“Liam… he’s the same way. An absolute dork unless shit is going down.”
“You just called my boyfriend a dork…”
“Well, he is.”
“He’d call you a nerd.”
“I’d deck him for it.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
Benson sighed. “I didn’t ask Liam because, quite frankly, I don’t care what he thinks. I want you to move in with me, Eden. I want to see where this seriously goes. I want to take care of you. I want you by my side, whatever you decide to do for a career. I want…” A softer side to his demeanor appeared. “I want to go to bed with you every night. I love you.”
Wow.Wow…
He actually said it.
“I don’t expect a response from you right now, of course. Unless…”
“I love you too, Ben.”
It felt… well, it was freeing to say it. A sentiment that had been building up within her ever since this man requested that he come to his guesthouse on a private island.From the moment he first looked at me.From the moment he first touched her. Eden had been falling in love.Hadfallen in love long ago.
There was just one issue.
“I think I also love Liam, though.”
That couldn’t have been a surprise to Benson, yet his shoulders sagged, and his head slightly shook, anyway. “Of course you do. He’s hard not to love.”
She played with the ring she wore on her left middle finger. “Do you think it could work out between the three of us? Long term?”
“I don’t know. Liam, he’s…” Benson kept shaking his head. He never completed that thought.
Dinner arrived. Desperate to steer their attention elsewhere, Eden cheerfully talked about how she would change Benson’s apartment should she move in with him. Starting with his duvet. So dark and depressing…
He told her she could change whatever she wanted. The important thing was that she was with him.
That simultaneously made her want to go home with him as much as it made her want to run away.
All of that was still on her mind when they returned to his place after dessert in a cozy café, where they cuddled on a couch and fed each other bites of tiramisu instead of getting it at the restaurant. Anything to extend their day together.
Now, what should have effortlessly slid into lovemaking was now them sitting on a different couch in the dark. Eden set her bag to the side and sidled up to Benson, who had removed his jacket and shoes, but was still soft in his shirt.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” she said. “Before you decide how much you really want to be with me.”
Had Eden planned on bringing up La Mariposa’s invitation again? No. But it was imperative now. She needed to know how Benson would reply to something like that.
Sure enough, he was stiff and irate beneath her touch.
“It’s one thing for them to ask you back, angel,” he gruffly said. “Of course they will. You’re fucking fantastic at the role. Ask me how I know.”
It wasn’t a joke, and Eden wasn’t laughing.
“But I hate the idea of you going back there.”
She slowly disentangled herself from him. “I know. Which is why I brought it up now. I… have not turned them down yet.”
He rubbed his forehead with his finger while the rest of his arm threatened to slide off the couch. “It’s a lot of money.”
