We rode up Ocean Boulevard, passing towering condo high-rises and then smaller, single-family homes. We crossed another bridge, and an oceanside park appeared where I could see the sandy beach and crashing waves of the Atlantic. We passed another set of condos and then a few more homes before we pulled into a stone-lined driveway. Aiden pulled to a stop and put his feet down on the ground before killing the engine.
“Welcome to Golden Beach,” Aiden said.
The place was beautiful. In fact, the whole neighborhood was beautiful. There were tall green shrubs surrounding the palms around the stone-paved driveway where Aiden had parked the motorcycle. Pink flowering bushes bloomed in the bright sunlight and accented the white stucco house beyond.
“It’s not a huge place,” Aiden said, “but it is right on the beach, as promised.”
“It’s beautiful!” I exclaimed. “This must have cost a fortune!”
I was immediately embarrassed by my comment, but Aiden didn’t seem to mind.
“Not as bad as you might think,” he said. “I got a good deal on it. There isn’t a pool like most of the houses have around here, but I prefer the beach anyway.”
I wondered if all drug dealers lived in such nice places and figured they probably did. Why else do something illegal if you didn’t make a ton of money?
Am I really trying to rationalize this?
I shuddered a little at the thought as I dismounted the motorcycle and stretched my legs. Aiden dropped the kickstand and joined me in stretching.
“What did you think of the ride?” he asked.
“It was a little nerve-wracking,” I admitted. “Fun, though.”
“It’s a lot easier to get around in the traffic on a bike,” Aiden said as he led me to the front door.
The house was relatively small, not a lot bigger than my condo, but it was open and full of sunshine coming through the large windows in the back. The view of the patio and beach beyond was breathtaking.
There wasn’t a lot of furniture. In fact, there were more boxes lying around than anything else, including boxes lined up on the couch in the living room. It made me wonder just how long he’d lived here.
“As you can see, I haven’t really moved in yet,” Aiden said with a shrug. “If I had known I was going to have company so soon, I might have cleaned up a bit. Sorry about that.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” I said. “It’s fine—really.”
“Maybe you’ll be the incentive I need to get the rest of my things unpacked.” Aiden stood in the doorway and looked at me a moment. I didn’t understand his expression, and I looked at the floor, unsure of what I was supposed to say.
His phone bleeped, and he glanced down as he brought it out of his pocket. He took a moment to type out a text and then tossed the phone onto a table near the door.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “Work. I’m technically off until next Monday, but it kind of follows me.”
I nodded but didn’t ask for details. If I was going to make it through all this, I didn’t want to know the specifics.
“Where should I put my things?” I asked.
“Back here.” Aiden picked up his luggage and headed down a small hallway, past a bathroom, and into a bedroom. It was more put together than the rest of the house though there were still a couple of boxes stacked in the corner. The furniture was all dark wood in a contemporary style, and the huge bed was neatly made with pure white sheets and matching bedspread.
“There’s only the one real bedroom,” he said. “The other one is full of my gym equipment. I can take the couch if you want.”
“I can’t kick you out of your bed.” My heart beat faster. “I can take the couch.”
“Putting the guest on the couch wouldn’t be very hospitable of me,” Aiden said. “Besides, it’s a mess out there.”
“So, we um…we…” My voice trailed off. I couldn’t seem to bring myself to say the words.
“Sleep together?” Aiden walked a step closer to me and took my bag from my hand. He placed it on the floor before standing in front of me and taking my hands. “No pressure, Chloe.”
“Pressure?” I echoed.
“I’m not expecting anything,” he said. “I’m also not against anything that might happen, but I want you to know I’m not expecting it, okay? Nothing has to happen. I didn’t bring you here for that.”
He brought his hand up and touched the side of my face, and my heart went wild again. I couldn’t look him in the eye and found myself staring at top of his chest, trying to understand the markings that went from his neck down into his shirt. I held my breath and ran my tongue quickly over my lips.
“No pressure,” he repeated. “We’ll just be sleeping in the same bed. It’s a king—plenty of room.”
“I guess…I guess that’s okay.” I stole a glance up at him. It wasn’t easy because I practically had to bend my neck all the way back to meet his eyes.
“Are you going to end up cuddling me again?” he asked with a smirk.
I blushed and quickly looked down again.
“I’m sorry…I…I…”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I really don’t mind, not at all. I just want you to be comfortable.”
I swallowed and nodded.
“Care to check out the beach?”
“Yes, please!”
He dropped his hand from my face but kept his grip on my hand as we walked through the house and to the sliding doors in the back. He released a lock at the top, opened the door to the patio, and led me to the beach just behind the house.
The sun was low behind us as we looked out over the brilliant blue water. The tide was low, and brown sea grass covered the sand near the waves. As we walked to the water, I could see purple and blue jellyfish washed up along the shore. There were very few people on the beach, and the only sound that could be heard was the waves crashing against the sand.
I stood just at the crest of the tide line and looked out over the water. Aiden stood behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders to hold me against him. I leaned back, and the sense of security washed over me again.
Alarm!
I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be doing this. Twelve hours ago, I was checking work email and planning my week. How the hell did I end up here in this man’s arms? What was wrong with me?
