Delicious (Cooking Up A Storm)

by Walker, Annie

  “Please, don’t stop, Aiden.” He didn’t. But he thought about it. He thought about moving away, stilling his body, forcing her to give him an answer to the question he wanted to ask. Why? She had all but forced Miranda on him in his opinion, in a direct attempt to solidify her claim to just being his friend. Cara objected very vocally to ‘his women’ as she referred to the models he’d dated in the past. She expected more from him. He’d been ready to give her that until she’d all but shoved Miranda down his throat.

  In the beginning Miranda’s pursuit had been… entertaining. But it wasn’t long into their relationship that he grew tired of her constant chatter about herself. For the past month or longer, he’d been looking for ways to get out while keeping Miranda around because he’d imagined it rankled Cara in some way. Not to mention it allowed him to be close to her in a way that he hadn’t been able to before.

  Cara’s eyes were sultry black. This was new color for him. He hadn’t seen that color before. But it made him wonder how many others had been privileged enough to see her eyes turn sultry. Had that guy, Jason, as he found himself referring to her current boyfriend.

  He hoped not.

  He felt her body release once more, her muscles clenching and releasing in an excruciatingly seductive way. He continued to move within her through her body’s release but his eyes never left hers. He watched her climax through the windows to her soul.

  He was close. His muscles tensed with holding back. He drove hard into her once, twice then cried out her name and went into her waiting arms.

  * * * *

  Aiden rolled away from her. Cara caught her breath as his anger returned. He leaned over her, judging.

  “How could you do that to me, Cara? I trusted you.” For one brief moment, she thought he’d guessed. That Aiden had seen the truth in her eyes. The truth she couldn’t deny.

  “You’re my friend. How could you not tell me Miranda was cheating on me?” Her world crashed around her with those words. It wasn’t her he’d wanted. It was his angry reaction to Miranda’s betrayal that fueled his passion.

  “I’m sorry,” Cara said with a shaky gulp gasp of breath. What could she possibly tell him? She wanted to get away. For the first time in years, she felt like crying.

  Aiden’s hand moved over her breast, stroking it slowly. She caught her breath but couldn’t stop her body from reacting. Her nipple hardened beneath his stroke.

  “How long? I want you to tell me how long she’s been cheating on me?” There was something almost twisted about being touched by Aiden in this way and being told to tell him how long his girlfriend had been cheating on him. It felt like he was cheating on her with every stroke. Did he imagine Miranda’s body instead of hers? Cara’s stomach clenched at the thought of him making love to her, while needing Miranda.

  How could she possibly tell him anything? She couldn’t breathe over the pounding of her heart. It slammed against her chest from sheer reaction to his touch. Her last coherent thought disappeared when his lips replaced his fingers against her nipple.

  “Tell me.” She didn’t. That didn’t stop him.

  “Suit yourself, but you know you will. You are going to tell me the truth, Cara. One way or another.”

  And then Aiden stopped asking. His lips grew more and more demanding. They found Cara’s once more. For one split second, she tried to resist him. He simply laughed at her effort. And then she was struggling to touch him as well. To be closer. She couldn’t get close enough to him.

  Aiden made love to her in that same controlled, angry way that drove her wild with desire.

  Each time, after he lay next to her he demanded answers that Cara couldn’t give to him. Until some time in the early morning hours, he told her he didn’t want to talk about Miranda anymore. They spent the rest of the night trying to get enough of each other. Aiden woke her from troubled sleep over and over, until she awoke sometime just before dawn and found him sleeping peacefully next to her.

  She got out of his bed, gathering her straying clothing from where he’d tossed it after removing it from her body. She dressed quickly and tiptoed out of his door, into the cool muggy morning.

  Cara was full of regrets as she walked down the paved drive to the corner and down the deserted street, thankful that there was no one around to see her shame. Her body ached from being possessed by him.

