by Hazel Kelly
“So what is it?” I pressed my hands against his arms so I could go see for myself but he locked his fingers together.
“Ah-ah.”
“What?”
“If you want to see what’s behind the door, you have to close your eyes.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No.”
“I won’t do it. Remember last time you told me to close my eyes and led me into a closet?”
“That was different.”
“How?”
“Well, we were twelve.”
“So?”
“Plus, that really was a closet.”
“You locked me in there!”
“Only while I went home for lunch. It was only like twenty minutes.”
“More like forty five!”
“Yeah, but Zoey Cronin didn’t find you did she?”
“No. No one ever would’ve found me!”
“I promise this is different. That time we were playing a game.”
“And this isn’t a game?”
“No,” he said. “This is serious.”
I laughed. “So basically you’re telling me to close my eyes because things are about to get serious?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds like terrible advice under any circumstance.”
“Just do it.”
I stuck my lower lip out. “Do I have to?”
“Yes.”
“And if I won’t?”
“You’ll never know what’s behind that door.”
“It’s going to be water heater, isn’t it? Or a bidet or something weird.”
He shrugged. “Or it might be the back door to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.”
“Goddamnit.”
Aiden smiled.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” I said, pointing at him. “If you promise not to lock me in there or deliberately try to scare me.”
“I promise on one condition.”
“What?”
“No peeking,” he said. “You don’t open your eyes until I tell you to.”
I sighed. “Fine.”
“I’m waiting.”
I shut my eyes and pursed my lips.
He took my hands and walked backwards, talking to me the whole time. “Okay, nice and slow. Keep them closed. Now one second while I open the door- no peeking!”
I heard him turn the handle and open the door.
“Now walk straight forward three steps,” he said, keeping one hand on my lower back. “But don’t open your eyes yet.” His hand disappeared from my back for a split second while he pulled the door shut behind us.
“Can I open them now?”
Chapter 16: Aiden
“Not yet,” I said, walking back in front of her.
“Soon though?”
“Very soon,” I said, taking her hands. “Just a little bit to the right here. That’s it.” I looked down at her dragging feet. “There’s nothing on the floor so don’t worry, you’re not going to fall.”
“I don’t smell any chocolate yet,” she said, smiling.
“Okay now turn around.”
For a second I just stood there looking at her closed eyes and the anticipation showing in her face. She was so beautiful I almost couldn’t stand it.
“Well?” she asked. “Can I open them now?”
I took a deep breath and stepped to the side where I would still be able to see her face. “Okay,” I said. “You can open them now.”
Her eyes popped open and scanned the room. The floor was tiled and there were some carefully arranged props set up that I could see now may have added to her confusion more than anything.
She furrowed her brow and looked at me. “Sorry to be dense, Aiden, but what exactly am I looking at?”
“Locks by Lucy,” I said. “Your new salon.”
Her eyes doubled in size.
“You don’t have to call it that, of course. I just thought it was kind of cute.”
“Wait- what?”
“Well, as you can see, it’s a whole other space, easily large enough for another business owner to move into.”
The color drained from her face.
“It has its own door to the plaza and everything,” I said, pointing behind her.
She looked at the door and then back at the space.
“I know it’s not much, but it’s a start.”
“Oh my god you’re serious?”
“Of course I’m serious. What kind of sick joke would this be if I weren’t?”
She slid one hand around the back of her neck.
I could see she was in shock. “Okay, you’re going to have to use your imagination again, but I thought there could be a front desk over here.”
She followed me with her eyes, her feet stuck to the floor.
“Where you could have your very own hot receptionist.”
She swallowed.
“And you could have some shelving here.” I gestured towards the wall behind me. “To display whatever hair products you’re selling or using or I don’t know. That’s up to you if you want to do that.”
She pursed her lips.
“And I already checked about the plumbing,” I said, running to the far back wall. “You can put as many sinks over here as you want.”
Her eyes followed me around the room.
“And on this wall, you can have your own mirrors with the little stations and the chairs in a row. Can’t you imagine it?”
She nodded.
I walked back to her side, feeling slightly winded from running around during the unveiling. “I wanted to have it completely done for you so you could just walk in and start taking clients, but I decided it was better to show you sooner rather than later.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Plus, now you can make everything exactly the way you want,” I said. “It’ll be better this way. Don’t you think?”
She took a deep breath.
“Lucy?”
Her eyes met mine.
“Say something,” I said.
“I don’t know what to say.”
I smiled. “Say thanks, Aiden, I love it.”
She looked around the room and then back at me. “Aiden, you can’t just buy me a salon.”
I cocked my head. “Yes, I can. I already did.”
