Note from the Author 10 page

“Dominic, lovely of you to come,” Millicent Armstrong greeted, her saccharine voice holding just the slightest bit of malice. She was tall, nearly as tall as her husband who stood practically toe to toe with Dominic’s six foot three inch frame. She was otherwise a delicate woman, and she looked the same as the last time Eden had seen her. Aside from the smattering of freckles across her button nose, there was little blemish on a face that defied time. Her strawberry blond hair that was too bright to be natural had grown longer than Eden remembered, but it still looked amazing and lustrous in the over the shoulder ponytail she’d styled it in. The chiffon dress she wore was elegance itself, with an empire waist that flowed prettily when she walked. Gregory Armstrong hadn’t changed much either; he still maintained that supercilious air that was so reminiscent of the child who stood at Eden’s side. Even so advanced in age, one could see that he’d been quite handsome when he’d been younger. A touch of wrinkles stretched at the corner of those trademarked Armstrong green eyes that still held a devastating glint to them. He had salt and pepper hair that had grown even whiter in the last five years, but it was stylishly cut to suit his face. The black dinner jacket, shirt, trousers and tie were expertly tailored to his big frame, not a thread out of place.

“I wasn’t aware not coming was an option,” he retorted sardonically. “You do remember my wife, Eden.” In saying that, he did not thrust her forward as Eden anticipated he would; instead he kept her at his side, the hand at her back moving around to settle at her hip. Gregory’s gaze raked over her with a thoroughness that made Eden’s skin crawl, and she unconsciously leaned into Dominic, needing his formidable frame to protect her from his father’s lascivious stare. Millicent on the other hand, quite possibly used to her husband’s wandering eye, regarded Eden with a coolness that could’ve frozen a volcano.

“Yes…hello again, Eden. It’s been far too long.” Certainly not long enough, the expression on her currently pinched face seemed to say.

“It’s good to see you again, Eden. Now, son, if you will permit me a moment of your time, there is something I wish to discuss with you.”

“Can it wait?”

“It’s a matter of urgency.”

When Dominic peered down at her, Eden mustered up a brave face despite that she wailed at the prospect of being alone with his stepmother. Dominic was many things, but he was infinitely better company than the cold woman standing a foot or so away from Eden. “I won’t be long.” he uttered against her cheek, his breath making her shiver. She watched him stride away and forced herself to keep from running after him.

“Come, Eden,” Millicent offered Eden her arm, while attempting a smile that appeared more menacing than she probably intended. “Let me introduce you to the other wives. If you’re going to be in our circle, you must learn who everyone is.” Right then. So her mother-in-law was attempting to make nice. Well, Eden would play along, but remained guarded. As they walked around the mansion that Millicent explained was a family inheritance received some time ago, and she hadn’t begun the renovations until only a few years ago.

“We’ve restored quite a bit of the original framework. It’s been quite the project, just something to amuse myself with while Gregory is away. It’s become home to our annual charity events.”

“What charity is this dinner for?”

“The less fortunate, dear. The underprivileged families of our city benefit quite a bit from the proceeds of these charities. We only invite those who have the means to give, of course, the price of each ticket alone disqualifies many.”

“How much are the tickets.”

“Twenty thousand a ticket.”

Oh yes, a mere twenty thousand dollars a ticket. No problem. Eden inwardly snorted. She couldn’t even wrap her mind around spending that much money when she had so little of it herself. God that meant Dominic spent forty thousand dollars on them being here tonight. Well, at least it was for a good cause. With Millicent attempting a hand at cordiality, Eden lowered her guard for a moment, grabbing a drink from a passing waiter to better allay the nervous tension tautening her shoulders. There was a group of women gathered near the entrance of the dining room and this was where Millicent ended their miniature tour.

“Good evening, ladies.” They all turned at the all too cheerful greeting, pasting on smiles that were far from authentic. “I do hope you are all enjoying yourselves.”

“Of course, Millicent, your charities are always so very inspired. We were just remarking on the newly attained Matisse on the west wall. It’s quite breathtaking. Will it be auctioned?”

Millicent’s laughter was not a pleasant sound; it had the same effect of nails on a chalkboard. “Of course not, Beatrice, it’s just like you to say something so absurd.” The remark was a thinly veiled insult that even said in jest cut deep, the shallow laughter of the women around them further added insult to injury. The one named Beatrice, thoroughly embarrassed, hid her discomfort behind a tremulous smile after she’d taken a long sip of her drink. “Ladies, please allow me to introduce you to Dominic’s wife, Eden.”