  She couldn’t believe she’d given into her selfish needs and let things get so out of hand between them. She’d cheated on Jason. He didn’t deserve it. She hadn’t even slept with Jason yet. Somehow, in all the months that they’d dated, Cara had managed to find some excuse not to let him in her bed. She knew the real reason. Aiden. She was crazy about Aiden.

  She just betrayed Miranda. She did deserve it. And she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d destroyed the only friendship that really mattered amongst them all.

  Chapter Three

  “Why did you leave like that?” Aiden’s voice came through Cara’s phone line, reminding her of the night she’d just spent in his bed.

  Her body grew hot. Weak. She wanted to be with him again. She needed to breathe. She felt sick.

  “Aiden, hi, um, you were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake you.” When the awkward silence between them continued, Cara remembered all the times he’d woken her. She stammered, “I have an appointment very early this morning. I didn’t want to be late. I needed to get my car. I was…I didn’t want to be late.”

  “Cara…” Her name coming from Aiden’s lips sounded like a caress. Reminding her of how it felt to be kissed by him. It also sounded frustrated. “I don’t know what to say? I’m…”

  Before he could actually get the words ‘I’m sorry’ out she interrupted, “It was a mistake Aiden. Last night was a mistake. You were upset and…”

  “And you were what? Just being a good friend?” Was that anger? Or wishful thinking on her part? She could almost imagine that Aiden hadn’t liked her answer.

  “Aiden, we both know it was a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened. It wouldn’t have happened had you not…”

  “Been upset because my girlfriend has been cheating on me?” Aiden supplied. Cara felt even sicker.

  Her hand clamped over her mouth. “Aiden…hold on.” She dropped the phone on the bed and ran to the bathroom praying that he couldn’t actually hear the sound of retching. She had behaved horribly the night before. She was a terrible friend. To Aiden. To Miranda.

  “Cara? Are you okay?” she could hear him asking as she picked up the receiver again. He’d heard.

  “I’m fine. Just a little under the weather.”

  “You’re sure? Because you don’t sound fine. You’re not…”

  He couldn’t finish the words and her mind went crazy with possibilities? What? She wasn’t what? She wasn’t sick. Guilty. Pregnant? Her heart literally missed a beat at that thought. They hadn’t exactly taken precautions. They’d both acted irresponsibly. Cara dropped the phone again.

  “Cara?” She caught the panic in Aiden’s voice.

  She grabbed the receiver once more. “I’m okay. I just ate something that didn’t agree.”

  His silence told her he wasn’t convinced, but he wasn’t ready to argue either. Aiden’s mind was on other things.

  “Cara, we should talk about this.”

  “No, no. We don’t need to talk about it, Aiden. Not at all. Ever.” There’s nothing to talk about really. She tried to sound untouched, but her voice came out strangled. “Look Aiden, it happened. We both know the reasons why. And we both know that it was a mistake. Let’s just leave it at that.”

  “Really? Are you really as unaffected by last night as you sound? You know you’re not very good for my ego right now, Cara?” He tried to make a joke but Aiden still sounded angry.

  Unaffected? No, Cara wasn’t unaffected. She was hanging onto what was left of her pride by a thread. She wanted to ask him if last night had meant anything to him beyond just a way to get back at Miranda. She couldn’t. She wa
s afraid of what his answer might be.

  “Look, there’s really no need for Jason or Miranda to know about this.”

  The silence that greeted those words was deafening. She tried to guess what he was thinking. She couldn’t.

  “Have you spoken to Miranda today?” The sharp sound in his voice had her wondering how much Aiden missed her already.

  Cara considered her answer. What did Aiden want to hear?

  “No, but I’m sure she’s traveling so…”

  “I spoke to her, Cara . She knows. I’m sorry. The words were out before I could stop them.”

  “Aiden, how could you do that? How could you…”

  “Easy, she had just told me she’d been seeing some old, extremely wealthy, French guy for months.” His voice edged with resentment.

