Note from the Author 1 page

It was on occasions like these that Eden realized how very little she mattered to her husband. He never failed to remind her of her status in their marriage, whether it was with his remarks, that have only grown nastier over the years, or the reproachful looks, that seemed to carve across her flesh like a whip. Like now for instance, she could feel that piercing stare from across the room, the distinct bite of his scorn putting her instantly on alert. She hadn’t really done anything in the last few minutes to warrant the reaction, but then again, Dominic Armstrong didn’t need much to set him off these days. She sighed resignedly, daring to look away fully knowing that he would discipline her for this unknown reason later. Eden grabbed a champagne flute from the tray of a passing waiter before escaping to the veranda for some much needed air. They were up in the Grafton Highlands, at another dull event that he’d dragged her to, because he wanted to flaunt her to his equally wealthy friends.

He’d made their roles distinctively clear from the beginning, and she’d gone along with it because she’d needed the protection of his name and the money that went along with it. She had been one eviction notice away from homelessness, and he’d done it to, “keep her from ruining his younger brother’s life,” as he’d put it. Lucas Armstrong had been a good customer of Eden’s; coming to Crazy Pussy for a good year before he’d proposed marriage. But then his big, bad brother, the head of the Armstrong family, had gotten wind of his errant brother’s ridiculous idea and had marched in to shut the whole thing down. Once he’d seen to bully his brother back to college where he belonged, threatening his inheritance if he refused to cooperate, Dominic had zeroed in on Eden. He’d stalked the club for a good month after that, always sitting in that wingback chair in the front row, his predatory gaze watching her every night she’d performed. He’d frightened her to the core, big and boorish as he’d been, waiting patiently, artfully manipulating every aspect of Eden’s life until she’d come to him.

Since he’d wanted her badly enough, he’d grudgingly agreed to her one condition: marriage. Mistresses were expendable, wives were a little harder to dispose of, and Eden had been armed with at least that little knowledge. He’d given her a day before finally coming to her with his own terms. It’d been overwhelming; the legalese of the documents he’d presented with his attorney had all been a jumble to her. Logic had warned her not to sign the papers before having a lawyer look them over, but she’d been blinded by the seven-carat diamond ring he’d presented her with. Their wedding had been a quiet affair with little frill, and the honeymoon had been on a private island on the Mediterranean Sea. Twenty-three to his thirty-five, Dominic Armstrong, media mogul and one of Fortune 500’s top five wealthiest people, had paid quite handsomely to possess her, to own every inch of her, a fact he rarely forgot to remind her. He was the bread winner, the Alpha dog with a type A personality, and Eden was tasked to do simply two things: be the arm candy in public and a whore in bed.

He made sure he stirred a response from her each and every time he fucked her, and while he tended to be quite cruel when the mood stuck him, he received a sick fascination from hearing her beg for more. But Eden never protested, never complained in the face of his oftentimes sadistic streaks. She was the dutiful, obedient wife who lived a lavishly luxurious life, and in exchange, he could damn well treat her however he wanted. In comparison to the squalor she’d grown up in and the poverty she and her single mother had faced, Eden would say that her marriage to Dominic was a small price to pay.

She downed the champagne in one go and set the flute on the balustrade. She peered down just below into the nothingness and silently mused whether the darkness would catch her if she plummeted. Giving into a sudden bout of inanity, Eden slipped out of the four inch heels that had cost a small fortune and lifted herself up on the ledge. She bit her bottom lip to keep her smile at bay as she spread out her arms and closed her eyes. Fear was not an emotion she felt here, it was simply the darkness around her and the summer breeze caressing her skin. Exhilaration swept through her, the wind making her feel like she was flying. In that moment she was free. Freedom enveloped her on all sides and took her away from everything. Up here she was nothing and everything all at once. She opened her eyes and looked down into the abyss, facing her mortality. Laughter burbled up from the pits of her stomach and escaped on the wind.

“Don’t jump.” The unexpected sound of that voice shattered through Eden’s introspection, startling her completely. She wavered, her body teetering towards the precipice and her heart racing, now for a completely different reason as real fear poured like ice water into her veins. She was going to fall, she thought inanely, but then… she wasn’t. Instead, she was forcefully yanked backwards by an unyielding manacle of flesh around her waist. Eden landed unceremoniously on top of her rescuer in complete disarray, stunned at what had almost been her death.

“I do sincerely hope this isn’t what it looks like, Eden?”