“You won’t believe the sunrise,” Aiden said. “Sometimes I get up extra early just to watch it.”
“It really is beautiful here,” I said quietly. Aiden’s arms tightened around me as he pulled me tighter against his chest.
“Not bad for an extended date, right?”
I tilted my head back to look up at him. His eyes were calm and peaceful but still held that sparkle deep inside of them. My skin tingled as he rubbed his hands down my arms and then back up to my shoulders. I glanced down at his hands and the swirling tribal marks over them. On his left hand, the words LOVE LIFE were scrawled, one letter of each word per finger. Instead of the “O” in LOVE, there was a heart.
“Your eyes match the ocean,” Aiden said. “The blue’s the same shade, and there are all these little flecks of white in them that look like whitecaps.”
I looked away, not sure how to respond to his flattery. A simple thank you didn’t seem quite right, but I also didn’t want to respond with some kind of “I bet you say that to all the girls” line, either. The pause was too long, and the moment passed before I could think of a reply.
“Are you hungry?” Aiden asked. “You haven’t eaten much today.”
“A little.”
“Well, there are a thousand restaurants I can take you to,” he said, “but I might prefer to cook you something.”
“That would be wonderful.”
“Why don’t you get comfortable on the patio,” Aiden suggested, “and I’ll get cooking.”
He took my hand, and we walked back through the sand. He sat me down on a lounge chair on the tiled patio and smiled.
“I’m really glad you dec
ided to come with me,” he said. He raised my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles before disappearing inside the house.
I sat in the chair, stared at the ocean waves, and warred with myself internally.
The rational part of me wanted to call a cab and head straight back to the airport. If I caught the last flight back, I’d be home in time to show up for work tomorrow. I could forget all about this as a fleeting moment of insanity and go back to my normal life.
My normal life.
What was that exactly? Boring, that’s what it was. Aiden said I wasn’t a boring person, but I wasn’t so sure I agreed. By his standards, I must be. Why in the world had he even invited me here? There was no way I was his usual type any more than he was mine.
That made me wonder what his usual type might be, and I imagined a vision of long dark hair, a super-slim body wrapped in black leather and thigh-high boots, and tattoos all over. Then I glanced down at my simple tan, scoop-necked shirt and modest, not-too-tight jeans, and skin completely devoid of artwork.
What did he see in me? Someone who was just conveniently drunk at the right time? Despite his words, did he assume because of how I had behaved that first night that I was a target for easy sex?
Was I going to have sex with him, either tonight or any other night I was here?
The fact that I couldn’t answer that question scared the crap out of me. I couldn’t deny my body’s reaction to him, whether it was his build, his bright eyes, or maybe the fact that he was totally not my usual idea of a companion. I couldn’t seem to stop myself from remembering the feeling of his lips on mine, his tongue in my mouth, and my body pressed against his. I licked my lips as my mind wandered to visions of myself underneath him on his king-sized bed, my legs wrapped around his waist as he pounded into me.
“Something to get you by.” Aiden’s voice caused me to jump, and I placed my hand over my heart. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I’m fine,” I lied. I swallowed and tried to clear my mind even as my thighs clenched together.
Aiden placed the tray he was carrying down in front of me. There were carrot and celery sticks, little triangles of pita bread, and a bowl of hummus.
“I made the hummus myself.” He beamed at me. “It’s really good.”
“Wow, thank you!” I straightened myself in the chair and dipped one of the carrots into the mixture. I was famished and probably would have loved anything he put in front of me, but I had to admit the hummus was the best I had ever tasted. “It is really good!”
Aiden’s smile broadened.
“You’re going to love the rest,” he said as he ran back inside.
I tried some of the pita with the hummus and then a couple more carrot sticks. I wasn’t a huge fan of raw celery, but I ate one anyway just to be polite. My overactive imagination warned me that if he was a drug dealer, he could have drugged the food, but I reminded myself that if he wanted to hurt me, he’d already had plenty of opportunity to do so. He didn’t need to drug me—there was no way I could hope to overpower him if he had less than honorable intentions.
The thought was terrifying and—again—exciting.
My mother would throw a fit if she knew I was here and thinking the things I was thinking. She would tell me to get the hell out—I didn’t belong here with this man. I needed a nice, quiet man with a college degree and a steady job. I wasn’t supposed to be looking for tattooed bodybuilders who might work for the mafia.
Mafia?
Crap! I hadn’t even thought about that. A whole new wave of panic spread over me, and I was about to start hyperventilating when I heard the sliding door open again.
Aiden brought out two glasses of wine and then returned with two plates full of food. There was grilled chicken, sweet potatoes, and seasoned zucchini and yellow squash, and it smelled simply divine. All thoughts of drug dealing left my head as I dove in.
“This is fantastic!”
“Thank you. I usually only cook for myself; it’s nice to have someone else enjoy it, too.”
We ate as the sun went down, listened to the waves as they crashed against the shoreline, and drank multiple glasses of the sweet, white wine. We talked casually about the beach, foods we both liked, music, and movies.
He was a sci-fi buff, too.
