Never Date Your Ex

by Genevieve Goodwin

  Aidan sat up abruptly, shaking off the exhaustion that had lulled him into dozing. He rose groggily in the dusky light and made his way to the living room. It had grown darker outside, and the house was still and dim. He went to the kitchen and found a light switch. He heard a rustling sound at the front door as he flipped the light switch.

  "Don't you run off like that again, do you hear me?" Jamie's soft voice scolded.

  It was like music to his ears. And the vision of her, when he walked into the living room was a treat for his eyes. The room was brushed with faded daylight. She was a rumpled mess. Her dress was wrinkled. Her hair was damp and windblown. Thorn was wet and wiggling as she cradled him in her arms like a baby. She looked sweet and demure and motherly, and he wanted to shower her unkempt face with kisses of pure joy.

  Relief quickly turned to irritation. "Where have you been?" he asked sternly.

  Her eyes flashed angrily at the sight of him. "Seabrook really has changed. I guess I really do need that security system." She put Thorn down on the floor and marched past him to the kitchen, effectively ignoring him.

  He would not be ignored. He grasped her arm and twirled her around to face him before she had a chance to utter a single word. "There is a dangerous hurricane coming this way, in case you didn't know."

  "No kidding?"

  "And this derelict building you call home, with its rotting roof and substandard electrical wiring is going to get pulverized."

  A haughty little grin formed on her lips. "No doubt."

  "Staying here would be nothing short of suicide," he said gravely.

  She twisted from his grasp and continued on to the kitchen where she retrieved a bag of dog food and proceeded to dump the pellets into Thorn's bowl.

  Aidan's felt his fury rising. This was no time for games. The danger of a hurricane was too real. "Where are you planning to stay tonight?"

  Her expression was scornful and her voice was cold. "Let's get one thing straight, I don't answer to you. Where I have been, or where I am going is none of your business."

  Aidan clenched his teeth. "Are you planning to stay here?"

  "That is none of your business." She smiled a big, artificially warm smile that made his heart go cold.

  He was tempted to leave her. He still had time to drive inland to the hotel where Jo and Ross were staying. Jamie was a grown woman. If she was stupid enough to stay in this crumbling home near the ocean during a category four hurricane for the sake of her pride, he should let her suffer the consequences.

  But he couldn't do it. He couldn't be a part of any more tragedy. He couldn't stand by and let Jamie do something so colossally stupid. Besides, he wanted her with him. Wanted her in his safe keeping, in his arms he may as well admit. He had since the first time he had laid eyes on her in this unlikely little cottage she'd bought for herself.

  The glass in the windows began to rattle as the wind whipped fiercely through the beating rain. A wary expression passed over Jamie's face.

  "Are you planning to stay here?" He kept his tone deceptively calm.

  She nodded defiantly.

  "Very well." He moved swiftly then, picked up her tall, slender body and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of apples.

  "Put me down you ape!"

  She twisted and squirmed and called him names he hadn't even heard the crudest sailors use but pigs would fly before he put her down.

  He strode out the front door, hauled her into the driver's side of his truck and screeched out of the driveway. The gusts had grown powerful. He drove with both hands to steady the wheel and to keep from veering off the road. He looked over at Jamie and she was silent.

  "We have to go back." Her tone was solemn.

  He humored her with a small smile. "Why?"

  "Thorn. I can't leave Thorn!"

  A few moments passed before Aidan pulled into his drive way, stopped and shoved the truck's gears into reverse. He turned to look out the back window, a wise decision as it turned out. Within mere seconds a sudden fierce wind gust brought a large branch from an ancient oak tree crashing down behind them, inches from his truck.

  Aidan opened the truck door and took a troubled look around. "And you wanted to stay at your house?" he bellowed above the furious, howling blasts. Jamie shoved her door open but Aidan caught her, wrapping his arms around her to keep her from bolting. "This is serious, Jamie. I'm not going to let you risk your life so foolishly."

  "I'm not leaving Thorn!" she cried from under the pelting rain.

