Chapter 15 Eden
Eden
“You know, I could move in with Ben.” She had that on her mind as Liam watched her clean out the top shelf in her closet.
I have too much shit for such a small space.
She looked into a box of scarves she was convinced she needed back in college, but should probably now donate. “But won’t you get jealous?”
He was curled up in her beanbag chair that she often forgot she had.
I got that so I could lounge with a book.
Turned out, she’d rather read in her bathtub or on the loveseat.
Cuddled up against Liam’s chest was one of her bed pillows that she had stolen on a lark.
He looks quite comfortable. Unlike Eden, who was getting too hot in her sweatshirt after tackling some spring cleaning on that otherwise lovely Friday afternoon.
“Why would I be jealous about my two favorite people in the same place?”
She dangled two scarves from her hands as she turned toward him. “Because then he’ll have me all to himself. No more asking me out or if I’m available. Don’t tell me you won’t get a little jealous.”
“You’re not thinking this through.” Liam stretched the full length of his body, pillow pushing against his stomach.
“You’ll be with him every night, assuming I haven’t stolen you away.
So, that means you have to deal with Ben at his worst. He can’t hide it from you.
Imagine a world where he snores every night and has IBS around you.
Ask him what he thinks about Mexican food. ”
“He has IBS?”
“Doesn’t everyone now?”
“Hmph. You would know.”
“What’s that mean?”
Eden dumped one of the scarves into a paper bag marked for donations. The other one wrapped around Liam’s neck when she approached him. “It means you know all of his dirty business, and I’m still learning.”
“When I was practically living with him,” Liam continued, coiling the scarf around his arm for Eden to fetch, “he was the one with the 9-5, and my hours were either work dinner or like two hours of meeting up with Wyatt or nothing at all. I ended up cooking so many of his dinners for him. Like, he never asked me to. I just did it because it made sense for me to make dinner if I didn’t want his ass eating takeout every night. I don’t wanna eat takeout every night!”
Eden straddled his lap, knees digging into the beanbag chair as she rubbed the pastel scarf between their arms. “Me neither. He seems the type, though.”
“Which means you’ll be cooking for him all the time.”
“He cooks breakfast all the time.”
“Look, I’m not knocking what the man does do around the house. But you’re gonna be laundering his boxers, too.”
“I’m assuming he keeps them clean, at least.”
“Thank God.”
She put both of her palms against his chest, enjoying that the warmer weather brought out short sleeves on both of her boyfriends. Don’t you cut a nice T-shirt, Mr. Ashe? Eden had to remind herself that there was cleaning to do. Flirting could come later.
“I don’t mind,” she said. “I need to improve my cooking skills.”
“Hey, if you don’t mind…”
“What?”
Liam folded his hands behind his head. “I’d be a little jealous. Not just him having you to himself so much… the other way around, too.”
I figured as much. “Maybe you should move in with us. Let’s all get a bigger place together.
I don’t even need my own room.” That was a lie.
Eden wanted her own room, or at least her own space where she could do whatever she wanted.
“We’ll take turns cooking because our big Ben is such a hardworking man and you’re like… doing whatever it is you do.”
He scrunched his face into laughter, but no sound came out. “Ah, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
Liam’s fingers unentwined as his elbows slowly lowered to the beanbag chair. “Ben and I are still figuring out who we are to each other again. It’s been rather sudden. We went from barely tolerating each other in public spaces since I was back in town, to…” He sighed. “I love him. I really do.”
“After all this time?”
“Of course. I never stopped loving him. But…” Liam’s eyes glazed over as his grip tightened on Eden’s waist. “It didn’t end well.
Even without him being the one to break up with me, we had our issues.
I think we moved too fast, but that’s how it is, sometimes.
I don’t want to rush into things with him again. That’s like… gay relationships 101.”
“Pretty sure it’s the same for straight ones.”
“You said it, not me.”
She kissed his lips before reclaiming her scarf.
“Honestly, the only reason I want to move in with one of you is to save some money.” She got up, deciding to keep the scarf and hang it up on the back of her closet.
Eden dug into the box again, this time unearthing some gloves and winter hats she forgot she owned – and clearly hadn’t needed.
“I still don’t have any direction. I’ve put some feelers out on LinkedUp, and nothing. Only La Mariposa wants me.”
Liam didn’t say anything behind her. Eden dumped the unused winter accessories into her donation bag.
“I’m sure you’ll find a decent gig, love,” Liam finally said, leg bouncing so his foot squeaked against the hardwood floor.
“I mean, I have. It’s just not conducive to being in a relationship.”
“Well, you are gorgeous. And gregarious. And God knows great in bed.”
“I keep thinking that even if I did it once a year, I’d be making so much more money than anyone else. I still can’t believe it’s somehow tax-free.”
“Eh, do it enough times, and Uncle Sam will figure something out. Ben would be the first one to tell you.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Eden.”
He rarely used that kind of tone with anyone, let alone her. Yes, sir. Eden puffed out her cheeks and pretended she hadn’t dug herself into another hole.
“What about the Salon?” she asked. “Would a job like that be okay?”
“For me? I wouldn’t care. Ben would care.”
