24. Eden

TWENTY-FOUR

EDEN

“Miss Murphy! Miss Murphy!”

I blinked awake, disoriented as I was jarred from the dead of sleep. Clarity was just on the brink of my mind, flittering around the edges as thoughts of last night spun back through like a dream.

Only the jostling continued, the little voice not so quiet as he shouted, “Miss Murphy! Miss Murphy! Wake it up, why don’t you?!”

Panic seized me when I realized what had woken me was a child jumping in the middle of the mattress.

Gage.

On a gasp, I scrambled around from where I’d had my face buried in the pillow. I was quick to gather the sheet tighter to my chest to make sure I was covered.

My eyes struggled to adjust as I looked at the bouncing silhouette where he was darkened by the blinding rays of sunlight that speared in through the large gap in the drapes.

“Hi, Miss Murphy!”

Oh my god. If I’d ever traipsed into unprofessional territory, this was it. Twisted up in sheets, bare beneath, with my student jumping on the bed.

Did it make it better that he was grinning down on me like my presence had made his entire day?

All cherub cheeks and flapping arms and joy flooding into the room.

My chest tightened, and I eased up to sitting, praying I was fully covered. That he was still so innocent that he didn’t have a clue what’d happened in this room last night.

The thought of it sent heat rushing across the surface of my flesh, a blush lighting every inch as I gulped and tried to orient myself to this reality.

“Miss Murphy! Did you come to see me on the weekend?” He dropped down onto his knees, bouncing a bit, a giggle riding free and wrapping me in warmth. His sweet little voice lowered like we were sharing a secret. “Because I’m your favorite, right, Miss Murphy, right? Don’t worry, I won’t tell nobody, no way.”

Yes. That. For the love of God, don’t tell anyone.

I had to stop myself from saying it aloud.

I cleared my throat and glanced around the room like I might find a life vest to keep me afloat, in dire need of rescue because I was really in over my head.

Treading dangerous, dangerous waters. Waters that no longer affected just Trent and me.

Because here was this beautiful child in the middle of it.

An endless abyss of hopes and consequences.

I wondered if it was only me with their heart on the line. If it was only me taking the risk.

All those complications shouting to be heard.

No question, my daddy would lose it if he knew the position I’d found myself in. Worry for me and the trouble I was asking for.

I didn’t know which was worse—that or the fact I’d broken the clause in my contract where I’d promised, “I agree to conduct myself in a professional manner with all staff, students, and parents.”

I’d broken my oath not to do something so reckless. And our reputation was something the school board took seriously.

I’d meant to be awake and long gone by then.

Slinking out on the shadows on which I’d arrived.

Unashamed but still not having the first clue where I stood.

After last night, there were only a few things that I was sure of…

I’d been changed.

Made whole.

All while setting myself up to get ripped apart.

Gage’s excitement drew me back to the immediate issue at hand.

How the heck I was going to get out of this bed without scarring the poor child for life.

“Are you hungry? We’re makin’ the best breakfast in the whole wide world! You smell it?” He tipped his nose up and inhaled deep. “It’s so yum, yum, yum in my tum, tum, tum. You better hurry it up, lazy head, or you’re gonna miss out. I thought you were gonna sleep the whole day. Sheesh.”

His arms flapped out to the side in emphasis.

Like this was normal.

No big deal.

A sinking dread slithered through my consciousness. Was this normal? Did Gage wake up with random women sleeping in his father’s bed? Where was Trent, anyway?

Nope, don’t go there, Eden.

I pressed a shaky hand to my forehead and tried to get it together.

Don’t panic. Don’t panic.

“Okay.” I managed a single word and a feeble smile to go along with it.

“That’s so good!” He clapped, and apparently, that was all the response he needed because he started to jump back to his feet, but then his attention snapped to my hand that had the sheet clutched to my chest like a lifeline.

He hopped forward, coming closer, that smile on his adorable face spreading in a streak of joy.

“You wearin’ your bracelet, Miss Murphy? It looks so pretty. Do you love it?”

He grinned up at me with so much pride, nothing but dimpled, chubby cheeks and adorable hair framing his face, his gaze darting between my face and the bracelet tied around my wrist.

My heart did that crazy thing. Pounding and expanding and trying to break free of the confines of my chest. The affection for this child overwhelming. More than I could fathom.

The fact his adoration tamped down the turmoil raging inside was proof enough. The way I couldn’t help but reach out and touch his cheek.

“I love it, Gage,” I whispered, though I might as well have been shouting it.

Proclaiming whatever this was, even though I wasn’t sure myself.

