Once he hears her door close as he stands on the bottom landing of the stairs, he heads my way. I cross my arms and narrow my eyes at him. “A little dramatic. You already made yourself clear about my housekeeping skills.”
“Shut up, for a minute.” Whoa. Yeah, he better tread lightly or we will be fighting.
“Excuse me?” I lean forward on the couch. “Someone obviously ticked you off. Don’t turn that shit on me.”
He takes a big breath and then falls back into the recliner. “We need to tell Eden about Keir. Soon.” Oh, hell no. I kept the secret for her wellbeing, and I want no part of this ‘we.’
“Okay, perfect. Tell her.” I smirk at him. It was his idea to hold off on telling her about his condition.
He squeezes at his mouth and then his nose flairs with a tightly bridled anger. “Things just got a bit more complicated.”
“Oh? Well, that tends to happen when you tell lies and keep secrets.” Fuckface. I don’t know why in a moment of weakness I went along with keeping this from her. I’m still angry about his secrets when we met him.
“Nice. Can you please stop trying to make me suffer for that? I couldn’t tell you the truth.” The way he looks at me makes my insides clench. Am I trying to punish him or hold off the way I’m feeling about him? Until I figure that out, we’re at an impasse.
“What’s the complication?” Lord knows that anything to do with Keir is going to be touchy territory. When I heard about his state, my education informed just how dire the outlook may be for Eden’s relationship with him.
“Your friend, Jolie, the big breasted, brunette?”
I cut him off, “Oh… she’s no friend of mine or Eden’s… what’s she got to do with anything?” Then I remember the coincidence of her being at the hospital and I know. I know what he’s going to say, “She’s wormed her way in… hasn’t she?”
“She’s convinced him she’s his friend and he was asking for her after we told him the truth about the situation. We have to tell Eden…” Fuck that. I don’t want to break her heart this way. “She’s going to be crushed.” He leans back in the chair and closes his eyes. “Chances are she’s going to be furious with us, too.”
Fucking moron. Of course, she’s going to blame us for allowing Jolie the space to ingratiate herself to him. “You should start preparing your apologies.” I start picking up my clothes and Matt grabs my arm when I pass.
“I’m not taking the heat for all of this. We agreed it was in her best interest to keep it to ourselves. Hoping that his memories would come back.”
I pick his fingers off me and snap back, “It’s been nice knowing you… sort of.” He can fuck right off. It was his idea, and it backfired. With a curled lip, I shrug. “You seem a little in over your head. Hutton’s run off on a secret mission, Keir’s involved with Satan incarnate, you’re keeping secrets from Eden, Caleb won’t move here, and I’m just fed up with your bullshit.” I’m caught off guard when he jumps up and with a hand on the back of my head pulls me towards him
We’re a fraction of an inch from each other and I can almost taste the cinnamon on his breath as he says in a husky whisper, “Why do you need to push me?”
I open my mouth to reply and his mouth smashes against mine. I moan into it. Fucking hell. It’s hard to be objective when his tongue is fucking my mouth. I press myself against him and his hard length rubs across mine and I’m almost delirious with want. I’m a fucking horny bastard on any occasion but knowing that Eden is about to have her hope crushed into the dirt douses some of the flame. Gasping I pull back. “I push because I need to. I may want to fuck the ever-loving hell out of you right now, but the woman I love more than life itself is about to get some bad fucking news. That’s a buzzkill.”
His breath labored, he nods. “What do you mean Hutton is on a secret mission? Where is he?” He presses his hard on down and starts to help me straighten up.
“Damndest thing. He’s not under watch anymore. How the hell should I know, FBI agent Scholl?” I smile to myself. I can’t actually fuck him right now, so I’ll settle on fuckingwithhim.
Several minutes later, Eden makes her way back downstairs. “All clear?” Her face tense, she abandoned her blanket and put on an oversized Belmont t-shirt and a pair nylon running shorts. I have to restrain the urge I have to wrap myself around her.
“We’re good.” I wink at her. “Turns out that good ole Matt doesn’t like living in a garbage can, who knew?”
Matt gives me an appreciative glance. We’ll have to formulate a plan to tell her. In the meantime, I’m going to become fucking Jolie’s worst enemy. She has no idea how loyal I am to my best friend.
Wordlessly, Eden starts to hand wash the dishes piled next to the sink, humming as she does. I pass by and squeeze her side. “I could do that.”
“Umm, you could, but you haven’t… sooo…” She laughs at me.
Matt clears his throat and then adds, “I’m heading to Pennsylvania and then New York day after tomorrow. Eden, do you want to join me? You said you don’t have sessions on Thursday or Friday, it shouldn’t interfere with the study.” The dick never mentioned that when we talked.
She looks at me, like my permission is needed and I look away. Her voice tentative, “I’m not sure about leaving Blaine, Caleb, Keir, or… even Hutton here alone.” What does she think she might be able to do to protect any of us? There’s no doubt in my mind, she’d fight anyone to the death for us, but whoever we’re up against has already drugged her and shot her.
Matt leans back against the table folding his arms over his chest. “Keir is safe in the hospital. I could ask the rest if they want to join us?” He doesn’t sound happy about a whole entourage, but it’s Eden and she has a way about her that makes us never want to say no.
She nods to herself. “I’ll go, if they do.”
Behind her back, Matt passes me a note telling me that we’ll meet up tomorrow at the town square fountain to discuss what our plan is. Super. More secrets. It must be trained into his psyche as a government agent.
Once the lower level of the house meets Eden and Matt’s standard of cleanliness, we settle on the couch to watch a comedy, Eden nestled between the two of us. My heart beats a happier pattern having her close and content.
