Erika could have argued that
Aiden himself posed the only real danger in the hotel. “What time
do you think we’ll have news from your computer people tomorrow?”
she asked instead.
“Probably not until the
afternoon. I’ll call as soon as I hear.”
Although she’d dreamt of
spending time alone, the thought of a morning without Aiden felt
like a wasted opportunity. He represented both a rare link to her
student days, and also someone outside of Marty’s claustrophobic
inner circle. Someone she could have an intelligent, completely
confidential conversation with, and how often did that happen?
She’d be a fool to pass up the chance to spend time with him.
Or so she told herself.
“Are you busy tomorrow?” she
asked. “Or do you have work to catch up on?”
“A few calls but nothing
important. Why? Do you want to do something together?”
Erika struggled to sound casual.
“I can’t really go out but I thought you might like to hang out
here for the day. I feel guilty that you’ve ended up in a motel
when it’s much more comfortable here. We could swim, or read…or
just do nothing at all.”
“Sounds perfect.” They’d reached
Erika’s suite and Aiden took her key card to open the door. “I’ll
come in time for breakfast.”
The lock released and Erika
looked at Aiden expectantly, an invitation already upon her lips.
“Do you…?”
But Aiden was already shaking
his head before she finished her sentence. “We both know I’d better
not. Goodnight, Erika,” he said, leaning in to kiss her on the
cheek and stepping back quickly. “See you tomorrow.”
His smile was kind, warm,
gentle. Loving. Lovable.
“Bring something smart to wear
for the evening,” Erika said on impulse. “I’ll buy you a proper
dinner. Perhaps you don’t deserve to be a cheap date after
all.”
“Put like that, how can I say
no?”
As Erika watched him walk away,
memorising every detail of his gorgeous body and remembering what
it looked like naked, she asked herself the very same question.
Of the many things Erika might
have said about Aiden, she could never accuse him of hiding his
feelings around her.
That had been part of his
attraction – a sense of openness that implied there’d never be any
secrets between them. If he didn’t like something, he made it very
clear. Anything he was looking forward to made him bounce around
like an over-excited schoolboy. Always fair, honest to a fault and
refusing to suffer fools.
And when he fell in love with
Erika he told her.
Constantly. No game playing. No
holding himself aloof. No instance of ever using his love to
control her.
Just – I love you – plain and
simple.
Even when she knew it beyond
doubt, he still told her. Not so much wearing his heart on his
sleeve, as having his entire body advertise exactly how he
felt.
So when Aiden emerged from the
gym and walked around the poolside toward Erika, she knew
immediately that he was both in a good mood and had something to
tell her.
“Don’t say you’ve heard back
from your techno-people already,” Erika guessed before he’d even
sat down and his face fell, setting her laughing.
“How did you know?” he asked,
crestfallen at not being able to surprise her.
“I’m a mind reader.”
“I’d forgotten that about you.”
His eyes narrowed in fake exasperation. However, Erika didn’t
anticipate the kiss he dropped casually onto her cheek, nor the
warm, intimate, very sexy smile he gave her as he perched on the
lounger next to her and read the texts coming in on his mobile.
“But, you’re right. They’re making progress at last.”
“Good news?” Erika crossed her
fingers hopefully.
Aiden flinched. “Good and bad,
I’m afraid. They’ve cracked a couple of the financial files only to
discover there’s a great deal more money involved than we
thought.”
“How much?”
“Don’t know yet. I’ll pick up
the details on my laptop in your room.” He scrolled down his texts
but found nothing else helpful.
Aiden may have been focussing
upon the disappearance of Erika’s money, but she was far more
interested in the security of her music and hardly dared ask the
next question. “Have they found the contract yet? Is the copyright
still mine?”
When the remaining texts failed
to provide the answer, Aiden pressed his lips together in
disappointment. “Sorry. Still nothing. But it’s early days. If it’s
there, they’ll find it. Don’t worry.”
But Erika did worry, and she’d
lain awake until the early hours turning the problem over in her
mind until she’d run down every mental dead end.