All I knew was I had crossed a line there was no returning from. I’d been marked in a way that could never be erased.

I had no regrets, even though it might destroy me in the end. There might be too much going against us. Too many old wounds, secrets, and fears that would tear us apart.

As much as I wanted to silence them, Trent’s promises that he would ruin us continued to play on repeat.

On top of it, my job was at stake.

But the truth was, in the end, that wasn’t even a question.

I knew I’d gladly accept every risk when Gage’s little shoulders hiked up to his ears in pure, unmitigated delight.

“That’s really good because I love you.” He didn’t even give me time to choke over his confession before he was back on his feet and jumping off the side of the bed and blazing out the door. “Gotta go, Miss Murphy! Hurry it up and get your booty downstairs right now, little lady.”

Um.

Okay.

Apparently, Gage could give me whiplash as quickly as his father could.

A crush of relief left me on a heavy breath when he disappeared down the hall, his tiny footsteps pounding on the stairs, getting quieter and quieter the farther away he got.

“Ugh,” I moaned, pressing my hand to my forehead and trying to get myself together.

To rein in these emotions.

But they were running so far out ahead of me that I couldn’t catch up to them. Each so different, so at odds, so big and consuming, I didn’t know how to process them.

How did I make sense of what I was actually feeling?

Awakened.

Feverish.

Afraid.

Everything I’d felt since the moment I’d met Trent Lawson, now amplified times a thousand.

My teeth raked my swollen bottom lip as my mind raced back to last night, as my hand smoothed over the rumpled sheets.

Trent and me in this bed. Over and over again. The man insatiable. Blissfully rough. Wickedly sweet.

Turned out I was insatiable, too.

Redness raced as those simmering embers leapt.

Now, I had no idea how to navigate. How Trent and I were really going to fit.

A muted ring echoed from the bathroom, and I realized it had to be coming from where I’d left my phone in my bag on the floor. “Crap,” I mumbled.

Pushing out a shaky sigh, I slipped from the bed, taking the sheet with me. I dug through my bag on the bathroom floor in search of my phone that’d stopped ringing, dinged with a message, only to start ringing all over again.

I finally found it and pulled it out. Tessa’s grinning face was on the screen.

Double crap.

I rushed to answer it, though I couldn’t help but whisper when I put it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Don’t you dare hello me, Eden Jasmine Murphy. I’ve called you at least fifteen times in the last two hours…you know…since I showed up to your house with Saturday morning coffees and doughnuts, and your car was nowhere to be found. I’ve been worried sick.”

The heel of my hand pressed to my temple.

All the craps.

“I’m so sorry…I completely forgot.”

“You completely forgot that we’ve had coffee and doughnuts every Saturday morning for the last six years?”

I cringed. “Maybe?”

“You little hooker…you had cake instead, didn’t you?” I could feel her glee through the phone.

My attention darted around like I was going to find a bug planted in the room. The bedroom was vacant, no movement about, and I quietly snapped the door shut behind me as I hissed, “I did not.”

“You are the worst liar of all liars. I can literally hear the sex dripping off your tongue. You ate it all, didn’t you?”

Gah.

“I hate you.”

Tessa squealed. “Oh my god, hallelujah.”

“Shut up.”

“Was it good?”

My back slumped to the wall as I gave, as I let it all rush me. The feeling. The truth that when I looked at my reflection in the mirror across from me, there was something new written in my being.

My reflection the same but different. Stronger and more vulnerable. Wiser but a fool. But I’d known all along if I gave myself to Trent that I would be changed.

That’s what succumbing did.

It opened you up to whatever was waiting on the other side.

And I wanted it all.

“It was the best night of my life, Tessa.”

She was silent for a second before she whispered, “He’s the ace. Your wild card.”

“You were right, Tessa. I’m terrified of loving him. Terrified of what it could mean. Terrified of what he makes me feel.” The admission bled free. True and whole and devastating.

I was terrified of it all, and I still wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

“Um…the man is terrifying, so there’s that. Not sure how you wouldn’t be.”

I choked on a small laugh, fighting the feeling that came on so savagely it was going to knock me to my knees.

No darkness to keep it shrouded.

The light of day chasing away the shadows.

“Does he treat you right, Eden?” Tessa pressed, worry in her voice, all the teasing gone when she felt the crush of my emotions.

And I couldn’t confess to her the rest. What had brought us here. The truth my car wasn’t simply parked outside Trent’s house because our connection had been too intense, and I’d followed him home.

Couldn’t confess that this was so much more complicated than she knew.

With my wild card, the stakes were the highest they’d ever been.

I could only murmur, “I think he would burn the world to the ground for me.”

