Page 33

Chapter 32

NINETEEN MONTHS IN HIDING

Well, I fucked that up.

It had been three months since that night Eden asked if I loved her, and I still cringed when I remembered that I hadn’t said the words she needed to hear. All the other things I told her had flowed from my lips like a waterfall, and I’d meant every syllable, but the L-word had eluded me.

I knew I loved Eden with every fiber of my being, so why the hell wasn’t I able to say the words? Maybe because I had never said them to a woman before, other than my mother, and that had been years ago. Had I ever even said it to my sister? Not that I could recall.

I love you.

It was a simple enough statement… only three words, eight letters. But they held so much meaning. Man the fuck up, Osbourne. Tell your wife how you really feel.

That was the plan. I was going to tell her tonight. Come hell or high water, those eight letters were going to come out of my mouth, into her ears, and hopefully, straight to her heart.

It was October, and turtle mating season was over, though Eden spent a few days a week at the Turtle Hospital on top of the eighteen-hour class load she was taking. In honor of the end of the season, I’d told her I was taking her on a little weekend getaway to Miami.

After an excellent dinner of Cuban food, we found ourselves in a steamy nightclub with bodies all around us on the wood dance floor. Despite all the other people, I only had eyes for my wife. She was so fucking beautiful in a sparkly pink dress and silver heels that gave her a good five inches of height. The rhinestone nose ring in her right nostril matched the dress.

She was brilliant and vibrant, standing out like a beacon in the crowd—at least in my eyes—as she threw her hands over her head and shimmied her body to the pulsing beat. I, of course, was doing the dude dance , which consisted of minimal arm movements and only a slight sway of my hips as my feet moved side to side. I wasn’t a big fan of dancing, but I was a huge fan of watching my wife dance, so here we were.

I was half-chubbing in my pants from watching her. The circle skirt flowed around her thighs when she spun in a circle, showing off the thin criss-crosses across her otherwise bare back.

I love you. The thought played like a broken record in my head, repeating itself every single time I looked at her. I was a fucking goner for her.

Another song came on, this one slower, and Eden’s eyes lit up. “I loooove OneRepublic,” she managed to coo and yell at the same time, tossing her arms around my neck. She was a little tipsy, definitely not sloppy drunk, just enough to enjoy herself.

The sweet lyrics of “Stop and Stare” came on, and I roped my arms around Eden’s waist, moving my hips a little more now that she was plastered to my body. My half-chub hardened to a steel pipe against her swaying body, and her brown eyes flashed with pure wickedness when she noticed.

“Can we go back to the hotel after this song?” she asked, her lips a hairsbreadth from mine.

“That would probably be best unless you want to get fucked on this dance floor.”

Eden sank her teeth into her bottom lip and lifted one leg, hooking it over my hip and anchoring her ankle against my butt. “Is this how you’d fuck me in front of all these people?” Her voice was a purr, her soft lips moving against mine as she spoke.

Taking her mouth, I bent my knees to cradle my cock against her sex, holding her ass with both hands. And then we dry-fucked right on the dance floor with bodies all around us. I barely noticed them. I was lost in Eden, the stroke of her tongue synchronized with the raunchy rhythm of our grinding hips. I’d never been more turned on in my life.

Our bodies were sticky with sweat, my white dress shirt clinging like Saran Wrap to my chest and stomach as I mimicked what I was planning to do to her when we got to our room. A good, hard fuck. Damp bodies writhing together in the most carnal of dances.

Bending my head, I took one of her nipples into my mouth, sucking hard as she cried out, her hands tangling in my hair. It was loose around my shoulders, other than a tiny braid Eden had fashioned and tucked behind my ear. My dick throbbed in my pants, attempting to break free when her nipple hardened into a bullet against my tongue through the thin fabric of her dress. She obviously was not wearing a bra.

I thought about picking her up and carrying her to the restroom to take her there, but I didn’t want to fuck my wife against the wall of a dirty bathroom. Not when we had a perfectly good hotel room that was less than ten minutes away.

Thankfully, the song came to an end, and I unwound Eden’s leg from my waist before straightening the circle skirt of her dress. Her eyes held the same heavy heat as mine.

“Let’s go,” I told her gruffly, taking her hand and leading her to the corner booth we’d shared. I’d been wearing a suit jacket and tie for dinner but had shucked both before she’d dragged me onto the dance floor at this club. Picking them up, I wrapped the tie around her neck and slung the jacket over one of my shoulders.

We’d only made it halfway to the front door when Eden stumbled, grabbing hold of my arm. “Shit!” she said when I turned to see what was wrong. “My heel broke.” I looked down to see the heel of her left shoe hanging at an odd angle.