“What about a hostess job at The Dark Hour?”
“They won’t pay you enough to deal with other people’s bodily fluids on the hourly.”
“Would Ben be okay with that, though?”
“You’d have to ask him.”
“I’m asking for your opinion.”
“I don’t know, love. He can be a hypocrite.”
At least you admit it. “Maybe I’ll be a streamer. Start a FansOnly. You could help me reply to my followers and pretend to be me. You know what guys like.”
“Eden.”
That was even terser than before. “I’m just kidding.”
“Come over here.”
It should have been ridiculous, going to a man ten years older than her, who sat in a big beanbag chair that was probably older than him. Yet Eden obeyed, because she loved settling her hips on his and bringing her face closer to his.
“What?” she sweetly asked.
He lightly brushed her cheek with his knuckles before responding. “What’s going on, huh? You keep making references to you doing more sex work for money. When we started going out, you made it sound like that was something you did one time…”
“Yeah, and even you have said I was great at it.”
“That was before—”
“Before I became more than your on-demand fuck doll?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
The way he stiffened beneath her body was nothing like the times he wanted her. Yet when she bore her eyes down upon Liam, remembering the man who was assigned to her shower stall and had no qualms fucking a naked woman he had just met… well. That was the kind of man he was, huh?
He seemed to understand that was what she was probably thinking. “Sorry.”
She relaxed against him. “Let’s just say, though, for the thought experiment…” Would purring against his throat make him happy? Well, it made him a bit stiff in the pants. That was an improvement. “If you had to pick one of those tracks for me, assuming I was not your girlfriend…”
“Butterfly,” he interrupted. “Definitely. You knocked it out of the park.”
“Really?”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Sometimes you women confuse the hell out of me.”
“That’s how I know I’m doing my job right.”
“What job?”
After kissing him again, Eden went for his belt. “This job.”
For the next few minutes, she was back in the Caribbean, doing what she did best.
“Finally got invited back,” Blair texted her that night. “Time to see way too much naked ass while bartending. Are you going?”
Eden stared at that text while her boyfriend was in her shower. She lay naked in her bed, under the misimpression that checking her phone would help her adjust from being beneath Liam for the past half hour to a functional human being. Instead, she had two texts waiting for her.
“Just finished the week from hell,” Benson had written fifteen minutes ago. “About to crash until the morning. Think of me, angel.”
She went back to her chat window with Blair. “Not sure yet. The guys are really not keen on me doing it.”
Eden deleted that before sending. She hadn’t meant to make it sound like Benson and Liam were the sole reason she hadn’t agreed to go back to La Mariposa for the spring season.
They’re a big part of it. Despite her experience now, though, Eden still had apprehensions about that situation.
What if something bad happened? What if she didn’t have fun? Would it be worth a hundred grand then?
That was assuming, of course, she was single. Or that her boyfriends encouraged her to go because it got them off or something. But they won’t be there. So what’s the point?
Finally, she thought of something to say.
“Maybe I should learn bartending so I can be a support girl.”
“We don’t make anywhere near as much as Butterflies do.”
“Still, it’s a gig that doesn’t require being touched.”
“Thank God. I do enough of those.”
After tapping her phone against her mouth, Eden flung back her bed cover and marched into her bathroom.
“Whoa.” He had the shower curtain closed, but Liam had no barrier to seeing his girlfriend plant her ass on the toilet and wad some toilet paper in her hand. “Hi.”
She looked him right in the eye as she started peeing. “Problem?”
“No, ma’am. Nature calls.”
“Especially after sex. I don’t want a UTI.”
He poked his head through the curtain. “I don’t want you having one, either. That’s why I clean under the hood.”
It took her a moment to figure that one out. “Oh, my God.” Sure enough, her light laughter made her pee harder. “Oh!”
“Next, she’s going to fart in front of me.”
“Good thing we already had sex. I don’t have to worry about turning you off.”
“A little toot never hurt nobody, love.”
She laughed even harder before flushing the toilet. “Room for me in there?”
“It’s your shower. You tell me.”
He pulled back the curtain enough to let her in. “Benson texted me,” she said, closing the curtain as he maneuvered out from beneath the showerhead. Eden stepped beneath it, deciding to wash her hair. “He said he’s crashing out.”
“You sure he didn’t say he was crashing? I’m under the impression that’s different from crashing out.”
Eden had already lathered her hair. “Same difference with him.”
Liam pondered something as she closed her eyes and focused on washing her hair. “We should do something for him. You know, when tax season is over, and he’s a free man.”
“Have you done your taxes?”
“I’ve got a guy who does them for Wyatt and me. I barely think about them.”
“Must be nice.”
“It is!”
Eden had just finished rinsing her hair when Liam put his hands on her back. It took her a moment to realize he had lathered them up with her special bar soap she got from a local shop. “Excuse me?” she asked.
“Remind you of something, love?” he asked while rubbing his hands up and down her back.
She loosened up beneath his touch. “Yeah.”
Liam left a kiss right above her ear, barely avoiding a spray of water to the face. “I love you. I hope you know that.”
She certainly did. Which was why it made certain decisions harder.