by Katee Robert
“Thanks.” She pulled on the jacket and stepped into the shoes, her heart warming in a way that had nothing to do with the extra layers. It was thoughtful of him … as if he wanted to take care of her.
Her breath caught at the sight of candles flickering on a table laid out with a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a whole spread of Chinese takeout. She let go of his hand and wandered over to peer into the boxes. “How did you know that crispy pork belly was my favorite?” Just like that, the pieces clicked together. She snapped her fingers. “You had Keira feel me out.” She’d thought the other woman was asking about her favorite food so they could pick a place to eat the next time they ventured out of the house. “Shady. Very shady.”
“I prefer to call it resourceful.” He poured them both a glass of wine. “I have it on good authority that this Cab pairs well with Chinese takeout.”
“How classy of you.” It was like stepping into another realm of existence as she sat down and accepted the glass of wine while he filled two plates. “You know, when you said you wanted a dinner date with just the two of us, I assumed you meant dressing in those fancy clothes you insisted I buy and dragging me out to some restaurant with a menu I can’t read, because it’s in another language.”
He snorted. “Those kinds of dinners serve a purpose. Either you’re making a point, or ensuring you’re seen by someone specific, or conducting a business meeting. We’ve been making points and playing parts since we met. I’d like to try something new—having a relaxing conversation where we’re not coming down off an adrenaline high for one reason or another. Just me and you—Aiden and Charlie.”
“Dropping all the masks? Do you think that’s even possible?” She’d seen so many different versions of Aiden in the time they’d been together, she could almost convince herself that she didn’t know the real one. Almost. But the truth was that she still felt like she knew Aiden on a soul-deep level. How could she not when his actions spoke louder than any of the words he doled out so carefully?
This was a man who loved his family and was fighting against the legacy his father had left him in order to make something better for all of them. He’d done bad things—of that there was no doubt—but he had more honor than most people she’d met who were supposed to be on the side of good.
I like him.
I might even love him.
She didn’t know how she could reconcile their differences. She didn’t know if they should even try. Hell, with her luck, Aiden was only enjoying her body and would enjoy seeing her walk out of his life just as much.
“We won’t know until we try.” Aiden took a drink of his wine. He looked so deliciously rumpled in his jacket, with his tie half-undone—more real somehow. Even as she watched, he let the distant mask drop and focused all of his attention on her.
It was like standing in the face of the sun.
Without anything holding him back, his green eyes spoke volumes. Every brutalized instinct she had clamored that this man wanted her—and wanted her for more than just orgasms.
That he saw her.
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t do more than sit there and stare at him dumbly while she tried to process the onslaught of information he passed on without saying a word.
In the end, Aiden took pity on her and looked away first. He nudged one of the plates to her side of the table. “Eat before it gets cold.”
She tried to swallow past her dry throat. “Sure.” Charlie took a hasty sip of wine that did nothing to calm the racing of her thoughts.
He waited for her to settle down a little before he spoke again. “What would you have done if you weren’t a cop?”
“I’m not a cop.” When he just watched her, she sighed and relented. “Okay, fine. I don’t know. My dad’s a cop, my granddad was a cop. My uncle was a cop before he was shot in the line of duty. There wasn’t another path for me.” She’d never found that sad before. She’d been so determined to do good in the world and eradicate evil that she’d just charged forward, full throttle, until she’d hit the brick wall that ended her career. It had made sense at the time.
Except she’d spent the last two years adrift and drowning, with no end in sight. Her entire identity had been tied up with being a cop’s daughter and then a cop herself and now … “I don’t know.”
“You’re great with Keira.”
“Keira just needs someone who’s not family and isn’t demanding anything of her.” At his flinch, she softened her tone. “I’m sorry. That’s not fair. Even when you aren’t asking her for something, she feels like you are. There’s no help for it. I’m an outsider, so it’s easier for her to be around me, because we don’t have the history she does with everyone else in the house.”
She didn’t tell Aiden that she suspected Keira to be harboring feelings for Dmitri. It wouldn’t help the situation or change his plans, and she couldn’t afford for him to be conflicted when it came down to the wire.
Ruthless.
Shut up.
“Family is endlessly complicated.” He took another drink and then leaned back to stare at the sky. The overcast night didn’t offer much of a view, but being outside the walls of the town house still provided a much-needed change of scenery.
“You can say that again.” Maybe things would have been different if her mother was still around, but with only Charlie and her dad … Yeah, complicated didn’t begin to cover it.
As if divining her thoughts, Aiden leaned forward. “How’s your father these days?”
“I wouldn’t know. He’s not too pleased with me.”
“He doesn’t like me much.”
She choked. “That’s the understatement of the year. He wouldn’t shed a tear to see your head on a pike.”
“Would you?”
She opened her mouth but closed it just as fast. Telling him that she’d be completely devastated if anything happened to him was exposing too much of her already-damaged heart. Aiden might like her, but that wasn’t enough. He was still the man he was. She was still the woman she was. They were too different.
