Ayden's Secret (18 page)

“It’s not safe for me to leave money in a drawer, but you can leave a weapon and ammunition in one?” Charlie placed the gun in carefully. She hated guns. The only time she ever held one was that one night in Vegas.

“I’m not going to leave it there, and I’m not going to leave you in this house with strangers. Ever. I didn’t really want to open a bed and breakfast anyways. I wanted to be near Evelyn, and this gave me an excuse.” Ayden pulled his pants off and tossed them in his laundry basket that was now empty. “Did you wash my clothes?”

“Yes.” Charlie watched him and wanted to jump on him, tackle him to the floor, and have her way with him. She would wait until tonight. Then at least it would seem like she thought about what she wanted. The fact that he would change his plans for her made her feel special.

“Thank you.” He fisted his shirt and pulled it over his head. Tossing it in the hamper, he teased her again. “You feel guilty enough to rub my back or what?”

“I am going to rub your back, but not because I feel guilty.” Charlie climbed into the bed and sat on his butt straddling him.

Ayden growled as she pressed her hands along his spine from his lower back to his neck. He exhaled in deep satisfaction. “You should let me do this for you sometime.”

“Shh. You’re supposed to be taking a nap.” Charlie bit her lower lip and rubbed. She enjoyed massaging him as much if not more than he enjoyed getting massaged. She was used to being pampered. Ayden wasn’t. The fact that he asked her to do it meant he truly enjoyed it the first time.

Charlie worked her magic, and in no time, he fell asleep.

***

Charlie took the opportunity to call Stephanie in New York. They laughed for at least an hour, and the relief Charlie felt by the time she hung up the phone was comforting. After hearing about how Amelia Young, Stephanie’s mom, had treated Evelyn and Malcolm, Charlie wasn’t worried about meeting Ayden’s mom anymore. She had two hours to get ready, and since this was their first official date, she decided to combine the old style with the new and just hope she could pull it off.

Charlie looked herself over again in the full length mirror on the bathroom wall. The black peasant skirt was loose and flowing, but the pink Tshirt was fitted. She grabbed a light soft sweater. Since they were going to dinner and a movie, she would need it. Charlie slipped into the black sandals and headed to her room to wait for Ayden.

Funny, he was just stepping across the hall, but he was nervous. Charlie was right. They had never been on a date before. He knew that now. He had never felt so anxious in his life. He tapped on the door. She was really going to make him play this whole thing out.

Charlie felt butterflies when she heard the tap on the door. This was it. An official date. It seemed absurd to be nervous about it, yet here she was, giddy as a school girl and tripping over her own two feet again.

“Hi.” She opened the door.

“Hello.” Ayden tried not to blush. He could feel his entire body burning, and it was headed straight to his face.

“So this is it.” Charlie couldn’t help blushing. He looked so good in his jeans and black Tshirt.

“This is it.” Ayden held a hand out and then led her down the hall. “Where do you want to go?”

“That depends on what you want to see.” Charlie had discovered that the area had scattered theaters and most of them were small. Nothing compared to the huge ones in Vegas, though she hadn’t been out to see a movie since Michael was alive.

“I haven’t been to the movies in years, darlin’.” Ayden stopped in the kitchen. “You’re beautiful, Charlie.”

She tripped. “Oops. Sorry.” She readjusted her shirt and skirt though nothing was out of place. Ayden normally affected her with his touch. Being thrown off balance by his words was new. He didn’t hold back compliments, and he didn’t keep his distance anymore. “Well, they have this one, but it’s a chick flick.”

“Okay. Where’s it at?” Ayden didn’t care what they saw just as long as he got to see it with Charlie.

“Emerald Plantation?” Charlie shrugged.

“On Emerald Isle, come on. we’ll eat in Swansboro.” Ayden led her out the door and locked it. He didn’t even try to fight the smile. He felt like a new man. Not an agent, though he would feel like an agent again soon enough. He pushed that aside for now and opened the door on the truck for her.

Charlie wished she had worn something other than sandals because all her nervousness was showing in her toes. She kept crossing and uncrossing her two big toes over and over again.

“When did you take your stitches out?” Ayden gave her a brief glance and then focused on the road ahead.

“Today. I can’t believe you noticed that.” Charlie twisted a bit to look at him. He didn’t turn on the CD and that was unusual. “You’re not listening to Elvis?”

“I’m listening to you, darlin’.” Ayden gave her a wink.

