by Sable Sylvan
That touch. The touch of a man with real power, who, beyond the four walls of this penthouse, was a man who could do whatever he wanted, who, with the mere swipe of a credit card or the writing of a check, could change people’s lives for better or for worse. It was a touch that revealed vulnerability to Carmen, because although Carmen longed for Aiden’s touch, it was truly Aiden who needed her gentle curves in his arms, to ground him, to give him purpose, to make him feel a passion that would bring a weaker man to his knees. He held onto Carmen gently, although he wished to hold her more firmly, because as a human, she was much more delicate than him, a man who could be hit by an eighteen wheeler and walk away with minor cuts and bruises, but who, with one look from her, could have his insides turned to jelly, as if she were a reverse Medusa who softened his heart rather than turning his body to stone.
He inhaled, smelling Carmen’s scent, through the strong smell of cleaning products that she’d handled all day, through the scent of her soap, which he could still scent out even though she’d taken that shower hours ago. He smelled her at her core, the naturally musky but floral scent of a woman which hinted to an inner sweetness, both figuratively and literally...as the scent of her arousal, a familiar smell to him, was sniffed out by his powerful nose.
Although they’d only met a handful of times in the flesh, he’d smelled her mysterious scent when he had returned home on Friday nights, smelling the scent of the maid who left traces of herself around his home as if she were a ghost. Unlike a poltergeist, she hadn’t left his apartment an upturned mess. No, instead, she had cleaned it, left it better than she found it, and there were the traces of her presence, in the cleaned up piles of magazines on his counter tops, in the crumbs that moved from the counter to the trash, in his very sheets.
Those sheets. On the days where Carmen had cleaned his apartment most thoroughly, she’d done his sheets, sheets he barely slept in, haunted day and night by the loneliness of the apartment he longed to share with another. He’d come home and the smell would hit him like a wrecking ball, the scent of sweet petals and of honey sweet arousal, which passed through the doorway and into his body like a ghost possessing him and then, as the shock of the smell left him, and he found himself gripping the entryway of the door so as not to crumble to the floor from the strength of the smell, he would walk through the apartment, carefully, taking a shower first, in order to make the smell of the mysterious ghost of a maid linger longer. He’d lie down in the sheets, which still smelled of her, and imagine what this maid must look like, the woman who he found himself pretending was there, in the condo with him, a woman who he found himself trying to imagine. She left no traces of herself that he could glean an appearance from for the longest time, until he found an errant black hair, long and wavy, which he knew must be hers, and until he happened to see the imprint of a curvy buttocks on his mattress when she once forgot to smooth the bed out after sitting on it while folding towels. That imprint had confirmed the woman had the perfect body, a body that would drive him wild if he caught an errant glimpse of its passing silhouette through a curtain one night.
But back to the sheets. Clean sheets on his bed meant two things.
One, the maid had spent a longer amount of time than usual in the apartment, as linens were low on the cleaning priority list. It was long enough time to make her scent penetrate every last corner of the apartment, to the point that he would unexpectedly catch her scent when opening the little used refrigerator, or opening a cupboard to retrieve a plate he’d only used a few dozen times in the years he’d spent in the penthouse.
Two, she’d touched his bedding, which meant her scent would permeate his bed for the next week, which, rather than lull him to sleep, would keep him on the edge, unable to sleep for the first few nights after the bed was redone, instead, leading him to sit on one of his many thick, plush arm chairs and imagine the thick, plush maid whose curves he’d love to wrap his arms and teeth around, as he inhaled the scent of the curvy seductress from the pillows, sucking the scent from the bedding as if he was a vampire attempting to absorb her very scent.
All this, he had told Carmen in the journals, and all this, they both now knew, a secret with low stakes, but a secret that confirmed that the two were truly meant for one another. Carmen had replied in the journal about how she’d smelled the primal scent of Aiden around the apartment, about how the scent of Aiden in every corner of the apartment confirmed that yes, somebody lived there, but they did not truly call the palatial penthouse their home, treating it more like a hotel than a luxury residence.
