Chapter 29
My eyes flutter open as if I’m yanked out of my deep slumber and dreamless sleep by an unseen force, and the world unveils itself in a disorienting haze. The room, cloaked in shadows, seems unfamiliar and momentarily alien.
Panic begins to set in as my heart starts to race. I struggle to catch my breath, the weight of dread pressing down on me as my mind races through scenarios of impending danger.
Where the hell am I?
No!
Not again!
Hefound me.
“Please,” I cry, laying still as if my limbs are paralyzed. “Please,” I beg, tears falling down my face. “I never told anyone about you. Please don’t hurt me again.”
A sob escapes me.
Arms wrap around me, and my mouth opens, but my scream doesn’t come out.
“Eden! Babe?” He says, encasing me in his embrace.
“I promised I wouldn’t tell. Please take me home.” I thrash around, trying to loosen the tight hold over me, and I realize I can move my arms and legs.
“Eddie! It’s me, Jagger. Baby, it’s Jagger…”
His voice trails off as I gaze at the blue-eyed man hovering over me. His messy chestnut hair flops over his chiseled jawlined face. Slowly, my awareness returns, and I find myself suspended between the realms of the subconscious and wakefulness.
“It’s not him. He had deep brown, almost black eyes,” I relax into Jagger’s arms.
“Who Eddie? Someone in your dream?”
I flick my eyes up at him.
“Have I spoken out loud?”
He gazes at me, concerned. “You alright, Eddie? Did you dream of your stalker?”
“Not sure what I dreamed of,” I explain. “How long was I asleep?”
“Since yesterday afternoon,” he says, seemingly troubled.
I already noticed it’s dark outside so I calculate I’ve been sleeping over twenty-four hours.
“Hmm,” is all I’m prepared to say, and then the pain comes flooding back.
Storm.
“Any word on the kidnappers?” I ask; the ache is more than I can take.
“Everyone is working on it,” he frowns and I know he wishes he could have been the bearer of better news.
“I need to get out of bed and do something. Anything. God, I don’t know where to start. But I wasted a whole day sleeping instead of out looking for him. Damn, my sleep patterns!”
I break away from his embrace and sit up in bed. He yanks me straight back onto the pillow.
“Eden, they are doing everything they can. I need to ask you something, babe. Do you remember the last thing you were doing before you fell asleep?”
I gaze at him, wondering why he would ask such a question. It’s not like I haven’t wondered it myself. It’s not something I want to make a big discussion of, so I shrug my shoulders and pull off the cover only to discover I’m stark naked.
Glancing over at Jagger, he’s lying on top of the covers in a T-shirt and boxer briefs, and I can’t ignore the hotness emancipating from him.
“Were we fucking, and I passed out?” I chuckle, but the amusement remains on my side of the bed.
“No, Eden,” he says firmly, and I know that tone of voice.
“After finding out about Storm, you had a panic attack, and upon recovering, you said you wanted to be alone. Catalina prepped a cup of herbal tea and Asher brought it up to you.”
“Huh,” I say, contemplating. I remember my panic attack. Everything else is a total blank. “So Asher and I had—”
The shake of his head interrupts me.
“No?”
“No,” Jagger replies sternly.
“Has this happened before?” he asks, tilting his head slightly to the side. “Finding yourself nude in bed and not wondering what happened?”
“Ughhh, no,” I lie, and I know the truth about that answer.
“You drank the tea Ash brought up. He was long gone by the time you finished it, and you decided to have a bath.”
“Okay, well, that’s nothing unusual. I usually have baths after my tea and before bed.”
“Not when you’ve lived here, you haven’t. Except this time Catalina was here, and she prepared your tea.”
“And probably drew my bath, like she usually does. So what?”
“Callum found you practically faced down in the bath. Who knows what would have happened had he not reacted in time.”
It”s not the first time I passed out in the bath, but I won’t let Jagger know.
“I wasn’t trying to unalive myself if that’s what you’re thinking.” I clarify, even though years ago, the notion crossed my mind as a desperate escape from the haunting memories. They still linger, but I”ve developed the skill to push them aside.
“Unalive?” Jagger huffs a laugh. “For someone who doesn’t use social media….”
“I don’t like the word suicide. Okay?” I cast him a side-eye glance and look away. He doesn’t need to know everything.
“So what happened, babe?” He looks at me with concern.
“It’s happened a few times, especially when I was stressed. Nothing to worry about.”
“You’re not concerned that it might be a medical condition?
“Usually, I have Catalina around when it happens. It started after the invasion of my home in Bel Air.”
“Are you sure it isn’t some kind of sleep aid Catalina gives you via your tea to help you relax?”
“That would imply she’s slipping shit behind my back,” I glare at him, but my gaze suddenly softens. He’s concerned, that’s all, and I had to live and accept it for what it is for ten years. He’s just learning about my undiagnosed narcolepsy.
“Catalina comes off strange but she’s lived with me since I was fourteen. She’s like my mom but with a salary. A paid mom. I mean, that’s what I initially hired her for. I can’t see how, after all these years, she would drug me. For what purpose?”
