Part 7 (1/2)
”Eden!” The smooth, smoky tones of the black dragon's voice still gave her the sensation of a fine whiskey burning its way through her veins. ”I never thought I'd see you in this building again. How are you?”
Slapping a polite smile on her face, Eden turned to greet her former lover. ”I'm good, Vahid. How are you? Still keeping things together for Sean?”
Vahid nodded his dark head. The same height as Eden, with impossibly wide shoulders and thickly muscled arms, he had ink dark, mesmerizing eyes. He had the most disconcerting habit of focusing intently on a person when he spoke to them. Women adored it. Men found it intimidating. Eden didn't have either problem. However, Vahid was her brother's right hand. His favored Vice President. If he asked questions, he had some kind of ulterior motive, which usually involved telling Sean everything. ”I'm glad Sean is keeping you busy. Do you happen to know if he's in today?” she asked, her polite smile becoming an inquiring one.
Vahid grinned. ”Oh, he's here. It's been a busy morning,” he said, his expression amused.
”Really?” Eden eyed him thoughtfully for a moment, thinking he was still the nicest man ever. When she'd broken up with him, he'd taken it with equanimity, as he did most things. She'd wondered then, as she did now, where all his extreme emotions hid.
”It's good to see you again, Vahid. Take care of yourself,” she murmured, her attention s.h.i.+fting back to her mission as she headed down the corridor to Sean's office.
”It's great to see you too, Eden.”
She could have sworn she heard laughter in Vahid's reply, but she couldn't imagine what amused him so she dismissed it, reaching for the handle of Sean's door. She opened it and stepped in.
”I said I didn't want to see anyone!” Sean growled angrily.
Eden blinked. Sean's usually immaculate office looked like a tornado had hit it. Papers littered the floor and one wall had a huge crack in it from the floor to the ceiling. Plaster dust lay thick on the burgundy carpet. Her eyes flicked to her brother and narrowed speculatively. He stood at the closet door in front of the full-length mirror, dabbing at his mouth... his b.l.o.o.d.y mouth.
”What the f.u.c.k happened to you?” she asked brusquely. ”Not that you didn't deserve it.”
”Your mate happened to me,” Sean bit out. ”You're going to need to put him on a leash, Eden. He acted like a rabid dog!”
The anger that had banked a little when she'd run into Vahid returned full force and then some. How dare Sean call Colin a rabid dog?
”You know, Sean, I can see why you have Vahid around. You're not very tactful and he is nothing but tact,” she said in a falsely cheerful voice.
Sean looked at her warily in the mirror. ”Why are you here, Eden? I thought nothing could ever make you step foot in this h.e.l.l hole again.”
”Well, what you said about me to Colin isn't nothing. Why the h.e.l.l did you lie to him about me? I mean, c'mon, Sean. Paris Hilton?” she spat, her anger taking hold. ”The man didn't know me from Jack and yet you filled his head with a pack of farfetched lies! Why would you say those things about me?”
She met her brother's gaze in the mirror. His eyes were so cold she blinked in surprise. ”Because you became someone as worthless as those spoiled celebrity girls when you left this family, Eden. What we do here isn't good enough for you. It's not exciting. It's not creative. It's not fun. If we weren't good enough for you, then by the G.o.ds you weren't good enough for us any longer,” he raged.
”t.i.t for tat? Is that what your lies were all about? Because that's a f.u.c.king childish thing to do. You're the head of this family, the oldest male. You're supposed to lead by example, not act like a whiny little boy who didn't get his way.”
Eden stormed over to him, glaring scornfully at his b.l.o.o.d.y lip. ”I'm glad Colin hit you. He's not afraid of who or what I am. He loves me whether I take photos for a living or work for you. In fact, after everything that's happened, I think Colin would respect me less if I asked to come back here to work!”
”I wouldn't take you back! You have no loyalty!” Sean roared, his dark eyes glittering.
Eden's spine stiffened as outrage filled her. ”You're a fine one to talk! Lying about your own sister in a fit of pique?
What the f.u.c.k kind of loyalty is that? Colin has more loyalty in his little finger than you have in your whole body!” she yelled. ”All these years, I let you make me think I was worthless, nothing but trouble, that I didn't fit into this family.