She shook her head. “I can’t accept this.”
“Yes you can.”
“No I can’t. It’s way too much.”
“Lucy.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “I want you to have it.”
“But I can’t afford it.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s what makes it such a great gift.”
“I’d have to pay for it. I’d have to pay you back.”
“I don’t want your money.”
“But I’d owe you,” she said, her eyes searching mine. “I’d owe you too much.”
“You wouldn’t owe me anything. If anything, I’m the one that owes you.”
“How do you figure?”
“Well, I never paid you for that haircut you gave me for starters.”
Her eyes sprang into little crescents.
“And it was by far the best haircut I’ve ever gotten.”
She shook her head.
“And if you were willing to give me a few more free haircuts in the future, I think we could call it even.”
“Even?!”
“Yeah.”
“No one has ever done anything like this for me.”
“I’m so glad,” I said. “It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if people did stuff like this for you all the time.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. As soon as Nick suggested I rent this space out to another business, I realized it would be perfect for you.”
“So I would be paying you rent?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t want your mone
y.”
“What do you want?”
“I want you to be happy, Lucy. Isn’t that obvious?”
“Are you sure you don’t just feel guilty that I can’t open my own place?”
“Absolutely not.” I grabbed her hands. “Look, I know you’d be able to open your own place eventually without my help.”
She looked in my eyes.
“I have no doubt about that.”
“Thanks.”
“I mean it,” I said. “But you deserve a break, and I feel incredibly fortunate that I’m in a position to help you out.”
“I don’t want to take advantage of you.”
“You’re not,” I said. “This whole thing was my idea.”
She nodded.
“Plus, it’s as much for me as it is for you.”
“How’s that?”
“Cause we’ll be able to learn from each other. After all, neither of us has ever done anything like this before: opening our own businesses, hiring staff, figuring out how to advertise and grow.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Plus, I think it’ll be a lot more fun this way.”
“You do?”
“Of course. And I guess between how things are going between us and me finally opening my own business, it just feels like all my dreams are coming true.”
She smiled.
“But my dreams are all tangled up in yours, Luce, and the thought of you having your own salon makes me just as happy as the thought of having my own place.”
She put a hand over her chest but didn’t say anything.
“You’ll never have to give anyone your resume again.”
She pursed her lips.
“You could even hire some of the girls from the salon if you wanted,” I said. “Heck, you’ll probably be up and running before I am.”
“But the expense of getting all the chairs and the mirrors and the products.” She gestured towards the front window. “And a couch and a sign and business cards and-”
“I’ve already thought about all that,” I said. “We can afford it. It’s no problem.”
“I’d have to pay you back.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Aiden, I would.” Her face was serious. “I absolutely would.”
“I’m sure we could come to some other arrangement.”
“No,” she said. “I would have to pay you back. No matter how long it took me, I’d have to pay you back.”
“Okay,” I said. “Whatever you want. I know better than to argue with you, but can I make a suggestion?”
“Sure.”
“Why don’t you stop looking for reasons to say no and consider all the reasons you should say yes?”
She looked in my eyes.
“You shouldn’t have to look very far.”
She swallowed.
I reached in my pocket for my key chain and wiggled a key off the ring. Then I held it up in front of her. “What do you say?”
Chapter 17: Lucy
I kept thinking I was about to wake up. Like this couldn’t really be happening. I mean, Aiden was a dream come true without all this.
But how could I say no?
Especially when there were so many reasons to say yes. Like the reason standing right in front of me, dangling a single key in my face.
“It’ll just be you and me against the world,” he said. “Like it’s always been.”
Every part of me wanted to take the key from his hand, but I was still hesitant, still convinced I was imagining the whole thing.
“Well?” he asked.
I looked back and forth between his eyes and the key. “If I say yes, won’t it kind of complicate our friendship?”
He lowered the key and cocked his head. “That’s not really an issue.”
“Why not?”
“Cause I don’t want to be friends with you anymore.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” he said. “I don’t want to be friends.”
I swallowed.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I’m embarrassed about how long it took me to realize it.”
“Realize what?”
“How do I say this?”
I felt my breath catch in my throat.
“Look, Lucy, I don’t know shit about soul mates and all that stuff.”
“Yeah.”
“But I know you’re my best mate, and you always have been.”
I nodded.
“And that’s what I need more than anything else.”
“What?”
“You,” he said, resting his hand along one side of my face. “I need you.”
My lips fell apart.
“All to myself.”
I fell against his lips like there was nowhere else to go, opening my mouth to him so he could steal my breath. I wanted to thank him with words, but all the ones I could think of seemed grossly inadequate under the circumstances so I decided the best I could do was try and make him feel what I felt.
