cleaning up.”
He shook his head. “I got it. You cooked, I’ll clean.”
“No, I can—”
“Eden, leave it.”
His large hands covered mine on the handle, and the heat from them sent a shock of desire straight to my core.
I looked up into his green eyes that had always held me captive. Honest to God, it was the first thing I’d noticed when he sat down next to me in Freshman English Lit that spring and asked to borrow a pen. Except right now, they didn’t dance with all the cheery mischief of a college frat boy. No, right now his eyes were tormented. They were the eyes of a man who was trying like hell to keep from losing his shit, underpinned by a current of desire. My fingertips tingled and my chest fluttered, leaving me breathless. I needed to walk away. Move out of the line of fire before we burned each other again. I didn’t know how many more close encounters I could take before I combusted.
A rumble of thunder outside brought me back to earth and I blinked, snatching my hands away. “Fine. I’m just…I’ve got some work to do so I’ll be in my room.”
He nodded slowly, his eyes not leaving mine. When they did, he looked down at the pan like he didn’t know how it got there. “Right.”
I took a step back and then another before turning and nearly fleeing out of the kitchen and up the stairs to my room. I shut the door behind me, leaning my back on it. Chest heaving, I closed my eyes and slid to the floor. I laid my forehead to my knees, trying to bring equilibrium back to my system. The time for Chase and me had come and gone. Twice. There was no way I’d survive us coming together and leaving each other again. The first time had been beyond my control, but it had nearly broken me. In a twisted way, the one thing that had kept me from pursuing a life with the man I loved was the one thing that kept me sane when we’d broken up. The second time had been a terrible mistake. On both our parts.
I opened my eyes and pushed myself up off the floor. I gathered my phone and laptop and sat in the middle of the bed. I needed to get myself out of personal mode and back into work mode. I may be trapped on the island, cut off from civilization, but it was still a workday. While I still had power to use the computer and cell service, I called Katie.
“Eden! Are you okay? I started to worry when I hadn’t heard from you.”
I glanced out the glass doors where the rain blew sideways and the palm trees bent to the wind’s will. A roll of thunder punctuated the scene. “I’m fine. Given the circumstances.”
“Did you make it back to Tallahassee?”
“No. I’m stuck on the island. They closed the bridge to the mainland before I could get back.”
“Oh shit. So where did you stay? Were you able to find a room on the island?”
“Uh, no. I ended up staying at Chase’s house.”