“Is your home near Graceland?” Charlie asked and slid her fingers along his short hair.

“Close enough.” Ayden had to fight to keep his eyes open. Her touch relaxed him on so many levels.

“Will you take me there when we go?” Charlie continued to stroke his hair.

“Do you really like Elvis?” Ayden had to ask.

“I love the king. Elvis was just as big in Vegas. My parents grew up on Elvis, so did we.” Charlie inched as close as the seatbelt would let her. “What’s your excuse?”

“I remember my dad taking me to Graceland before he left. He explained to me that sometimes people love each other but they have different dreams. He was in the Navy, and when he got out, they moved back to Tennessee. My dad had a job offer in Kentucky at an upstart company providing security, but my mom didn’t want to move anymore.” Ayden gripped the wheel.

“He told me he loved her and me, but he wouldn’t work a farm and just let us get by. He wanted to provide for us and he had to leave in order to do that.”

“He left?” Charlie stopped stroking his hair. She placed her hand over his steel thigh and listened. This was something she never knew about Ayden.

“That’s how Evelyn and Noel got here, darlin’. He left. He always kept in touch though. He sent pictures of Evelyn and her mother pregnant with Noel at the time. That was right before he died.” Ayden loosened his fingers one at a time and regripped the wheel. “Their stepfather Martin Blade had known their mother and stalked her for years before she met our father. They said it was an accident, but Martin Blade was the first cop on the scene.”

“Then he beat the girls because they weren’t his.” Charlie gripped his thigh. She remembered how much Ayden wanted to protect his sisters. “God, Ayden.”

“I was in my senior year of high school when Noel came. My dad, my stepdad that is, accepted her just as he accepted me. With open arms and a lot of patience. He can’t have kids, so when the witness protection people showed up, he talked my mom into it.” Ayden smiled. He loved his stepfather. “They told everyone Noel was his daughter by a previous marriage. He’s originally from Texas and moved to Tennessee to help his brother out. He met my momma and the rest is history.”

“He sounds like a good man.” Charlie realized she wasn’t the only one who had a rough life. “Your father sounds like he did what he felt he had to do.”

“I know. He took care of us in life and death. Every letter he sent to me he let me know he still loved me and he still loved my mother.” Ayden pulled into the parking space.

“It also said he loved the King. That’s why he took me to Graceland because Elvis reminded him of all the good and bad things one man could be. That no matter how much money or success you have it means nothing if you have no one to share it with.”

“So that’s why you love Elvis.” Charlie now understood how a man as tough as Ayden could be so sentimental toward the King.

“Yep.” Ayden picked up her hand and kissed it. “I just want to make something clear before we go in, darlin’.” Ayden could feel the somber tone in the air. He hadn’t planned on spilling his guts to her, but it came out and now she was looking at him with big sad green eyes that wrenched his heart. “I’m paying for dinner. In the last few dates I have been on, the women have made quite a fuss over the check.”

Charlie smiled. He was teasing her again. “Then I’ll pay for the movie.”

“You will not.” Ayden laughed.

“If I don’t pay for something, how can I make you feel obligated to sleep with me?” Charlie winked.

“That is not what those women…well I’ll be damned.” Ayden sat back and realized times had changed indeed. “Maybe you should pay for dinner.”

Charlie swatted him. “You are shameless.”

“I’m just saying we’re going to see a chick flick. I’m not going to feel bound by that. Some steak, well, that might at least get you some good foreplay.” He jumped out of the truck before she could get her seatbelt unfastened. He grabbed the handle as she was getting out. “I’m just kidding, darlin’. I’m paying, for both, and you’re only obligated to listen to me whine about my childhood once.”

“Ayden.” Charlie stroked his cheek with the back of her hand. He wasn’t whining. She didn’t think he could whine, but he was talking to her. Conversation was a privilege. He was the king of one word answers and commands. When Tom visited them in Las Vegas, she wasn’t sure if they were really friends they spoke so little. It was weird, but she had chatted them both up as much as possible. “You are the most beautiful man I have ever laid eyes on.”

“You really haven’t been out in a while.” Ayden still wasn’t used to her compliments, and he sure didn’t think the term beautiful applied to him. That was a term reserved for women. He thought he looked rugged, rough, any masculine term would do.

“Watch it, Wolf.” Charlie pinched his butt, and he wasn’t expecting it. He almost missed a step. Ha! She finally threw him off balance.

“Where do you want to sit?” Ayden knew she wouldn’t sit too far from the exit.

