Chloe had seen the look on his face. She’d seen the war that was waging behind his expression. And he was right to have doubts. This needed to end before it went any further. “Just pull over, Aiden. We can’t do this.”
“We can’t eat?” he said, knowing full well what she meant. He did as she asked anyway, pulling the car to a stop on the side of the road.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, Aiden.”
“Maybe I need you to tell me, Chloe. What is it we can’t do?”
She looked down, a blush creeping over her cheeks as she began to feel foolish for even making the comment. Suddenly, she felt very young and naïve. “We can’t… we can’t do this,” she said again, gesturing between the two of them as they sat across from each other in the dark car, the only light coming from the display on the dash and the streetlights overhead.
“Do I scare you, Miss Donovan?” he whispered, asking the same question he’d asked months ago as he kept his hands and eyes on the steering wheel in an effort not to reach for her.
“No, Aiden. I’m scared of how you make me feel.”
He glanced over at her. “And how is that?”
“Like I might burst into flames without you.” The moment she said the words, she wished she could take them back. They sounded silly and dramatic, but they were true. Being around him made her feel combustible. Her chest swelled and her skin heated until she felt that she might burst if she couldn’t have him. “But there are rules, and we shouldn’t be breaking them. It’s not worth it…”
He looked over at her–at her flushed cheeks and her pink swollen lips–and all reason left him again. He had to have her.
“Rules? Fuck the rules,” he murmured, reaching his hand out, gently grazing his thumb over her cheeks. Her head tilted into his hand and her eyes closed as the pleasure of his touch filled her body. “There’s no one here to see.”
Opening her eyes, she forced herself to speak, her voice but a whisper as she struggled to say the right words. “Fuck the rules, Aiden? You know what will happen. How is this going to work?”
“I don’t know. But I want you, Chloe. I want you more than any woman I’ve ever met. You’re all I can think about–all I can dream about. And it’s driving me crazy being so near you, but never being able to touch you for more than a moment. I need you.”
His other hand moved to cup her other cheek, his thumbs moving over her skin as he leaned toward her, causing her mouth to open in a soft, anticipatory gasp.
“Rules are made to be broken,” he murmured, their eyes locked, his mouth only millimetres away from hers.
Then, moving that final distance, he brought his mouth to hers, her lips parting immediately, allowing him to deepen the kiss as his tongue slid over hers. They groaned, a hunger coming to the surface that had nothing to do with food and everything to do with each other. And when they finally parted, each of them felt ruined. Looking into each other’s eyes, they knew they belonged together and that they had to find a way.
Feeling shaken, Aiden cleared his throat and sat back in his seat. “I need to get you home,” he said, his voice bewildered as his mind swirled with the emotions that kiss brought out in him.
Chloe nodded in return. It was all she could do.
Chapter Eight
PRESENT, 13 days before the job
Aiden
“SO, YOU want to tell me what happened with that girl last night?” Marli asks the next morning when she just happens to drop by the office with bacon and egg wraps and a tray of coffee. My sister knows I’m more likely to talk if there’s food involved, and she even brings something for Jared so he’s too busy eating to interrupt.
“Not really,” I reply. “Thanks for breakfast though.” I give her a wink and kiss the top of her head when I see the disappointment flash across her face.
“Well that’s not very nice,” she responds. “Next time I’ll just send a text instead of making a special effort to talk to you in person.”
“I wouldn’t have answered your text either, but I do like that you dropped in with meat products and caffeine.”
For a while we sit quietly and eat. But I know my sister. She’s not about to let up.
“Come on, Aiden. Who was she–an old fling of yours? Although she was a bit young for you, so that can’t be right–or is it? You reacted so weird when you saw her face…who the hell is she?”
I smile at my sister’s rambling. “She’s just someone I used to know–nobody important.”
A burst of laughter erupts from inside her. “Aiden, that’s the biggest line of bullshit I’ve ever heard come out of your lips. I saw the way you went hunting for her after you helped break up that last fight. Then I saw how shitty you were for the rest of the night when you realised she was gone. You wouldn’t even look at that girl who was trying to get your attention, and she was a hottie. So this girl is someone to you. You’re just not admitting it.”
I stand up and walk over to my office door. “Thanks for breakfast, sis. I’ll see you next time I’m at the club.”
“Which will be when? Are you going to avoid it now and palm it off on your lackey out there?” she asks.
“Depends on if you’re going to get into my personal business again,” I state, challenging her with my eyes. I love that Marli cares, but she should know by now that I don’t talk women with her. I never have, despite her insistence.
Shaking her head, she gives me a smile that tells me she still thinks I’m full of shit as she collects her purse and stands to leave. She stops beside me and rises up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek.
“You can lie to yourself all you want, Aiden. But don’t forget, I know you. Perhaps even better than you know yourself.”
I roll my eyes. “Get out and go harass Jeff.”
She laughs, never one to take me seriously. After our mother passed away, Marli kind of took on all the mothering duties, even though she’s younger than me.
“Leave my husband out of this. At least he knows who’s warming his bed at night, unlike you big brother. But I expect that one day you’re going to find a way to be happy too.” She reaches up and hugs me tightly before leaving.