If it weren’t for Dmitri Romanov ruining her life, she and Aiden would perpetually be on the opposite sides of the law. We still should be, even if I’m not a cop anymore. The thought made her uncomfortable, so she poked at her food. “What are we doing, Aiden? I know I blurred the lines a bit when I threw myself at you—”
“Pretty sure I was right there with you.”
She kept going, because if she stopped, she might not have the courage to get it all out. “All the same, this has an expiration date. It’s always had an expiration date. The sex doesn’t change that.” Couldn’t change that.
He finally raised his head and looked at her. “What if we didn’t have an expiration date? What if we just … did this?”
She went still. “What?” Surely she’d had too much wine and was now hallucinating. “Did what?”
“Dated. We could postpone the wedding, of course.”
“Postpone the wedding,” she repeated through numb lips. “There isn’t going to be a wedding.”
“Not anytime soon.”
She set her wine carefully on the table, shocked when she didn’t spill any of it. “Let’s pretend we were going to do this for real. How do you imagine that would look? I’ve spent the last two weeks basically twiddling my thumbs. I’m managing to hold it together, because there’s the endgame to think of. But that doesn’t mean I can do this indefinitely.”
“Why do you think I asked you what you’d do if you weren’t a cop?” He pinned her in place with those intense green eyes, as if he could see through all her protests to the fear of being hurt that lay beneath.
Or maybe those are my issues talking.
Aiden drummed his fingers on the table. “Of course I’d want you to have a career, and I value your happiness more than I care about using your skills to benefit the family.”
She took a hasty sip of wine and then set the glass down just as quickly. “This is insa
ne.”
“Is it? I’ve noticed that the people in my family tend to fall hard and fast, and the feeling doesn’t dissipate over time. I had chalked it up to idiocy.” He shrugged. “I was wrong. I like you, Charlie. A whole hell of a lot. I admire your strength. You’ve fought back against things that would have broken another person. You’ve been here two weeks, and already the dynamic of my family has changed. I can actually envision a future where my siblings and I are friends again, and that wasn’t something I would have thought possible without you there to push me.”
She blinked. “I … This is crazy.”
“Tell me you don’t feel anything for me beyond lust and I’ll let it go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Aiden read the hesitance in the way Charlie held herself and knew he’d pushed too hard. He should have guessed that she’d dig in her heels if he threw the idea of a real marriage at her with no warning, but the notion of losing her had been weighing on him for days. The last forty-eight hours, with the shootout and then the breakthrough at the fundraising dinner, had only cemented it.
He wanted Charlie in his life, and he wanted her there for good.
Obviously, she’d take a bit more convincing before she got on the same page, but he was more than up to the task. If he’d learned anything about her, it was that she didn’t respond well to feeling like she was cornered. He’d broached the subject, and now the ball was firmly in her court.
He wanted her to choose him. And not because he’d used sex to manipulate her into staying.
Patience. You have time. He sat back and smiled. “We can talk about it later.”
She gave him a look like he’d just whipped out a poisonous snake and threatened her with it. “What’s your angle?”
They hadn’t had time to build more than a superficial layer of trust. It was tempting to try to charm her, but she’d asked for him to be just him tonight. So he went with the honest answer. “The subject obviously freaks you out, and forcing you to talk about it isn’t going to do anything except ruin our night. I’m willing to be patient while you figure out how you feel about the whole thing. This wasn’t part of the plan you agreed to when you first came here.” He lifted his glass of wine. “So we won’t talk about it until you’re ready.”
“You’re being awfully agreeable right now.”
And she was being understandably suspicious. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “What would you do if I tried to force your hand or manipulate you into doing what I want?”
“I’d leave.”
Even hearing the words made his chest ache. He set the wineglass down. “Exactly. No games. No masks. No manipulations. Just the truth. I want you. I put myself out there and took the first step. I think you want me, too, but you need time. I get that. So take your time, and we’ll talk again after the Eldridge threat is removed.”
“Removed. Is that the only solution you have for enemies?” She flinched and held up her hand. “Sorry. I’m lashing out. That’s not fair. You just caught me off guard.”
“I know.” Aiden let himself take her in the same way she had when he’d first walked into the office. Today, she wore a pair of jeans that looked new enough that he figured they were among the items Liam had strong-armed her into buying, with a tank top that clung to her frame in a way that made his mouth water. The jacket covered up the fact that the majority of her bandages were gone, leaving only the butterfly ones on a few of the cuts. She looked like a grunge warrior with her alternative hair and ever-present bright red lipstick.
“Tell me about your day.”
She hesitated, but eventually relented. “Carrigan called me to schedule a time to get together next week, and we ended up chatting for a while about the new moves she’s making with her nonprofit.”
He was glad his oldest sister had already made overtures. “She and James have done a lot of good in the last few years.” If he’d pulled his head out of his ass and stood up to their father, she could have been doing the same things under the O’Malley name.
But that was in the past now. Carrigan was happy, which was all that really mattered.