“Assuming I can sue, will all
this evidence be admissible in court? So far you’ve hacked into
Marty’s accounts and I’ve stolen his laptop. We’re not exactly
treading the right side of the law.”
“Stop this,” Aiden commanded,
taking her hands and forcing her to look at him. “My people know
what they’re doing. If we use the proper channels, Marty will have
time to hide everything. By slipping in under the wire, we can
uncover a lot before he knows we’re on to him. I know I don’t have
the greatest track record but you’ve got to trust me.”
“I want to, but I’m terrified. A
week ago, I had no idea this was going on. Now, I’m on the verge of
bankruptcy and I might lose the rights to my own music. It would
have been easier not to know.”
Aiden looked deep into her eyes,
seeing past her fear until he reached the strong seam of
determination that ran through her character like granite.
“You’re strong enough to deal
with this,” he assured her, increasing the pressure on her hands as
if afraid she would float away. “You’ve survived five years alone
in a tough industry without resorting to drink or drugs and, in all
that time, you’ve managed to keep on the right side of the media.
However this turns out, I promise you’ll be fine.”
Erika was desperate to believe
him and had no choice but to leave everything up to him. There was
a very thin dividing line between being taken care of and being
controlled, and Erika had already worked out that Aiden and Marty
stood on opposite sides of it. For the next few precious hours at
least, she should lie back and let herself be watched over, instead
of guarded, for once.
She gradually relaxed. “If you
say so.”
“I do say so. Although I could
kill Marty for what he’s done to you.”
“Well that wouldn’t get me far.
Bankrupt, no copyright and my only friend in prison for
murder.”
“Is that what I am? Your only
friend.”
Erika couldn’t tell whether the
thought pleased him or not, but she saw the funny side. “The only
one who knows the real me, anyway.”
“You’re right there. I know
every little foible.” A mischievous smile slid across Aiden’s face
and he stretched out on the lounger next to Erika, his hands behind
his head as he considered this. “Maybe I’ll sell your soul to the
tabloids and have done with it.”
“Do it.” Erika pretended she
couldn’t have cared less. “But remember I can match you story for
story.”
He grinned and beckoned to a
waiter to order orange juices. Sweat glistened at his throat and on
his bare shoulders after his workout and he downed his drink in one
when it arrived. “Why don’t you go for a run on the treadmill?” he
suggested. “You’ve hardly moved all day.”
“No trainers.”
“Then come for a swim with
me.”
“No energy.” To prove it, she
yawned. “And I want to finish my book. You go.”
Realising Erika refused to be
moved, Aiden kicked off his shoes and pulled his vest top over his
head unselfconsciously, unable to resist a glance at her to see
whether she’d been watching. Erika hadn’t meant to stare but
couldn’t help herself and, had she not been holding her book, she’d
have been tempted to reach across and allow her palm to echo the
shape of his pecs, or press her icy glass against his chest to take
the heat out of his skin.
The intensity of his body heat
travelled across the space between them, carrying with it the very
masculine scent of exertion mixed with the scorch of overworked
muscles, and they acted like a drug on Erika’s senses. She’d never
liked her men squeaky clean, and Aiden’s natural physicality had
always been an aphrodisiac, making him irresistibly impure in both
mind and body.
With a knowing look in her
direction, Aiden jumped into the water right beside Erika,
deliberately soaking her and laughing before swimming away. She
peeped over the top of her book, enjoying the view of his
glistening back and feeling every lustful urge reawaken, even
though she’d spent the last two days trying to suppress them and
telling herself that it could only end in tears.
To her eyes, Aiden Thirstan was
quite simply physical perfection – but he knew that already – as
did every woman with a pulse sitting on the poolside. Three women
swam past, smiling flirtatiously. He couldn’t help responding, as
if it would have been rude not to, and said something that made
them all laugh. Erika wished she could hear and dropped all
pretence of reading as she watched him, trying to work out what was
going on. Eventually, when one of the women seemed seriously
interested, Aiden gestured in Erika’s direction and she looked
across, giving Erika a poisonous stare.
After a few more lengths at a
furious pace, Aiden returned and heaved himself out onto the side,
breathing hard and smoothing his wet hair back from his face.