All that had changed when he met Carmen for the first time. Now, as they sat in front of the TV, food on the counter, the television actually being used rather than acting as a black mirror, the couch actually being used as a love seat for lovers rather than as something for business associates to perch on, the penthouse was starting to feel more like a home.
“Carmen...” started Aiden. Carmen stiffened up in his arms. The rule. No talking. He’d forgotten about that for a second...it was so easy to forget about the rules when around her, a woman who lived in a world with totally different guidelines than the world he was from. “Sorry. Fuck. Sorry. Again. I wasn’t talking to you, I just...” Aiden was about to express his frustration, when he realized he might’ve found another loophole.
“I’m not talking to Carmen, but if I was...” started Aiden. Carmen’s heart beat faster and Aiden could sense that, but he still held onto her. “If I was...I’d tell her just how much she means to me, even though we can’t break the rules.”
Carmen had been so used to silence in the penthouse that now that Aiden had broken that silence, her head and her heart were racing. She’d broken so many of her aunt’s rules, not only in word, but in spirit. Her aunt hadn’t specifically said not to eat food or cuddle or watch television with Aiden, but she’d flip out if she ever found out what they were doing. She couldn’t put the cat (or the bear, as the case may be) back in the bag, so she counted to ten in her head and took a deep breath, before shakily saying, “If I could tell Aiden one thing...it’d be how I’m not sure what to do.”
She’d caught on and replied. Smart girl, thought Aiden. “If I could tell Carmen one thing...it would be that everything’s going to be just fine,” said Aiden.
“I can’t talk to Aiden but if I could, I’d tell him that things are different in my world,” said Carmen. “I’d tell him that some problems can’t be solved with just money.”
“If I could tell Carmen anything, I’d tell her that money makes things a lot easier,” said Aiden. “And makes more problems disappear than you know.”
“I’d tell Aiden that he might be a billionaire, but things are a lot more complicated than he thinks they are,” said Carmen, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes.
“I’d tell Carmen that she might think she’s street smart, but things can be way more simple,” teased Aiden, pulling back Carmen’s hair so it was behind her shoulders and to one side.
The feel of Aiden’s fingers on her neck was wholly unexpected. She hadn’t expected Aiden to go that far touching her. She turned. Aiden stopped...until Carmen nodded her head and pulled her hair aside.
Aiden picked Carmen up so she was sitting over his lap...although at first, she thought she was sitting on his knee, because of the bump that was between her thighs. That was no knee, though. No, it was Aiden’s desire for her, which throbbed and grew as he pressed his lips gently against her neck, his hands holding her tight. Aiden’s mouth was gentle and sweet, but his hands were rough and grabby, as if Aiden could only keep a cool level of control over one part of his body at a time, the rest of his body obeying the laws of nature rather than the laws of man. Gone was the coolheaded billionaire who had managed to keep Carmen at an arm’s length for a mere meeting, replaced by a man who was more beast than billionaire.
The bear in Aiden roared, not out of rage, but out of feeling pure strong emotion. This was the moment the bear had been waiting for, the moment w
here the man stopped taking things slow and calmly, like a human, but the moment where the man let instinct take over and lead things to the next level. Humans, thought the bear, frustrated. Humans always seemed to make things more complicated than need be. They’re frikkin’ mammals, how hard could mating be? Courtship, overrated. A nice cave, a pile of leaves...that was enough for the bear, and frankly, for the man.
Aiden told the bear to kindly shut the frik up because the bear was being distracting, his dark emerald eyes flashing bright green as he thought this. It was fine for the bear to want to talk to him during multinational business meetings, but not when real important shit, like wooing the mate, was at hand. The bear grumbled as it went back into its cave.
Carmen couldn’t help but buck back against Aiden as he left whisper kisses along her neck and up to her chin. It wasn’t enough for her. She had to turn around, and look over the man who was making her feel as if her entire body was being bathed in a waterfall of pleasure. Carmen got up, turned, and sat back down to straddle Aiden, running her hands over his large, firm body which made her feel absolutely tiny in comparison. She loosened Aiden’s tie and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt gingerly before pressing her lips to Aiden’s neck, kissing him as gently as he had kissed her.
