Relentless Hope (Resilient Hearts) (25 page)

I place my hands under his shirt and start running them over his sculpted abs, but it’s not enough. I want to feel and see all of his chest, so I grab the bottom of his shirt and bring it up to lift it over his head. He takes the shirt from my hands and in a second it is tossed somewhere on the floor, and his glorious skin is bare for my eyes to feast on.

I run my hands over his chest down to his stomach and back up, and then bring them up to his shoulders, as I take his naked body in. His muscular form is nothing short of magnificent, making my breath hitch in amazement. The sensation of his skin under my hands quickens my heart rate to a frenzied pace. I instinctively lean into him and start running my tongue over his neck, moving slowly to the area below his ear. He mutters a curse under his breath.

“Fuck, Aleah. Stop, please stop.”

I’m so shocked by his strange behavior that I just stare at him speechlessly. He proceeds to scoop me off his lap and slide from underneath me to stand abruptly.

The change of pace is so quick that I sit disoriented for a second wondering what he is doing.

“What…what happened? Did I do something wrong?” I ask incredulously.

He paces the floor back and forth, running his fingers through his hair as if pulling his hair out. “No, you did everything right. That’s the problem. I had to stop, Aleah. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself if we went any further.”

“Why would we have to stop?” I ask in confusion.

“Because you’re drunk and this is not how I want our first time together to be.”

“What if I want this?” I ask.

“You’re drunk, Aleah,” he repeats. “I don’t want you to regret anything tomorrow.”

“You don’t want me,” I say, my voice betraying my hurt feelings.

He whirls towards me so quickly I don’t have time to react to his nearness, as he grabs my hand and places it on his bulging crouch. “You think I don’t want you? Do you feel this? I’ve never wanted anything or anyone in my life as much as I want you right now. I want you so damn bad, it’s going to physically hurt me to walk away from you, but I have more respect for you than to do this when you’re drunk and we haven’t even talked about what we want from each other.”

He’s right. Even through the alcohol induced fog, my brain recognizes the truth of his statement. Even if my body doesn’t want to agree. I cover my face in my hands feeling embarrassed that I just threw myself at him like that, and try to control my sexual frustration.

“Come on, let’s go. We need to put you to bed,” he says as he reaches for my hand.

I let him lead me to his bedroom, where he sits me on the mattress and slowly takes my shoes off, before handing me one of his t-shirts. “Here you go, put this on. You’ll be more comfortable in this. I’ll be right outside if you need anything else.”

He then proceeds to place a small tender kiss on my forehead, before wishing me good night. As he starts walking down the hallway, I can’t help wanting to tease him. I yell at his back. “I’m not going to put your t-shirt on. Instead, I’m going to sleep naked in your bed.” The groan I hear from him puts a huge smile on my face.

I
wake up with a headache, feeling disoriented at
first
when I don’t recognize my surroundings. I look around me in confusion for a few seconds, until my eyes fall across Aiden’s t-shirt, making memories of last night rush back to my mind. Remembering how I threw myself at Aiden and how he rejected me brings a blush to my cheeks. I make a silent vow not to ever let myself drink that much to lose control of my own behavior that way.

I rise from the mattress stretching my limbs and grab Aiden’s t-shirt. I put the t-shirt on to see it comes up to right above my knee. I take a quick look at myself in the bathroom mirror, and notice how ridiculous I look in Aiden’s oversize t-shirt. But knowing that I would look even more stupid walking out of the room in last night dress, I decide to go with the t-shirt.

I pivot down the hallway, but stop mid stride as I take note of the view in front of me. Aiden is standing over the stove with his back to me. He is shirtless, with jeans that are riding low on his gorgeous hips as he tends to the food on the stove.

And I have never seen a sexier sight in my life.

He turns around then to head to the sink and spots me in the hallway. A slow smile crosses his lips.

“Damn. That’s a sight for sore eyes. You with your hair tussled up like that, in my t-shirt. You sure are trying to test my control, aren’t you?”

“What are you talking about? I look ridiculous in this oversized t-shirt.”

“Are you kidding me? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more sexy sight,” he says as he walks towards me. I wrap my arms around his waist in a hug when he reaches me, placing a kiss on his chest. He takes me into his arms and places a soft kiss on my head.

“Did you sleep well?” he asks.

“I did. That air mattress is more comfortable than it looks.”

“Yup. It actually is.”