“It seems you have an admirer,”
Erika observed, acting casual
“Jealous?”
“Not at all.” She did her best
to sound offended. “I only wondered what you’d said to make her
glare at me.”
“I told her I was your
bodyguard.”
“Maybe you’d rather be watching
her body instead. She’s very beautiful.”
“Too high maintenance.” Aiden
dismissed her immediately and lay down next to Erika to dry off.
“Anyone who wears lipstick and big earrings to go swimming is bound
to be hard work.”
He relaxed on the lounger,
tucking one arm behind his head as he fiddled with his phone and
occasionally reading out texts to her. Where Erika had covered
herself up with a robe, Aiden lay back in his shorts, his bare
chest still glistening, the hair there matted and dark. She willed
herself not to stare but she couldn’t fail to appreciate every line
of the semi-naked man lying next to her, especially when he seemed
so eager to distract her from her book with constant questions.
“What’s your house in Los
Angeles like?” he asked at one point, trying to Google a picture of
it on his phone.
“Big. Too big,” she corrected
herself. “Don’t tell anyone but I actually live in the maid’s
apartment over the garage because it’s cosier and I can lock Marty
out of it.”
“Does he live with you?”
“No – thank God. He’s a slob and
I couldn’t stand it. But he’s forever holding parties at my house
and telling me it’s all part of the Erika Fenn image.” She made
quotation marks in the air with her fingers. “I get tired of
fishing wine bottles out of the pool. What about you? Still in the
Chelsea flat?”
Where I caught you naked with
another woman, she almost added but stopped herself.
“No. I swapped it for the
penthouse in my development overlooking Tower Bridge.” He showed
her pictures of an ultra-stylish apartment with a stunning view
down the river and incredible artwork on its vast white walls.
“When do you move in?” she
asked, taking in the emptiness of the spaces.
Aiden laughed. “I’ve lived there
for over a year now. But you’re right. It needs a woman’s touch.”
He flicked through the rest of the photos on his mobile. “Not that
I spend much time there. I live out of a suitcase these days.”
“Me too. What I wouldn’t give
for a place of my own in the country. Coming here’s reminded me how
much I miss England’s peace and quiet.”
“Then how about this?”
Aiden pushed his lounger up
against Erika’s and lay down again so he could talk her through
more pictures, their bodies touching from shoulder to thigh. Even
Erika’s thick robe didn’t diminish the intensity of the contact
with Aiden’s body and her first instinct was to pull away but he
anticipated this by slipping his arm under her head and pulling her
closer so she couldn’t escape,.
Erika’s entire body tensed so
suddenly Aiden must have noticed but he carried on talking without
hesitation, his soft, even tones gradually soothing her until she
relaxed and moulded herself against him, line for line.
“It’s in Sussex,” he explained,
holding the phone at arm’s length so they could both see pictures
of an abandoned watermill beside a choked up stream.
“That’s my house!” Erika
exclaimed, snatching the phone from him to enlarge the pictures of
the kind of house she’d always dreamed of – miles from anywhere,
overlooking a river and with space to build a rehearsal room.
Aiden’s ribs moved against her
side as he laughed at her undisguised covetousness. “I know. I
thought of you as soon as I saw it. It was a complete impulse buy.
I’d gone to look at land on the coast and the agent had this on his
books too.”
“It’s gorgeous.” Erika almost
swooned with jealousy. “What’s it like inside?”
“Derelict. I’ve spent three
years fighting for consent to convert it.” He reclaimed the phone
and showed her pictures of the interiors and surrounding
countryside. “It stands in fifteen acres, a couple of miles outside
the village, and you can see the sea from the top floor.”
“Sounds perfect. I envy the
person who ends up living there.”
“Then envy me. I wanted
somewhere outside London for the weekends.”
Erika’s jealousy intensified and
she groaned. “You’re so lucky. This corner would be perfect for a
grand piano,” she said, pointing to a space in the old milling room
where the outside wall had collapsed to give a view of the stream.
“And the acoustics in these outbuildings would make a fantastic
recording studio.”