I love the interest he shows in what I’m saying. He even asks more questions, trying to learn more about my family and me. I tell him about my father, who died when I was in high school, and how I’m the only child.
Even after we’re finished eating, we keep talking and laughing about different things. Aiden is such a laid-back kind of guy who’s funny, intelligent, confident, and ambitious. He makes me feel so comfortable around him that I am able to let my guard down and enjoy being around him.
“Would you like to come out on the balcony with me?” Aiden gets up from his seat and comes over to me. Putting his hand out, I take it and follow him through the garden to an open balcony.
Looking over the balcony, the city of Chicago is lit up tonight; I can hear the sirens and cars driving all over the city.
It’s beautiful.
“Wow, you can see the whole city from up here.”
Aiden comes over to me and wraps his arm around my waist, as he did in the elevators. “I’m glad you like it.” He steps closer to me, holding me tighter to him as his voice tickles my ear. “I want to bring back up the topic of my company Crypto. You said you work there? I’ve never seen you.”
I pull back to look up at his face, meeting his eyes. “I just started this week. I work with Amos. He’s showing me the ropes.”
His whole demeanor shifts once I tell him that I’m working with Amos. He stops looking at me and focuses his eyes on something behind my head. I grow quiet, not knowing what to say, because he seems to be deep in thought.
I look up at him and see that he’s still sporting the same look. I reach up and touch his face, bringing him back to me.
“Aiden, is there something wrong? Did I say or do something for you to go away like that?” I whisper.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he takes a step back from me.
“Oh, no, I’m sorry; I was thinking about something.” He grabs my hand and walks me over to the couch.
“I’ll have to come down and see you whenever I come in.” He sits down, and Lance comes out with our dessert.
“I don’t think you should. Now that I know you’re Crypto’s owner, you can’t be around me at work, or people will start to talk,” I caution. I really don’t need anyone thinking I’m getting special treatment. That will just make things harder for me.
He puts his arm behind me, and I lay my head on his shoulder. “No one has to know that you are seeing the boss. We can keep it our little secret, for now.”
“For now? What makes you think we’ll start seeing each other? This is only our first date,” I laugh.
“You’ve enjoyed yourself tonight; there will be a second date, and many more. I am sure of it,” he says confidently, looking down at me.
I don’t confirm or deny that he is right. I don’t want him believing he has the upper hand. Instead, I sit back in his arms, looking up at him while I take a bite of my dessert.
“We’ll just have to see, won’t we, Mr. Delfino?” I say teasingly.
He gives me a smirk. “I guess so.”
“Here you are, home safe and sound.” Aiden puts the car in park and gets out to come open my door.
I look in my purse and pull out my keys. Walking up to my door, he waits beside me as I unlock it. I turn on the light and lean against the door.
“Thank you for a great night. I had a lot of fun.”
He leans against my doorframe, getting into my personal space. “I did too. I will call you to set up our second date.”
He moves in a little closer, looking down at my lips then back up to my eyes. I stop breathing, thinking that he’s about to kiss me. I go back and forth in my mind, debating if I should let him. Part of me wants him to kiss me, but the other part of me isn’t ready for that; I want to get to know him more.
He must have read the look on my face because he steps back. “You have a good night, Edith. See you soon.”
I watch him walk back to his car, driving off. Shutting my front door, I lean against it and take a deep breath. I reach for my phone and call Nancy.
“You can stop blowing up my phone, I’ve made it home.”
I can hear Nancy turning down the TV in the background.
“Well, I thought you would be home already, especially because you went out on a date. You would be the one to make sure to come home early.” She has a point; I did tell Aiden that I needed to get home because it was getting late.
“You make me sound so predictable.”
“That’s because you are,” she stresses. “Now, stop distracting me and tell me how your date went. I want all the details, leave nothing out.”
I knew that I shouldn’t have called her.
“Fine. He took me to one of the buildings he owns, and we had an intimate dinner on the rooftop.” Memories from tonight come back to my mind; I smile, thinking about each moment. I tell her everything that happened from the elevator to the balcony and watching the city with him. Nancy doesn’t utter one word. For a moment there, I thought that she probably went to sleep, and I was just sitting there talking to myself.
I check the phone, thinking the call might have dropped, except it shows she’s still here.
“Um, hello, Nancy? Are you there?” Ten seconds go by, and she still hasn’t said anything until, out of nowhere, I hear a scream from her end.
I jump up, worried that something may have happened to my best friend.
She comes back to the phone, out of breath. “Girl, you have got to go on another date with him.” Once I hear her voice, I quickly calm myself down, laughing in my head. My friend can sometimes be too much. “Don’t you dare turn him down just because you want to play hard to get. This isn’t the time for that.”