Her senses returned just then, and her husband’s drawl had Eden closing her own eyes for a brief second, attempting to regroup herself before she had to face him. She came to her feet unsteadily, unconsciously leaning on the guy who’d not only caused this mess, but had also rescued her from impending death. When she found her footing, Eden turned to him with a tentative smile before meeting her husband’s gaze. There was nothing on Dominic’s classically handsome features that indicated his fury; he looked unperturbed, bored even with this scene, but Eden knew the truth. She’d become a veteran in reading his moods and nothing foretold it more than those cold green eyes.

“Well, I’m not sure what it looks like to you, sweetheart, but this man just saved my life.”

“Did he?” he retorted, sizing up the other man and quickly dismissing him as someone of no consequence. “And what exactly was it that he saved you from, pet?”

Caught once more beneath that cold green stare, Eden attempted another tactic knowing that she was only making it worse for herself. “I was being silly,” she said with a small laugh, raking a hand through her hair to act every bit the airhead he believed her to be. “I was sitting on the ledge, not realizing how much I’ve had to drink. This man…” She stopped suddenly looking at the man with the blue eyes. “I’m sorry…I didn’t catch your name.”

“Matt.”

“Matt came along and pulled me down just before I tipped over.”

“Well then, we should commend Bruce on hiring such agile employees.” He smoothly took off his dinner jacket and swept it over Eden’s shoulders. “And you, dear wife,” he tugged on the lapels of the jacket to bring her closer to him, “need to be a lot more careful.” The kiss was not only meant to exhibit ownership, but it was precursor to the punishment that was to come. “Now, let’s go home.” When he made to lead them away, Eden set a gentle hand on his chest to halt his progress.

“What about the man who rescued the woman you love?” Dominic looked down at her and Eden knew she’d pushed too far, but she wanted him to acknowledge the man—Matt—for what he’d done. Eden wanted to watch her husband lower himself for a moment to the man he’d dismissed as nothing more than something he found under his shoe.

“Very well.” He disengaged himself from her and slipped a hand inside his pocket. “What’s the going rate for rescuing damsels these days? Two…three hundred?”

“A thousand dollars should do it, I think,” Eden said with a touch of spite, meeting those blue eyes that peered at her curiously.

“A thousand dollars,” Dominic chuckled drily, “I seem to recall paying a lot more for you, my sweet.”

Eden blanched and her heart slammed painfully against her breastbone at the backhanded comment. He was so much better at playing this game of malice than she was. To think that she’d set out to humiliate him just now, but he’d volleyed so effortlessly, hitting her exactly where he knew it would hurt the most. She felt so sick all of sudden, and the air outside wasn’t enough to ease the tightening in her chest.

“I’m good,” she heard Matt say, “I was just doing my job, sir.”

“Then we’ll let you get back to it.” He turned away from Matt, a sure dismissal as any, before setting a hand at the small of Eden’s back, leading her away.

* * *

He was brutal, completely without mercy as he took her. He burrowed his hands in her hair, cruelly yanking her head back to meet his hard stare. “You’re such a fucking whore.” It was his favorite thing to call her when they were in bed. Debasing her this way, making her remember exactly who and what she was, fulfilled his complete dominance over her. The diamond studded collar he’d purchased for her adorned her beautiful caramel neck, the leather chain attached to it was wound tightly around his other hand so that his every thrust coincided with the tugging of the chain. “I own you, Eden,” he whispered harshly, breathlessly along her ear. “Every inch of you belongs to me and I will brand my name on your delectable ass, my pet, so that you never forget it.” His thrusts grew erratic as he brutally rammed into her, and then, with a smack on her ass, he was finished.

When he eased out of her and rolled off the bed, Eden did not utter a word and remained completely still, trying to become one with the mattress he’d just viciously fucked her on. She even tried to keep her breathing minimal and simply listened to his movements around the bedroom. He would go to the bathroom first and rinse off his brutality like it was a coat of dirt that could be washed off with soap and water. Then he would return to the room, twenty or so minutes later, freshly clean and head downstairs to his home office where he would remain locked away for the duration of the morning. Eden anticipated that moment, waited patiently for it, and when she heard the hushed click of the door closing behind him, she finally allowed her body to unfurl from its fetal position.

Knowing she had the next few hours all to herself, Eden sat on the edge of the large sleigh bed, her smooth caramel legs dangling from the edge, her feet barely touching the cream carpet. She’d always been short, standing no taller than the woman who’d given her birth. A sad smile touched Eden’s lips as she thought about her mother. She wouldn’t be happy if she knew this was how Eden had ended up.

A rich man’s blow up doll.