“I gotcha,” I told her, scooping her up like a bride and striding the rest of the way to the door. She giggled against my neck, and it was the best fucking sound I’d ever heard.

Once outside, I set her gingerly on her feet. “I’ll go get the car. You stay right here by the door.” Most of the street was dark, but the sidewalk in front of the nightclub was lit by a single overhead light and bright neon signs in the windows.

Her eyes glistened in the dim October night, and she pinched my ass. “Hurry up, husband.”

Motherfucker, that’s hot.

Giving her a quick, hard kiss on the lips, I took off at a jog to reach the parking garage two blocks away. The evening air against my wet shirt did little to cool the flames inching across every inch of my body. Despite my inability to say those three little words to my wife, our passion hadn’t suffered a bit over the past few months. We were constantly wild for each other.

I started the vehicle, exited the garage and looped around the block, pulling up on the street in front of the club, my eyes immediately finding the sparkle of her pink dress. But she wasn’t alone.

I’d heard people say their vision went red when they were angry, but my sight was clouded only by darkness. Like the pits of hell, so deep that there were no more flames, only the blackest of ash.

Slamming the vehicle into park, I reached for something in my console before leaping out of the car and sprinting to the sidewalk where a big, hairy motherfucker was talking to Eden.

“Yeah, baby. I’m gonna get all up in those little panties of yours. What color are they? Bet they’re red, aren’t they? Like whore panties.” Neither of them noticed my approach. This hairy asshole would never survive in the wild because he obviously didn’t sense the presence of a true predator right behind him.

Eden took a limping step backward, her broken heel scraping across the concrete. “No. Back off, asshole. My husband will be here in about twenty seconds.” More like two seconds, baby.

The man’s filthy mouth continued spewing slurred words at her as he laughed and took another step toward her. “Fuck your husband. I’m going to be the one in your panties tonight, sweet thang. You ain’t ever—”

He was unable to finish whatever bullshit he was about to say because as soon as his grubby hand grasped her shoulder, my arm was around his thick throat, the tip of my knife pressed into the flabby flesh beneath his chin. I had several inches of height on him, but he probably outweighed me by twenty or so pounds. Nevertheless, I had the element of surprise—as well as an all-consuming rage—on my side, and within seconds, I had dragged the startled prick deep into the brick-lined alley where only a sliver of light reached us.

“What the fuck?” he said on a strangled breath.

I pressed the knife upward until I felt the flesh give way. Just a bit. I wasn’t ready to kill him quite yet. The scent of fear rolled off his skin and filled the alleyway. I’d almost forgotten that smell, the way anxiety changed the chemistry of a person’s sweat into something mustier. It was probably not discernible to most people, but to a man like me… Yeah, I reveled in that shit.

“Who the fuck do you think you are to speak to my wife like that? To fucking touch her ?” I hissed into his ear.

“I’m… I’m… Jeb,” he replied like I had actually been asking his fucking name.

“Good to know. I like to know the names of the people I kill,” I say coldly, drawing a whimper from his lips. Not such a big man now, are you?

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

In a flash, I had him swung around to face me, the blade of my knife now flat against his fleshy neck. “ You didn’t know? ” I bit out, my voice suffused with rage like an overfilled balloon. “When she told you to back off, you didn’t fucking know ?”

“I was just having… a little fun.”

“Fun.” Every muscle in my jaw was tensed so tightly I was surprised they didn’t snap. “It’s fun to rape a woman? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“I-I was… I thought she wanted it.”

My hand trembled with the need to gut him from stem to sternum. “She. Said. No.” Each word snapped like the deadly strike of a cobra. “No is a complete sentence.”

In a weak attempt, Jeb shoved both hands against my chest, but I didn’t budge an inch, my anger rooting my feet to the sticky concrete.

“Look, man. It was a… misunderstanding. I’ll just let you go on your way,” he cajoled.

I lifted one eyebrow. He’ll let me ?

“How about this instead?” I mused, finding my control because that was scarier to a pussy like this than if I’d gone off in a frenzy. The anticipation heightened the sense of fear exponentially, so I kept my tone conversational as I trailed my knife down his dirty tank top. “How about I cut your measly little dick off, use it to clean out your ears, and then stuff it down your throat until you choke to death on it?”

The smell of urine stung my nose, and I knew he’d pissed himself. I watched as a tiny trickle of blood inched down his throat from my earlier prick beneath his chin. That only fueled my bloodlust. Until…

“Don’t.” But it wasn’t the asshole’s voice. No, this one came from behind me, soft and sweet, accompanied by a gentle hand on my back. My Eden. “Please don’t.”

