Page 7 of Tormented Bastard
It was why I didn’t go out much and didn’t date. I hadn’t gotten laid in over six months. A long ass time for the guy who’d once had any willing woman at the snap of my fingers. I’d had a “friends with benefits” arrangement with a local woman for a while, but she’d moved to Miami six months ago. Since then, it had been me and my hand.
I was content to leave my celebrity back on the mainland—even though high season on the island brought out the fans sometimes—and simply be a guy who fixed things around town and was a respectable, contributing member of the community. Talk of being named mayor bounced around occasionally, but I shut that shit down quick. I enjoyed drinking a beer sitting on my back deck overlooking the Gulf and not dealing with the dating scene. It was part of the reason my arrangement with Tess had worked so well before she moved.
Seeing the one woman that had always tied me in sexual knots and made me act like a horny teenager no matter how old I was didn’t bode well for my already on shaky ground sanity.
I put my hands on my hips and looked down for a moment. After a couple of deep breaths, I lifted my head to meet her angry gaze. “Eden, level with me. What do you want?”
She just continued to stare at me for a moment longer before clearing her throat. “My company was hired by a group to plan and coordinate a charity ball. Big names, high rollers. But my A-list keynote speaker is now…indisposed.”
I could read between the lines, and there was no way in hell I was doing it.
“And you want me to be your keynote speaker.”
“Yeah.”
“No.” I walked toward the ladder and bent down to gather my tools.
Eden was hot on my heels. “What do you mean, no?”
I raised up and looked at her. “As in the opposite of yes.”
“But you barely listened to me.”
I placed the drill in the tool bag and hoisted it up. Pain radiated down my arm, but I kept the wince off my face. I’d overdone it. “Sure I did. You lost your keynote speaker and you want me to take his place. I said no.” I raised a brow and smirked. “I think it’s pretty simple. But then, you always were the queen of complicated.”
It was an asshole thing to say. But I needed to push her away, send her back to New York. I was a bad bet and we both knew it.
All I wanted was to be left alone on the island that was my saving grace. Live out my days in the sun, managing my properties and keeping up with the handyman business I’d started. Be that grumpy old bastard sitting at the end of the bar, watching the out-of-towners bake themselves like lobsters and drop a month’s worth of pay into our local economy.
Was I alone? Sure. Was I lonely? It didn’t matter. I had everything I needed. Whenever I’d wanted more, it had always blown up in my face. The last time had ended a life and my career.
I was disinclined to try again with any woman. Even the one who still owned me all these years later.
I walked past her toward my truck, pushing away the stab in my chest when hurt flashed through her eyes just before anger settled back in. And fuck, if she didn’t smell the same as she always had, a heady mix of vanilla and amber. Rich with just a touch of sweetness. I didn’t even want to think about if she tasted the same.
“Chase.” Eden followed me to the back of the truck, where I lifted the tool bag over the side and dropped it in with a loud clatter.
“What?” I asked, turning back to her. I rolled my shoulders in an effort to keep the pain in my right one from taking me out.
“The least you could do is hear me out.” The sun shone onto her hair, lighting up the blonde-colored strands. “Look, I don’t like mixing business and personal—”
“Then don’t.”
She sighed heavily and looked away for a moment, then her gaze met mine again. “I’d owe you big. Please. Just listen to what I have to say?”
“What more could you have to say? You asked, I said no.”
She rubbed her forehead, and that vertical line between her eyes told me she was mentally counting to ten. “Let me just give you all the details before you totally shut me down. Any more than you already have.”
I searched her eyes for anything that would signal she was putting me on. But all I found was determination with a dash of desperation.
Shit. I never could say no to this woman, not since the day I met her. That was part of my trouble when it came to her. I twirled my keys on my index finger, looking away. I had no intentions of ever going back to the city that had been ground zero to the demise of my career and personal life. But listening to why she was here couldn’t hurt, right?
“If I listen, will that get you on a plane faster back to New York?”
She started slightly as though I’d poked her. Quiet for a moment, she finally said, “Yes.”
“Okay, fine.” I jerked open the driver’s side door and slid in. “Meet me at my house at three. I’ll hear you out, but my answer won’t change.” I slammed the door to put some steel between me and her.
