“You don’t need to change,” he murmured, nuzzling the side of my neck. He made me feel drunk. “I like those socks. They kind of drive me crazy.”
I wrinkled my nose. “My socks?” They were just knee socks. Cozy ones I usually wore when I was alone.
He growled, kissing under my jaw.
“I look a mess, Nate.”
“You could never.” He pulled back, leaving me slightly dizzy. Enough that I had to grab the front of his shirt to steady myself.
His hand covered mine. “Hey, you sure you’re up for dinner? A lot’s happened today. You haven’t really said how you are.”
You’re here. I’m fine. I nodded. “I’m up for it.”
Cheeto made a sound, and I glanced around, bursting out laughing. He came out from beneath Nate’s bed, a pair of boxers draped over his back.
“Hey, I was wondering where those went,” he quipped.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re gross.”
The nervousness I’d felt when we first arrived was still there, but now it wasn’t at the forefront. Instead, there was curiosity. I was excited to be here at Blaylock, to see Nate’s home.
Excited to learn everything I could about him.
Nate
Small sounds from across the room woke me.
Aerie was whimpering in her sleep.
Without hesitation, I shoved off the blankets and nearly fell out of the bed and onto my ass. I’d gotten used to sleeping in a bigger bed at her place… I really needed to get rid of this children’s furniture and get a bigger one.
I really need my own place.
She made another sound, and my chest lurched. Moving restlessly under the blankets, she was likely dreaming about what happened just last night.
I sat on the edge of her bed and took her hand. “Aerie,” I whispered, rubbing my thumb over her skin. “Wake up.”
Her eyes shot open, and she gasped.
“Hey,” I murmured, grabbing her other hand, now holding both. “It was just a dream.”
She sniffled and drew in a ragged breath.
“You’re safe,” I whispered.
Aerie tugged her hands from mine, lifting the top of the covers, inviting me in.
I slipped beneath without hesitation. Before I was even on my back, she was fitting herself against me, pressing her face near my neck and tucking her arm around me.
I froze for a moment, lying against the pillows, and stared up at the black ceiling. She was cuddling up to me. This was unfamiliar territory… I wasn’t usually the guy who got the cuddles.
I wasn’t a virgin, but this kind of intimacy wasn’t something I was used to.
I liked it.
A whole hell of a lot.
I didn’t know what to do. Did I just lie there and not move? What if I rolled on her? What if I started sweating… Oh shit, what if I farted?
Do not fuck this up, Roth.
Aerie made a small sound and curled closer. Just like that, I was unfrozen. My body relaxed into the mattress, my arms closed around her, and I took a chance and gently pushed my leg between hers.
She sighed, content, and then her breathing turned steady.
Cheeto jumped up on the bed. Where he came from I had no clue. He walked around for a few seconds, then settled against us.
I smiled into the dark before I fell asleep.
My alarm went off too soon. And from across the damn room. It went off and off before it silenced itself. I only had five minutes before it started going off again, but hey, five minutes was five minutes.
Aerie stretched against me, her long, lean body arched into me, and a sound vibrated her throat. I rolled from beneath her and onto my side, lining up our bodies so we were face to face.
Her eyes cracked open, and she smiled. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“I had a nightmare.”
I pushed a strand of hair off her cheek. “I was just thinking you should have one again tonight.”
She ducked her head, but not before I saw the full smile transform her face.
“You have classes, don’t you?” she asked after a moment.
“There is literally no other reason I would set that alarm.”
Her lips turned up again.
Reaching out, I brushed a finger over her mouth. “You’re smiley in the morning, princess. I like it.”
“Guess I slept well.”
Her eyes drifted closed when I leaned forward, then sprang right back open when my stupid alarm started squawking again.
“Worst timing ever,” I growled and went to shut the thing up once and for all. In the few short moments I was gone, Cheeto took advantage of the spot I’d just vacated.
“Traitor,” I told him, glaring down with the cell clutched in my hand.
I heard Dad out in the kitchen, and I sighed. “I’m going to grab a quick shower and some breakfast. You can go back to sleep.”
“‘Kay,” she murmured, snuggling beneath the blankets.
Geez, she didn’t have to rub it in. Or look that comfortable without me in the bed with her.
I grumbled about it the whole way to the bathroom and halfway through my shower. Getting ready for class was the norm. My reality. Getting up, showering, traipsing across campus—those were all things I did on the daily.
Spring break had only been a week and a half (well, two for me ‘cause I skipped out early), so this routine should feel normal to me. Like putting on a well-worn pair of jeans.
It didn’t. It felt foreign. Strange. Like I was suddenly living someone else’s life.
This didn’t feel like me anymore. As if some switch inside me had been flipped, and there was no way to flip it back.
Once I was dressed in my usual jeans and a Green Day T-shirt, I made a beeline for the Fruity Pebbles. I dumped half the box in my bowl and added some milk. I groaned in fruity bliss as I crunched on the huge spoonful in my mouth while I made a mug of coffee.
Dad stepped in, dressed for work. “Morning, son.”
I said good morning around the cereal. It didn’t really sound like anything but loud chewing.