Helen Mercer had always wanted more for her daughter, believing, as all ’mothers do, that her child was special and could reach the stars if she wanted. And while she was alive, Eden had bought into her mother’s dream, had believed that her voice could change their lives, could bring them out of the poverty that was all around them. But a senseless tragedy neither one could’ve predicted stole not only Eden’s mother, but her voice as well. It’d been a drive-by shooting, and in the ghetto of South Rochester, an everyday occurrence. The stray bullets had ripped through her mother that summer evening while she’d been walking home from her night shift at the local burger joint on Third Street. She’d died before the ambulance was called. Eden turned eighteen the following day. She’d stopped celebrating her birthday the day her mother died. After that, it’d been a series of horrible misfortunes brought on by too much debt and not enough money to pay them off. Graduating high school had not been without its efforts, and she’d gone through high school long enough to receive her hard earned diploma. She’d owed her mother at least that, a small honor that would, at the very least, overshadow the shameful way she was going to make money. Learning the finer points of stripping at the Crazy Pussy downtown had been a real low point.

College was put on the backburner for a part time job at Lou’s as a waitress in the morning and her full time gig at the Crazy Pussy at night. The money had been good for a while, but not enough to cover the substantial debts that her mother had kept hidden from her. Life had seemed pretty bleak until the moment Lucas came stumbling into the strip club. Lucas had been an obnoxious, entitled, spoiled asshole with too much time on his hands and an entire inheritance he’d seemed determined to unload at the club. He’d treated the dancers like meat, harassed the waitresses, and made the bartender’s life hell, but he’d always been welcomed because he’d been extremely generous with his money. Eden had not only seen the scope of his generosity with the way he showered the stage with cash when she danced, but he’d made sure to lavish her with extra gifts. Lucas had wanted her but Eden hadn’t taken his pursuit seriously. He’d been incoherently drunk for most of the time he’d spoken to her anyway. But then with Lucas came Dominic. Imperious, indomitable and ruthless, Dominic Armstrong had ridden roughshod through her life. The moment she’d seen him, Eden had known things would never been the same for her. There had been her unimaginable attraction to him, tall, dark and handsome as he’d been, every single female inch of her had prickled with awareness of him. Lucas’s half-brother had looked nothing like his inebriated, slovenly sibling.

Dominic had come with an offer, which Eden has capriciously countered with one of her own. She’d done it simply to knock him off his high horse because she knew people like him would never marry below their station. He’d been so bold, so sure that she would jump on the opportunity to become his mistress that she’d wanted to see how far he was willing to go to have her. Apparently he’d been willing to go quite far. Eden had never expected him to agree to the marriage proposal, but then she quickly saw the advantages it would bring her when he offered her entry to his world. He flaunted his money and she’d been greedy enough to jump on the opportunity. Accidental gold-digger. She laughed humorlessly; she’d done the one thing her mother had cautioned her against doing. Stripping had been one thing, but Eden had sold her soul for wealth and the horrible part was that it hadn’t even been for her voice.

Eden came to her feet wincing when a slight bit of pain shot between her legs. The shower felt great, but the soreness would remain for a few days, along with the bruises that marred her skin.

She wiped the condensation from the bathroom mirror and found a pair of honey gold eyes staring back at her from a round, somewhat attractive face. She wasn’t ugly honestly, although she could say that her mouth was a little too wide and her eyes a little too sunken, but those were features she’d inherited from an unknown father. Her mother hadn’t spoken much of the man who’d been in her life for only period of time, but she did tell Eden that she’d inherited the “music” from him. He’d been a jazz musician from what she knew, and they’d shared a supernova romance that had come and gone, leaving Eden as a result.

Her mother had been in love with him, but he’d already devoted his life to music. And so he’d gone, and she’d been left to raise Eden by herself—a white mother raising a biracial child in the heart of crime central. They’d had more than a few challenges to say the least. It was with her mother’s eyes that Eden assessed herself further, grateful the bruises were not substantial this time. She could hide them well. She was petite but well proportioned, with breasts that were still perky and full, although she’d been on the smaller side when she’d been at Crazy Pussy. Her ritualistic morning jogs kept her fit, her stomach flat, arms and legs well-toned, and a cute little butt she thought to be her best feature. Dominic liked her hair long so every few weeks Eden paid a ridiculous amount of money to have a few pieces added to her wavy, shoulder length hair so that it nearly reached her butt when it was done. She’d gathered the mass of chestnut waves into a topknot for now. Eden stepped a little closer to the mirror, her fingers shooting up to her neck and sighed at the bruise forming from the collar. Dominic was bastard.

Chapter Two