Temptations | ✔️

40

~Eden's POV~

The next day, I sat in the living room by myself, fresh out of the shower. I curled my legs up on the couch and pulled out my phone from the front pocket of my orange and red floral shorts, beginning to scroll through the text messages that Jagger and I had exchanged last night.

He and I had agreed that it was best for him to stay away from the apartment and from me for a few days, just until Silas could calm down. Something told me that if Silas saw him again so soon, he'd probably be even more pissed than he was yesterday. That didn't mean that Jag and I couldn't text or call one another, though. For now, that would just have to do.

I glanced up from my phone when I suddenly heard heavy footsteps enter the living room and saw Silas, who still looked very grumpy, to say the least. Not wanting to speak to him, I flicked my eyes back down to the screen and was just about to exit out of the text messages when my phone was snatched right out of my hands. "Hey!" I exclaimed, looking up at my brother as I attempted to take it back, but he just pushed me back down onto the couch and glared at me. Though I tried to get back up, he just kept pushing me back down again as he looked at my phone, reading the messages between Jagger and I.

"Stop!" I yelled at him and kicked him in the leg, but he just turned off my phone and then held it up for me to see. "I'm taking this." He said, causing my jaw to drop in disbelief. My brother had always been protective, but I was beginning to grow angry with him because this wasn't protective anymore. Silas shoved my phone into his pocket and I glared at him, my anger bubbling up within my chest until I almost felt like I was going to cry. He turned around to leave and I grabbed one of the throw pillows beside me on the couch, throwing it at the back of his head with all my might. The pillow just flopped to the floor, and he ignored it completely.

"You have no right!" I yelled at him, knowing that he was listening when he stopped at the entry to the hallway. Still, he didn't look my way or say anything, but I kept talking regardless. "You might be my brother, and I know that it was wrong for us to lie to you so I don't blame you for being mad, but what were we supposed to do? I'm your little sister but I'm also a grown woman, Silas. I should be able to date someone if I want to, but you just scare them away from me every time! You can want to protect me, Si, but now you're just controlling me." I said, unable to help it when the tears rose and dribbled down my cheeks.

Silas stood there for a few seconds more before he continued down the hallway, not even bothering to say anything in response.

**

A few days passed by and yet, still, Silas refused to give me back my phone no matter how much I asked. Eventually, I gave up and went on to ignoring him and his presence completely, mostly just because he had pissed me off and I had no desire to speak to him when he was being so irrational. It wasn't that I was mad that he was upset about Jagger and I lying to him, because I understood his anger, but the fact that he was trying to control me like this was unfair.

I sighed to myself as I grabbed the car keys off of the table by the couch and stuffed them into the pocket of my jeans, not paying any mind to my brother before I left the apartment to head to work for the day.

The second I stepped through the front door into Crumbl Cookies, Benjamin was right there, tapping his foot like an angry grandmother as he stared at me. I bit on my bottom lip, knowing that he was angry because I had arrived a little bit later than usual. "Is there any reason you're showing up late, Miss Lane?" He asked angrily, narrowing his eyes onto my face. Annoyance lingered within their depths and I cringed slightly, fiddling with my fingers. "Sorry, sir. I overslept a little bit this morning." I responded apologetically.

He just grunted and waved his hand at me in dismissal. "Go restock the goods, now. Throw out the old ones in the trash." He instructed me, crossing his arms over his chest. I nodded my head and scurried my way by him, slipping behind the counter to begin to take out all of the old goods within the display counter. After I had thrown the old boxes out, I began to replace them with new boxes that were filled with this week's different flavor of cookies. Of course, the chocolate chip and the frosted sugar cookies were still there, though.

This week we had chocolate cookies with chocolate chips, a s'mores flavored cookie, an apple pie flavor, and a carrot cake flavor. For some reason, my favorite was the carrot cake flavored one, at least for this week's batch.

Once I had restocked the display counter, I glanced over at Benjamin as he sat at one of the little tables off to the right side of the bakery, leaned back in a chair. He seemed to be half asleep, so I decided to just leave him be, mostly because that meant I wouldn't have to deal with him being grumpy towards me. Instead, I just grabbed one of the stools from in the corner and pulled it over to me, sitting on it as I bit on my cheek and just hoped that my shift would pass by as quick as possible.

Unluckily for me, however, my shift seemed to tick by as slow as ever, maybe because I didn't have my phone anymore to use when I was bored. That just made me even more irritated at Silas, to be honest.

When my shift did end, though, I practically ran out of the bakery, huffing to myself as I walked through the parking lot. I pulled my keys out of my back pocket and went to unlock the car when I suddenly felt a large hand on my elbow, causing me to jump in surprise and whip my head around. My eyes widened as Jagger stood there, his broad frame towering over me. "Jag!" I gasped in excitement and spun around, leaping into his arms for a hug.

My arms wrapped around his neck and I felt him tightly pull me against him, his large hands resting at the base of my spine. "You haven't been answering any of my texts or calls for the past couple of days, but I knew you had to work today so I decided to come see you here instead." He murmured softly, burying his face into the crook of my neck. I hugged him for a moment longer, happy to see him, and took in his leather and vanilla scent. "Yeah, Silas took my phone away and he won't give it back because he's still mad." I told him, pouting as I pulled away from the embrace to peer up at him.

He frowned and furrowed his brows slightly. "Should I try to talk to him again?" He asked with uncertainty, his fingers gently brushing beneath the fabric of my shirt to trail over my skin. I shook my head quickly, biting on my bottom lip. "No, no. I think he'd probably just try to hurt you again." I admitted, propping my chin on his firm chest as I stared up at him. "Then what, little bird?" He murmured with a displeased frown on his handsome face. "Silas is being unreasonable now, and you know it." He stated, to which I nodded my head in agreement. "I know." I agreed, watching as he blinked down at me in surprise. Most likely, he hadn't expected me to agree with him because I had never disagreed with something that my brother did. I'd never quite had a reason that was big enough to me to disagree with him, but this was different.

"But I also know my brother. He'd expect anger from you, but probably not from me."