I hoped it would be enough. That in the process of taking down whoever wanted to hurt him, he wouldn’t take us down, too.

She swallowed hard. “I’m so happy for you, Eden. So proud of you for stepping out and taking a chance. Are you okay? You sound…weird.”

“I’m fine,” I told her.

“Um…the word fine should have no place in this conversation. Amazed. Astounded. Staggered. Those would all do.”

A slight giggle bled free. “Oh, it was amazing, Tessa. I just need to process it all.”

She sighed. “I know, Eden. I know you well, and that’s why I need to know you’re all good. You need me, you say the word, and I’m there. Hell, I might even save you one of these doughnuts.”

“Thank you, Tessa.”

“Pssh…just be thankful I didn’t call your daddy and ask him if he knew where you were. You know, since you left me hanging for two freaking hours, banging on all your windows and doors, having no clue where you were without so much as a text. I was about to break into your house to make sure you weren’t going to star in the next episode of True Crime.”

Um, yeah, don’t even joke about that.

I couldn’t say it aloud. Instead, my teeth clamped down on my bottom lip before I addressed the more pressing matter. “Thank you for not saying anything to my daddy. I have no idea how I’m going to ease him into this.”

If it would even come to what I could only imagine would be uncomfortable introductions and unpleasant explanations.

A signed release declaring that I was in a romantic relationship with one of the parents.

Is that what this was? Is that what Trent envisioned for us?

Questions came faster with each second that I hid away in this bathroom.

“I say rip off the Band-Aid. Sit him down and give it to him straight. ‘Daddy, I’m banging the bad boy. Deal with it.’ Only thing you can do.”

“Are you insane?”

“Um…I think we already know the answer to that.”

I pressed my fingertips to my forehead.

“Seriously, Eden, like, you need to talk to HR. You’re sleeping with one of your student’s daddies…who’s also your other boss. And I’m not criticizing, but even for me, that’s messy, and it’d be much better just to get it reported and on file so there’s no fallout. You know those moms who pretend like they’re not secretly ogling the man when they pick up their kids would have a field day with that kind of scandal.”

I recoiled at the thought. “I’m pretty sure we’re not at that point. Let’s not complicate this more than it already is.”

She huffed. “Fine…but you can’t pretend like this isn’t happening.”

I blew out a sigh. “I need to go. We’ll talk about this later.”

“Deflecting,” she sang.

“I am not. I really have to go. Breakfast is ready.” I flinched even saying it.

Tessa squealed so loud I had to pull the phone from my ear. “Um…you’re not at that point, my ass. But fine. Go. Eat breakfast, then eat some more cake and make sure he eats some, too. Don’t worry, I’ll be a good girl and wait for the details until tomorrow.”

Just great.

“Love you!” she peeped before the call went dead.

Sighing, I softly banged my head against the wall before I forced myself into action. I couldn’t stay in this bathroom all day. I slipped back on the same clothes I’d worn yesterday, ran my fingers through my mussed hair, and found some Listerine under the cabinet so I could at least rinse out my mouth.

I balled the sheet against my chest, trying not to blush all over again when I slipped back into the bedroom and to the mess of a bed, doing my best to make it quickly, smoothing out the sheets and the comforter and resituating the pillows against the headboard all while struggling not to let my mind revisit every moment that I’d spent with Trent there.

Impossible.

Last night had been branded on me.

Finally, I gathered enough courage to leave the room, and I slinked down the hallway, my ear inclined to the barest noises that filtered up from below. The clanking of dishes and the rumbling of a deep voice. Gage’s high-pitched, sweet one was mixed in between.

I stole down the steps, nerves scattering through the room, my heart in my throat and the blood whooshing through my veins.

Fully unprepared for what I might feel when I came face-to-face with Trent again. Wondering why he hadn’t at least prepared me for the whirlwind that was Gage. Why he didn’t come and ask me to breakfast himself.

All those whys rambled through my brain, my fingers twisting because the whole problem was I didn’t know how to navigate this. Where I stood or where we were heading.

The only thing I knew was I felt anxious for those eyes to take me in again.

I made it to the bottom landing.

Sounds filtered through from the arch that led into the great room.

I edged that way, stopping when I got close enough to peek through.

In the daylight, it appeared entirely different.

The enormous room was brightly lit by a wall of windows facing the backyard, gleaming with the rays of sunshine that burned through.

Gage was on a stepstool at the island, pouring orange juice from a giant container into plastic glasses he had set up in a row.

But it was the man with his back to me who stood at the stove that locked the air in my throat. Those frazzled nerves scattered far and wide.

