We haven’t had sex again, though not for lack of trying on my part. Each time, he shuts me down and uses his talented fingers to make me come instead.
I’d be a lot more embarrassed about it if the orgasms weren’t so fucking good.
“Are you sure?” Fiona asks, a skeptical look on her face. “No one’s contacted you from King’s Trace? Because if they have, we can fly you back here—”
“No, Fi, it’s fine. I’m fine. I’ve just been watching too many K-dramas, I think.”
“Oh, well that checks out.” She laughs, and some kind of buzzer goes off in the distance. “Shit, I’ve got to switch the laundry over. Call me tomorrow, okay? We’ll talk Christmas logistics.”
I cringe. “Do we have to?”
“Yep. I’ve let this little rift between you and your brother go on long enough. It’s time to fix it.”
Rolling my eyes, I hang up, groaning as I plunge myself into the warm water. Counting to three beneath the surface, I let it calm the uneven pace of my heart and snap back up, gulping for air.
Movement in the corner of my bathroom startles me, and I grapple for the side of the tub as I turn, a scream catching in my throat.
When heated gray eyes meet mine, I let out a strangled breath and sag into the tile.
“Jesus, Aiden. A little warning would be nice.”
He smirks, making his way to the tub. Bubbles cling to my skin in all the right places, barring me from his unabashed gaze as he settles on the edge.
“A warning would defeat the entire purpose of this dynamic.”
“Yeah, but shouldn’t the dynamic shift, as the relationship… um… develops?”
I can feel shame coloring my face, likely as pink as my hair, so I scoop some of the bubbles into my hands and press them into my cheeks.
Aiden grins, wiping some of the soap away. “Do you want to go back to being my stalker? I have to say, being on this end of things for once is far more refreshing than I’d ever thought it’d be.”
“Stalking someone is refreshing?”
“Not being under the microscope is.”
Standing up, Aiden unzips his black hoodie and discards his T-shirt. Without moving his eyes from mine, his hands reach for the fly of his distressed jeans, undoing it with a slow fervor that has something hot stirring in my core.
My breath hitches when he shoves his pants off his hips, grabbing his dick as he kicks his legs free.
God, I don’t know if it’s possible to get used to someone who looks as good as he does naked; the deeply defined planes of his chest that turn into finely cut abs, and that V thing that you always hear about but never actually see on real people.
Not to mention his cock with its thick, veiny shaft and the reddish-pink mushroom top. I don’t know if genitals are supposed to be attractive, but seeing his lengthen in front of me causes my core to throb, aching to be filled.
As he steps into the tub, moving my legs so he can prop his back against the edge opposite me, I’m practically salivating.
“Hungry?” he asks, bracketing me in with his calves, pulling my feet over his hips.
“Huh?”
His teeth scrape across his bottom lip, and he gives me a knowing look. “You’re drooling, angel.”
“Oh.” Alarm has me straightening, dragging my knuckles across my chin, and he tips his head back and lets out a rich laugh.
The vibrant cadence of it catches me off guard, and I realize it’s the first time I’ve heard him laugh since that night in New York City.
It’s the kind of laugh you feel in your toes, that has the power to send butterflies on their migratory pattern to the South.
I’m in so much trouble.
The Jacuzzi jets kick on, blowing out against us and displacing the bubbles. Most of them pop with the motion, and then it’s just two naked people in a tub, watching one another with guarded expressions.
Like they want to act on the obvious attraction pulsing between them, but are still afraid of the other’s potential nefarious intentions.
Part of me feels like Aiden gave up on his quest for revenge too quickly, and it keeps me from diving in headfirst to all of this.
The fact that he seems just as unsure pretty much proves me right.
His fingers slide up my right foot, pulling it into his lap and digging his thumbs into the bottom of my arch. My eyes fall closed as he starts massaging in tight circles, breaking apart knots that have been there for years.
A moan teases at the back of my throat as he moves up, increasing the pressure on the ball of my foot.
“I got my first guitar when I was three,” he says after a moment of silence, and my brows furrow, but I don’t look up, not sure if he’d want me to. “It was this cheap little thing my mom bought, even though she didn’t know anything about instruments. Had a mahogany back, and nylon strings, and I loved it so much that I slept with it every night until I was seven.”
Snorting, I shift, resituating my ass as it starts to go numb. “When I was three, my mom got really high, broke out the windows in our trailer because she thought people were after her, and ended up leaving me alone for two full days while she hid out at some drug dealer’s house.”
I don’t know what exactly prompts me to tell that story, especially since there are at least a couple of decent ones I could’ve gone with, but the words pour out of me before I have a chance to think about their consequences.
Aiden’s fingers stall, and I can feel his eyes boring into me. Releasing a deep breath, I resist the urge to see the look on his face, afraid of the pity I might find.
A second later, he puts my foot back in the water and grabs the other, continuing the massage there. “Where was your dad?”
“I don’t know. When they were together, he worked a lot. Back then, he was trying really hard to get his contracting business off the ground, or so he said.” Sorrow pinches in my chest, burrowing deep as I realize how long it’s been since I’ve even thought about him. “I think he just couldn’t stand to be around Mom, though.”
“And your brother?”
I hesitate, that particular wound still not close to being scabbed over. I’m afraid that if I keep picking at it, it’ll never heal, and I’ll never be able to have a real relationship with him.
But, Aiden’s asking, and frankly, it feels kind of nice.
“He was a preteen when I was born, and he…” I swallow, my words thickening. “She always made it sound like he abandoned us to go live with our aunt. I guess she was trying to save face with me, but deep down, I knew his animosity existed for a reason.”
“She gave him up?”
“Yeah.” Tears sting behind my eyes and I blow out a breath. My heart aches, grief filling the cracks like glue.
No wonder Boyd always resented my existence.
I can’t imagine mourning a life that’d been stolen from me, and seemingly handed to someone else.
Aiden hums, caressing my heel with his thumb. “My mom went to rehab on my eleventh birthday. Everyone tried to tell me she was taking an extended vacation in Cabo, but I knew better.”
It feels surreal hearing him talk about his life after spending so much of my time learning everything about him through a screen.
“I’m not sure you want to play this game there, rock star,” I say, adjusting my neck on the tub. “You heard my villain origin story, right?”