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The nurse looks me up and down. “No.” Then she turns and leaves.
I chuckle at that. The older generation who couldn’t give a shit about most anything are always good for a healthy dose of reality.
I hike my thumb toward the door. “I should get going. Thank you for trying…” I wink at the receptionist. “And thank you for giving me a place to hide.”
“Here. Go out the back.” She springing forward, gesturing toward the hallway. Lowering her voice, she adds, “In case any of those nosey photographers are out front.”
“Excellent idea,” I answer, leaning toward her as if we’re coconspirators.
I follow her toward the end of the hall, and she pushes the back door open that boasts a neon red exit sign over it. I replace my sunglasses and stride from the building, giving the nice girl a “Thank you, love” before heading out into the sunlight, knowing we accomplished our tasks. No need for black catsuits and fancy technology.
The door closes behind me, and the shriek that follows makes my shoulders stiffen. I’ve had all sorts of reactions when people meet royalty, but that one’s the most common. It never ceases to make me cringe, though.
I walk around the side of the building, hop in the driver’s seat of Eden’s car, and meet her around the corner. She pulls the passenger door open, and I blink at her. “Um, no.”
“Oh, come on,” she says, climbing in. “You drove it this far.”
“It’s like I’m driving a monster truck,” I complain.
“Oh, get over it, Prince Oliver,” she teases and holds her hand out, wiggling her fingers for the folder. “Let me see.”
I pick my hip up, and she sticks her hand in my pants pocket to pull out my phone. She inputs my PIN, then brings up the pictures I took. “Some of this is Greek to me,” she says, lips tugging into a frown. “Alleged Father…”—she sighs—“redacted. But whoever it is, they’re a match.”
“It’s got to be Vincent.”
“Most likely. But I can’t imagine why the woman doesn’t want him to know. Makes me feel like shit for having to turn this in.”
I glance over. She still has my phone in her hand, but she’s peering out the window, face troubled. “End game,” I remind her.
She shrugs. “Yeah, I just never wanted to be the person that crawled over others to get what I want. I’m just like them.”
I shake my head. I hate seeing her like this. “There’s one key difference, Edie. They’re doing it to keep themselves ahead. You’re not thinking of yourself at all. You’re doing it for Dee.”
“It doesn’t feel like it right now.”
I reach out, placing my hand on her thigh and squeezing. She slides her gaze down, then tosses my phone into the center console before placing her hand on mine. Turning my hand around, I entwine our fingers. My phone buzzes, but neither one of us looks at it. Leo and Alaric will be wanting to know how everything worked out, but Eden seems content for the moment, her thumb gliding gently across my skin.
She tenses. “Ollie, other side of the road.”
I look back at the double yellow line and jerk the Jeep to the correct side. Well, the wrong side, but whatever. Edie and I have fought about this before.
She chuckles. “You should be better at driving here than you are. How long has it been?”
“You distracted me,” I protest.
She stares at our entwined hands. “This?”
I nod, and her lips curve into a bigger smile. Her gaze settles on me, and my skin buzzes in response. Glancing over—briefly this time—I notice the look on her face has changed, morphed into something fiery.
“I need something real, Ollie.” She breathes out, slow and steady. “Something to show me I'm still me.”
My heart constricts in my chest, then beats twice as fast. I know what she’s asking. I pull off on a side road and thankfully find a remote trail into the woods that I just squeeze Eden’s Jeep into.
I’ve barely put it in park before she’s climbing across the center console and straddling my hips. She leans over, using the automatic adjustments on the seat to take it all the way back and recline. Her lips hover above my neck, and the atmosphere in the Jeep charges with electricity, filling me with a desperate need.
She kisses down to my shoulder, and I inhale sharply. We never kissed before she gave in to my fantasy, and we haven’t kissed since. My fingers curl around her pants, wondering if she’ll follow exactly where I want her to.
I squeeze my eyes closed, hoping. If she kisses me on the mouth, I’ll know she’s not just doing this because she has the need to climax. She’s doing this because she wantsme.