Page 14

Chapter 13

While Robert and Evie were out back in the salon, Jamie was working with me to tone down what she called my “thick New Yawk accent.”

“You’re doing well,” she said. “Just remember, they speak a little slower down here in the south so let your words dawdle a bit more on your tongue instead of talking ninety miles an hour.”

“And you’re sure I can’t say fuhgeddaboudit? ” I teased, and she laughed.

“Absolutely not.” Her head tilted toward the back door when we heard it open. Two sets of footsteps—one heavy and one light—made their way toward the living room. “I guess they’re done. I’m excited to see what Evie looks like.” I was too. They’d been back there for hours.

Robert walked into the room and swept his arm out as he stepped to the side. “Ladies and gentlemen—or Damiano—I present to you… Eden.”

My eyes narrowed into a squint. I almost darted my gaze around to look for Evie until I realized she was standing right there. “Evie?” I asked, and her eyes met mine.

“Eden,” she corrected. “That’s the name I chose.”

“I get it,” Jamie said, standing and striding a circle around her. “Evie… Eve… the Garden of Eden.”

“Yes, is that dumb?”

“Not at all. I love it. And this look! Whew, girlfriend!” She did that Z-snap thing girls do. “You are one hot tamale, Eden.”

Meanwhile, I was simply gawking like I’d never seen a woman before.

Gone was the pretty girl next door, and in her place stood a goddamn vixen. Her hair was short, dark, and messy, a thin streak of lilac on one side of the fringe that draped over her forehead.

Her eyes, now brown due to the contact lenses, looked rounder somehow with the new hairstyle. They softened the edgy visage just enough to compel a man to want to treat her like a princess while bending her over any nearby flat surface.

She. Is. Stunning.

Her eyes found me, and her teeth sank into her bottom lip almost shyly. “What do you think?”

She was seeking my approval, and she damn well had it. When I opened my mouth, my tongue forgot how to form actual words, and I ended up mumbling a bunch of vowel sounds. “Uhhh, I, ahhhh.” Clearing my throat, I said, “It’s fine.”

Her gaze fell to the floor, and I knew instantly that I had fucked up. She was enduring all these changes, and all I came up with was it’s fine?

Before I could rectify the situation, the doorbell rang. “That’s probably the pizza,” Jamie said, checking something on her phone before heading for the door.

“Why don’t you have more security here?” I asked Robert. “Like gates or cameras.”

“We have cameras. You just can’t see them,” he replied. “That was what Jamie was checking on her phone. One of the tricks of staying under the radar is not holing yourself up in a fortress. Shit like that makes people suspicious. To the outside world, we’re just a normal couple in a normal house.”

I nodded. That made sense.

We settled at the dining table for dinner with three different pizzas laid out in front of us. “I’ve been informed by my husband that the pizza in Florida is subpar when compared with New York pies, but this is the closest he’s found,” Jamie said, reaching for a slice of pepperoni.

“It’s tolerable,” he grunted, taking three pieces that were fully loaded. I did the same. Evie—no, Eden —snagged a slice of what looked like meat lovers.

“So, we have Eden’s new name. Now we just need to come up with something for Damiano. Have you thought about any D names you like?” Jamie asked, turning her green eyes on me.

“Not really. I’m open to suggestions,” I told her, taking a large bite. It wasn’t like home, but it was decent.

“I have some suggestions,” Eden piped up. “What about Dillweed?”

I choked on the bite I’d just swallowed, pounding my chest with my fist as my eyes watered. Once I recovered, I turned my face slowly toward her. “Dillweed?” The little wildcat had the audacity to smile at me.

“You don’t like that one?” she asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes at me. “What about Dickhead, Demon, or Dracula?”

“No, no, and no,” I snapped.

“Oooh, maybe something more subtle like Draco. I think you’d definitely be in Slytherin.”

“She’s got a point,” Robert said, sounding more amused than he had a right to be. “You’re definitely a Slytherin kind of guy.” Then he winked at Eden, a conspiratorial little gesture.

“Negative on Draco,” I said, gritting my teeth, but it was mostly to keep myself from smiling.

“If you don’t want to go with one of my D names, I have some great ones that start with F. Like Fu—”

“What about Dane?” Jamie suggested, apparently the only helpful one at this fucking table.

“Dane… Dane…” I rolled the name from my mouth a few times. “That’s cool, Jamie. I like it.”

Eden made a tsking sound and shook her head, like I was missing some grand opportunity to be called Dracula.

Later, when it was time for bed, I knocked on the bathroom door that led to her room. I could practically hear her eyes rolling through the white wood. “What?”

“Can I come in?”