“So, new Doctor Who or old?” he asked.
“New,” I said without hesitation. “Definitely new. I can’t get past the goofiness of the old ones.”
Aiden laughed and agreed.
“How about Torchwood?” he asked.
“The spin-off series with Jack Harkness, right?”
“That’s it.”
“I haven’t seen it.”
“Oh, well you have to,” Aiden stated with a nod. “It starts slow, but it fills in a lot of the gaps and Captain Jack is fabulous.”
“I like him in the main series,” I agreed. “I love how bisexual they made him. It’s done so casually and without a lot of fuss.”
Aiden grinned but didn’t comment. I wondered if I had crossed some line, because the conversation quickly changed back to music. We both hated country and couldn’t understand how popular it was.
We talked and talked. We joked and laughed. Throughout the evening, Aiden never made a move on me at all. He didn’t even try to hold my hand again.
As the sun went down, I yawned.
“Time for bed?” Aiden asked quietly. The look in his eyes made my skin tingle.
“I guess so.”
I helped carry the dishes into the kitchen, and we silently rinsed them off and placed them in the dishwasher before heading into the bedroom. I pulled out my toiletry bag and a pair of pajamas before excusing myself to the bathroom to change.
I stared at myself in the mirror and look a long, slow breath. I could see my own nervousness in my eyes.
“He said no pressure,” I whispered to myself.
In the quietness of the bathroom, I doubted. I doubted what he meant, and I doubted what I wanted. I looked down at myself and the short, not quite sheer but still rather revealing pajamas I had managed to pack and wondered what my subconscious had been thinking when I threw them in the bag. In a very short time, I was going to be in bed with him, wearing this.
I could feel my pulse all the way down to my feet as I looked into my own eyes.
He’s a drug dealer.
I glared at my reflection. I didn’t know that, not for sure. He just said he was in pharmaceutical sales. He could have meant aspirin.
Bullshit. Guys who sell aspirin don’t live in a house like this.
There was definitely more to Aiden Hunter than he let on. I was sure of that. I glanced around the bathroom, noticing that the green toothbrush I had used back in Ohio was now in a similar cup next to the blue one on the vanity.
He had packed my toothbrush. He knew I was going to give in and join him.
Or was he just extremely thoughtful?
I’m such an ass.
“You’re not being fair,” I said softly. “He’s been nothing but nice. He cooked and even brought your spare toothbrush all the way from Ohio.”
I shook my head, trying to toss the mistrust I felt off of me like a dog shakes water from its fur after a bath. He hadn’t given me any reason to think he was going to suddenly change with the moonlight. He wasn’t going to turn into a werewolf or a vampire as soon as we were in bed together.
Did Buffy pack those stakes?
“You are a mess,” I told myself. I glared again. “A ridiculous mess. Now stop it.”
With a couple of deep, cleansing breaths, I opened the bathroom door and went back to the bedroom. Aiden wasn’t in there, so I took the opportunity to quickly slip under the blankets, fretting for a minute about what side of the bed I should sleep on. I remembered that I had been on the left and he on the right when I’d woken up in the apartment in Ohio and decided that was as good as anything.
I checked my phone for messages and saw that it was at half-power. With a sigh, I got b
ack out of bed and poked around in my bag for the charger. Clothes, toiletries, lip balm…dammit.
I hadn’t brought it.
This is what happened when you didn’t plan. Hopefully, Aiden would have a spare.
Climbing back into bed, I sat up against the pillows with the blankets pulled up to my chest, laid my hands on top of the comforter, and waited. A few minutes later, Aiden came back in the room, dressed in shorts and a white t-shirt. He looked down at me, and I thought he looked a little nervous, too.
“You sure you don’t want me to take the couch?” he asked. “It’s really not a problem.”
“It’s okay.” I swallowed hard.
“Okay,” he repeated. He slipped into the bed beside me and lay on his side, looking into my eyes but not touching me.
I was drawn to the contrast of his tattooed arms against the white sheets of the bed. Even in the dim light, Aiden’s dark features seemed to glow.
“Are you glad you came with me?” he asked. “You are really hard to read.”
“I am,” I told him. “It’s so beautiful here.”
He stared at me for a long moment, and I glanced down our bodies to visually measure the meager space between us. We weren’t touching anywhere, but I could still feel the heat from his body.
“I have to admit I’m a little nervous,” he said. “I’ve never brought a woman here before.”
“You haven’t?”
“Never. I haven’t lived here all that long and haven’t dated anyone since I moved here.”
“How long have you had this place?” I asked.
“Eight months,” he told me.
“Where were you before?”
“I had a place in town,” he said, “not on the beach.”
“Why did you move here?”
“Came into some money,” he said casually. “I wanted to get out of the area I was in, and this place was up for sale. It’s hard to get into places right on the beach, but this one was in foreclosure, and I had the cash to make a decent offer. It’s worked out well though I’m not here that often.”
“Because of work?”
“Yeah, I travel around a lot.”
I wondered just what he did to come into so much money but didn’t ask. I had the feeling I wouldn’t like the answer, assuming he would even be inclined to tell me. It was probably best I didn’t know the details.