My skin rippled at her touch, and her plea hit me directly in the chest. Eden was the angel to my devil, and I gave a curt nod but kept my eyes on her attacker. I’d honor her request and wouldn’t kill him, but there was no way I was letting the asshole get off scot-free.

“Baby,” I said quietly, tilting my head but still staring down at the piece of shit in front of me. “Take off your panties.”

I could hear the shock in her high voice. “What?”

“Take them off and give them to me. Now.” I didn’t yell, but my voice was no less commanding, and after a moment’s pause, I heard the rustling of clothing behind me.

With a few precise slashes of my knife, I had Jeb’s clothes in shreds, and I yanked at his tank top and shorts until the pieces fell to the filthy ground, leaving him naked except for his briefs. He began sobbing but I ignored his tears as I stuck one hand behind me. I felt the soft lace of Eden’s panties in my palm a moment later. Good girl.

“Now you take off your underwear,” I directed the man, and his face crumpled like a baby’s.

“Please, mister. No,” he squeaked, sounding like a pathetic little mouse as he raised two hands in surrender.

“I’m not touching your piss stain with my hands, so either you take them off, or I will cut them from your body. And to be honest with you, Jeb, my hand is not feeling too steady right now. I might accidentally cut something vital.” I held the knife up and faked a hand tremor.

His eyes were as wide as saucers, and I was pretty sure he hadn’t blinked a single time since I’d dragged him into this alley. Keeping his gaze on me, he bent and pulled his yellow-stained white briefs down, letting them pool at his feet before standing again. The smell of fear rolling off him was overpowering now, and his face was streaked with tears.

I glanced down and noticed his dick was shriveled up to the approximate size of a peanut. Or maybe that’s how it always looked.

“Put them on,” I ordered him, shoving Eden’s little lace thong into his chest.

I thought it was impossible for his eyes to get any bigger, but they did. “Y-you mean…”

“You said you wanted to get into my wife’s panties, so here’s your chance.”

He clutched the scrap of lace to his chest and shook his head. “I said I was sorry. Please don’t make me—”

In an instant, my knife was back at his throat. “Do it. Now.”

He swallowed hard and then flinched when the sharp edge of the knife scraped against his Adam’s apple. “Okay,” he relented, and I backed off enough to allow him to bend and step into the panties.

“Pull them up,” I ordered, and he did, his chest heaving with terror and humiliation. He had to work to get the panties over his flabby thighs, the material stretching grotesquely as he finally hitched them up.

The garment was lace on the front, a soft pink color with tiny white bows at the hips. Jeb looked utterly ridiculous.

I tilted my head to the side and regarded him. “What do you think, Jeb? Is it all you hoped it would be?”

His lips pinched together, and I could tell he wanted to yell and curse at me, but he held his tongue, so I prodded. “Do you have something to say to my wife?”

His watery blue eyes darted from me to Eden. “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

I gave him a slow nod. “Such good manners, Jeb. I think you’ve learned a valuable lesson here tonight. From now on, if a woman tells you no, you back the fuck off. Because next time, you might run into someone who’s not as sweet as me.”

With that, I bent to pick up the remnants of his shirt and pants, leaving the soiled underwear where they sat because fuck no. After tossing the shredded clothing into the dumpster against the wall, I fixed my glare on him and said, “You’re going to count to one hundred. You will not move until you’re done. Understood?”

He nodded as I folded and pocketed my knife before scooping Eden into my arms and backing out of the dark alleyway. Once we were back on the sidewalk, I hurriedly placed her in the passenger seat and brushed a strand of damp hair from her forehead.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded but didn’t say a word.

I’d left the vehicle halfway in the street, and other drivers were honking as they maneuvered around my SUV. I tossed up a middle finger as I entered the car and then put it in drive. Pulling into traffic, I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles ached.

I’d completely lost my temper back there. I would have killed that motherfucker without a second thought if Eden hadn’t reined me in. Her rules floated back to me from that day at Jamie and Robert’s house.

I’m not living with some Mafia thug.

That means no whacking anyone.

When I pulled up to a red light, I risked a glance at Eden. She was staring straight ahead, her head tilted over against the window.

Before I could think better of it, I blurted, “I didn’t kill him.”

She didn’t move, didn’t meet my eye. She only murmured, “I know,” and fixed her gaze on the passing buildings.

As I drove, I stayed silent, lost in my own thoughts. The one at the forefront of my mind, the one that made my heart pound so hard, I probably needed to find a hospital with an excellent cardiac wing was…

Is she going to leave me?