I lift my head up to look into his eyes then, and instantly the energy between us changes, as the proximity of his lips to mine registers in my brain. The look in his eyes tells me he feels it too. After the way I threw myself at him last night, I wait for him to make the first move. He gives me a breathtaking smile before descending his lips on mine.

The sensation of his lips against mine sends an explosion of shivers up and down my spine. He slowly rubs the tip of his tongue against the corners of my lips and I instinctively open my mouth to let his tongue in. He takes advantage of the opportunity to push his tongue in and fully claim my mouth. In the process, he claims a piece of my heart too.

The kiss turns passionate quickly, as I respond to his assault. He grabs the back of my neck and pulls me in more closely towards him, but it’s not enough. We both feel an urgent need to get as close to each other as possible, and the damn clothes are in the way. I reach for the bottom of his t-shirt and he quickly lifts his hands up so I can remove it. He then quickly grabs the hem of my t-shirt, but before lifting it up, he pauses to search my eyes. I slowly nod my head to signal my acquiescence. In an instant the t-shirt is off and thrown somewhere on the floor. I am standing there in front of him in my underwear. He takes a step back to give me an appraising look and I feel heat rising up my cheeks. Just when I start to feel uncomfortable, he closes the distance between us once more.

“You’re so beautiful…so gorgeous, you take my breath away,” he whispers into my ear, before crashing his lips to mine for a scorching kiss. He runs his fingertips up and down my back in a feather like touch as our tongues tangle, each time bringing his fingers closer to the clasp of my bra. Just as he is about to touch the clasp, the smell of smoke hits my nose. We both instantly freeze, our eyes frantically searching the source of the smoke.

“Oh, my God. Where is that coming from?” I manage to ask.

“Shit. It must be the bread. I forgot I put bread in the oven to toast.”

He runs to the kitchen and I follow closely in his footsteps. When he opens the oven, smoke overtakes the whole kitchen, making us both cough. Aiden quickly dumps the bread in the trashcan and opens the windows. Within a few minutes, the smoke is gone, but with it also goes the heat of the moment.

Aiden shrugs his shoulders as he makes his way back to the kitchen. “I should get to the rest of the food, before everything burns down.”

“What are you making?”

“Well, I was making your favorite omelet, before you distracted me.”

“You didn’t have to cook. Coffee would have been enough for me for now.”

“With all the wine you had last night, you need to eat something this morning,” he says, as he hands me a cup of coffee. “How are you feeling?”

“Not too well. I have a horrible headache, and I feel kind of nauseous.”

“That’s normal. The coffee should help, and so should breakfast. It’ll be ready in just a minute.”

I take a peek at the omelet on the stove. “This looks incredible. I never thought you could cook.”

“I have all sorts of talents you have no idea about,” he says with a wink.

“I can see that,” I say with a laugh. “So you cook breakfast for all your
overnight
guests?”

He spins around abruptly. “No, I rarely ever have a girl stay with me all night, let alone cook for them in the morning. You’re definitely the first one I’m cooking for, I assure you.”

A warm feeling moves up my chest cracking yet another one of the walls around my heart as I think about what this means.

“Take a seat. This is almost ready. I put orange juice on the counter for you too, if you’d like.”

“Thank you. You really didn’t need to go into all this trouble.”.

“My pleasure,” he says with his sexy grin, as he hands me a plate full of omelet.

I wait for him to take a seat next to me before I take my first bite. “Oh, my God. This is really delicious. It’s better than the one Maria makes.”

“I told you I have many talents,” he says with a cocky grin.

We eat in silence for a few minutes before his face turns serious. “Aleah–we need to talk about us.”

“No, we don’t,” I cut in quickly.

He snaps his head up to meet my eyes. “Of course, we do... What? You just want to pretend like nothing’s happened?”

I release a deep sigh. “No, that’s not what I meant. I’m just… I’m just not ready to talk about that yet. It’s too early in the morning and I have a headache. Can we at least wait until we go back to the Palos Verdes house and I’ve taken a shower, before we have the talk?”

“Of course. It can wait.”

After breakfast, we wash the dishes, clean the kitchen together, and then get ready to leave. I debate whether or not I should wear last night’s dress or just walk out in Aiden’s t-shirt.

“My t-shirt’s fine. The car is just a few steps away. No one will see you, and today is Maria’s day off, so you don’t have to worry about her either when we get there. Plus, I’m sure this is way more comfortable than that dress you were wearing last night,” he says.

I think about it for a second, before agreeing that there is no reason to put on the dress from last night.

“Okay, then let’s go,” I say.

