Page 86 of Begin Again, Part 1

"Gosh, I'm late for a meeting with Gibby. Wish me luck." Clara blanched as she checked the time on her wristwatch. She picked up her empty cup and phone and scrammed to the door.

Eden waved goodbye. "May the force be with you!"

Her phone rang as Clara slipped out of her office. She wasn't in the mood to deal with Isaac, so she sent him to her voicemail. Despite several attempts at a second date, nothing had panned out. He was always out of town, working cases. Meeting up with him was proving to be harder than running into the president. But their daily texts and phone calls had somewhat brought them closer. He was a good friend, just not the handyman she needed.

When Isaac called again almost an hour later, Eden didn't have the heart to ignore him. They spent a few minutes trying yet again to arrange a lunch date. He was due back in a town in a few days.

Maybe Liam's right, she thought as she hung up. Maybe she was wasting both their time and should cut Isaac loose.

Dreading the drive home in peak-hour traffic, she packed away her MacBook and the HR documents in her laptop sleeve, hauled her sling bag across her body, and left her office.

The elevator going down was packed with assistants excited to be getting off work. But Eden managed to squeeze her way inside. Her heart almost gave out on her when someone pushed her to the corner in front of Liam.

"Are you okay? Do you need more room?" he asked, his voice sending tingles down her spine. He really had to stop with the low, gruff voice thing. As if her panties weren't soaked enough earlier, now he was trying to melt them off too.

"I'm fine, thank you, Mr Anderson," she croaked, staring straight ahead while counting the floors as the elevator surged to the ground floor. She inhaled sharply when Liam reached for her hand. She took a quick peek at their entwined fingers, liking the feel of his touch. But as much as the idea of being so close to him excited her, they were in a public space, and anyone could see them. It was bad enough Clara knew. More people finding out about their little secret would be disastrous. So she tried to pull her hand away, but he held it firmly until they reached the ground floor.

"Have a great evening, sir!" Everyone waved at Liam as they jumped out of the lift, but he barely acknowledged them. He quickly pulled her back when she tried to dash out of the elevator with the rest of the crowd. His security detail stepped out to give them some privacy, closing the doors behind them. Liam drew her close to him in a heartbeat, his lips descending on hers before she even knew what hit her.

Eden lost herself in his embrace as the world and everything else in it disappeared into the background, and her moment with him took centre stage.

"Every time you're with the lawyer, it's me you'll be thinking about," he whispered when they drew apart. His hands remained around her waist as he looked into her eyes. "Every time he kisses you, it's my mouth you'll crave. Every time he touches you, it's my hands you'll miss."

Eden shook her head, her voice quivering with need. "I won't."

"Then I haven't done a good job of convincing you."

With that, Liam leaned in again. This time he was relentless when his lips crushed hers, sending her to the edge of madness with his skilful tongue. By the time he set her down, she was out of breath and out of control and utterly consumed by him.

An hour later, as Eden went through her evening routine with Aiden, she was still reeling from her hot encounters with his father.

"Ducky!" Her son screeched with excitement as he held up his bath toys and splashed water everywhere. Eden watched him play for a little while, floored by the immense love she felt for him.

His father might be an asshole half the time, but he knew how to please her. And she was so afraid it was only a matter of time before she crawled to him, begging to be pleased like he was so convinced she would.

Mortified at her thoughts, Eden mentally shook herself.

It was true what they said, Eden thought as she scooped Aiden out of the tub and wrapped him in his bath towel. The longer you denied yourself something, the more you wanted it. She'd denied Liam her time, denied herself his attention, and now they were both like horny teenagers, ready to tear each other's clothes off the minute they were alone in a room. But she couldn't—shouldn't—allow this thing between her and Liam to burn out of control like Clara had warned her it would. He was married and still hated her. Painful as they were to accept, and no matter how intense his desire for her had grown over the past month, those two facts hadn't changed—

"Eden?" Brenda snapped her out of her thoughts as she took Aiden from her to dress him. "I asked what you want to eat tonight. What should I make?"

Emotionally exhausted from her encounters with Liam, all Eden wanted was to crawl into bed and compartmentalise her very messy feelings for the man. Food was the last thing on her mind.

"I think I'll skip dinner tonight. And you're more than welcome to take the evening off."

"Are you sure?"

"Hundred percent." Eden nodded. She didn't need to tell her twice. Forty-five minutes later, Brenda was all dressed up and ready for a night on the town with her boyfriend, a freight trucker on the road for half the month. He was in town for the week, and she was grateful for the time off.

"Guess who's getting laid tonight?" Brenda squealed as she grabbed her handbag from the counter and put on some lipstick. "This girl right here!"

"Lucky you!" Eden laughed. But as she and Aiden watched her sail off into the sunset with her man, she couldn't help but sigh wistfully, thinking about her dismal sex life.

She picked up her son, returned to the house, and warmed up his food. It took half the evening to get him to finish the bowl of mashed potatoes and pumpkin. By the time he was done, they were both upset.

Angry as he was with her, Aiden couldn't pass up story time. He ran to the bedroom to get his books, and they spent over an hour on the living room floor reading and looking through the illustrations.

After the third round of The Three Little Bears, Aiden pushed the book away. While he tinkered around in his toy box, Eden reached for her laptop and googled everything she could find on Liam and his marriage. He seemed shocked and incensed by her accusations of infidelity earlier. And it was for that reason she was starting to entertain the possibility that maybe she was wrong all along, and he wasn't married. Google seemed to think so because there was nothing about his marriage anywhere, no photos of the wedding either. But there were tons of business articles. Ones she'd already pored over in the past.

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