Jagger opens his mouth to say something but rethinks and shuts it again. As much as I’m curious to know what he wants to say, I’m also glad he doesn’t expand on the topic.
Sensing the end of this topic, I get up to leave, except he reaches out and pulls me back onto the bed. Crashing into him, he leans back onto the pillows, taking me with him.
“Now that I have you naked and awake, I don’t see any reason why I should let you go. Do you?” there’s a charmed look on his face and an amused raised brow that makes me giggle.
“Oh?” I say, already feeling his arousal against my leg. “I can think of a ton of reasons, starting from my two-day-old breath.”
He scrunches his face in the most amusing manner. “Could be a turn-off, but it isn’t a reason to let you go.”
As I roll my eyes, he grabs my hips and settles me down to straddle him. Now his arousal is teasing my backside, eager to find its place inside me. Except there’s a piece of fabric between his cock and my core, and his shorts remain on.
He leans up and takes one of my nipples in his mouth, grazes his teeth over it, and lets go with a pop.
”You, Eden Rivers, are the flame that ignites within my chest whenever I look at you.”
“The flame that ignites within my chest….” I say thoughtfully. “Those could be awesome lyrics.”
“Really?” he arches an eyebrow, his expression morphing into a slight frown. “Here I am, baring my soul to you, and you’re going on about songwriting. Only you, a mad bird, would think something like that!”
I grin wide. “Music is in our souls. At least a little birdie once told me,” obviously, I’m referring to his words. “Music is our passion, but love is what we have for each other.”
His eyes open up, and his smile goes wide.
“Is that what we have? Love?”
“That’s as sure as fuck what I have for you.”
He reaches up, and his hand moves to take a possessive hold of my jaw, his thumb tracing the full curve of my lips.
“I’ve definitely fallen under your spell and find that I have no desire to break free from it. Whatever witchery you’ve done to me, just keep on doing it because I want to love you forever just like this.”
“Kiss me, for fuck’s sake, Jagger.”
His hand slides to the back of my head, pulling me down and wasting no time, I crash my lips onto his, and I feel like I am coming unwound. The sound of pleasure we both make vibrates from his chest to mine and weakens my limbs.
I’m about to explode from this kiss alone, and when he pushes his tongue through, I moan a breathy sound that goes down to his cock because it twitches against me with approval. He forces his tongue deeper, dominating my mouth, taking what he wants.
Jagger slowly pulls away and brushes a chunk of my hair away from my face.
“You are so beautiful,” he says quietly.
“I think you are too,” I counter.
He raises a brow, “Beautiful?”
“Men can be beautiful.”
“Yeah,” he chuckles. “As Ken in Barbie’s world.”
His eyes dart over my shoulder, and abruptly throws me off him. The move is so fast I hardly am able to say anything except gasp in surprise.
He sits up to look closer at my ceiling. His eyes are fixed on it, and I have no idea what he’s doing.
“Earth to Jagger. Babe with tits and pussy need your attention.”
Instead of focusing back on me, he grabs the bedsheet and covers me with it, shoving me to the side and standing up on the mattress.
“Whatttt?” My confusion is suddenly interrupted as I watch him lean up towards the light fixture.
“Get dressed and call Rick up to your bedroom.” Jagger pulls out a tiny device, and my stomach quickly feels like a rock has been lodged in it. I pull the sheet up close to my neck, feeling suddenly exposed.
“Is that a—”
“Yes,” he says, interrupting me. “Get the fuck dressed, Eden.”
Jagger clenches the small camera device tightly in his hand, his brows narrowed and lips drawn into a straight line. The intensity in his gaze speaks volumes, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this livid before. Rather than stick around, I hop off the bed, grab the sheet with me, open the drawer, grab a pair of panties, bra, and an oversized T-shirt, and quickly scramble to the bathroom and close the door.
Leaning against it, I close my eyes, allowing the fear to slowly unwind with the admission.
He’s back.
And there isn’t a security measure in hell that will prevent him from getting to me.
Taking Storm was his way of making a point.
Initially, I clung to the hope that it was just some deranged ex-fan stalking us, but Rick had meticulously updated all the security systems on the property.
This house was supposed to be secure.
Just like my house in Bel Air was.
Just like the private party at the bar with our hired bodyguards who were supposed to protect us. Yet, I was roofied, abducted, and held against my will for days.
This camera was deliberate. It was meant to be found. He never makes mistakes.
It’s a chilling reminder to let me know he’s back.
“Eden?”
A knock on the door startles me, and I quickly wipe the tears I hadn”t realized I had shed.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” I call out, dropping the sheet and hastily start dressing.
“That’s fine, babe. Rick’s inside the bedroom.”
“Okay,” I respond, glancing at my reflection in the mirror. Despite a day of uninterrupted sleep, the dark circles under my eyes and the pallor of my skin are unmistakable.
Grabbing my toothbrush and toothpaste, I ready myself both mentally and physically for the impending battle I”m willingly thrusting myself into. If my stalker believes I won”t fight back this time, he”s sorely mistaken.
”Fuck you,” I whisper defiantly into the reflection.
This time, it”s war.