“Did I puke?”
“In the parking lot.”
“Crap,” I said again. The evening’s events were starting to come back to me.
“Not the best first kiss reaction I ever got,” he said with another half-grin, “but at least you didn’t hit me.”
“We kissed?” A shiver ran through me as vague memories of his body pressing mine against the driver’s side door of my car and the taste of his tongue in my mouth ran through my head.
“You don’t remember?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Kind of,” I admitted.
“Definitely not the best reaction, then,” he said.
Crap. After all of this, I’d hurt his pride too.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Why?” His eyes narrowed again. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”
“For not remembering?” The statement sounded like a question, and my organs felt as if they were dropping into the lower half of my body. “I mean, I remember a little…some of it.”
There was a long pause as he stared into my eyes.
“Well, hopefully it’s a good memory.” He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the mattress, and I sighed in relief to see that he was actually wearing shorts. I focused for a moment on the additional tattoos covering his legs and even the tops of his feet. I couldn’t quite read the lettering around his calves, but his feet seemed to be decorated with faces surrounded by flowers or clouds—I wasn’t sure which. The images looked religious. Then I realized I was staring and quickly looked away.
The facts of the matter began to overwhelm me again. Yes, I’d desired a little more action in my life, but not like this, not with some tattooed stranger who was as far from my type as he could possibly be. This was a dangerous situation and one to be avoided.
“I need to go home,” I stated.
“Will you at least let me make you some breakfast before I take you back to your car?” Brick Wall asked. “You’ve got to have a hell of a headache.”
“I need to go home,” I repeated quietly.
“You still ought to eat,” he said. “I’m a great cook—I swear.”
Great, I was hurting his pride again. I swallowed hard before answering him.
“I appreciate it. I really do, but I need to get home. I don’t do stuff like this.”
“Like what?” he asked.
“Like being half naked in a stranger’s apartment on a Saturday morning,” I replied. “I should be at the grocery store now.”
“The store?” He laughed, and I felt my blood rise into my cheeks. “Sounds exciting.”
“I always shop on Saturday morning.”
“Then what?”
“Then laundry and maybe a movie.”
“Yeah, that’s some weekend life you lead.”
I looked up at him and tried not to glare. I didn’t need some guy I didn’t know commenting on my lifestyle or habits, but I’d already offended him by not accepting breakfast and bemoaning the whole kissing thing.
I licked my lips, and clearer memories of his mouth on mine surfaced.
“I’m just…not a spontaneous person,” I finally admitted.
“You mean like letting me kiss you last night?”
“That was…that was…” What the hell was that? My heart began to pound. I had no words for it. I couldn’t even imagine myself in that situation though clearly I had allowed it. “I don’t even know your name.”
He smiled, lighting up his eyes.
“Hunter,” he said. “Aiden Hunter.”
“I’m Chloe,” I said.
“You told me last night.” Aiden grinned again as he stood up and offered me his hand. It was also covered in tattoos. There were stars around his wrist, a flower covering the back of his hand, and tribal markings all the way down his fingers. I hesitated, but good manners got the better of me, and I let him haul me to my feet with my other hand still clasping my jacket to my chest. I looked around on the floor.
“Um…where are my clothes?”
“In the bathroom,” Aiden said. “They’re probably still wet. I washed the puke off them in the sink, but I don’t have a dryer.”
I quickly excused myself to the bathroom to locate my clothes. Aiden had been right—my jeans and T-shirt were hanging over the shower door, and though the shirt was only slightly damp, my jeans were still soaked. I pulled the shirt on just as Aiden’s head popped in the doorway.
“Want to try these?” Aiden held a pair of grey sweatpants out to me. “They’re going to be big, but there’s a drawstring. Should be enough to get you home.”
The idea of wet denim was unappealing enough for me to agree.
“Feel free to take a shower or whatever,” Aiden said. “There’s also an extra toothbrush in the cabinet.”
He walked out, and I pulled the ill-fitting sweats up over my legs, tied the drawstring, and rolled up the hem so I could walk. My sandals were on the floor of the bathroom near the shower, so I slipped them on too. I hated taking showers in strange places but did open the medicine cabinet to find an unopened, green toothbrush and made good use of that.
I caught my reflection in the bathroom mirror and stared at the smudged, mascara-darkened area around my eyes. I saw dull blue eyes, hair all over the place, and I still smelled a little like a bar. I looked like hell and wondered just how much worse I must have appeared last night when Aiden brought me here. No wonder he didn’t touch me.
I rolled my eyes at my reflection. Was I seriously disappointed that he hadn’t taken advantage of the situation? That would have been date rape, wouldn’t it? If you can’t give consent, it’s the same as not giving consent—I’d heard that from all the sexual harassment training I had to complete at work every year.
We hadn’t been on a date, of course.
Placing my hands over my face, I groaned in the back of my throat. I had to get out of this place, get home, and take half a bottle of painkillers. I obviously couldn’t think rationally here. I wasn’t even sure what to do with the toothbrush I had used, so I placed it next to the blue one that was already there in the little cup on the vanity.