All eyes turned to her and Eden felt the heat rise in her cheeks. She attempted a smile with the hope it wasn’t as terrible as she imagined. “Hello, everyone.” It felt like high school, being invited to sit at the popular table all the while knowing that you did not belong there. She felt out of her depth, swimming among creatures that were more likely foe than friend, ready to make a meal of her. No one said anything for a very long time as they sized her up, staring at her from head to toe, trying to find fault with her, something they could use to detract from her worth. It was the furthest thing from a friendly atmosphere, and though Eden knew she could very well be imagining all this, seeing the disingenuous looks in those eyes as nothing more than her failings, she knew it wasn’t her imagination.

“We did not realize Dominic had married,” this from the matronly woman standing beside Beatrice, who, upon taking a hard look at Eden, had instantly found her lacking.

“Well, it was rather a small affair. Dominic isn’t one for frill. But they’ve been together for quite some time now. How long has it been, dear?”

“Five years.” There was a collective gasp and eyes widening considerably at that response.

“How lovely for you.” It felt like a firing squad, the snarky condescension aimed at her, this time from another woman in the circle with crystalline blue eyes and raven black hair. “Dominic has attended this dinner since its inception, yet this is the first time we’ve seen you in the five years of your marriage, Eden.”

“I don’t get out much,” she said with brevity, wishing that she’d followed after Dominic the instant he’d left her.

“Clearly.” The acerbic reply was uttered with a smile that was the furthest thing from inviting.

“Ignore her, Eden. Carissa has been vying for Dominic’s attention for a very long time, and as much as it’s been entertaining watching him rebuff her advances, now we all know why,” Beatrice explained.

“So what do you do, darling?”

“Eden is a dancer,” Millicent pronounced grandly, staring down at Eden with a small smile.

They perked up at that, especially the one standing at Eden’s right who appeared much younger than the rest of the women in the circle. “How lovely, where did you train? Are you a classical dancer or lyrical?”

“Heaven’s no, nothing so refined, Lucia.” Millicent laughed sharply. “I’m afraid Eden’s dancing skills lean more to the exotic than anything so cultured, isn’t that right, dear?”

It was a trap—a well-crafted trap that Millicent had facilitated—and Eden unwittingly walked right into it. Cold sweat formed and beaded on her skin making her uncomfortable as they all expectantly waited on her to reveal herself for the classless, unrefined stripper Millicent had all but accused her of being. “I—”

“How very gauche of you to pick on my brother’s wife in such a way, Mother,” chided a voice from the not too distant past. “This color is very unbecoming of you.” Lucas Armstrong was nothing like his brother. Where Dominic was darkly menacing, broody and infinitely more complex, Lucas was fair, careless and shallow. There was no commonality between the two except for the dark green eyes they’d inherited from their father. Lucas was as equally tall as his brother but lacked Dominic’s powerful physique; he was built wirier with a longer torso and arms that fit nicely into the suit he wore. He’d let his ginger blond hair grow longer than what Eden remembered so that it skimmed at the collar of the suit jacket he wore. There was a faint bruise on his right cheek and a cut near his mouth that spoke of his latest drunken brawl. He stood at Eden’s side now, her temporary champion, as he smiled irreverently at the women in their circle, all the while ignoring his mother’s disparaging look.

“Lucas, darling, we were not expecting you.”

“No of course not, this is why I decided to crash. It’s so much more fun this way,” he looked down at Eden, “don’t you agree?”

Eden frowned, hating her position in the middle of all this. “I think I need a drink,” she murmured.

“Well, I know just the place. You will excuse us won’t you, Mother? Ladies?” With that, he tugged her away from the pit of vipers and led her to a very far corner where he handed her a champagne flute he’d confiscated from the tray of a passing waiter. “A second longer and my mother was going to unhinge her jaw and swallow you whole,” he quipped, standing just in front of her as he watched her guzzle down her drink.

“Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she said quietly, feeling lightheaded.

“I can be pretty useful when I’m not drunk.” He grinned lopsidedly. “It’s been a long time, Eden.” He raised a hand to ghost his cool fingers across her fevered cheek. “God, you’re still so beautiful. I guess I can’t blame Dominic for keeping you all to himself.” He took a step closer to her, invading her personal space and assaulting her senses with the sharp, acrid scent of the alcohol that permeated from him. “If he hadn’t taken you from me, I would’ve probably done the same thing.” He wasn’t drunk, Eden had seen a drunk Lucas before, and thankfully this wasn’t it, but she could tell that he’d had more than a few. While his actions were wholly unappreciated, she knew someone else who would appreciate them far less. Sensing the eyes of several and knowing they were garnering the attentions of several others, Eden prudently set a hand at the center of Lucas’s chest to push him away from her. In doing so, she sidestepped him and wrapped her arm around his.

