Chapter 40
CHAPTER FORTY
Eden
I can’t tell if he’s happy to see the ring or not.
The expression on his face is unreadable. That’s a must for a skilled attorney inside a courtroom. Dylan has mastered it outside as well.
“Try it on,” I suggest because I’ll do anything to get a smile out of him.
I’ve held onto that ring for more than fifteen years. When he walked out of the party that we were at on the night we graduated, I saw it on a table.
I knew it was his before I touched it.
I scooped it up, shoving it into the front pocket of the jean cut-offs I was wearing.
The doctors in the ER that night had to cut the shorts off of my body, but they put the ring in a small plastic zippered bag along with my house key.
A nurse handed it to me once I was conscious again.
I waited for Dylan to visit me in the hospital, but he never came.
Once I was discharged, I kept it in my jewelry box, and eventually, that ended up in a cardboard box in the corner of my closet in Buffalo.
“It won’t fit.” He looks down at it. “My hands are bigger now.”
I take the comment and run with it. “You’re a perfect example of that saying about men with big hands having big…”
“Cocks,” he interrupts me.
“Egos,” I say flippantly. “That’s bigger now than it was in high school too.”
He sets the ring on the coffee table. “You like the size of my ego.”
Glancing down at the earring in my hand, I sigh. “I admit I like it. I like a lot of things about you.”
“Like what?”
I drop the earring in my bag before I turn to face him. “Your eyes.”
He smiles, bringing a dimple to his cheek. “My eyes.”
I stare into them. “Before I started at Harvard, my dad and I went to Boston.”
“Coach always talked about seeing a Patriots game.”
He did talk about that. He never made it there, but we drove past the stadium twice during that visit.
“We took a ferry to Spectacle Island.” I sigh, remembering how my dad looked standing on the deck, staring out at the water. He was at peace. It was the first time in years that he finally looked happy. “A woman working at the front desk in the hotel we were staying at in Boston, recommended it.”
He takes my hand in his but doesn’t say anything.
I go on because it’s important for me to tell him. “There is all this beautiful sea glass there. It’s everywhere. You’re not allowed to take it, but…”
“But you broke that rule.” He runs a fingertip over my palm.
I nod. “I was scared I’d get caught, but there was one piece I had to have. I couldn’t leave without it.”
A soft smile floats over his lips. “What was so special about it?”
I slide my gaze to his face, taking in every feature as if I’m seeing it for the first time. This is what it felt like when I was a teenager looking into his eyes the day I met him.
“Tell me,” he urges, bringing my hand to his lips for a soft kiss.
“The sea glass was the color of your eyes,” I whisper. “I took it because it reminded me of you.”
He kisses me in a way he never has before.
There’s so much tenderness that it brings a tear to my eye.
I swear I feel one slide down his cheek too, but when I try to pull away from the kiss to look, his hands jump to my face, cradling me.
“I need you,” he whispers in such a deep, gruff tone that my core clenches.
I reply with only a nod and a stuttered moan.
We’re both on our feet before I realize what’s happening.
He takes my hand, leading me down the hallway to his bedroom.
The lighting is low. I can’t see his face as clearly as I want to, but I can sense what he feels.
Tonight will be different.
My hands slide to the belt of my wrap dress, but he takes over, gently nudging my fingers away.
“Let me, Eden. Please let me.”
I don’t say anything. Everything I need to say is too much for this moment.
The words have been trapped inside of me for so long that I don’t know if I can sort through them enough to make him understand them.
I love him.
I have loved him since the first time he turned around at football practice and locked those beautiful blue eyes on my face.
I lost my heart to him that day on the field.
He slides my dress from my body, growling when he sees what I’m wearing underneath.
It’s a light blue bra and panties that I bought just for him.
I stopped at the Liore lingerie store on my way home from work the other day and chose these things because I knew he’d think I was beautiful.
I am beautiful. In his eyes, I’m the most beautiful woman in the world tonight.
In my eyes, I’m a survivor who has fought her way to this moment.
I reach for the buttons of his dress shirt.
His hands leap to mine when he notices how much I’m trembling. I feel as though this is our first time.
Maybe it is. Maybe this is the first time we’ll make love with our hearts this open.
He takes over removing his shirt and his pants. His boxer briefs are kicked off and I take in his beautiful, strong, lean body.
His cock is hard. I move to wrap my hand around the root, but he stops me.
“Get on the bed.” His voice is edged with a need that I haven’t heard before.
I unclasp my bra, slide my panties down, and lower myself onto his bed all while staring at his face.
Everything about him is all I’ll ever need, and as he crawls onto the bed next to me, I know that my life will forever be changed after tonight.