After rubbing some of the makeup off my face with my fingers and cold water from the bathroom sink, I went back into the main room of the tiny apartment. Aiden was dressed in a white T-shirt with the sleeves cut out of it, tan cargo shorts, and a red baseball cap perched backward on his head. The shirt showed off a lot of his tattoos, but there were so many, my head swam whenever I tried to make sense of them. He was sitting in the single chair, flipping through channels on the television. He turned it off as I walked in.
“You sure you don’t want to eat first?” he asked.
“I’m sure.” I tried not to stare at his arm muscles, but they were just so big. And decorated. Very, very decorated.
“Give me a minute, and we’ll get you back, then.” He disappeared into the bathroom while I stood in the middle of the room, not knowing what to do.
Glancing around the room, I saw my purse sitting on the card table and retrieved it. I checked my wallet nervously and then sighed when I saw all the cash and credit cards were still there. I silently scolded myself for being so distrustful of a man who really hadn’t done anything other than help me out, but the whole thing was so far out of my comfort zone, I didn’t know how to react.
There was definitely the desire to examine my surroundings up close, but I didn’t want to appear rude. Aiden was only gone for a few minutes anyway, and I would have died of embarrassment if I had been caught snooping around. As soon as he came out of the bathroom, I retrieved my wet jeans, and we left.
Outside, Aiden opened the passenger door of a small, silver Civic and then walked around to shove his huge form into the driver’s seat. I buckled up and looked around. I knew the apartment complex from when I had been hunting for one myself, but I’d given it a miss. The neighborhood was a little run-down for my tastes, and the closest shopping was a strip mall with nothing more than a c
onvenience store and take-out Chinese. It was a cheap place to live, but I could afford much better.
“What do you do for a living?” I asked Aiden.
“Sales,” he replied.
“What do you sell?”
“I’ve sold a lot of different things,” he said. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.
Alarm!
He didn’t seem interested in elaborating, and the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want to know. Sure, he’d been a gentleman so far, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. I watched him stare at the road through the windshield and noticed his fingers gripping the steering wheel tightly.
Nope. I did not want to know.
“What do you do?” Aiden asked.
“I’m a project manager,” I said. “I work in the banking industry, managing teams for various initiatives. I work with the computer groups a lot, mostly on hardware and software upgrades.”
“Fun.”
I snorted out a laugh.
“Yeah, it’s a blast.”
“So why do it?” Aiden relaxed his grip on the wheel and turned the corner.
“It pays the bills,” I said. “I love books, and I used to work in a library, but moving to project management made me a lot more money.”
“I guess that’s something.”
“It might not be too exciting,” I said, “but I like the people I work with. Well, most of them.”
“Most?”
“My boss is an ass.”
Aiden laughed as he looked at me with those twinkling green-brown eyes.
“He hasn’t been there long,” I continued, “and he seems to be doing his best to drive me insane.”
“So quit,” Aiden suggested with a shrug.
“It’s not that easy.” I looked down at my hands as I fiddled with the strap of my purse.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s good money, and the drive isn’t bad. There’s no guarantee what I’d find would be any better than what I have, and looking for a new job takes a lot of time.”
“Might cut into that grocery shopping, huh?”
I glared at him, but he just smiled back and adjusted the cap on his head. I noticed he had a small tattoo right on the upper part of his ear.
I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to defend myself to this man. He probably didn’t even have a real job. Sales people in my company made a lot of money, drove fancy cars, and lived in high-class neighborhoods, not the dump he was in.
“At least I can afford to eat what I want and live where I want.” I looked back to my hands, realizing how my words probably sounded.
“Judging me by that apartment, are you?”
I didn’t answer.
“It’s not mine,” he said. “I’m just borrowing it for the week. I’ll be heading back home tomorrow.”
“Where’s home?”
“Miami, Florida.”
“Ah.” It didn’t surprise me. Half the people in Ohio seemed to live in Florida for part of the year, which meant almost everyone I knew had family down there. “Are you visiting family or something?”
“Not exactly.” Aiden pulled into the parking lot of Thirsty’s and parked next to my car. The place was completely empty save for the handful of mist-covered cars left over from the night before.
As tempting as it was to ask him to elaborate, my inner alarms told me to let it be. My car and freedom from this crazy situation were right beside me, and I was eager to get back to a normal, comfortable routine. We both climbed out of his car and walked over to mine.
“Your keys,” Aiden said as he held out his hand.
“Thanks,” I said as I took them from his grasp, “for everything, I mean. Sorry I sort of went nuts this morning. It was just a little…shocking, I guess. Please don’t take it personally.”
“No worries,” he said. “You were just a little disoriented.”
“Yeah, I was. I don’t do things like that.”
“So I gathered.” He looked at me sideways. “I get the idea you don’t stray much from the norm.”
I blinked a couple of times as I looked up at him. He was grinning again.
“Are you laughing at me?” I asked.
“Maybe a little,” he replied, then shook his head. “Not really at you, it’s just—you’re making me think about my friends back in Miami.”