  “Aiden, I’m sorry.” Cara pushed the phone away, held her hand over her mouth, and breathed until the uneasiness passed. “Miranda’s just…”

  “Yeah, Miranda’s just Miranda. Apparently, she’s been sleeping with the guy for quite a long time. While I was away in Little Rock. I’ve been working like crazy trying to…” He stopped. Was he remembering that he’d just slept with her last night?

  “Aiden, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

  “That’s bullshit, Cara. You knew she was seeing him.”

  “Yes,” she told him quietly. She couldn’t deny it. Aiden knew her too well. She started to cry silent tears.

  “How could you do that to me? How long? How long have you kept it from me?”

  “Aiden, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She hated the wobbly sound of her voice. She knew that he’d picked up on her tears by the silence.

  “Are you crying?” he asked in a tense voice. Aiden didn’t like her tears.

  “Yes. I’m sorry, Aiden. Can you ever forgive me?”

  His answer cut like a knife. “I don’t know. I trusted you. I can almost forgive Miranda. After all, she’s selfish. But you? I expected more from you, Cara. You were my friend.”

  Were? “Aiden…” She couldn’t think of anything to say. What could she possibly say? Aiden was right. They had been friends a good six months before she made the fatal mistake of inviting Miranda to the benefit party Aiden’s firm was throwing. Aiden had taken one look at Miranda and ditched his then current flavor of the moment model. Miss December.

  And that just about summed up Cara’s relationship with Aiden. Mistakes and a long continuous series of bad calls on her part.

  They met by accident. Aiden had gotten roped into helping plan a Christmas party for the firm as its newest and youngest member of management. It was some sort of rite of passage he’d told her later. Aiden had been just unhappy enough to do the opposite of what his firm normally did. Which was to host one of those glamorous black tie get-togethers. When Aiden called Shelby to set up the interview Cara was thrilled. She didn’t realize that calling her small, party planning, slash catering, slash sweet shop, had actually been done as a joke. Aiden didn’t tell her that little detail until much later, after she’d gotten the contract and won his respect, his firm’s and a great deal of Dallas, Texas’ as well.

  That party had made Delicious the talk of the town and had put Cara on the map. She was the ‘new up and coming, quirky, little party planner’ as the local paper had hailed. That had set the town on its ear.

  “Aiden, please, you have to forgive me. I never meant to hurt you. I just didn’t think it was my place to tell you.”

  “I can’t believe you’d say that Cara. You were my friend.”

  “Would you stop saying that? I’m still your friend, Aiden.”

  “Really? Then what was last night?”

  Suddenly, she couldn’t catch her breath, much less think of any unmoved response to that angry condemnation.

  “Do you sleep with all your friends, Cara? I’ve heard of going the extra mile for a friend, but I think you took that way beyond the extra mile, don’t you? Does Jason know? Poor bastard.” She barely caught that last part.

  “No! Aiden how can you ask that? And leave Jason out of this?”

  “Why, doesn’t he deserve to know the truth? I mean didn’t you just do to him what you couldn’t tell me Miranda was doing to me?”

  “Didn’t you?” she couldn’t keep from saying. Aiden’s anger hurt. Almost as much as what he’d said.

  Cara listened to the silence once more and tried to keep from being sick. In the past, she and Aiden had their share of disagreements. Mostly when he talked about the hoards of models who all but threw themselves at his feet. She hated that Aiden could be so shallow when it came to women. He, on the other hand, never stopped poking fun at her selection of men. Jason being the latest was his favorite target. Jason was an attorney at his father’s law firm and completely head over heels in love with Cara, though she didn’t feel the same about him. How could she? She was crazy for Aiden. And even though she hadn’t as much as slept with poor Jason, Cara knew it was time to end the thing. Especially now.

  “Oh, God.” She realized that she’d actually said those words out loud when Aiden asked if she were going to be sick again. No, just riddled with guilt.

  She’d given into Aiden way to easily. She wasn’t any different from the hoard of models. And she could just kiss the old excuse she was fond of giving Jason, of wanting to wait until she was sure she was established and set financially to start an intimate relationship, out the door. She hadn’t been waiting for anything but Aiden.