“I doubt that,” I say to myself, as I watch her walk past Jared’s office and wave goodbye. Then I close my door and head back to my desk, burying myself in work, so I can stop thinking about those fucking eyes of Chloe’s that seem to bore into my soul. I barely slept a wink last night after she left my place. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face, and the memories of her surged to the front of my mind like it was all only yesterday.
Three years ago, I had one night with Chloe Donovan. One night that ruined me for every woman since then. One night where she promised me the world. One night where I felt whole…
She gave me one night, one, before she ripped my heart from my chest and set it on fire. Chloe was the one woman I ever allowed myself to care for. The only woman I’d ever considered saying the ‘L’ word to. And she fucking left me without so much as a goodbye, my life turning to shit in her wake.
During our brief relationship, she had spoken of need and want and a desperate longing–all things I had felt alongside her–but it had been a lie. Without warning, she left, and never returned to me. I have spent the last three years trying to hate her for leaving. But I’ve never been able to hate her. Mostly, I was just angry that I couldn’t stop wanting her. That woman owned my heart and soul whether I wanted it or not.
I’ve tried to move on. I’ve fucked more girls than I can count, trying to get her out of my system. But it didn’t make one fucking bit of difference. The moment she walked back in my life, I knew I was fucked. I’ve been pussy whipped by her from the very moment our eyes met. Of course I was going to end up helping her. I just couldn’t make it easy. After all, I still have my pride–even if that pride is shit where she’s concerned and only lasts twenty-four hours. But like I said, that woman owns me.
Tired of fantasising about our past, I open the file
on my desk that Jared had prepared after having her followed yesterday. It contains her street address, the licence number of the car she was in, and whatever information Jared could get on her from his various sources. Some of it is interesting and some I already know. Nothing gives me a hell of a lot of insight into exactly what position Chloe is in right now, and I highly doubt she’ll be able to pay anywhere near the sum she suggested to me…
Shutting the file, I grab the phone on my desk and hit Jared’s extension. He answers on the first ring.
“Boss,” he states.
“Hold the fort. I’m heading out for a while.”
“Anything I need to know?”
“Not yet. I’ll fill you in when I’m ready.” Hanging up the phone, I lock the file in my desk and grab my keys, nodding at Jared as I walk past him to leave the office and head to my car. Chloe isn’t the only person who can show up unannounced.
Chapter Nine
Chloe
WHEN I wake up, Leah has already left for work. I didn’t see him when I got back from Aiden’s last night, and after a night spent tossing and turning I ended up finally falling asleep when the sun had come up so I missed him again at breakfast.
Leah works as a mechanic a couple of towns over. It’s one of the very few privately run mechanics that are left these days. Most of the small ones have shut down due to big chains coming in and taking over the clientele. But in an area like ours, there’s always room for a mechanic with a record, who’s willing to do things a little differently for cash on the side.
I, personally, don’t have a job. I’m still living, very carefully, off the money I received when my farce of a marriage stopped being of benefit to my supposed husband and his scumbag father. They had paid me handsomely to go away quietly, but the press had gotten a hold of the separation news anyway. It was made to look like I had some sort of involvement in my father’s predicament and for a while, it was difficult to live amongst the class of people I had spent my life with. So, I changed my name and kept a very low profile, living well below my means as Leah’s flatmate.
I shuffle into the kitchen, still wearing the oversized shirt I sleep in and a pair of thick socks that probably used to be white but they’re grey now. I pull the coffee pot out of its warm little home and pour myself a cup of the steaming hot liquid. I’d add milk, but I’m pretty sure we’re out of it. Neither of us is very good at shopping for anything besides beer to go with our staple pizza diet, and the coffee that wakes us up every morning. So, I’ve learned to like the bitter taste of black coffee. In a way, it suits me perfectly–bitter to my very core.
The one shining part of my life was my time with Aiden. He is far from perfect in anyone’s eyes. But he is my version of perfect. I just wish things could be different between us. I wish we had a chance…
My mind travels back to the night before, to the anger, the passion and the grief we both carry because of the pain I’ve caused. I wish…I let out a sigh, stopping my thought from progressing. Wishes are pointless things that help no-one. Wishes can’t change what happened. They can’t change the fact that lies were told, and that the very thing I was trying to avoid, ended up happening to him anyway. He lost everything, and it was my fault.
Powerless. It is how I’ve felt for most of my life. Always following rules. Always doing what I was told. And for what? The company is gone. My life is gone. My family is ruined and the one man who looked at me and saw my soul, now looks at me with hurt in his eyes. Hurt that I am responsible for. I hate that I did that to him.
Feeling overwhelmed, I place the coffee cup in the sink, tears burning my eyes as I lean on the sink and look out over the power lines and the pigeon covered roofs that have become my view. This is not my life. This is not how it should be. My body shakes as I grip the cold steel and force myself to breathe, refusing to let a single tear flow.
I become so lost in my thoughts that I almost don’t hear the knock on the door. Letting out a slow breath, I wipe at my eyes and sniff back, trudging across the cold linoleum floor to open the door a crack as I inspect who it is.