It didn’t hurt that her relationship with James Halloran had effectively doused what was left of the brewing conflict between their families.
“Do you …”
“Do I have any charitable shell company set up to do good in the world? Not yet.” He wished that he’d taken the time to do something exactly like that so he could show Charlie that a life with him didn’t have to be one spent in the darkness. There was that element, of course. He couldn’t change that. But it wasn’t just that element. “I like how Carrigan’s run things over there, though.”
“Me too. It’s not like I thought at all.” She gave him a half smile. “None of this is.”
“But not all bad.”
That earned him a laugh. “No, not all bad.” She finally picked up her wineglass again and swirled the dark red liquid around. “Though I have to get out of this house. I’ll go crazy if I’m cooped up much longer. The only reason I haven’t up to this point is because you keep sexing me into submission, and it’s hard to work up the energy to bolt when I’m all blissed-out.”
He laughed, just as he suspected she had intended. “It sounds like it’s a terrible problem to have.”
“It is. Just awful. Keep it up.”
“In that case …” He took her hand, urging her up out of her seat and into his lap. “It sounds like I’ve left you wanting for too long.”
“More than twelve hours? Without a doubt.” She ran her hands down his chest. “You’d better talk me down so I don’t find a convenient window to slip through in my escape attempt.”
He liked her like this, relaxed and flirty. He suspected he was getting a glimpse of the woman she’d been before her world came crashing down around her. Aiden hooked a hand into the band of her jeans, his fingers teasing the top of her panties. “If you have that much energy, maybe I should keep you with me in my office. You’d have to wear something, naturally, because I’m not overly fond of the thought of anyone else knowing that you’re half a second from coming for me … A dress. Or a skirt.” He used his other hand to flick open the top button and pull down the zipper, allowing him to dip inside her panties. “Nothing underneath, though, unless you want to get inventive with garters and thigh-high stockings.”
“I’m not really a garter-and-thigh-high-stocking kind of woman.” She hissed out a breath as he created a V with his fingers and slid his hand up and down, stroking her clit between them. “But I might be willing to make an exception.”
“You could wear anything and it would do it for me. I’m not picky.”
Charlie laughed. “Not picky except when it comes to what I’m wearing under my clothes.”
“Except for that.” He kept his pace slow and controlled, teasing her. He liked the way her lips parted and the intensity of her eyes on him as her breathing picked up. There was no danger in her forgetting who was making her feel like this. They were both here. They were both present in a way he’d never been during sex. He enjoyed the hell out of it because it was Charlie. He wanted what was inside her head as much as he wanted what was between her thighs.
She gripped his shoulders hard enough that her nails pricked him through the fabric. “Aiden.”
“Tell me what you need.” He already knew, but he wanted to hear the words from her.
She shifted, widening her legs and then whimpering when the move tightened her jeans so he couldn’t move as freely. “More. I want all of you.”
“Then take all of me.” It felt like he was offering a whole lot more than his cock, but he didn’t take the words back. Instead, he undid his slacks as she stood and shimmied out of her jeans and panties. Charlie didn’t once look behind her at the door leading to the house or seem all that concerned that there were people who could walk in on them at any time. He’d made sure they wouldn’t, but the fact that she trusted him without asking made his heart give a strange leap.<
br />
She straddled him again, but he stopped her with a hand on her hip. “Condom, bright eyes.” He dug around in his jacket until he came up with the one he’d stashed there earlier.
“Carrying some around with you? You’re learning.”
“It appears I can be taught.” He guided his cock to her entrance with one hand, using the other to urge her to sink onto him. As tempting as it was to let her guide this encounter, he knew what she liked—what they both liked. “You’re not on top tonight.”
“What—oh.”
He stood and set her in the chair he’d previously occupied, while he knelt on the floor in front of her. Their height difference meant they lined up perfectly like this. He spread her legs wider and draped them over the arms of the chair. A quick adjustment had her ass at the very edge. “Take off your bra. Let me see you.” His position blocked the line of sight from the door in the minimal chance someone managed to make it past Liam to the deck, and he wanted to see her breasts bounce with every stroke as he fucked her.
“I wish I was wearing your shirt.”
The memory only made his cock harder. He thrust a little. “Later.” She slipped her bra off without taking off her shirt completely, then pulled up her tank top to reveal her breasts. The sight was even hotter than if she’d been completely naked. “Stroke your nipples. They’re feeling neglected.”
“God forbid.” She did as he told her, pinching them slightly, the way he did, her hissed exhale music to his ears. To reward her, he started moving, sliding slowly out of her and then back in, just as measured and controlled.
“Now cup them. Yeah, just like that.” He managed three more strokes and then he couldn’t take the temptation any longer. Aiden pushed her hands away and cupped her breasts himself, flicking his tongue over one nipple and then the other. She went wild beneath him, her hands going to his hips and pulling him closer yet. He surged into her once, twice, a third time. “I know you’re on the edge, bright eyes. Let me take you there.” He set his teeth against one of her breasts hard enough that she jerked.
