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So I was as feverish-red as I felt. Life just kept getting better and better. “Why do you love being wrong? Most people hate that.”
“To be honest, being wrong about people happens so rarely I get a kick out of being genuinely surprised. Like now, for instance,” he drawled, shaking his head wryly while the waitress placed a coffee in front of him and a Pellegrino in front of me. “I had every intention of getting you to answer my questions, yet here I am answering yours. Neat trick.”
“Hardly a trick. I’m just easy to talk to.” Questions? The word kicked off a fluttery panic. What kind of questions did he want answers to? Part of me didn’t even want to know. “But since we’re on the subject, why don’t you tell me why you set up this absurd ruse just so we could meet? Unless you genuinely need a life coach to help you cope with all those nasty vagaries life has to offer? If that’s actually the case, Mr. Caballero, I’m here to help.”
“I’m good, thanks.” He paused, and suddenly I realized the waitress was still hovering, pad and pen in hand. Good grief. I’d been so focused on those hypnotic eyes of his that I’d forgotten about the rest of the world. What the hell was wrong with me? “Do you know what you want, Eden?”
A million answers cascaded through my head, so much so that I couldn’t pluck any single thought out of all that crazy mess. Did I know what I wanted? I wanted a reality where I’d never met this man. I’d been building a vague sort of happiness until he popped up to confuse me. Now all I could think about was how he would hate to know the real me, the terrible me. Never in my life had I wanted someone to like me the way I did now, but Luke would never look at my soul’s blotched ledger and want the likes of me.
Because that was what I really wanted.
I wanted him to want me. Desire me.
Fuck me.
Do you know what you want, Eden?
“Eden?”
I turned to the waitress. “He’s buying. What’s your most expensive item on the menu?”
For some reason his scoff of laughter made my heart take flight.
“Um.” The waitress went a little wide-eyed as she glanced from me to Luke. “Well, it’s basically a tower of seafood, including our award-winning sashimi and nigiri, and the whole thing is topped with two lobster tails and a bunch of crab legs sticking out of it…”
“Sounds like a lot of food.” Looking like he was having the time of his life, Luke shot me a grin. “I’m going to enjoy watching you pig out. Do you think you’ll need a bib? Because I think you’d look hot in a bib.”
This wasn’t working out the way I thought it would. “You’re helping me eat it.”
“Your wish is my command.”
“Why does it feel like no matter what I do or say, you’re still winning?” I said once the waitress was sent on her way. “I’m not even sure what game it is we’re playing. For instance, you still haven’t told me why you set all this up.”
“Contracts. I’m playing delivery boy.” He reached down beside his chair and moments later surfaced with a thin sheaf of papers. “What about your father? Is he willing to come in and talk with us?”
I shook my head as I looked the papers over. “Not surprisingly, he’s gone ahead and taken care of his own security needs. He even offered to take me into his refortified home until all this blows over.” Then I blinked. Why the hell had I just shared that with him?
Those all-seeing eyes of his narrowed. “Did you take him up on that offer?”
“No.” I reached for my purse and came up with a pen, determinedly keeping my face averted so he wouldn’t see the confusion that had to be written all over it. Why was it I couldn’t trust myself around this man? Even now I had this overwhelming urge to unburden myself of all the crap that seeing my father had kicked up. I’d spent a lifetime keeping everything inside me locked down tight. Why was it suddenly yearning to burst free?
“That’s fucking incredible.You’refucking incredible.”
At last I chanced a glance his way, only to find him staring at me as if I were some miraculous work of art. “What are you talking about?”
“Your father’s a cult leader. You know he is, Eden, so don’t try to bullshit me,” he added when I opened my mouth to hotly refute his words. “You can call him whatever you want—motivational speaker, secular guru, New Age philosopher. I don’t give a shit what label you slap on him, because we both know it’s not going to change what he is. He’s a charismatic cult leader, and that type of guy never lets go of people once he’s got them. Butyougot away. Somehow you got away from him three years ago, and you’re still free of him even after going back and seeing him today. That’s why I say you’re fucking incredible.”
“And that’s why you’re here now.” It took all my strength to keep my voice from trembling, because every word he said was true and it hurt all the way to my soul to hear it. “You knew I needed to talk with my father about hiring PSI, so you concocted this excuse to see me in person today, didn’t you? Don’t answer,” I added flatly, holding up a hand as the reality of the situation hit me. This wasn’t a flirty little lunch where a man had gone to great lengths to see a woman he was genuinely interested in. No. This was a mind game Luke had pulled in the hope of getting past my defenses. Too bad for him; all he’d done was remind me that I could never trust the blue-eyed monster sitting opposite me. “I can see what the real answer is. You could have messengered these papers over. Hell, an email with an electronic signature would have done the trick, but no. You wanted to get a look at me to see if I was back under my father’s control.”
“Back under?” His chin lifted as if he’d caught a scent he’d been searching for. “That’s an admission right there. He did control you before you managed to break away three years ago, just like he controls everyone else in his orbit. I’m right, aren’t I?”
I put my napkin aside. “Okay. We’re done.”
“You’re stronger than this, Eden.” He didn’t move, and somehow the weight of his gaze kept my butt in the chair when everything in me screamed to get up and run for the door. “You did a helluva thing, and I hope you know that. You walked back into the lion’s den, and then you walked your ass out of there without a single string on you.Again. You were offered sanctuary from all dangers, all pressures. I’ll bet you were even promised you’d live free and easy for as long as you stayed with him, yeah? Not a care in the world, because Daddy would be there to take care of everything?”
“I could have an entire wing of the house if I chose to go back. Which I don’t,” I added, and the ragged edges around my words startled me. For crying out loud, I never showed emotions the way I was now. “I will never be a slave to the fucking House of Enlightened Greatness or my father’s ambitions ever again, and we are not discussing this anymore.”
“I just—”