“If you must,” she sighed.

Sliding the door to the side, I entered to find her dressed in silky sleep shorts with a matching top in a yellow the color of butter. Tiny white flowers dotted the shiny material, and Eden suddenly looked very young.

“I’m sorry I said you looked fine earlier. You look much better than fine.”

She scoffed and turned her back to me, exposing the bare nape of her neck. I was dying to sink my teeth into the flesh there. Nope. Too young for you, remember? Not even nineteen. Does that ring a bell?

“I wasn’t fishing for compliments, Dami—Dane,” she sniffed, busying her hands by folding clothes and placing them into the top drawer. “It was a lot of change for me, and I guess I was… apprehensive.”

“You needed my approval, and I flubbed it.”

Eden whirled around, eyes narrow. “I don’t need your approval.”

With my hands in my pockets, I covered the space between us in a few slow strides, my attention never wavering from her. “Well, you have it anyway.”

She dropped her attention to the piece of clothing in her hands, folding and refolding it. “Since you’re the one that’s going to have to look at me every day for the foreseeable future, I guess that’s good.”

“Eden.” When she didn’t look up, I took the garment from her to stop her fidgeting and placed two fingers beneath her chin, lifting until our eyes locked. I willed my mouth to do what the fuck it was supposed to this time.

“The reason I fumbled around with my words earlier was because you stole my breath. I feel like the luckiest man in the world to call you my wife, Eden. You are beautiful.”

The most mesmerizing shade of pink colored her cheeks, and I could tell she was fighting a smile. “ Fake wife.”

We’ll just see about that.

I took in every inch of her face, taking my sweet time as I memorized her. “You got your nose pierced,” I commented, noticing the tiny purple rhinestone nestled in the curve of her right nostril.

“Yes,” she said, lightly touching it with the pad of one finger. “I’ve always wanted one, but my mother would never let me.”

“Seriously, you look like a damn rock star.”

Eden looked up at me from beneath her dark lashes, a hint of a smile teasing her lips. “Thanks, Dillweed.”

“Christ, I think I prefer Dracula,” I muttered before pivoting to hide my amusement and walking back toward the bathroom. “See you tomorrow, Eden.”

“I could get you a cape if you want to be Dracula,” I heard her say from behind me. “Then you could swoop around the house like the Prince of Darkness.”

“Ozzy Osbourne is the Prince of Darkness, not Dracula.” The sound of her laughter followed my retort.

It wasn’t until I was back in my bedroom with the door closed that I realized I was still holding the piece of clothing she was folding earlier. Taking a step toward the door to return it to her, my feet faltered when I saw what was in my hand.

Panties. Black. Lace. Tiny.

Fuck me.

One part of my brain told me to take them back to her like a decent human being, but it was in a fierce battle with the dirty part of my brain that lifted the scrap to my nose for a deep inhale. They were clean and smelled like laundry detergent, but the depravity of the act made my cock twitch in my pants. They may not smell like her, but they belonged to her, and that was enough to satisfy me. For now.

That same dirty portion of my brain had me placing the panties beneath my pillow, and when I undressed and climbed into bed, one of my hands slipped underneath and gripped them in my fist as I fell asleep.

My entire face hurts.

That was the first thought I had when I opened my eyes the next afternoon in my bedroom. It was Saturday, and Jamie had done the rhinoplasty at her office a few hours ago.

Pushing my palms into the mattress, I scooted my body up and leaned against the iron headboard. That position seemed to help the intense pressure in my nasal passages a bit. I gingerly reached up and found that my nose was covered with bandages.

When a soft tap sounded on the door, I called out, “Come in,” my voice sounding thick and strained. I expected it was Jamie coming to check on me, so I was surprised to see Eden walking into the room with a tray in her hands.

“Hello, patient,” she said in a chirpy voice, striding across the room. “Are you hungry?”

“Actually, yes. I could eat something.”

She placed the tray on my lap and grinned cheekily. “Consider yourself lucky. Jamie told me I wasn’t allowed to spill hot soup in your lap.”

“I’ll be sure to thank her,” I replied dryly, surprised when she perched on the edge of the bed beside me.

“How are you feeling?” Her voice had lost that teasing edge, sounding almost sweet.

“I feel like someone stuck a couple large sheep up my nose.” I picked up the spoon and stirred the chicken noodle soup. Of course, I couldn’t smell it, but it looked delicious.

“Remember, your sense of taste will be a little off for a while,” Eden told me, watching as I scooped up a spoonful and placed it in my mouth. She was right. I could taste it, but the flavors were somehow muted due to not being able to smell.

“You’re not wearing your contacts,” I observed.

