Page 16 of Broken Obsession

Eden was too busy trying to make out what Ares was feeling from his expression, but it was enigmatic. Not cold, but not warm either.

“I’ll walk you out,” Yarrow offered, but Ares held up a hand.

“He can walk himself.” He smiled lightly at Eden. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah.” Eden stepped away from the table. “Later.”

He could feel Ares’ eyes on him the whole time he crossed the restaurant, only free of that weighted gaze once he washeading down the stairs to the main level. His heart pounded in his chest the entire drive home, pissing him off because he couldn’t understand why.

His reaction had been visceral, surreal. No one had been able to get so thoroughly under his skin just by merely existing before.

Except for maybe Lucifer.

Fuck.

And now he was thinking abouthimagain.

Eden didn’t like it.

It would be best to avoid all things angelic and devilish and masked from here on out.

Chapter 4:

“Dude, he looked like he was going to clear the table, shove you down onto it, and eat you alive!” Noon’s cackle came through the speaker of Eden’s multi-slate, which was set on the edge of his bathroom counter.

He rolled his eyes and swiped steam off the mirror. His friend had called him almost as soon as he’d stepped out of the shower, and he dried his hair as he listened to talk about the dinner. “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a senior at Sacrum Cor University and a Black Hart. That guy isn’t lacking bedpartners.”

“With a face like that?” Noon whistled. “He could be dirt poor and without title, and I guarantee people would still beg to sleep with him. Do you think he likes to be fucked, or is he the one doing the fucking?”

“I think you should be less crass and more careful with how you speak about the new major shareholder responsible for our livelihood.” Eden toweled off his chest, checked to be sure the one wrapped around his waist was secure, and then grabbed his device and exited into his bedroom.

The house he lived in was small, a fixer-upper that he’d never gotten around to fixing. It’d been all he could afford at the time, after he’d sold the building where his family had lived andrun their store from. Since the murders were still fresh in the news, the value of the property had been abysmal, but he’d been desperate to be rid of it.

Every inch of that place had felt haunted, and Eden had shamelessly run from those ghosts like the devil was hot on his heels.

Only, now the devil might have actually found him.

“Don’t get too involved with Ares Major,” Eden warned. “Black Harts have a reputation.”

“He left shortly after you did, but he didn’t seem that bad. He did start playing the new banner at the table, though.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, Yarrow was chuffed to bits.”

Eden dropped his phone on the bed and walked the five steps it took to get to his single dresser, opening the doors to pull out the thin terracotta robe he’d had since his college days. “He wasn’t kidding about being a fan.”

“You’ll never guess who his favorite love interest is.”

“Who?”

Noon snorted. “Come on, man. You, obviously.”

“Uh, not me, obviously.”

“Whatever. You and Ransom are basically the same person.”

“Not true.”