He was all black hair and sinewy body—but not the body I knew.

“Miss Murphy! Yay! You woke up. Sheesh, you take forever . I thought I was gonna have to go back up there and drag you down.” Gage drew it out like it was a crime. I felt like I was committing one while I stood there shifting on my feet.

Because the man at the stove whirled around at Gage’s welcome.

His smile similar but so different. Lacking any malice. Missing the sinister threat. Instead, he grinned, all dimples and barely-there stubble on his ridiculously handsome face. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Miss Murphy I’ve heard so much about. Sleep well, I hope?”

He was all satisfied innuendo.

Oh my god.

I was going to melt into a puddle of embarrassment right there.

My wave was timid. “Hi. I’m Eden.”

“Logan.”

Right.

The youngest brother.

“Yup…I told my uncle Logan all about you, Miss Murphy. How you’re the best teacher in the whole wide worlds and you like me the best and that I love you.”

My heart skipped a jagged beat.

“Oh.” I whispered it. A soft affection as I looked at the child who’d slayed my safe little world, with a little help from his father of course.

“Uh-huh! Yep. Uncle Logan, did you know she even taught me how to spell orangutan? O-r-a-n-g-u-t-a-n.”

He drew out every letter.

“It’s the very hardest word in the whole dictionary, you know, and now I’m the best speller ever, and I’m gonna get all As, right, Miss Murphy, right?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him the rest of the kids had learned it, too.

“That’s right, Gage,” I murmured while sneaking wary peeks at the man who was watching me with a sly grin riding over his mouth. As if he was the keeper of a secret only he was privy to.

“See Uncle, told you, you don’t know nothin’.”

Logan rustled his hand through Gage’s hair, that smile never leaving his face. “Guess not. I really am going to have to go to school with you one of these days.”

“So you can get all the lessons.” Gage dipped his head in a resolute nod.

“Um…where’s…?” Anxiously, I looked around the room.

Logan pressed his palms to the island, his green eyes dancing. “Ran an errand.”

My lips pursed as my attention bounced around, looking for a safe place to land.

Right.

Great.

He’d left me there by myself.

“Yup, Uncle Logan said my dad finally got some so he doesn’t have to be such a d-i-c-k, anymore. What’d he get, anyway, Uncle?” The question twisted Gage’s brow into a knot as he tipped his head back to look up at his uncle who’d moved to stand behind him. Trent’s brother was suppressing laughter as he pressed his lips to Gage’s forehead.

“Seems he got something really special.”

Okay, I took it all back.

Confessing it to my daddy would be way less painful than this.

“Like a new toy?” Gage asked.

Logan laughed as he swept Gage from the stepstool. “Time to eat,” he said instead of answering, effectively diverting the topic, thank God.

Gage squealed when Logan tossed him over his shoulder, the man all easy arrogance as he carried the child over to the little nook by the window and plopped him into a chair.

“This spot’s yours, right here, Miss Murphy! You wanna sit by me? I told you me and my uncle made the best breakfast ever!” He pounded on the spot next to him, and I glanced there, warily, no clue what I was supposed to do.

My purse was upstairs, and my car was impounded, and Trent…I gulped, whirling around when Trent was striding in through the side door where we’d entered from the garage last night.

Black jeans and white tee and stunning face, so gorgeous he hitched my breath.

All that potent power infiltrated the room.

A flashflood.

My knees went weak.

Then confusion had me frowning when I realized he had my pink carry-on slung over his shoulder.

He didn’t slow or explain. He just dropped it by his feet and strode my way.

Purposed.

Those ridiculous boots eating up the floor.

I swore the walls spun when he didn’t slow, just took my face in those big hands and kissed me like none of the questions I’d had this morning counted.

Kissed me hard and desperate and with relief.

I whimpered and sighed, holding onto his wrists and wondering if he knew my heart was at his feet.

Gage giggled. Giggled wild and raucous. “Dad’s got a girlfriend, Dad’s got a girlfriend. It’s Miss Murphy! It’s Miss Murphy!”

In my periphery, I could see that Gage had stood on his chair, and he was pointing at us like the spectacle we were.

Redness flushed, and Trent dropped his forehead to mine, never releasing my cheeks as he sighed. “Gone for one fuckin’ hour, and I already missed you. How’s that, Eden?”

I eased back enough to look between him and my bag. “You…went to my house?”

“You needed clothes, yeah?”

“And you…”

“Let myself in. Had to go in through your bedroom window because that teacher-friend of yours was there, eating doughnuts on your porch while taking about fifteen-thousand selfies of herself.”

He said it like she was the one who was doing something crazy.