  Please don’t let him guess the truth. Don’t let him know how crazy I am about him.

  “Dammit, Cara? Are you sure you’re all right?” Aiden asked again, forcing her to answer.

  “Yes, I’m sorry I was just thinking about Jason.”

  “Great. That’s just what I wanted to hear from the woman I’d spent the night making love to. That she’s thinking about another man.”

  “Oh, like you weren’t thinking of Miranda every time you…you were only trying to get even. Get her out of your system. Hurt her. Looks like you did. Jason doesn’t deserve that. Even if Miranda does.”

  “Just shut up about Jason will you, Cara? I don’t want to hear about him or how happy you are with him. Apparently not happy enough. At least not in bed.”

  If he’d actually been standing in front of her at that moment, Cara would have given into the need to slap the hell out of him. As it was, she was glad that Aiden wasn’t. Otherwise, he’d see the color in her face. And the truth in her eyes.

  “I’m hanging up now. I’ll call you in a few days when you’re thinking more clearly.” She almost had the receiver replaced when she heard him say, “You can’t, Cara. I’m leaving today, remember?” It took a minute to get air in her lungs. Aiden’s promotion. The move to Little Rock. She remembered the promotion party because she’d helped plan it. But the fact that Aiden was leaving for Little Rock had always seemed far away. It wasn’t any longer.

  Last night he’d told her that was what he needed to talk to Miranda about. The promotion had been moved up when the current senior executive of Shelby Advertising ran away with his secretary. Aiden was now in charge and needed to get things in order as soon as possible. Apparently, the man had left a disaster in the wake of leaving his wife of twenty odd years.

  Aiden had told her all of this last night, right before they’d made love. Cara forgot all about the promotion and the fact that Aiden was leaving today after that. Until now.

  Now, it felt as if her heart would literally break into a million tiny pieces. She tried not to show him how much the thought of him leaving hurt.

  “Well, I guess you don’t have any reason to stick around Dallas anymore, do you Aiden? With Miranda…unavailable,” she told him frostily.

  “I guess not,” he added, equally as cold. And the silence between them returned.

  Cara stood in the middle of her bedroom, still dressed in her robe; her short, brown hair wet and dripping. All thoughts of the client she was supposed to be meeting in just a few minutes were go
ne. She wanted to cry. To beg him to stay. Instead, she was silent.

  Aiden was the one to call an end to their childish behavior. She heard his heavy sigh before he told her he was sorry.

  “I don’t want to fight with you Cara. You’re my…friend. You mean too much to me. I’m sorry, but after last night, I don’t know how I should be treating you, I guess. Things got a little out of hand, didn’t they?”

  “Yes.” She hated his apology. It only confirmed what Cara knew already. Aiden would always only be her friend.

  “Cara, look, we should talk about this. I can change my flight.” She couldn’t speak. He was leaving now? She hadn’t expected him to be leaving so soon.

  “I’ll come over there. We need to talk this through, baby?”

  All heartbroken thoughts ended with that endearment. “No! And don’t call me that. I’m not one of your women, Aiden.”

  “Cara,” he added with another sigh. “I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t think that you were. But we need to talk.”

  “No,” she said, trying to control the sobs. She was crying again. She didn’t want to cry. She hated hearing the pity in his voice. The regret. She couldn’t talk to Aiden like this. Not when he was leaving. Not when she was feeling this vulnerable.

  “Cara, please. I don’t want to leave it this way.”

  “I can’t, Aiden. I have a meeting in ten minutes.” Did her voice really sound as cold to him?

  “Oh, I see. Silly me. I was actually worried that you might be upset about last night.” The anger was back. At that moment, she was almost glad. She didn’t know if their friendship could survive this mistake.

  “Aiden, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant…” What? What did she want him to think? “I just think that we need some time apart. We’re both too emotional to discuss this right now. You’ve been hurt. I know that you loved Miranda…”

  “Oh really?” he snapped. Aiden’s anger had her even more confused.