by Christa Wick
I entered cautiously, expecting some negligee-wearing woman to pop out and yell Surprise! Instead, I found an attractive woman somewhere in her late thirties sitting on his couch with a portfolio of some kind open on his coffee table.
Aiden stepped around me when I didn't move beyond the entryway. "We'll need to finish some other time, Rachelle."
The smile plastered on her face faltered. She managed to pull it up, tighter and brighter. "These lake properties will have contracts by the end of the week, Aiden."
My heart, already pounding like a jackhammer inside my chest, kicked up another notch. They were buying a piece of property together?
The room started to spin and I took a step toward the door.
"Cece." Aiden barked my name before bringing his voice under control. He flipped the portfolio closed and handed it to the woman. "Mrs. Deschaine is leaving. You're not."
He saw her out then locked the door before hooking my elbow and drawing me across the threshold into the living room. Letting go, he moved to the fireplace and stared at me. When I remained mute, he folded his arms across his chest and started to glare.
I closed my eyes. I couldn't bear to see him angry at me. The sight was almost as painful as seeing him hurt by me. But he expected me to tell him why I was at his house and the glare wouldn't go away until I did.
Even then, it might never go away.
I sucked a breath in and looked at him. So beautiful, the anger I wanted to shrink from adding to his raw appeal. I had to speak before looking at him froze my tongue.
"I wanted to apologize for what I said at the hotel -- for what I believed. Daddy told me that Pamela--"
"I know," he interrupted.
I felt my gaze go wide and I sucked a little more air in. "You know?"
"He told me in January," he shrugged. "Not that he asked you to stay quiet, but who else would you protect like that?"
I nodded. He was right. The only other people I would protect like that were Aiden and my mother, and neither would have asked me to stay silent. So Aiden knew in January when he was sporting a new woman on his arm and in February when he had yet another one.
I thought on that for a few seconds. It hurt, felt like an intentional rejection, but I wasn't exactly little miss innocent at the time. At least it had looked that way. The truth was both embarrassing and painful.
"I didn't go to Harold's over Christmas," I confessed. "I haven't dated anyone since that day."
"I have." His tone was curt, uncompromising, and I felt for a second like he was trying to intentionally hurt me with his words and all they implied. And then he removed the implication. and I knew he wanted to hurt me. "Dated…fucked, whatever you want to call it."
I closed my eyes again. He intended to make this hard, maybe even to push me away entirely. I had no guarantee that there was any light at the end of this long tunnel. I knew I had lost him as a lover, but part of me hoped that I could have my friend back. I loved Aiden, always would, anyway I could get him.
"I'm sorry I called you selfish, I--"
"I am," he interrupted. "You can't expect anything better from a Perry."
I shook my head. He had heard that growing up, even after he went to work in my dad's shop, although daddy would have fired any employee who dared utter the sentiment. Still, all the town busybodies never quite stopped looking down on Aiden, even after he graduated college and made the shop such a success.
"You're not anything like your mom and Frankie. Not anything like me…I was the selfish one. All I could think about was how much I was hurting…" My tears started up again. I didn't try to hide them, didn't swipe at them. It was all I could do to keep the box from slipping from my fingers as numbness crept along my limbs.
He shifted. If anything, his body grew tighter. "Why are you here, Cecelia?"
Not an ounce of retreat in his tone. I sucked another breath in, hiccupped half of it back out. I lifted the box. "I need to return this. I didn't get it until today."
I waited for him to say something, as if the late delivery were some kind of exculpation for my months of having remained silent. I knew it wasn't, just wished it could be. It didn't matter that someone had lied or that I had promised daddy I wouldn't tell. I didn't deserve Aiden's forgiveness. I could have talked to him after I found out about Pamela's theft, could have talked to my father so that he released me from the promise. I could have gone into that hotel room without flinging accusations. But I had been afraid to have tough conversations with the two most important men in my life and so I stayed silent.
