Free Trusting Stone by Alexa Sinclaire Page A

she was right. Wearing it was not the same as flaunting it.
    ****
    “I didn’t realize you were friends with Joachim Benedict,” Sebastian stated before she had even put her clutch and coat down on his sofa. Eden couldn’t tell from his tone what he was getting at. His obvious anger had thrown her.
    When he’d opened the door to her, his face held the same expression as when their eyes had met in front of Joachim’s office building. His voice was flat and slightly cold. Part of her had expected the town car not to be waiting for her when she exited her apartment building that evening. The look he had given her after seeing her with Joachim had been so full of anger it had stayed with her all day, replacing the feel of his touch from their morning encounter. Her heart had jumped at seeing the car waiting for her, but now she could see that his anger had remained with him and he was projecting it on her.
    “We grew up together, as I’m sure you remember. He’s an old friend. We even went to college together…for a while.”
    “An old friend. Nothing more.”
    “Is that a question?” She turned to face him, the interrogative manner of the tone rankling her.
    “I’m hoping it’s a statement of fact.”
    “You mean, am I sleeping with him? No!”
    “Did you?” he pushed on. He had barely let her come into the apartment and she felt uncomfortable standing in his hallway, holding her coat and purse, being chastised by him.
    “I don’t see how this is any of your business. I’m not sleeping with him now. Why would it matter to you if I had in the past?” She started putting her coat back on, irritated at herself, at him, at the whole situation. She turned to move toward the door. This had been a mistake.
    Eden had never slept with Joachim. They had come close several times, but something always made her stop, even before the attack. Despite his tender approach to her in bed, he was always too eager, too rushed when it looked like they might actually do more than just fool around, as if trying to complete a sale, desperate to seal the deal before it was too late. Then when she would cool things down, he would return to being affable, sweet Joachim who used to play in his tree house with her and had been her charming escort at the debutante ball. Why she wanted Sebastian to think otherwise, she wasn’t sure yet. She’d been questioned so much about her sex life in the aftermath of the attack, she assumed that Sebastian’s line of questioning was a matter of judgment and nothing else.
    “Wait, Eden, stop.”
    Something in his voice made her hesitate, her hand on the doorknob.
    “The way he looked at you this afternoon, I know that look. The way he hugged you…I don’t want to get involved in the middle of something.” And almost as if had read her mind, he continued. “It’s not my business whether you’ve slept with him, but I do want to know if there is something going on with him now. I don’t want to play games and I don’t share.”
    “No,” she capitulated, realizing that she wasn’t interested in playing games either and deciding to ignore the last part of his statement about sharing. “I’m not sleeping with Joachim, and…I never have. We grew up together, dated on and off, and he was there for me at a time when I needed him, but now…we’re friends, nothing more.”
    A look of relief swept across Sebastian’s face. “He doesn’t know that, though.”
    “I’ve never led Joachim on. I never even saw him the whole time I was in Edinburgh. I think it’s pretty clear where I stand, and whatever his sentiments are toward me are out of my hands. We are just old friends.” Eden turned around, facing him to explain herself, which is what she felt she was doing, even though he hadn’t asked her to outright. She felt slightly guilty about her last statement. She had told Joachim she wasn’t ready to start dating, yet just a few hours later, here she was having dinner with a tall,