“Come get some water with me.” She led them to the bar, and while Eden ordered herself a glass of water, Lucas requested a shot, taking a seat beside her.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she enquired of the whiskey that was set in front of him.

Disregarding her question, he wrapped his fingers around the glass, raised it up to her, and tossed it back with a grimace. “I saw you first,” he said after a moment, the petulance in his voice making him sound much younger than his twenty eight years. “You were supposed to be married to me.” He raised a hand to flag the bartender for another. “But then I can’t say I’m surprised. My irreproachable bastard brother has always been very good at taking everything that belongs to me.” He nursed the shot glass, oblivious to her presence. He seemed lost in thought as he spoke, looking straight ahead at a memory only he could see.

“He’s always been infuriatingly good at everything, outshining me in every aspect. He even managed to gain the respect and affections of our grandfather, a feat neither me nor our father could accomplish even when the old curmudgeon had been alive. But do you want you want to know the funny part in all this?” When he turned those glassy green eyes on her, Eden saw so much more than the alcoholism that coated his ruddy features. “I wanted a brother. I begged my parents for a brother. And then one day, I had one. But he wasn’t what I’d expected, nothing like I’d hoped. There was something wrong with him, something off about him… But then what was to be expected from the son a prostitute who was sold to his own family? His mother took everything away from him, including his humanity, so is it any wonder that he wishes to take everything that belongs to me as well, just so he can make himself feel better? It’s always been this way, Eden. He took you from me because that’s what he does.”

Eden reeled from what she’d just heard, stunned into complete silence she stared at Lucas disbelievingly, and then she was thrown into another tailspin of emotion when the hairs at the back of her neck stood on end. Even before she heard the lethal intonation of his voice, she knew he was near. “Another word, Lucas, and you will find how extremely tolerant I’ve been towards you.” He kept a tight rein on a fury that burned like a blaze, but Eden felt it, felt the tension that seized his entire frame, coiled so tautly beneath the impeccable suit he wore that she feared it would erupt at any given moment. And from a face that was as dark and ominous as thunderclouds, Eden saw the way he clenched his jaw from the effort not to rip into his drunken sibling. Without warning, he brusquely apprehended her, wrapping a hand around her arm, drawing her into the unyielding strength and encompassing warmth of his body. “You will leave the premises of your own accord within the next two minutes, or I will have James escort you out.” He did not linger a moment longer but rather urged her to the expansive dining room where the guests were now seated at their respective tables.

Dinner came and went, and through it all, Eden expected him to say something to her; for him to refute or condemn any of the things his brother had spoken. But he remained infuriatingly quiet completely disregarding her presence despite the fact that she was sitting right next to him. Though her attention was intermittently diverted by the gentleman to her left who wished to engage her in conversation, Eden ultimately found herself staring at Dominic’s profile throughout the evening, wondering not for the first time exactly who he was. She knew this man, knew the lengths of his cruelty, knew the ruthless determination that coursed through his veins when he desired something and did everything within his power to obtain it, regardless of who he hurt in the process. Eden knew of his insurmountable wealth, knew the sort of power that came hand in hand with that wealth and how expertly Dominic wielded it for his own selfish means.

His immorality was infamous; having witnessed it firsthand, she knew how limitless it could be. She knew that he was gorgeous as sin and knew that despite how much she denied it, she was incredibly attracted to him, inexplicably drawn to the seductive darkness that lay prevalent in him. It was a darkness that both repelled and intrigued her, and it was for this reason that Eden would never openly admit it to anyone else; even now, internally conceding to the notion, made her question the state of her mind. There were things she thought she knew of this man, things that were intrinsically true, things that she’d learned in the five years of their ill-fated marriage, but really Eden knew nothing about Dominic Armstrong. They’d been virtual strangers to each other when they’d married and continued to be so now, stuck in a limbo of their own making.

Lucas’s words rang in her mind, the things he’d said of Dominic’s biological mother…had she really been a prostitute? And even more startling was the question of whether she’d really sold her son to the Armstrong’s. How much of what Lucas had said had been truth, and how much had been simply Lucas’s own failings heaped upon his half-brother? A part of Eden wanted answers, wanted to find Lucas and have him divulge every sordid secret of Dominic’s past. But she knew embarking on that path, opening that Pandora’s Box would inevitably suck her into a reality she didn’t want any part of. To know was to care and caring about Dominic Armstrong wasn’t in her MO.

Chapter Thirteen