  "I'll go back for him. You stay here." He let her go and handed her his keys. "When I get back, we'll move this branch and get the heck out of here, okay?"

  Jamie took the keys from his hand and nodded. She was drenched from the pelting flurries of rain. Her lips quivered and were becoming an unpleasant shade of blue. He pulled her hastily toward the front door, out of the slicing wind. Casting a wary glance at the hostile sky, he ran out into the storm.

  Jamie watched him as he pounded thunderously through the mud in the direction of her home. She almost felt sorry for sending him out into such horrid weather except she hadn't asked to be dragged, caveman-like away from her home and helpless puppy to the questionable safety of Aidan's home.

  She turned, unlocked the front door and stepped inside. It was pitch black with the shutters covering the windows, and she felt an irrational feeling of panic. She desperately scraped her hand along the wall and searched for a light switch. Relief filled her as she felt the hard bump of a lever. Light flooded the foyer.

  She made her way from the entry to the living room and switched on a nearby lamp. Wow. This was no bachelor pad. The man had taste. A cushy sofa stood along one wall surrounded by a few comfortable armchairs. The walls were a warm color, the décor was eclectic and playful, and colorful art decorated the walls. It was a room she could have designed. The fact she approved of his taste unnerved her. Did the man have any faults? Besides of course, being pig-headed, arrogant and irritatingly gallant?

  She listened to the hurricane's ominous approach as debris hurdled against the shutters. Aidan was outside unprotected in the storm saving her puppy. "Please come back safe," she whispered. She looked wistfully around the cozy comfort of the room. She needed something to keep her busy.

  She found the kitchen and searched through the cabinets for a dishrag to dry off the rain. The drawers contained an array of puzzling objects. Rubber dinosaurs, Lego blocks and a well-worn nerf ball were strange objects to find in the home of a cynical, jaded bachelor. The man was definitely full of surprises. He must have friends with children. It amused her to think of the almighty Aidan in the company of children. He certainly didn't strike her as paternal.

  Not that was she was thinking about kids or family or anything remotely domestic with Aidan Brice. She hadn't forgotten he was planning to tear down her beloved childhood house and replace it with heaven knows what. Condos? The very idea made her ill.

  After this inconvenient hurricane passed, she was going to blow the legal whistle on his boys down at the bank who'd kept her from making a counter bid on Villa Milagros. No amount of male bonding was going to keep her from the one thing that had been her driving force all these years.

  In her mother's honor, she wanted to restore the house to the breathtaking Spanish villa it once had been. Aidan was the best historic restorer in the state. What a shame. She'd have to find another architect to bring her home to its former glory.

  Back in the foyer, she opened the front door. A wet, ragged gust swirled around her. Her damp hair whipped at her face. She slammed the door shut, shivering. The sudden stillness of the room was deafening. She found the television and tuned in to watch the hurricane reports from the weather station.

  She would have faced a hurricane a thousand times over in the wide-open center of the ocean rather than face a night with the solemn, uncompromising man who unsettled her very soul. The man who had gone out into the thralls of a hurricane to rescue her dog only a block away, and who
had now been gone for nearly an hour.

  ~

  It took Aidan almost a half an hour to walk the customary ten-minute walk to Jamie's house. The fierce winds and gouging rain had been nothing compared to the flying debris he had barely managed to dodge so far. When he reached the house, he secured the windows and doors and set out to search for Thorn. Soft whimpering finally led him to the fur ball hiding beneath the bed.

  "It's okay, boy." He pulled Thorn through the yards of fabric that surrounded Jamie's bed. "We're going to my place."

  Thorn's normally perky personality had metamorphosed into a shivering lump of fuzz. Aidan scooped the pup up, grabbed a towel from the bathroom and wrapped him up like a burrito. He fit Thorn easily underneath his shirt and tucked it in so the pup was securely strapped in. Thorn didn't voice any complaints.

  "Hold on, mutt." He threw open the front door, bracing himself. The steely gusts nearly knocked them over.