Aiden started to unbutton his shirt gently, but in the midst of the passion, was unable to find the fine motor skills to do so quickly, and what he needed was that shirt off, on the floor, quickly, so he could feel Carmen’s body against his. He pulled the shirt, hard, the buttons making no sound as they hit the carpeted living room floor, as Aiden revealed his chest to Carmen.
Carmen pulled back from Aiden’s neck, looking down at his chest. Broad, with firm pecs, the one thing that stood out was the tattoo-like mark that covered his chest. It was the mate mark. Most girls in the Pacific Northwest who were somewhat familiar with shifters knew what this meant. It was the mark that a shifter received on a specific part of their body at a specific time, which varied by clan or species, that told a shifter who their true love was, or at least, provided some sort of hint. Once the shifter met the person who the mark was meant to symbolize, and they consummated their union, that person would become the shifter’s “fated mate”, a true love who the shifter would dedicate their life to.
Carmen looked at Aiden. “Can...can I touch it?” she asked. She caught herself addressing Aiden directly, no longer playing the game they’d played, her aunt’s rules be damned.
“Go ahead,” said Aiden, noticing Carmen was now just talking to him without pretext. He put his arms behind his head to look cool and collected, although his heart was beating fast as the bear inside Aiden told him that this was it, the moment that he’d learn if Carmen was the one for him, who would take it to the next level, or whether she’d be scared away from the prospect of being with him for real.
Carmen ran her hands over the mark. It looked surprisingly like a tattoo, but the colors were too strong and bright to be from a tattoo. Black ink would have faded to a navy blue or a gray or brown, but the black lines on the mate mark were as dark and saturated as if they had been laid down by a tattooist’s gun or a medieval scribe’s quill just seconds before. There was an outline of dark lines which had small sharp parts that she swore she could feel her fingers be pricked by as she ran the tips of the fingers over the lines. The lines ran around the entire outside of the mate mark. The inside of the mate mark had a mix of thin and thick lines, mostly soft and organic curves that had only been slightly stylized by the brush of fate.
The lines and curves on the inside formed familiar shapes, the shapes of leaves, of a tree, of blades of grass, of plants she knew well, all in sepia tones from light brown to dark brown and black, with spots of white. However, the flowers inside looked withered and dead, outlined in black. The outside of the circular mate mark was made of vines with thorns, capped on the top half with the forms of large pink and red petals.
“Do you know what this means?” asked Aiden.
“I do...” said Carmen. “But how is it possible?”
“How is what possible?” asked Aiden. “You’re perfect for me, Carmen. That’s what this means. Your name, it’s Carmen, right? As in...garden.”
Carmen looked at Aiden. She shook her head. “No. I know that Carmen can mean garden, but it’s a name with multiple origins...and the origin of my name is actually song or poem.”
Aiden’s heart fell. The bear roared, eyes flashing green as it filled Aiden with disappointment. “So...this mark has nothing to do with you?” asked Aiden.
“No...Aiden, it has everything to do with me,” said Carmen.
“But you just said...” started Aiden.
“Aiden, you might be a billionaire, but you don’t know jackshit about my life,” said Carmen, crossing her arms. “So just sit back and let me explain.”
“Okay, okay,” conceded Aiden.
“No, my name doesn’t mean garden...but I’m named after my grandmothers,” said Carmen. “One was named Carmen...and the other was named Briar-Rose. My full name is Carmen Briar-Rose Jackson.”
“Briar-Rose...” said Aiden softly.
“Exactly, like the frame around the mate mark, which is technically part of the mark, yes? It’s a briar rose, just like my middle name,” said Carmen.
“And your other grandma?” asked Aiden.