“Why is that?”
“We’re all big into living life to the fullest, you know? Live in the now, and deal with the consequences later.”
“Sounds like you get into a lot of trouble,” I remarked.
“Sometimes.” Aiden reached out and took my hand in his. “Most of the time we just have a lot of fun.”
“Doing what?”
“Mostly drinking,” Aiden said with a laugh. He pulled at my hand until we were standing close together, forcing me to look up into his face. “A couple of them are big guys, and they can drink a lot.”
“Big guys compared to you?”
“Depends on what you mean.” Aiden raised his eyebrows and released my hand only to place his on my waist. I gripped his forearm, not sure if I wanted to push him away or bring him closer.
This was a bad idea. Playing games with a man like this wasn’t safe. This was what I had always avoided. Still, I’d already hurt his pride once, and I’d practically insulted him, assuming he didn’t make enough money for a nice apartment. Pushing him away would be rude.
His closeness was also having quite an effect on my body.
Aiden’s eyes twinkled as he raised his hand and brushed my cheek with his fingers. His smile made him look boyish and much less threatening than the way his muscles and tattoos portrayed him.
I bit down on my lip as he moved his head closer to mine, just staring into his eyes and completely unable to move. I was sure he could hear my heart beating as I wondered if this was what a mouse felt like as it saw the shadow of an owl overhead. My mind told me this was dangerous, but I was unable to either fly or fight.
His mouth covered mine as he wrapped his arm around my back and pulled me against him. I gripped the edge of his shirt tightly as he kissed me, stealing what breath I had from my lungs. His full lips were warm and gentle on mine, and just as the tip of his tongue touched mine, he stopped.
Aiden pulled back, and I slowly looked at him. His eyes were hooded and dark, and his mouth was slightly open. I felt his breath against my lips as he spoke.
“It was nice meeting you, Chloe.”
I licked my bottom lip, still tasting him there.
“You too,” I whispered.
He released my waist and let his hand rest on my hip.
“Do I get to see you again?” he asked suddenly, and my heart began to pound intensely.
“I thought you were leaving tomorrow.” My hand slid down his arm as he took a half step back.
“Yeah, I guess I am.” His chest rose and fell as he took in a deep breath. “Maybe the next time I’m in town?”
“When will that be?” Was I seriously considering this? No, no I wasn’t. I was just being polite.
“Not sure,” he said. “A few weeks maybe.”
It sounded like plenty of time for both of us to forget the whole night, which was fine by me. I was pretty sure he would find someone more like him in the meantime, and it wasn’t like I was going to offer him my phone number. I’d likely never see him again.
Then I remembered something.
“I need to give you your pants back,” I reminded him.
“Well, I have an appointment at noon I really shouldn’t miss,” Aiden said, “but how about I stop by and pick them up later?”
“What? Come by my condo?”
“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “Why not?”
“You don’t know where I live.” I didn’t add that I wanted to keep it that way, but he must have sensed it.
“Do you remember where I live?”
“Yes.”
“Bring them by after four this afternoon,
” he suggested. “I have to pack up a few things, and I have an early flight tomorrow.”
“I have…” I hesitated and took a deep breath. “I have things to do.”
“What?” Aiden laughed. “Groceries?”
I scowled at him but didn’t have any kind of snappy comeback. The fact was he had me pegged. I didn’t have any plans other than a movie at home—predictable and alone.
But going back to his place? Again? Intentionally? I had no idea what he expected, let alone what I might expect from another encounter. Yes, he had apparently been nothing but gentlemanly toward me thus far, but would that continue? Was this some kind of trap?
Why would he feel the need to trap me? If he was going to hurt me, he’d already had plenty of opportunity. Was I still judging him just because of the tattoos? How wrong was that?
Besides, I couldn’t deny my attraction to him. He was so different from those I’d dated in the past, and the excitement of seeing him again tingled through my fingers where they still touched his arm.
“All right,” I finally said. “I’ll drop them by later.”
“Yeah? Cool!” Aiden beamed. “I’ll see you later, then.”
He folded himself into his tiny car and drove off as I stood there with my keys in my hands and watched him disappear.
And with that, I wondered if I should just forget the whole encounter.
FOUR
I stood at the door to Aiden’s apartment, holding his sweatpants—freshly washed—in a plastic bag on my arm. I had been there for at least four minutes but hadn’t knocked yet.
I had spent all morning telling myself to leave his pants on his doorstep, ring the bell, and run away. I had spent the entire afternoon arguing with myself.
Everything about my encounter with Aiden Hunter was wrong. I didn’t know him. None of my friends knew him. And I had made out with him both in a drunken stupor out in the parking lot and also while stone-cold sober the next day.
I had gone through all the known pros and cons.
The pros were easy: he was really, really attractive and a great kisser. Just being close to him seemed to make my body react in ways I hadn’t felt in a long time, maybe ever. Yes, I’d been physically attracted to Zach and other past boyfriends, but the draw to Aiden was different—more tangible. It was also completely inexplicable.