  He pushed against the wind, struggling to stay upright. Tree limbs, garbage and other debris covered the roads and sidewalks now. Patio chairs, broken bowls, children's toys, anything left exposed to the elements by careless owners were now tossed around by the storm like an angry juggler. Aidan ducked to miss a large branch headed toward him like a canon fired at the enemy. Another quickly followed in its path and barely missed him. But the tail of its jagged end caught his shoulder and dragged him down, causing a sharp, radiating pain.

  Aidan dipped to his knees. Instincts caused him to thrust his hands out before him, saving Thorn from the crushing weight of his body. The pup whined fearfully. Aidan looked at the sky. Dangerous airborne objects flew overhead convincing him to stay low. He crawled for the remaining half block to his home, so he and Thorn would make it back in one piece.

  He felt the wound pulsating from his shoulder and the warm blood seeping through his sodden shirt. He thought of Jamie waiting for him in his living room, warm and soft and feminine. He focused on that image as he moved painstakingly forward and continued to crawl inch by inch to the promise of her warm embrace.

  ~

  Jamie was pacing the living room. When she finally heard the thunderous blow through the foyer, she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. They looked like a pitiful pair, and she would have found humor in their disheveled appearance if she hadn't noticed the bloodstains on Aidan's shirt.

  "Oh my heavens!" She rushed them to the couch. She pulled at Aidan's shirt to free Thorn. He was wet and shivering, and he began to cry as she clutched him to her chest and soothed him with soft strokes until he'd stopped shaking.

  She put Thorn down and sat next to Aidan. "You'd better take off your shirt." She helped him unbutton the shirt, partially sliding it across his broad shoulders.

  "Looks like you finally have an excuse to get close to me," he said wryly. His grin faded quickly as Jamie tugged the shirt down across his freshly bleeding wound. "I know you're anxious to get my shirt off, but I could really use a towel."

  She bit back a sarcastic comeback, too concerned about the oozing blood on Aidan's arm to let her temper get the best of her. "Where's the bathroom?" she asked.

  "Down the hall. First door on the right."

  She found what she needed quickly and returned with bandages, medicines, clean water and a couple of towels. She took a fresh towel and wrapped up Thorn, discarding the dirty wet one. The second one she gave to Aidan whose clothes and hair were rain soaked and caked with dirt. As she helped him dry off, her fingertips skimmed against his chest. She tried desperately to divert her attention from his beautiful, muscular chest.

  "What happened?"

  "I had to crawl back. There's a lot of flying debris out there. The gusts must be up to 100 miles per hour already."

  "Oh my goodness!" she said as she dabbed at the deep gash on his shoulder.

  "Yeah," he said glancing at his shoulder. "Caught the end of a branch."

  Jamie cleaned the wound with clean water, smoothed some anti-biotic ointment over it and pressed a large piece of gauze over it to stop the bleeding. "You really need stitches. We should get you to a hospital" she said.

  Aidan laughed. "It's just a scratch. We need to get out of here before the winds get any stronger. Have you been listening to the bulletins?"

  "The roads are blocked from fallen debris and downed power lines. A curfew is in effect." She applied a new gauze pad over Aidan's wound and began to tape it tightly around his arm.

  She averted his gaze. "I guess we have to stay here. They still don't know where it will make landfall. Maybe we will be spared."

  She felt guilty. They were now stuck in Aidan's coastal home during a category four hurricane. She had been so angry with him over Villa Milagros she didn't really consider how dangerous it would be for her to stay. But he had come back for her and even risked his own safety to save Thorn.

  She leaned back against the cushions and peered over at Aidan's face. Exhaustion lined his face. She wanted to reach out and kiss away his tiredness, his worry, his memories of a faithless wife. Instead, she simply began to put the first-aid supplies back in their box.

  "I'm afraid I'm not much of a nurse. I've never been able to stand the sight of blood," she said.

  Aidan examined the bandage on his shoulder and looked over at Jamie. He smiled warmly. "You did a great job," he said.