I’m not playing any games or trying to be hard to get. I’m trying to take my mother’s advice and take things slow. Nancy has the best intentions when it comes to me; that’s why I love her. But I want to get to know Aiden, not jump his bones right away, and that’s what Nancy would try and push me to do after having a second date with him. I’m trying to show her that I have to do this my way. She can’t push me into this.
“I will think about it.” She tries cutting me off, but I stop her. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t go on another date with him, but I don’t want to seem desperate, either. Nancy, back up some, let me do this my way. I’ll set the pace and make sure to keep you updated on everything, and if I need some advice, I will think about coming to you.”
She doesn’t speak right away, letting me know that she’s upset.
“Fine, Edith, but you have to promise me that you will at least give this guy a chance. Yes, be careful, but not too careful that you may miss out on a chance at love again. You don’t have to be like me, testing the waters every chance I get, but allow yourself to have fun and see what happens,” she argues.
“Okay, I promise.”
“Good, this could be the best thing that ever happened to you,” she voices.
She has a point; this could be the best thing that ever happens to me. I’m giving it a chance, so let’s see where it goes.
IT’S BEEN ONLY A COUPLE of days since my date with Aiden, and he hasn’t messaged me to go out on another date. I’ve thought a couple of times about contacting him to ask about it. However, I can’t seem to make the call. Every time I pick up the phone and click his name, I quickly end it and talk myself out of it.
It’s an endless cycle.
Sighing, I look down at my phone for the tenth time today. I’m supposed to be working on my project that I’ll be presenting later this week, but I can’t concentrate. My mind keeps wondering, thinking about Aiden. I’m hoping that today will be the day he’ll finally message or at least call me.
Nancy: I hope you’ve called him today.
She’s been texting me every day, saying the same thing. Laughing, I shake my head and ignore her text message. I don’t have time to deal with her today. Going back to my project, I hear a knock on my door.
I check the time befo
re getting up; it’s just after eight.
I wonder who that can be.
Opening my door, I’m surprised to see Aiden here. “What are you doing here?” I ask, confused.
He’s standing there in a suit with a bouquet of roses, holding them out for me. “Hey, I thought I would drop by to see you. I know I haven’t called you since our date, can I come in?”
I take the roses and take a step back.
He walks in, looking around my living room. “After our date, I had a situation come up that I needed to fly out and handle.” He turns around and faces me as I close the door. “That’s why you haven’t heard from me.”
I look down at the roses, touching a pedal lightly, and bring them up to my nose to get a whiff of their delightful smell. I’m starting to like him bringing me roses; I hope this continues.
Aiden comes and stands before me, lifting my chin to look at him. “Hey,” he says softly.
“Hey.”
He touches my lips, rubbing back and forth; my heart rate leaps having him this close, touching me. If only a simple touch affects me like this, then I need to watch myself around him.
“I’m sorry I haven’t called.”
Smiling, I step back, putting some space between us. “I won’t lie for a second there; I thought that you probably lost interest in me, since I hadn’t heard from you.”
“No, that’s the least of your worries.” He moves over towards my living room, taking off his suit coat. “I was thinking about you every day. I planned on calling you sooner, though things kept popping up that I needed to deal with.”
I go into the kitchen and place the roses in a vase.
“It’s fine. I’m just happy you’re here now.”
He comes over and wraps his arms around me. “There’s nowhere else I would want to be.”
That itch I’ve been feeling comes up blazing. I take another step back, leaving some more space between us. I don’t want to do anything stupid, like try and kiss him, but he’s making it so hard having me wrapped up in his arms.
“Can I ask what business you had to deal with?” I say, distracting myself from acting on my own desires.
“I have a business in Canada that one of my men run for me. There’s a new shipment of products coming in that I needed to oversee.” He looks down at me and moves in closer before I know what’s happening, his lips touch mine.
The sudden touch of his lips catches me off guard. But I don’t worry for too long because Aiden takes charge. Grabbing the side of my face and tilting my head, he moves his lips against mine slowly at first. My head feels like it’s spinning just from the touch of his lips on mine, causing my body to heat up. His tongue slightly brushes over my lips, signaling me to open up. I follow his lead, opening up so that he can deepen our kiss. I grab onto him, stepping closer. His hands move from my face to my shoulders, then down my back.
I’m so drunk off our kiss that I am starting to want more than just kissing. No, my body is craving more than just kissing as I start touching him too.
That’s when the alarms in my head go off.
I jump back from Aiden, breathing heavily, placing a hand on my head. My body feels hot, and my heart is beating fast, almost like I’ve run a marathon. I look up at him in shock; he moves to come to me. But I put a hand up, stopping him.
“No,” I say, shaking my head as I take a step back. We’re moving too fast. He puts his hands up in the air and takes a couple of steps back. I can see the look of concern written all over his face, but he doesn’t ask me if I’m okay. He gives me a minute to get myself together.
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath, calming myself down before I reopen them to explain. When I look at him, he stands there with a worried look.