“Here.” Charlie sat the second seat in on the second row from the back.

“You don’t want the aisle?” Ayden sat in the aisle seat. “I’m surprised.”

“I’m with you, Ayden. I’m not worried about anything happening that you couldn’t handle. I only sat this far back, because of how tall we both are. No one could sit behind us and see.” Charlie slid her left arm over the back of the seat and played with his hair. It was so short and stubby toward the nape and then got smooth and silky as she moved her fingers upward. “And I only sat here so I could do this.”

“Mmm. I like how you think.” Ayden kicked up a lazy smile and enjoyed her attention.

Charlie had been unable to keep her hands off, of him since they left the house. Even in the restaurant, she kicked off her sandals and put cold toes under his pant legs and onto his calves claiming he should warm them up since he chose to sit inside. He didn’t mind. He sure didn’t mind her running her short nails softly along his neck and scalp while waiting for the movie to start.

“What’s this supposed to be about?” Ayden tried to stay focused. He wanted to crawl in her lap and go to sleep.

“An older woman meets a younger man. It’s supposed to be a romantic comedy.” Charlie took in his expression and realized he hadn’t moved an inch. He didn’t eat the popcorn. He just held it. She saw two people go down the back row and pulled her arm back around to her lap. Ayden moved again. It was as if she had suspended him in time or something.

“When an older man meets a younger woman, they just call it lucky.” Ayden started eating the popcorn. Charlie had bewitched him with her touch. She did that a lot lately. He felt like an addict, but instead of needing his cigarettes, he needed her hands. He started smoking as part of a cover when working on a narcotics case. Then he really couldn’t stop. He hated thinking he needed anything, and when the final pile of dirt was tossed over Martin Blade’s grave, he quit. Cold turkey.

Ayden looked at Charlie.

“Then you’re a lucky guy.” Charlie smiled. “And in three days you will be seven years older than me.”

“For two months.” Ayden couldn’t believe she remembered his birthday. He knew hers. He also knew her blood type, height, weight, social security number, and other personal details. Anything that was in her file, he had memorized.

The movie started, and Charlie snuggled into his shoulder with her arm linked around his. It was then he remembered he had grabbed her in his sleep. Feelings of guilt and shame washed over him.

“How’s your arm?” he whispered.

“Fine. Shh.” Charlie smiled up at him.

Ayden readjusted and held her hand instead. He set the popcorn on the floor, put his free hand over their linked fingers and gently stroked her knuckles. He wanted to talk to her, but it was too late for that now. The movie was going, and her attention was on the screen.

Charlie felt so cherished. Ayden held her hand in his lap and moved his callused fingers gently over her knuckles. She let out a long satisfied breath and wished they would be this way ten years from now. Sitting in a movie snuggled together in uncomfortable chairs watching a cartoon instead of a chick flick and to the right at least one child, maybe two, maybe three. Ayden wouldn’t leave his babies, and she would never ask him to give up an opportunity like his mother had asked his father.

Ayden enjoyed her laugh when the movie was funny and knew she had tears at the mushy parts. It was the ending he didn’t expect. They went separate ways, and Charlie was not pleased in the least. As they walked back to the truck, she was still pissed.

“You should get your money back.” Charlie hopped into the truck.

Ayden shook his head and walked around. If the producers of that film had ruined his night with Charlie, he may have to go to California and exact revenge.

“It was a lousy ending,” Ayden agreed.

“Why would they do that? There was no good reason for them to separate, none. So she’s older than him, so what. If it was the other way around, no one would flinch. They could make a movie with an eightyyearold man and an eighteenyearold girl, and I bet it would have a happy ending.” Charlie still fumed. If she wanted real life, she would have watched the news. It was suppose to be a romance, where the girl gets the guy in the end.

“It’s just a movie, darlin’. In real life they would have stayed together.” Ayden tried his best to rationalize. She was cute angry, but angry wasn’t how he wanted her tonight. “Do you want to stop and get ice cream?”

“That sounds good.” Charlie stopped fuming and realized she was on the verge of ruining his night. He had been so sweet and attentive and didn’t deserve her wrath over a lousy movie ending. “But only if I can pay for it. I still have to tie you down for the night.”

“I had a feeling you were kinky.” He winked. “But I need my hands free tonight.”

“Sounds like you have a plan already laid out.” Charlie traced a nail along his jeans from his knee to his crotch. For several minutes, she did nothing but trace the outline of his erection. They were getting closer to home, but the hotter Ayden felt and the more he struggled to stay focused the more she wanted him. NOW. “You passed the ice cream.”

