Among the Heather (The Highlands, #2) (43)

At that moment, I regretted we hadn’t met sooner. Before those arsehole ex-boyfriends had time to shred her, to have broken her so badly she’d built mile-high walls around herself. “Woman, no one can fake what we just experienced,” I told her gruffly instead.

To my relief, a glimmer of heat and amusement entered her eyes. “I guess not.”

Stepping closer, I pushed, “Then stay with me.”

Indecision played across her features, and I held my breath, waiting.

She shook her head. “I would prefer to leave it as it is. You made me feel really good, and you helped me prove a point to myself. For that, I’m grateful. But I know that if we made this into anything more, everything we just had”—she gestured around the room, toward the bed—“would get poisoned by my trust issues.”

Frustrated, I scrubbed a hand over my face. My tone was sharper than I intended as I demanded, “Do you just plan to stay alone for the rest of your life?”

Aria frowned. “No. I don’t. But I also never intend to be …” Something like an apology softened her expression and her voice gentled. “I won’t ever be in a relationship with an actor or anyone in the industry, ever again.”

Part of me understood. She needed to know there was no motive other than wanting to be with her.

However, it fucked me off after everything I’d told her that she could ever think I’d use her to get to her father. “You know I don’t want that from you.”

She understood my meaning. And she didn’t agree. Seeing my frustration, she placed a hand on my chest. “North, I believed every second between us was about us. And after Lucas, I didn’t think I could ever say that again with another actor. But let’s just leave it at that. Leave it at a place we both feel good about.”

What did I expect? That my cock would magically make her trust me?

Fine.

I nodded and stepped back. “All right.”

Aria seemed relieved by my acquiescence. Her smile was soft and too gorgeous for my own good. “Thanks again.”

She walked back into the bedroom, and I followed her. The room smelled of sex, and I could feel myself growing hard, so I quickly pulled on the pajama bottoms folded on the nearest armchair. Aria tucked her shirt into her skirt, grabbed her underwear, and slipped into her heels.

My eyes traveled over her legs, and it just made me harder. The woman had the most fantastic pair I’d ever seen. I wanted them wrapped around my back.

When she was ready, she looked at me and quirked an eyebrow when she saw my arousal. “Oh.”

Her surprise made me smirk. She still wasn’t getting it. “I told you I still want you.”

She visibly swallowed. “Uh, huh.”

I tried again. “You could stay. Help me take care of it.”

For a moment, my heart sped up at her obvious indecision. Then, as if snapping herself out of a daze, she spun toward the door. “I have to go.”

Letting out a slow exhale, I took a second before I crossed the room to open the door for her. “Thank you for an unforgettable night, Aria.”

Her eyes widened ever so slightly, her lips parting in surprise. “T-thank you. Too.”

I gave her a small smile, forcing myself not to touch her. Not to kiss her. Only to watch her as she hurried out of my room, darting down the hallway without looking back.

Finally, I shut the bedroom door and leaned against it.

Plotting.

My life was a disaster at the moment, and the last thing I needed was to jump into another relationship. But I didn’t care. There had to be a way to get Aria to agree to see me. I just had to figure out how to convince her I couldn’t give a flying fuck who her father was. That all I wanted was to get to know her. And to make her come a million times more while I was at it.

Reminded of my arousal, I glanced down. It was time to take a shower and relive every glorious bloody second of my night with the one woman I apparently couldn’t have.

Apparently being the operative word.

Aria had been living in Scotland for a while, but she obviously hadn’t figured out the one thing that many Scots had in common. We were a stubborn bunch of bastards, and I was the biggest stubborn bastard of the lot.

When I wanted something as much as I wanted Aria, I never stopped until what I wanted was mine.





Sixteen


ARIA





Despite the emails in bold declaring themselves unread and stacking up in my inbox, I ignored them temporarily as I tried my sister on the phone for the third time that day. For the third time, it went to voicemail.

The pit in my stomach grew as I laid my cell on the desk and stared at it. My feelings about Allegra were so complicated, and I wondered if finally she felt the parts I never wanted her to feel. There was a place inside me that resented the fact that I’d loved her enough to sacrifice what I’d wanted to parent her in a way I’d never been parented. On the other hand, I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d left her to go off to college on the East Coast. But clearly I fucked up, anyway, because she went off the rails for a bit, and I was constantly worried it would happen again. And I resented her a little for that too. But I loved her more. The idea that she hated me for not backing her plans to drop out of college made me feel restless and hollow.

It was almost enough to distract my thoughts from North.