“Which getting in, by the way, was way too easy. Going to send someone over there to take care of that today. Make sure no one is getting through that we don’t want in there.”

My head spun, still hung back on the spot where he’d broken into my house. “You just went in and got my things?”

“Yup. So you could sleep. Figured you might be a little worn out this morning.” With that, he traced his fingertips down the angle of my jaw, his eyes flaring. Chills spread, and my lips parted as a bout of desire leapt into my bloodstream.

God. I couldn’t even think straight when I was in his presence.

“We can go back and get the rest of your things this afternoon.”

“Trent…I…I have to go home. I can’t just stay here.”

“Told you last night that I wasn’t going to let you out of my sight until I found whoever did this.” He growled it, so low that only I could hear. “Meant it. I don’t want you anywhere that either me or my brothers aren’t there.”

Flustered, I stared up at him. “I have things I have to do.”

Like clear my head.

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“Are you serious?”

He had me hauled out of the great room and backed to the inside wall of the main living room before I could make sense of the action. His body towered over mine where he had me pinned.

His chest strained with pained, heaving breaths, a torment woven in that I didn’t understand. “Don’t fight me on this, Kitten. Promised to keep you safe.”

With a shaky hand, I reached out and touched his face. “I have a life, and so do you. You can’t?—”

He cut me off when he grabbed my hand and brushed his lips across my knuckles, his words grit, “And I’m going to protect it.”

“Trent.”

“Kitten.” He erased the bare space that separated us, his hot body pressed to mine, our hearts beating frantic as he dug his fingers into my ass, hauling me from the wall and plastering me against him.

Every inch of him was hard.

I gasped at the contact.

He took the opportunity to kiss up under my jaw, fully picking me up and pressing my back to the wall when my body softened to putty. He licked the flesh, his lips nibbling at my ear. “Tell me you don’t want to live in my bed because I can’t wait to be in this body again. I’m going to own it, Kitten. All of it.”

I whimpered, then froze when a throat cleared to the side.

We both whipped our attention that way.

Logan stood there grinning like mad. “Breakfast.”

“F-off, dude,” Trent grumbled, though there was no anger behind it. He reluctantly set me on my feet and gestured between us. “Logan, this is Eden. Eden, this is my pain-in-the-ass baby brother, Logan. Feel free to ignore him.”

“We’ve met,” Logan said, all smug smiles and playful welcome. “You gonna put up with this punk?” he asked me, no seriousness to that question, either, clearly trying to get a rise out of his brother.

Like they were just…normal. Two brothers who gave each other constant crap but would do absolutely anything for the other.

Trent smacked him on the back of the head. “Dude. Watch it. I will take you down.”

Logan jumped back and lifted his hands in surrender. “Hey, just checking that she knows what she’s in for.”

Trent grunted at him and threaded our fingers together. “Come on, let’s eat.”

I was still fighting the urge to hide my face when we walked in to find Gage still standing on his chair, though he was shoving mountains of eggs into his mouth from the fork he wielded. “Sheesh, about time. You been kissing again? How many kisses are you gonna get, Dad? Like a million?”

Trent pulled the chair out for me, guided me to sitting, and pressed a kiss to my temple. Then he looked at his son and said, “More like a billion.”

“A billion?! Whew. You sure are gonna be busy.”

A flush flashed, and I dipped my head to try to hide the giggle that slipped free all while feeling like I was melting into a puddle of goo.

The room radiated with my confused affection.

The awareness that even though I felt unsettled, it still felt right.

Trent went into the kitchen then came back and set a plate in front of me. “There you go, baby.”

My head spun while I did a little more of that melting. “Thank you.”

Then he tossed a set of keys to a Mercedes onto the table. “Got you a replacement car while I was out.” He dipped down to murmur the plea at my ear. “Promise me you won’t leave without either me or one of my brothers.”

“Trent.” I wheezed it, though I was finally seeing all his rough abrasiveness for what it was.

This sweet, sweet warrior.

Someone who would fight.

For his family.

For me.

I hoped I could be a little of that for him, too. Bring him out of the shadows where he’d lived.

“Always the babysitter,” Logan whined when he sat down with his plate across from me, though he was smiling softly, winking to let me know he wasn’t serious.

“That’s because you’re a really, really good babysitter,” Gage said, still shoveling in the eggs. “Right, Dad, right?”

“That’s right, buddy,” he said, tugging his son down to sitting. “Couldn’t make it through this life without him.”

I looked around.

Taken.

Gone.

My feet no longer touching the ground. Every part of me completely washed away.

Logan was right.

I had no clue what I was in for.