Which was happy. A sort of over the moon will I ever come down kind of happy, and a sense of gratitude that made my heavy boots feel like ice skates. I slid my hands around his thick chest and pulled his back towards me until the heat of his body mixed with mine, kissing him as enthusiastically as ever, craving him as I always had.
And I was relieved that my feelings for him were the same. Despite this grand gesture, it still felt like he was Aiden and I was Lucy. And I knew in my bursting heart that I could believe him, that he would never make me feel like I owed him, that he was happy to help me achieve my dream sooner rather than later. I knew it was all true.
And he was true.
And even if the rest of this was a dream, a fantasy, a hallucination, our feelings for each other were real.
And they were deep.
And they were going to last.
I heard the key clatter against the ground as his other hand slid around my hip and over my butt.
I pulled my arms out from under his and put my hands against his chest, clenching the fabric of his soft shirt in my fists as I swirled my tongue around his.
A moment later, I felt his hands move from over my dress to under it, the feel of his bare skin sending flames up my spine as he slid my underwear down below the curve of my ass. When he let go of it, it fell around my ankles.
I paused for breath. I could feel him staring at me as I looked at his lips while I panted for breath. And then I felt his hand slip between my thighs. He hooked his lips on mine again and when he realized I was already wet, he moaned into my mouth, sending vibrations through my whole body.
My lips felt hot as he dragged his fingers along my slit, soaking my clit in my own juices, stirring me from below until I moaned right back. I lifted one of my boots, freeing it from my underwear so I could move my legs a little wider apart.
Then he stopped kissing me for a moment and looked in in my eyes, making my eyelids flutter as he pushed his fingers inside me.
And when he started fucking me with his fingers, my mouth fell open, and I couldn’t feel my legs. All I could feel was the heat he was sending through me and the presence of his dick straining just in front of me. I let my head fall forward as he erased my mind with his fingers.
I slid my hands down his chest towards his belt, eager to free him, to feel him. “I want you inside me,” I breathed, looking at him through half closed eyes.
“Not yet,” he said, sending heat up the back of my neck.
“Please,” I begged, unhooking the buttons on his jeans one by one.
He leaned down so I could feel his hot breath on my ear. “Not until you’re dripping down my wrist,” he said, his voice gravely.
My breath was shallow, and as I released the last button of his jeans, I could feel the heat coming off his dick right through his boxers.
I moaned and held onto his waistband to keep from collapsing.
“That’s it,” he said. “You’re almost ready for me.”
I tightened my
grip on his pants and opened my eyes as wide as I could. “You’re the one that needs to get ready,” I said, pulling his pants and boxers down so his cock sprang free.
He looked at me and I put a hand on the one that was inside me, pushing it away so his fingers slipped out of me, my pussy squeezing them every inch of the way.
I kept my eyes on him as I dropped to my knees and flicked my tongue around his head, grabbing him with both hands. Then I sunk him into my mouth as deep as I could, reaching around to grab his ass so I could pull him deeper into my mouth.
If I hadn’t been so turned on, I’m sure I would’ve gagged when he hit the back of my throat, but instead I moved back and forth on him, sliding along his shaft. As I squeezed the length of him with my lip wrapped teeth, I moved one hand back to massage his balls. He moaned and moved his feet wider apart, sinking his dick down my throat.
“Fuck me,” he breathed.
And his enthusiasm was contagious.
Soon I felt his hand on the back of my head, but he didn’t push, he just rested it there and I liked it. I liked that he was involved, that I was sucking him so good he needed something to hold on to.
Suddenly I felt him swell in my mouth.
“Stop,” he said. “Christ, Lucy.”
I pulled back and looked past his hard, wet dick at him.
He extended a hand to me. “Get up.”
I put a foot on the ground and rose up from my knees. As soon as I was standing, he grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me as hard and disrespectfully as I’d always wished he would.
I reached for his dick again.
“Not yet,” he said, swatting my hand away.
I searched his eyes for direction.
He laid a hand on my chest and applied just enough pressure so I would know to take a step back, and then another and then another. And then my back hit the wall.
“Now where was I?” he asked, keeping his dark eyes on me as he dropped to his knees and lifted my dress.
He pushed my legs apart with his hands, and I felt his lips at the top of my inner thigh. Then his tongue. He drank his way up to my slit and then dragged his thick tongue across it, circling my clit like a vulture.
I let my head fall back against the wall as he plunged his tongue inside me, my whole body clenching around it as waves of heat rippled through me.
And as the floor dropped out from under me, I was on the Rotor Ride all over again.