No, I didn't stay silent. I lied about having a boyfriend weeks before Aiden showed up with the first new woman on his arm. I stayed away half a year, making it clear with my absence that I didn't want to face even the chance that I would run into him.
Stuck in a noiseless vacuum as Aiden continued staring at me, I walked the two steps to the nearest table and put the box down. "I know how much work you put into your pieces. You only do it for two reasons, a commission or friendship."
I had to stop and force more air into my lungs before I could continue. "Neither applies, so I don't feel right keeping it."
I turned slowly toward the entryway, my head spinning five times as fast as my body moved. I knew I was in danger of passing out. My vision narrowed and I couldn't hear anything over the roaring pulse. I had to get out, had to reach my car and pull it out of Aiden's view and then I could pass out for as long as I wanted.
When I woke, I would have a two state drive ahead of me.
I reached the door, blinded by tears. I fumbled for the lock, panicking because I couldn't breathe in.
Aiden's hand covered mine. Gently, he moved me away from the door then blocked it with his body. He opened the lid of the box and pulled the pin out. Setting the box aside, he ran his fingers over the edge of the wings, forcing the bottom wings to flip up. The butterfly transformed to the shape of a heart.
"You look like you're going to pass out, Cece." He pinned the heart to my blouse then put an arm around my shoulder and led me to the couch.
Once I was sitting, he pushed lightly against my chest. "Lean back."
I started to comply, then reversed my direction. "I think I'm supposed to put my head between my legs."
"No." Using both hands, he maneuvered my body until I rested fully against the couch back.
"I'm pretty sure," I argued, but stopped resisting.
"Baby girl, I can't kiss you if your head's between your legs."
I nodded even though I could not wrap my mind around what he had just said. Why on earth would Aiden want to kiss me? I had said awful things to him then hid like a coward when I found out they were lies. And I had to look
"Shh…" Leaning close to me, he stroked my cheek, his chin resting against my shoulder. Tilting his head just a fraction, he kissed the line of my chin. A little push up and his mouth pressed against the corner, just below my ear. He cupped the other side of my face, his fingertips roughly caressing my scalp and neck. He kept petting me like that, his lips taking slow, biting kisses until I curled into him and he wrapped his arms around me.
"I'm sorry I pushed you toward dating someone else." His lips ghosted mine, a rapacious heat flaring inside my body at the contact. My nipples went hard and my thighs started to squeeze together as he continued. "That was the first wedge between us, Cece."
His hand pushed along my spine, from my tailbone up, my shirt moving with it. Feeling his hand on my bare flesh, I arched into him and shook my head. "I was the bigger wedge. I was listening to my own noise, Cecilia Harpoon--"
Growling lightly, he pushed his chest harder against mine as his hands drew me closer. "Stop that, baby. You're so fucking beautiful, it hurts me to look at you."
I closed my eyes and pressed my quivering lips together. I could only imagine how purpled my tear streaked face was at that moment, the long hours of crying making everything twice as swollen and puffy.
"Baby," he growled again, the sound more fierce
than gentle. "You don't have to see what I see, you just have to believe I see it."
He kissed my throat, a shameful, needy moan erupting from me at the contact. I didn't deserve his touch, not because of how I looked, but how I had acted. I had no faith in Aiden despite his every action toward me proving I could trust him.
"Baby," he nudged the side of my mouth with his nose. "Can you believe me?"
"Yes." Opening my eyes, I drew a shaky breath in. He was so beautiful, the raw emotions twisting his face only magnifying that beauty. I licked my lips then nudged him back. "Where is this conversation going?"
He pulled away just enough to run a thumb over the pin. "I thought you had this all week and most of last. I've been walking around in knots -- sad knots, angry knots."
Cupping my face, he rested his forehead against mine. "I thought I could make it through you walking out the door. I couldn't -- I don't ever want to."
His lips pressed against mine, the first time our mouths had met since that weekend at the lake house. His tongue gently forced me to open to him. He shifted our bodies until he had one arm around me, the other one controlling the tilt of my head as the kiss deepened. When he finally let me up for air, he buried his face against my neck.