“If you have a chance while you’re on campus today, stop by my office.”
I swallowed. “Sure thing.”
“I have an early meeting…” He began as he poured himself a travel mug of coffee. “So I’ll see you later?”
I nodded and shoved another huge bite of cereal in my mouth.
When he was gone, I added some more to my bowl, tucked the near-empty box beneath my arm, and carried the coffee and cereal back into my room.
Aerie was looking pretty adorable in bed with the cat, so I set the mug on the bedside table, plopped down on the edge of the mattress, and shoveled more cereal into my mouth.
A moment later, her head turned in my direction. “What on earth are you doing?”
“Breakfast,” I answered, chewing loudly.
She groaned. “I thought you said I could go back to sleep.”
“I changed my mind,” I told her and dumped the rest of the box into the bowl. “So good.” I groaned.
She sat up, leaning against the headboard. Her hair was all disheveled, and her eyes were still sleepy. “Did you eat that entire box?” she asked, pointing to the empty cardboard at my feet.
“I was having withdrawals.”
She made a sound, and I took a moment to point to the mug with my spoon. “Brought you some coffee.”
“You brought me coffee?”
“I’ll make you breakfast before I go. Wouldn’t want you to burn the place down while I’m gone.”
“Har-har,” she intoned, picking up the coffee and taking a sip. Her eyebrows lifted, and her expression changed to one of surprise. “You know how I take my coffee?”
“Duh,” I said, polishing off the cereal.
“How?”
My spoon clattered into the empty bowl. “I pay attention to you, princess.”
She seemed touched that I knew her coffee preference. I didn’t think it wa
s that big of a deal. Hell, I’d been cooking with her for a week.
Brushing it off, I glanced into my empty bowl. “So sad.”
She laughed.
My backpack was still in the corner where I’d tossed it before I left, right beside my BU hoodie and sneakers. Aerie watched me as she sipped her coffee. Her eyes felt like a physical caress, and the more she stared, the more tempted I was to crawl back into her bed and blow off all my classes.
“I can hang out here while you’re gone?” she asked, clearly not understanding the effect she had on me.
I nodded. “I’ll bring you some lunch in a few hours.”
“I need my phone before you leave.”
I glanced at her sharply.
“I have to make sure the repairs are getting done at my house.”
I gave her the cell, but I wasn’t happy about it. “If he calls, don’t answer.”
“I won’t.” She vowed.
I dragged my feet as long as I could, actually longer than I should have. By the time I kissed her on the head and left the house, I had to practically run from the parking lot to my class just so I wouldn’t be late.
I sat in classes all morning, my mind lost in beats and lyrics. Ideas… and her. I glanced around every class, feeling like an imposter each time. Feeling I’d somehow outgrown… or just flat-out moved on from here.
I knew some of it had to do with Aerie, but she wasn’t the reason.
The catalyst?
Perhaps.
It was me, plain and simple. I didn’t want to be here anymore. These walls weren’t inspiring. Instead, I felt stifled. Trapped. I wanted to be out there living. Creating.
The more classes I trudged to, the heavier each footstep became.
It didn’t matter how I justified the feelings. How I tried to brush them off. By the time my last class let out, I knew they weren’t going to change. They couldn’t because I had.
Dread filled me up inside, swirled around me like the dark rain clouds moving in overhead. You’d think a man would be happier when he figured out his path.
How could I be happy about something that would leave my father anything but?
Aerie
It was strange being here because I didn’t feel out of place.
I felt out of place most everywhere I went… sometimes even my own home. I always thought maybe something was wrong with me, like perhaps I didn’t belong anywhere at all.
Then Nate walked into my life, rooting around in my bag for Lifesavers, wearing random T-shirts, making stupid jokes, saving kittens, and creating songs with me that seriously stirred my soul.
He was completely my opposite but everything I sort of wished I was. Maybe the old part of me, the part I thought got lost in all the fame, recognized him. Maybe it reminded me of who I might have been if this life hadn’t changed me.
Even when Derek gave me long, calculating looks out of the corner of his eye and his body language sort of told me he wasn’t thrilled I was here, I still felt in place.
Cradling the mug of coffee Nate made, the warmth seeping into my palms, I glanced down at Cheeto, a little orange puffball of fur. Was this what peace felt like? A settled calm, quietness that draped over everything beneath my skin like a thick, warm blanket on a snowy day. No urgency, no stress.
Sipping the brew, I rested my head back against the headboard, smiling at the fact I was a girl sitting in the center of an all-boy room. The blanket was plaid, sports posters cluttered the walls, and none of the furniture matched. I glanced over at Nate’s small bed, a bed he hadn’t even bothered to make. The blankets were rumpled, the pillow lumpy.
He’d only spent half the night in there. The rest he’d spent with me.
I sipped at the coffee a few moments longer, basically daydreaming about what it had been like to share a bed with Nate. It wasn’t the first time I’d shared a bed, but this feeling was brand new. We hadn’t been two bodies in a single bed.
We’d been a couple… intertwined.