We walk out the door hand in hand and start making our way towards the car. But before we have taken more than two steps towards the parking lot, we come face to face with Aiden’s mom, Karen.

The scorn on her face when she sees me has the hair in the back of neck stand up. I wrap my hand more tightly around Aiden’s but I notice that he loosens his hold on mine.

“Mom. What are you doing here? How did you find this place?” Aiden asks in a stern voice.

“It’s good to see you too, Aiden,” she says, without taking her eyes off of me.

“So, I see you’re hard at work again. You weren’t satisfied with what my dad left you, so now you’re trying to get through to my son, huh? You must have found out about the challenge my dad set up for Aiden–apparently before me,” she says bitterly as she eyes Aiden, before turning her cold eyes back to mine. “But if you think I’ll let you play my son too, you have something else coming. We let you play your stupid little games with Dad because frankly we didn’t care much, but if you try to play your games on my son, my dirty claws will come out.”

“Mom, stop,” Aiden says sternly.

She turns abruptly towards him. “And you. I thought you were smarter than that. Since when do you fall for these types of women’s acts? You’ve always been telling me you won’t let any woman get to you that way. That it’s all play and games to you. Since when do you walk out of your place hand in hand with a woman in the morning, wearing nothing but your t-shirt?”

I sense Aiden’s body tense up next to mine. I wait for him to defend me. To defend us. To tell her once and for all to stop harassing me. In my relentlessly hopeful heart, I even imagine that he may express his love for me to his mom, shutting her up completely.

I watch the play of emotions on his face as he struggles with the way to respond. I see the rage in his eyes and I think I see pain too, but then his expression changes to something I’ve never seen before. He becomes cold, unaffected and almost aloof. It’s as if a mask comes over his face. He releases my hand and takes a step back.

“What makes you think she’s any different than all the other ones? I’m just having fun mom. I’m not stupid.”

My jaw hits the floor as my stomach drops. My eyes get blurry, before I hear Karen’s shrill voice. “How can you even touch her though, knowing that your seventy-eight-year old dying grandpa had his hands on her? Don’t you get grossed out by that?”

Her words hit a little too close to my insecurities, but it’s Aiden’s response that turns my world black.

“That makes it all the more fun. The forbidden fruit and all that. I’ve always been into kinky stuff, mom. I’m just crossing one other thing off the list of things I haven’t done before.”

I don’t hear the rest of what he says. I cover my ears and run as fast as I can, almost tripping on my own feet. I have to get away from these people before I fall into a pile of tears and despair. I think I hear my name being called as I run to the car, but I don’t turn around. I open my car door and swoosh in, struggling with my trembling hands to turn the car on. Tears blur my vision, as I try to back up the car out of the parking space, but I don’t pay attention to what I see or don’t see. The need to put as much distance between Aiden and me is too strong to care about anything else.

I drive down a couple of blocks in a blur, not knowing exactly where I’m going or paying attention to anything but the excruciating pain in my heart. When I realize my sobs are taking over and making controlling the wheel impossible, I turn into the first shopping center I come across and park the car.

It is then I let the sobs overtake my body. I feel my heart being ripped out my chest, shredded into a million tiny pieces that are falling into a pool at my feet. I close my eyes, and instead of Aiden’s face, I see Imran’s. I hear his laugh in my ears, the sinister way he laughed at me when he was attacking me. I shake my head violently to get the image out of my head, and then I see Aiden’s face behind my closed eyes. I imagine him laughing at me the way Imran did. Their faces become interchangeable, slowly getting blurred into one as the force of betrayal by the only two men I ever gave a piece of my heart to hits me full force.

At some point during my wailing, I hear my phone ring repeatedly, the noise adding to my agitation. I grab my phone. Seeing Aiden’s name on the screen is like a blade to my already bleeding heart. I try to turn the phone off and end up taking the battery out and throwing it against the back seat when it does not turn off quickly enough.

I cry until my eyes have no more tears, until my body is too spent to shake, and my throat is too dry to wail. It is then that I succumb to the numbness. I let it work its way up my body inch by inch, covering me in its comfortable emptiness. I hang my head back and breathe through my exploding headache.

After my hands have stopped shaking enough for me to grab the wheel, I turn the car on and slowly drive into the moving traffic. I keep my eyes on the road and my mind blank, refusing to let my brain register anything but the movement of the cars around me. Once I make it to the Pierson Mansion, I walk swiftly to my room and start grabbing my clothes off of their hangers. I work emotionless like a robot, as I quickly grab everything I can. I pack all my personal items into two bags and grab the handles to walk out the door.