“Her name was Carmen, and I’m named after her, and her name was Carmen as in ‘song’, not Carmen as in ‘garden’, but...her garden was the place where my parents met,” said Carmen softly. “My father...before he passed, he loved my mother deeply, and they met in my grandmother Carmen’s garden. She had hired help for the summer to do household tasks once her husband passed, you see, and my mother, who is a lot like me, helped my grandma Carmen around the house a lot too. That’s how she met my dad. My dad did the handyman work, and my mom would eat lunch with him every day, out in that garden...and that’s where he proposed to her too. That garden...it meant a lot to my family. I never thought I’d see it again except for in pictures, because my grandmother’s house was bought by some big company through eminent domain and by now, I bet they’ve bulldozed the place, but...” Carmen started to choke up.
“But what?” asked Aiden gently, wiping a tear from Carmen’s eyes.
“Don’t you see, Aiden?” asked Carmen. “The garden...it’s replicated in exact detail on your mate mark. Trust me, there’s only one person that knows that garden on your chest, who is named ‘Briar-Rose’...and that’s me.”
“Carmen...you need to know something about the mate mark,” said Aiden. “To verify that, well, you’re my fated mate, something has to...happen.”
“Like what?” asked Carmen. “Some kind of ceremony?”
“You could call it that, but...well, for bear shifters, the way it works is, we have to have sex,” said Aiden. “So, I know we’ve only known each other for a few weeks, but...”
Carmen put a finger up to Aiden’s lips. “Aren’t you supposed to be this super suave billionaire playboy?” teased Carmen. She pointed to the clock in the room. “Aiden. Of course I want that dick. But look at the time. It’s not like we have time to do anything more than a quickie, and Aiden...if we’re gonna do this, we gotta do it right. No more sneaking around, no more rule breaking. We have to figure out something. I’ll come up with some plan next week, and we’ll see what happens. But I want you, Aiden, and you don’t have to beg, Mr. Bear.”
“Whew. Thanks for saying that,” said Aiden. “You’re right. We’ve gotta do this right. I’ll see you next week, right?”
“Right,” said Carmen. “And I promise I’ll have a solution for us by then, okay?”
“Okay,” said Aiden, helping Carmen up.
She used his bathroom to clean herself up, so that not a hair was out of place, before going to the kitchen and spraying down the counter.
“You know you don’t have to do that, right?” asked Aiden.
“If I don’t go back smelling like cleaning fluid, my aun
t will suspect something,” said Carmen. “Actually...this probably is an awful and unhealthy idea, but can you do me a favor?”
“Anything,” said Aiden.
“Here,” said Carmen, passing him the bottle of cleaning fluid. “I’m gonna turn and close my eyes. Spritz it onto my uniform. That way I’ll smell right when I get there.”
“You got it,” said Aiden, obeying Carmen’s orders. She turned as he spritzed her over. “That good?”
“Perfect,” said Carmen. “But knowing my aunt, she’ll figure out something is up...”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Aiden. “You said so yourself, we’ll figure something out. I’ll think about this all week too.”
“You’re right, I should listen to my own advice,” teased Carmen. “I’ll see you next week, Aiden, but I gotta run now to get back to headquarters in time.”
Aiden led Carmen to the elevator and they said their goodbyes, and as Carmen drove off in the company van, Aiden watched from the large living room window, until her van was out of his sight, but she was not out of his mind.
***
Carmen got back to headquarters in time...a little too early, if her aunt had anything to say about it. Polly Jackson’s Friday afternoons were filled with important meetings because it was the end of the work week. However, she’d found herself distracted by the very person that had distracted Aiden all week...her niece, Carmen, the girl who yes, was a hard worker, and who showed promise, but who seemed to have been forgetting what future her family had worked tooth and nail to afford her. There was so much of her brother in Carmen, the eldest child of her deceased brother. She had his soulful eyes and his wild hair, but she also had his penchant for rule-breaking and misplaced rebellion.
Polly had been watching the vans come into the lot all afternoon, unable to concentrate on paperwork...and Carmen, who usually was late, was, for the first time in the longest time, slightly early. Carmen unloaded her things from the van, including her personal items. The designer bag Polly had seen Carmen with wasn’t there this time...and somehow that made Polly even more suspicious of her niece. What exactly had been going on?