  Just when Aidan thought he had Jamie Connolly all figured out, she pulled the rug out from under him. He had never expected her to be so nurturing, so protective. So maternal. He should have noticed it before. He watched her with Thorn, stroking the critter's head to comfort him. She was fiercely protective, fiercely devoted to her stray mutt. He wondered briefly if she could extend those emotions elsewhere. A motherless child, perhaps?

  "You never had any pets before?" he asked. He wanted to know her now, know her in a way that wasn't business oriented. He was beginning to realize he knew next to nothing about Jamie personally, and his judgments of her had been pretty harsh.

  "I never had a pet before Thorn. My mother had allergies so we couldn't keep any animals around. I always wanted a dog when I was a little girl. I was an only child of a single parent, and it can be quite lonely sometimes."

  He thought of his son, also an only child of a single parent. He regretted not getting Ross a dog sooner. He had been lucky enough to have a brother and a complete set of parents while he was growing up.

  "I can imagine it was lonely," he said quietly.

  "I always dreamed of having a great big family with brothers and sisters. I imagined having terrific barbeques and picnics and a full house during the holidays…" she stopped. Her eyes were wary.

  "Is that why you wanted to buy Villa Milagros? To raise a big family there?"

  Her steely gaze told him he would not find out tonight. It had been a pleasant moment, but he ruined it by opening up the dam and letting the warfare flow between them. He saw her closing up, saw her mouth clench and her body tense. He liked her better relaxed.

  "I'm just curious." He was burning to know the answer. He needed to know what she planned to do with Villa Milagros.

  She studied him with an expression of mistrust. He didn't need to think about family and Jamie Connolly in the same sentence anyway. He didn't need to think about those wary blue eyes, her healing hands and those soft, sweet lips.

  "What we want and what we get are often different things when it comes to family life," she said.

  Now he was intrigued. "Only family life?"

  "Let's say you can control some of your life some of the time, but you can't control all of your life all of the time."

  "You're talking in riddles. It was a simple question and you haven't answered me plainly because you don't want me to know who you really are."

  He leaned toward her, watching her reaction with taunting curiosity. "Are you an ambitious cut-throat, career woman or a nurturing, caring, earth mother? It's difficult to be both."

  She shifted nervously. "I'm neither."

  "Oh? Then are you an u
ptight, suit wearing, conservative business person or a warm, passionate woman who is interested in exploring the more romantic possibilities of life?"

  "I'm… not going to answer that." She inched away from the invasion of his approach.

  "Jamie," he said in a low whisper, "There is no reason to be afraid of me."

  "I'm not afraid of you." She scooted barely short of sitting on Thorn who was curled up at the end of the couch.

  He relaxed against the cushy pillows of the couch, and pat the space next him as he watched at her. "Then come here," he said. She shook her head, refusing.

  He saw the conflict in her eyes, the way her gaze couldn't keep from meeting his and the shimmer of excitement that danced in her eyes. He reached across the space between them and caught her hands in his.

  "Come here." His voice was barely a whisper.

  She didn't move. "Why?"

  "Because you choose to," he said softly.

  And she came to him.

  Chapter Eight

  The feel of her willing lips against his was overwhelming. He felt his soul come alive at her touch, felt tenderness and life and triumph all in one. He had the distinct impression she was as lonely as he was and needed him, needed his warmth, his nearness, his love as much as he needed hers.

  The storm was reveling in its glory outside, like an angry ghost haunting the living; it raged and screeched as if flaunting mother nature herself. Aidan wondered if he would be able to contain his own raging feelings any longer or if he too would surrender to the glories of loving a woman, which he had resisted for far too long. The draw of Jamie, her sweet lips and flowery perfume was pushing his willpower to the limit.

  He heard a crashing sound outside of the front door and remembered they were in the midst of a dangerous hurricane. He pulled away from Jamie with regret. He watched her face as he rose from the couch, watched her blue eyes flutter open and watched her lips close into a frown. And, regrettably, he saw the curtain of defense once again fall in its place across her beautiful face.