“I’m wearing fewer clothes than you!”
“I doubt it. You’ve got socks on.”
“So do you!”
We’ve got the same amount of clothing on.Liam knew this, but apparently, she didn’t.
Which was why Eden would go first. So she’d be naked first.
And Liam would learn a few things about her – and she’d learn a few about him.You next, Ben.Liam could think of a few things he wanted to tell her. But those secrets were for Benson to share with the woman they both loved.
Chapter 9
Eden
Eden was doing the thing you shouldneverdo – using her phone in the bathtub.
Had she ever dropped it in the water before? No. Was she afraid she might start today? Maybe a little. But from the moment she sank into the hot, bubbly water, there was something she wanted to look up, and it sent her down a rabbit hole of looking up this and that until she was texting with both of her boyfriends because they happened to text her at the same time from two different places.
Liam was going out of town for the weekend. And Benson wanted to know if she wanted to go out and do something on Saturday. All in all, mundane stuff.
But Eden couldn’t stop staring at her phone even after she replied to them. Even after Liam went to bed, Benson disappeared after saying something about a museum exhibit he wanted to check out. (The man had promised a link, then gotdistracted, apparently.)Even aftershe opened a website that helped her calculate investment interest rates and payouts based on, say, $200,000.
You’ve got to be kidding me.If she played her cards right, Eden could retire at thirty-five. She didn’t know what she would do in the meantime. And who was to say she couldn’t make a proper career out of sex work here and there?Tax-free, no less.Even if she got a side job in… retail? Fine dining hostessing? Scrubbing down leather chairs in The Dark Hour?
All of those jobs paid more than sitting on her duff, but a quarterly excursion to the Caribbean, even for one year…
That wasn’t quite half a million dollars, but if she added up all of the bonuses… not to mention parlaying that experience into working at Le Salon or elsewhere…
What am I doing?Liam had been right when he said that Benson probably wouldn’t be into his girlfriend going off on weekends here and there to get screwed by a host of unknown men, especially when he knew firsthand how rowdy and wild those parties could get.Add on to the fact that it would fly in the face of his kink…Eden had him totally figured out by now. Benson was only into “his” woman fooling around with other men if he got to play, too.
Which brought Eden to her other remaining conundrum.He’s clearly super into me.Eden had a feeling that Benson was about to pop some sort of question soon, and she wasn’t inclined to immediately say no, whatever level of severity it was. But was she ready to get into something long-term and serious with either Benson or Liam? They were great fun now, but…
So much money. Money she made herself, using her own body, time, and youth.
Eden’s goal was to be financially independent. She couldn’t do that while resting on her laurels with Benson’s money. Evenif they stayed together forever… and there wasnoguarantee of that!
She put her phone on the side of the tub and dripped water through her fingers. Ripples formed around her body as she tipped her head back and sighed. Why couldn’t Eden have a clearer picture of her future? Why couldn’t she have some passion that dragged her somewhere? Some inclination that she could put her money toward and have a somewhat guaranteed adult life of housing, food, and health insurance?
And why, when she did find something that got her going, did it have to be against the social grain? Because, like her, Liam and Benson had both been raised in the same world, the same culture…
All three of them had some kind of hangup. Benson struggled to be “out” to the world. Liam got emotionally attached easily. And Eden? She was floundering in an economy that didn’t provide much direction for where to go, and did not respect sex work. If it was even allowed.
Quarter-life crisis. That’s what this is!
Well, could anybody blame her!
Benson treated her to an afternoon at the Metro Museum of Modern Art, followed by a perusal of some shops that she loved but rarely shopped out. With a bag full of her favorite makeup and a couple of dresses in her hand – thanks to boyfriend Benson, who admitted he liked spoiling all women, from his girlfriends to his daughter – they decided to have dinner in a classic Italian eatery that sported candlelit tables and three-course meals.
Because of his connections, Benson got them a somewhat private corner booth away from other diners.The man likes his privacy.Not that Eden could blame him. Even if Benson were the most straight-laced man with desire for only one woman and nobody else, he would still want a corner private booth and for the world to know nothing about his business.
“What are you looking at?” he asked after the waiter took their orders, and she kept scrolling on her phone. “You’re reminding me of my daughter. Stop it.”
“What? Gonna ban me from using the phone at the dinner table, sir?”
“I almost expected you to call meDaddy,and we were gonna have some words about it.”
“Having met your daughter now, I wouldn’t blame you. How is she, by the way?”