"I know you've planned a life away from here--"
"No!" Shaking my head vigorously, I clutched his shirt until I could calm down enough to speak. "I haven't spent a penny of my signing bonus. I'm just on the hook for a couple hundred dollars if I cancel the lease, and…I need a job."
I frowned at that last bit, but Aiden only grinned.
"I'm sure your dad wouldn't have a problem if we hired a miscommunication--"
I slugged him playfully before he could finish the joke. Then I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, both of our hands beginning to roam.
******************
Aiden's strokes turned to tugs and pulls until he had me mashed up against his bedroom wall while he brought the lights down to a sensual level and nibbled at my neck. My head tilted in ecstasy and to allow him full access to my throat, I opened my eyes just long enough to see a white box on his dresser. One corner was slightly crushed and the ribbon drooped like a wilted flower.
"What's wrong, love?"
Feeling him tense, I realized that I had tightened while looking at the box. I tried to relax and gestured shyly with my chin. "Is that…"
I trailed off, not wanting to remind him of the scene in the hotel.
"Yeah." His snort managed to sound embarrassed, which made my chest swell and my possessive grip on his shoulders dig a little deeper.
I shifted my head until I could see his face. The way his dark eyes glittered did strange, delightful things to my body. "What about…you know…"
I rolled my eyes before looking back at him. "Wasn't at least one of them curious?"
Chuckling, he buried his face against my neck. "They were all curious, but they needed the warning."
"What warning?" I groaned my way through the end of the question as he put his hands on my hips and tugged me closer to the bed.
Stopping at the edge of the dresser, he palmed my breast and kissed the corner of my mouth. "That my heart wasn't theirs to take. The pin and its box stayed there until I mailed them."
A quiver ran through me at the intensity of his voice and the look in his eyes. It was a cold thing to do -- to those other women. But heat flared across my breasts and thighs at the realization I would have been "the woman" in Aiden's life -- the one that got away and for whom a small part of him would have always pined.
It was only fair, he held the same place within my heart. And I prayed each of those women would one day find the same happiness, just not with my man because I didn't plan on ever letting him go again.
My eyes growing moist again, I pointed at the box with my chin. "Can I?"
"You don't want me to re-wrap it?" He lifted a brow, his gaze a little cautious. "It's pretty banged up."
I shook my head, conscious of how puffy my face still was as my smile squashed everything up.
"I don't know." He brushed a hand against his cheek and sucked at his bottom lip. "That's a lot of build up for what's inside. It's just a slinky bit of silk I wanted to strip off your body, baby girl."
"Oh my." Smiling, I pushed at his chest then reached for the box. "You just lost your chance to say no, Aiden Perry."
I opened the box, immediately mesmerized by the silk camisole colored a dark gunmetal gray with its bust and bottom hem edged in matching lace. Lifting it from the tissue paper, I noticed how thin the silk was and knew even the weakest light would make the fabric transparent enough for Aiden to trace the contours of my flesh. Thinking of his eyes on me like that, I didn't want to run and hide. I wanted the camisole on so I could drive him crazy before he teased it off my flesh.
He cleared his throat, once again sounding bashful. Sexy and entirely unlike his natural demeanor, the sound lifted my gaze until I meet his in the mirror. He blinked once then nuzzled his cheek against my hair. "I bought you two pieces, love."
A soft smile parted his lips as his eyes dropped and zeroed in on the reflection of my breasts beneath my shirt. Reaching around me, he brushed a finger across one aching nipple. "The other is open cup, black lace."
His finger moved up to draw an invisible curve over the swell of my breast. "With a pink satin band to frame the area."
His words devolved into a hungry growl. He stopped looking at me, his eyes closing as his lips sealed around the skin covering my neck and he started sucking. He teased my nipple through the fabric, his other hand seizing my hip. He sank into me, his groin nestled against my generous bottom and his thick bulge crowding the valley of my cheeks.
"Come to bed," he rasped.