Daydreaming was nice. I could even write a song about it. But it wasn’t reality.
Lifting the phone from the folds of the blankets, I starting making the calls I couldn’t put off. My home couldn’t sit unprotected, and we’d left sort of in a rush.
I still couldn’t believe Nate refused to leave me there…
Mac answered and pulled me back into the present. “Ms. Boone, is everything okay?”
“Hey, Mac. Everything’s fine,”
“Are you coming back to L.A.?”
“No, not yet. I’m actually not even in Tennessee at the moment.” I went on to explain what happened and asked him to get a team together and fly to my house to upgrade the security and do a sweep of the property. It was going to cost me a pretty penny, but really, I had no choice.
He agreed, and after we hammered out a few details, I let him go. I trusted him to do what needed to be done. He was one of the few people I’d met during the past few years that I actually knew would keep his word and truly wanted to protect me.
Once we got off the phone, I had to make calls to my cleaning crew, house manager, and groundskeeper. By the time I was done, I felt I’d relived it all and wanted to pull the plaid covers over my head and hide.
Instead, I pulled up my big girl panties and phoned the officer in charge of my case. It was depressing. He had no new information to relay, and the man they took into custody lawyered up with some fancy counsel and made bail.
Apparently, it left the entire department scratching their heads on how a criminal could afford such a good attorney. Clearly, ripping other people off paid well.
The case wasn’t over, of course, but there wasn’t anything I could do today. Before I disconnected the call, I made sure he knew I was having work done on my property, and he generously offered to go out there a few times and make sure everything was going the way it should.
With that done, I melted in the covers, but Cheeto had other ideas. He appeared out of nowhere, a string in his mouth.
Laughing, I slid onto the floor and spent some time playing.
After I took a shower (in a bathroom that was totally maintained by boys), I went back into the bedroom to get dressed. The flicker of my cell phone screen caught my eye, and I picked it up. I had three missed calls.
Back to back.
Before I could even pull up the caller ID, it rang again.
Will’s name flashed on the screen, and my stomach twisted. Those missed calls must have been from him, and clearly, he didn’t like being ignored. That meant he would just keep calling.
Against my better judgement, I answered the call. “Hello?”
“Jesus Christ, Aerie! You couldn’t have answered your phone the first ten times I called?”
“Actually, it was only three.”
My calm, sardonic reply made him pause. He cleared his throat. “Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because your front door is open, the windows are smashed in, and your place looks like a tornado hit it. And because you aren’t fucking here!”
My hand tightened around the cell. “You’re at my house?”
“That’s what I just said. Are you somewhere in the house, hiding? It’s okay now, babe. I’m here. I’ll protect you.”
And odd feeling creeped up the back of my neck. It felt like a long-legged spider on the prowl.
“What are you doing at my house, Will?”
“I heard about what happened. I couldn’t get here fast enough. I knew you needed me.”
“What did you hear?” I asked.
“Some guys broke in, trashed the place… tried to kidnap you. You’re safe now. Just come out. I’ll protect you, just like I always do.”
The only person I need protection from is you.
“How did you hear about this?” I tried to remain calm, even though my heart was thundering.
“News travels fast, babe. You know that. Of course someone called me. You’re my wife.”
; Swift, pungent denial shot through me. “We are not married.”
“You can’t argue with a marriage license, babe.”
“My name is Aerie,” I ground out.
“Aerie.” He corrected, placating me. “Where are you? Tell me so I can come get you.”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Are you staying at a local hotel? Which one?”
“I’m not there at all. I left town.”
“What?” The shock in his voice practically echoed.
“I left.” I enunciated the words dramatically. “I don’t need you to save me, Will. I can take care of myself.”
“You’re scared. Rightfully so. You didn’t know what to do. It was good you got out of here. My God, Aerie. This place is trashed. Where did you run to? I’ll bring the jet, bring you back to L.A. where you belong.”
It was like he wasn’t listening, as if he had his own agenda…
Like he wants me to be afraid.
I gasped.
“Babe?”
Shock rendered me silent for long moments. Not even I could believe the thoughts suddenly filling my head.
“It was you,” I whispered.
The fancy lawyer, making bail… how Will “heard” about what happened. He had planned this.
“You hired those men to break in. To hurt me… You knew. You told them exactly what kind of security I had. You practically handed them a key.”
“You’re exhausted, not making any sense.” His voice was tighter than before.
“I’m not exhausted!” I yelled, shrill. My hands were shaking. “You’re sick. He had a gun, Will! I could have been killed. Nate could hav—”
“Roth was there?” Will growled into my ear.
Holy shit!
“Ah, did your hired thugs forget to tell you that?” I mused. “Maybe that high-powered attorney you hired advised them to not say a word, even to you.”
I could hear his ragged breathing. “Where are you?”
“You think I would tell you? You told the world I cheated on you, that I have an STD. You branded me a toad.” I paced across the carpet, my mind whirling. “But this… this, Will. Your days of controlling me are over. Hear me? I’m not running back to you. I won’t. Not ever again.”
“You’re going to lose it all. The only person who can save your tattered reputation is me.”
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