“I have some in the freezer.” Ayden tried to maintain the speed limit, but Charlie was already forcing him to use cruise control. “This isn’t the safest place to play, darlin’.”

“You have been trained to drive under extreme circumstances.” Charlie unfastened his jeans and pulled the zipper down. She removed the seatbelt and slid closer to him. Her lips on his neck and her hand on his cock, Charlie couldn’t wait for Ayden any longer.

Ayden pulled off the road and indulged her for a long hot kiss.

“Darlin’, we are five minutes from home.” Ayden rasped as she pulled his shirt up then over his head trapping his arms.

“I want you now, Ayden.” Charlie felt like a mad woman. Consumed by lust she kissed his neck, his chest. She licked, nipped, and sucked on him.

“You want us to get thrown in jail?” Ayden smiled. The lights were reflecting in the rearview mirror.

“No.” Charlie was so consumed she still hadn’t noticed.

“Then put your seatbelt back on and try to act like you weren’t molesting me.” He pinched her butt through the skirt and winked.

Charlie barely made it back to her seat when the officer tapped on the window. Ayden had time to get his zipper up, but that was it.

“Wolf?” The young officer questioned.

“Yes, ma’am. How are you?” Ayden tried to fight the smile. He knew all the cops in the area. This would be passed around as an urban legend no doubt.

The young woman cleared her throat. “It’s been a slow night for us. Apparently not so much for you.”

“No, not so much.” Ayden wasn’t about to lie to her. She was just as uncomfortable as he was.

“Well, I hope you’re done checking things out for now. Drive safe.” The woman nodded at Charlie and whistled back to her patrol car.

“Charlie?” Ayden smiled and looked over to her. For a woman of Charlie’s size he could have sworn she shrunk three inches.

“I’m ready to go home now.” Charlie was a little more than embarrassed. She was more like mortified. Ayden had her lipstick on his neck, chest, and face. She refused to look at herself in the mirror, seeing him was embarrassing enough.

“What, you don’t think red’s my color?” Ayden didn’t look at himself, but he knew her lips were bare of color, which meant his body had to have picked it up.

“Aren’t you the least embarrassed?” Charlie sat up straight and looked at him in awe as he pulled back onto the road.

“She was one of my students.” Ayden smiled. “I’m not embarrassed about the lipstick, and I’m sure as hell not embarrassed about you. Just about being pulled off the road five minutes from home and getting caught.”

“I humiliated you in front of a student?” Charlie was striking out all over the place. Ever since she arrived, she had done nothing but flip his world upside down. She was the most unlucky woman in the world.

“No, darlin’.” Ayden put a hand on her thigh. “You may have destroyed the lone wolf theory, but being caught with you in my lap isn’t humiliating.”

***

Charlie settled into the seat for the short drive over the bridge and down the street to Ayden’s house. It really was just five minutes away. A long five minutes of silence. Ayden still grinned from ear to ear, and Charlie still sulked in her embarrassment. When they pulled up, she unlatched her seatbelt and reached for the handle on the door.

“Don’t you dare,” Ayden warned her with a shake of his head.

“What?” Charlie looked over her shoulder at him.

“Wait two seconds.” Ayden hopped out of the truck with his shirt in his fist and his top button still undone on his jeans. He jogged around the front of the truck and opened her door. “Painless wasn’t it?”

“Oh.” Charlie took his hand and stepped out of the truck. He was a true gentleman, and she was about to add insult to injury.

“Keep it up and you’re going to find yourself across my knee instead of underneath me.” Ayden swatted her behind. She was so melancholy, and he desperately wanted to treat her to a slow sensual night of lovemaking. That couldn’t happen unless she lightened up.

“You’ll find yourself across my knee,” Charlie retorted then blinked with a bit of shock at her own words.

“I’d rather find myself underneath you.” Ayden unlocked the door and let them in. He wasn’t expecting her to lighten up so quickly, but she did.

Charlie jumped onto his bare back and almost knocked him over. He stumbled then adjusted her legs with his arms and turned back to lock the door.

“Giddy up, cowboy. I’m trying to see how well you ride.” Charlie smacked him on the butt.

“Hold on tight.”

He headed in a hurry for the steps and took them two at a time as though he didn’t have her on his back at all. Once he got to the bedroom, he sat on the edge of the bed and let her loose.