I shrank just the tiniest bit from Aiden. He might be blind to the mess my hair was, the still swollen eyes and everything else, but I wanted to come to him fresh. "I want to put this on…after I shower."
"Baby, I want you now." His hand moved from my hip to cup my mound and a full quiver ran through me.
I had been trying to push down the contractions rolling through me, but they became unstoppable with his hand there, squeezing, his thumb finding a way to manipulate my clit despite the layer of fabric. My knees started to give and he cinched me tighter, his leg hooking and sweeping mine so that I stood with my thighs spread.
"Please," I mewled. "It will make me wide awake and--"
"Little girl," he huffed. "All the things I'm going to do to you, there's not a chance in the universe you'll fall asleep."
"Please…" My hips started to dance and I could feel moisture seeping from my cunt. If I didn't get a few minutes under biting cold water, I would orgasm before he had me naked. "I'll be super quick, I promise."
He lightly nipped my throat but freed me. "Don't you dare change your mind about returning to my bed, love."
I caught his reflection before I could scamper away, my chest constricting at the pain I'd caused him when I saw his haunted gaze. I turned, curled a palm against each side of his face and kissed him. "Not gonna happen."
Grinning, I fled into the bathroom, the gray camisole flapping behind me like a silk banner signaling my complete surrender.
********************
I opened the bathroom door fifteen minutes later to find Aiden stripped naked on the bed, his gorgeous member semi-rigid and a lazy smile on his face. Seeing me, he moved into a sitting position, his cock at full attention before his feet touched the floor.
I blushed, surprised and pleased at how quickly his body reacted to mine. That, too, was only fair. All those minutes I'd spent beneath the cold, invigorating water disappeared as a volcano of wet need surged through me.
His hands seized my hips the moment I came within arm's reach. He drew me closer, his legs parting so I could stand at the edge of the mattress between them. Looking up at me, his cheeks colored and I could see a bus full of mischief in his eyes.
"A neighbor noticed your car and c
alled your parents." The twinkle in his eyes sparkled brighter. "Your dad answered."
The heat began to ebb from my body. "What did you tell him?"
"That I would explain things better at brunch tomorrow." He cinched me tight, one hand locking around his opposite forearm behind my bottom to bar any potential retreat. "But that I hoped he would welcome me as his son-in-law."
I let my knees press against the mattress before they had a chance to give out on me. "Is that a proposal, Aiden Perry?"
His eyes positively glittered like diamonds as his hands moved up under the camisole to brace against the small of my back and control my center of gravity. "More like a command, or are you going to break my heart all over again, flutterby?"
Gazing into them, I realized his eyes shimmered because they were misting with emotion.
Love and the fear I would reject him.
Fresh tears slid down my cheeks. He had removed any fear of rejection I might have, leaving me brimming only with love. I threaded my fingers through his hair. "I promise I will always protect your heart above my own as long as I live. Aiden, love, I'm so sor--"
"No, Cece." He contorted, pulling me onto the bed and quickly covering me with his sculpted body. "No more sorries…or, if you have to, then say it with your lips against mine, your legs parted, your pussy w--"
Reaching between my legs to find my pussy soaked and burning hot, Aiden groaned.
"Yeah," he grinned and gently pushed two fingers in. "Say it like this, with one of those--"
Pleasure whimpered through me and he smiled more broadly, his eyes wet enough that a tear finally escaped.
"Yeah, one of those, they drive me crazy, baby girl."
He kissed me, our tongues jousting as I arched against his palm and he added a third finger that instantly subdued me. He moved, taking the kiss with him, transferring it to my neck then my collarbone. He eased one, thin camisole strap down my shoulder to expose the swell of my breast. Sucking and licking the plump flesh, he dragged the camisole's bottom hem up over my mound then pushed my legs apart.
I arched again, only my ass and the top of my shoulders touching the mattress. He took advantage of the position, quickly tugging the camisole's top down my breasts. His mouth sealed around a nipple and I melted into the bed, whimpering and moaning as I drew my knees closer to my body and planted my heels on the edge of the mattress.