“Aiden,” I gasp, surprised when I see him standing in the hall on the other side. I step out of the way as he pushes the door open and walks in, striding past me like he owns the place, and stands in the middle of the floor looking around at our Spartan accommodations.
“Not the kind of place I imagined you living in.”
“A lot has changed,” I reply.
“I can see that. Interesting how the mighty fall.”
I drop my eyes, my hands rubbing together nervously in front of me, as I feel rather exposed in my shirt and socks. I contemplate excusing myself to change, but I don’t know if he’ll stay if I leave the room. So, I stand, and I stare. Both of us silent as my eyes revisit every beautiful line in his face and body. He hasn’t changed a bit over the years. He’s still tall, lean and gorgeous, like a fighter in peak condition. I could spend forever looking at him. Although, Aiden obviously doesn’t feel the same way, as he’s the one who breaks the silence and finally speaks. Ending what, I felt, was a very enjoyable standoff.
“Well, you piqued my interest, and I’m here. Are you going to talk or are you just going to stare at me with your mouth open all day?”
My eyes go wide and I clamp my jaw shut, an embarrassing heat flushing my cheeks at my obvious indiscretion. I can’t believe it was actually hanging open.
I clear my throat, wringing my hands together as I fight to find my words, reminding myself that he’s here to talk about the job. He doesn’t want me, like I want him. And I don’t blame him. If the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t want me either. I find my voice, and gesture toward the couch. “Take a seat, Aiden. There’s a lot you don’t know.”
Chapter Ten
Aiden
TAKING A seat on her worn couch, I watch her as she positions herself on the chair across from me, being sure to keep her distance. I don’t blame her after what happened between us last night. And I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen again. I’m having a pretty fucked up reaction to seeing her again. I’m trying to act as though I’m in control but I’m feeling pretty messed up. I want her. I want her so badly that the thought of burying myself cock-deep inside her is the loudest thought in my mind. Except, I don’t want to be stupid. If I’m this fucked up after three years, I know that another dose of her would make me even crazier. I need to control myself around her. I just don’t know how the fuck I’m going to do that when my dick is aching just by being in the same room as her.
Fuck. What is it with this woman’s draw? She’s like a fucking tractor beam. I shouldn’t even be here. My head is just so fucked right now. I don’t even know my right from my left.
Angry at myself and my stupid mental ramblings, I growl at her. “Just spit it out, Chloe. I didn’t come here for the view.”
She nods, taking a deep breath as she rubs her hands nervously over her knees–fuck she’s beautiful. “I know. I’m just a little surprised you turned up here.”
“What can I say? I’m a fucking bleeding heart, and I wanted to get this over with. But me being here still doesn’t mean I’ll help you with anything. It just means that I want to know what was so important that you needed to go to such an effort to pop back into my life after you forced your way in and then took off three years ago.”
“I know you’re angry with me, Aiden. What I did was…”
“Fucked up? Cowardly? Bitchy? Despicable?” She flinches, and I feel bad for attacking her. But I’m finding control in anger and right now, I need control.
She holds her hand up to stop me, her eyes closing painfully like my words are actually hurting her. “I know, Aiden. I wasn’t honest with you, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have led you on the way I did. I shouldn’t have started something I knew I couldn’t finish.”
I look at her, still finding her the most beautiful woman in existence, and lean forward, my elbows resting on my knees as I crack my knuckles and let out a breath.
“Let’s just leave it be and get to the point of this.”
She nods her head and wipes her palms on her thighs. I can see through her thin shirt. I shouldn’t even be thinking that but I can’t fucking help it. I force my eyes to meet hers.
“Well, as you know, my father is in a coma,” she starts. “And it wasn’t a suicide attempt. I’m convinced someone was trying to kill him.”
“If this is about finding out who tried to kill him, Chloe, you’re on your own. The list of people who want your father dead is so long that it would wrap around the world a few times.”
“No. I know who did it. It’s the why that’s the problem.”
“The why? This is the part where you tell me why you’re so sure he’s innocent, even though all the evidence is pointed right at him like a blinking arrow.”
“Yes. But doesn’t that make you question things? I mean, you were close with my father. He was a smart man. Does it really make sense to you that he would steal that much money and leave a trail leading right to his door–a door that when opened would ruin his company–his pride and joy? I don’t think you understand what he went through to make that company the shining star it was. You don’t know what he gave up–what I gave up. He had his faults, but he’d never do that to his workers. He’d never do that to me. The company was everything.”
“Chloe, from where I sat, it looked like you knew exactly what he was doing. You bailed on the company just at the right time and conveniently happened to marry into the family of the very company that came in and bought up all of the tiny pieces at a rock bottom price. If it had have worked out, it was the perfect plan. Your father would have ended up filthy rich and your father in law’s company would take on the market share and become more powerful than any one man could have hoped to be. But it didn’t work out did it? Somewhere along the line, daddy fucked up and your loving husband and father in law decided to cut you loose so they didn’t look guilty too. Just how did you escape going to prison yourself, Chloe? You seemed like you had quite the part in all of this.”
Partners (Fire & Lies - One) Page 6