“I’m only supposed to wear them a few hours a day until I get used to them.”

“They really do make a difference,” I told her, taking another bite of the warm soup. “Covering your bright blue irises was a good idea.”

“Did you know that the plural of irises is actually irides? Unless you’re referring to the flower. Then it’s I-R-I-S-E-S, but when you’re talking about ocular anatomy, it’s I-R-I-D-E-S.”

I shook my head. “Nope, that’s a new one on me.”

“Most people just say irises though. The only people who say irides are pretty much eye doctors.”

Chuckling, I said, “As far as I know, you’re not an eye doctor, Eden.”

“I know, but I’m me,” she said with a shrug, as if that explained everything. Then she tapped an index finger against her temple. “I like knowing things other people don’t.”

“Well, keep them coming. I like hearing your random facts.”

She looked pleased by that. “How did you break your nose?”

I nibbled on a cracker, hiding my wince when I swallowed. At least I thought I hid it until Eden picked up the glass of water on the tray and handed it to me. Taking a sip, I handed the glass back to her.

“My brother punched me.”

Eden’s neck craned forward. “The same one who told you about the helicopter?”

“Yep. One and the same.”

“Why did he punch you?”

“I fucked his girlfriend.”

Her eyes almost popped out of her head. “Dane!” she scolded.

“Okay, it wasn’t actually his girlfriend. He liked her, but I didn’t know that.” My voice turned into a sneer. “My father did though. He was the one who set it up.”

Eden held her hands up, palms out. “Wait, wait. Go back.”

Whooshing out a sigh, I said, “My brother and I were tight, and my father didn’t like it. He’s a paranoid asshole who thinks everyone is out to get him, so he doesn’t like people getting too close to each other. Could foster loyalty to someone other than him.”

“So he set you up so your brother would be mad at you,” she said.

I scooped up another bite of soup and swallowed. It was getting easier with each bite. “Luca told me it was time I became a man and said he had set me up with a girl.” My shoulders lifted and fell. “I was fifteen with raging hormones, so I fucked her on the floor of our living room.”

Eden’s mouth gaped open like a fish out of water. “And your brother found out?”

With a scoff, I answered, emphasizing the first word. “ Coincidentally , Fiero got home early from work that day.”

“Ah, but it wasn’t a coincidence, I presume.”

“Correct. When we talked later, after he’d calmed down and I’d iced my nose, he told me our father had called him home for some kind of emergency. That’s when we figured out he had manipulated the whole thing to get us to hate each other.”

“And that’s why Luca would never suspect that your brother would help you.”

I nodded. “We’ve continued to play our parts to make him believe that for the past ten years.”

“One more question.” Her lips curved up into a sly grin. “Did you at least get to finish first?”

That was so unexpected from her, I snorted out a laugh, which felt like getting punched in the nose a hundred times in a row. “Owww, fuck,” I grunted, my hand hovering over my face. “Don’t make me laugh, dammit.”

“Sorry,” she said, and I could tell she was barely reining in a giggle. “But did you?”

“No, you nosy ass. I didn’t. I was standing there with a bloody nose and a hard dick, which totally ruined my first sexual experience.”

Eden tilted her head and cooed, “Awww, were you ever able to get it up again or was it like Pavlov’s dick where you associated erections with broken noses?”

I managed to laugh through my mouth, sparing myself the pain that time. “I recovered, thank you very much.” Bobbing my eyebrows up and down, I lowered my voice. “You’ll be happy to know everything about your husband is in working order.”

She sniffed. “Fake husband, so your equipment is absolutely none of my business.”

“Then why were you so interested in whether or not my cock was in working order?”

Her face registered shock, cheeks flaming into the most intriguing deep-pink color. “I… uh… I don’t…” She lifted her chin, finding an ounce of composure. “Just shut up, Dracula. Are you done eating?”

“All done,” I told her, feeling quite smug with myself.

She stood and took the tray from me, nodding toward a sheet of paper on the oak nightstand. “Jamie said to read over those post-op directions. She went over everything before like no contact sports and stuff like that, but she wants you to read it again.”

“Got it.”

“Oh, and she said you’re not allowed to bite the heads off any bats or other small animals for at least six weeks.”

It took a monumental effort not to laugh at that. Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest and leveled her with a glare. “I’ll have my secretary rearrange my bat-biting schedule.”

“Excellent. And speaking of that, I came up with a last name for us,” Eden said as she walked toward the door.

“This oughta be good,” I muttered. “What is it?”

With a wink over her shoulder, she replied, “Osbourne.”

“Owwww!” I yelled, cupping my nose after another laugh burst from me.

Swear to god, this brat was going to be the death of me.