Well, let me tell you, Sean Taylor Antaeus, you're the one who doesn't fit! Trying to mold Declan and Holden in your own image so that you can justify who you are. You're nothing but a mean, petty, manipulative b.a.s.t.a.r.d and I'm so sorry I ever believed anything you ever said to me!”
As the last word left her mouth, she let fly with her fist, catching Sean squarely in the left eye. He staggered, and she spun on her heel, storming out of his office. She paused in the door and looked over her shoulder at him. He leaned against the closet door, his eye swelling.
”All these years, I thought I disappointed you because you loved me when in reality, you didn't love me. I'm so glad I have Colin, because now I know what real love is. My mate is my family now, Sean. Not you. Not you ever again.”
She stalked down the corridor, brus.h.i.+ng past the crowds of gawking AI employees. Just before she reached the elevator, a hard hand grabbed her arm. She twisted, trying to get away, but stopped when she saw her other brothers standing there.
”We aren't Sean or Diandra,” Holden said, his expression grim. ”We weren't ever disappointed in you, Eden.”
”I'm so sorry you ever thought we were,” Declan told her.
Blinking back the sudden onslaught of tears, she hugged each of her brothers. ”Thank you, but Colin is my family now. I belong to him.”
”We've always been here for you, Eden, even if you never realized that,” Declan said. ”Holden and I should have tried harder to let you know that we love you. Unfortunately, like so many other things, we just let Sean deal with it.
We're so sorry, Ede.”
She sighed and shook her head. ”It's done now.” She smiled brightly then. ”You'll have to come to dinner once the house looks like someone lives there,” she joked.
”You've got a deal,” Holden said with a grin.
Eden stepped into the elevator and let it take her down to the garage level. Her happiness had her practically skipping to the Land Rover. As she drove away from the high rise, she realized that she hadn't spoken to Colin in hours and now she had a broken phone. She'd get a new one tomorrow, she decided. Tonight she didn't need the distraction because she was going to mate Colin. If she got a replacement phone and it went off as she released her dragonfire, she would really be p.i.s.sed. Tomorrow was soon enough for a new phone. Tonight, she'd be busy.
”Tell me again why I did this,” Sean barked into the phone.
He frowned as he listened to the voice on the other end. Wincing, he held a small ice pack to his eye. ”You know I've been punched twice today. The last time anyone laid a hand on me, he ended up unconscious. If you've f.u.c.ked this up, I'm taking these two punches out on you, just as if you had hit me.”
Sean set the ice pack down and fingered his fat lip as the person on the other end spoke. Finally, he said, ”I'm telling you, Alfred, all of this had better work. The last time we played matchmaker, Marius' miscalculations about his sister nearly f.u.c.ked everything up. We can't make those kinds of mistakes with Eden. It's promising that they were compelled to come here and hit me, but this last thing had better work too, otherwise I'm confessing everything.”
A heavy sigh escaped Sean. ”Yeah sure, Alfred. I'll see you and Marius tomorrow. Same tee time? Okay, good. Oh, and if either of you laughs at my black eye and fat lip, I will give you both matching ones.”
Colin went home to find that Eden hadn't been there. Frowning, he wondered if she could still be at Sean's house. Every time he called her, it went straight to voice mail. With no way to reach her, he figured the best thing to do would be to go to Sean's house. Eden might still be packing. Maybe she could use another pair of hands to get it done more quickly, he thought.
He drove swiftly to Sean's house, only a few miles down the highway. He walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Sean's wife Careen answered, her expression wary.
”h.e.l.lo, Colin. What can I do for you?” she asked.
Her expression made the doubt inside Colin leap. ”Is Eden here?”
She shook her head, the fiery tresses spilling over her shoulders. ”She left hours ago.”
”Do you know where she went? I haven't been able to reach her,” he said in a calm voice that hid his inner turmoil.
”To see Sean,” Careen admitted. ”She was angry with him.”
”I see.” Colin started to turn away. ”Thank you, Careen.”
As he started down the sidewalk, Careen called out to him. ”Colin!”