“I’m sorry, our kiss was getting intense, and I started getting excited.”
I can tell that he still doesn’t understand what’s so wrong with that. I smile shyly, moving my hair behind my ear. “Um, I’m trying not to move to fast with you, and that kiss wasn’t helping. It made me want to do more.”
I look down because I can’t look at his face. This feels so embarrassing. All I want to do now is run into my room and hide under the covers.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do more.” He pauses, looking at my face, and trying to read my expression. What he says next sends chills down my spine. “I want you.”
Closing my eyes again so that I can get a grip on myself once more, I reopen them and look into his eyes. “I’m not ready for that.”
His lips touch mine again, then move down to my neck, he stops and drops his hands.
“Then we’ll wait until you are ready. There’s no rush,” he tells me.
Letting me go, he walks away. I didn’t expect him to say that and walk away from me like that. I thought I wanted to wait because, well, we’re supposed to take things slowly, but now I’m not so sure.
I snap out of my thoughts and hurry after him. “Aiden, wait. I only stopped because I wanted to do things differently with us.”
It’s half-truth and half-lie.
I catch him in my living room, looking at a painting on the wall and analyzing it.
“Who painted this?”
I stand beside him, looking at my mother’s artwork; it was the last one she painted that was for my dad, and she let me bring it here. He loved it when she would paint abstract paintings. This one has a dark orange and yellow background with a sun in the center. She added different colorful trees, all different shapes, and sizes, then painted each tree’s shadow; but each shadow didn’t reflect the tree above it. Instead, it reflected one of the other trees, mix-matching them.
It’s one of my favorite paintings from her.
“My mom painted this for my father before he passed away,” I answered, looking at the painting.
He reaches out and touches it. “I love it. She did an amazing job.”
I smile at his compliment towards my mother’s work.
We stand there for a couple of minutes together, just admiring it. But then, I think about what happened with our kiss and turn to him.
“Aiden, I—”
He holds a hand up, stopping me mid-sentence. “Edith, its fine,” he says calmly. “There’s no rush. It’ll happen when it happens, we have time.”
He wraps his arms around me, pulling me close to him. I nod my head, letting it go, because he’s right—there is no rush.
As I look up at him, I can already tell that I’m starting to have feelings for him, even if it’s too fast. He’s just been so amazing and understanding with me, even after hearing that I want to wait. I’ll still try and take it slow, getting to know him more, but I might have found the one I can share my life with.
I don’t want Aiden to leave, and he doesn’t want to leave either. So, we both decide to spend some more time together sitting around talking. He asks me what project I’m working on, and I tell him that Amos wanted me to develop a new marketing strategy for Crypto, his company. I show him what I’d done so far, and he looks it over, giving me feedback on what he likes about my idea and what things I should think about changing—but overall, he likes it.
We order in and kick up our feet to watch a movie.
Halfway through the movie, Aiden puts his arm around me, and I cuddle up to him. It feels nice to be wrapped up in his arms. These are the things I’ve missed, being with someone I liked. I look up at him, admiring the way he looks close up.
He catches me staring at him and looks down at me, smiling.
“What?” he asks.
“Nothing, I like looking at you.”
He chuckles, shifting me to hold me tighter. Once the credits roll, both of us get up and clean up everything. He grabs his coat, putting it on to leave.
Before he walks out, he turns to me. “I want to ask you something. I know that this could be moving too fast, but I’m still going to ask.”
Curious about what he may ask, I lean against the door, waiting for him to ask me.
I chuckle, because he’s using that time. I told him that he needs to take a break from work and go on a vacation to his advantage to get me to go with him.
“You’re funny.” He tries to play innocent, like he doesn’t know what I mean. “I see what you’re trying to do.” I poke him in the chest.
I think about everything that’s going on currently at work, and just all the responsibilities that I have here. It doesn’t sound wise for me to pick up and leave like this without having it planned.
“When are you trying to leave?”
He reaches for his pocket, taking out his phone, checking his messages. “We’ll leave tomorrow night.”
“But what about work? I can’t just runoff.” I know Amos will fire me without a second thought.
“You forget that I’m his boss; I can handle him. Also, it will just be for the weekend, after you get off work. We’ll be back in time for you to work on Monday if you want to.”
His idea sounds great, and I’m close to giving, although I need more time to think about it.
He looks down at his watch, noticing the time. “I have to go. Why don’t you think about it and let me know before I take off tomorrow?”
I nod, leaving his arms to grab the door, and he walks out, but not before he kisses me goodbye. He pulls back, looking down at my face, smirking, then turns and walks towards his car. One of his guards gets out and opens the back door for him.
“Let me know by tomorrow,” he says, hopping into his car and driving away.
I’m watching the time at work go by as I bounce my pen on my desk. There are only five more minutes until I can go home.
Roses Are Red (Edith's Fatal Love Trilogy Book 1) Page 6
