“It is for me.”
“Is it?” His look warned her not
to lie to herself. “You can read my mind, even before I know what
I’m thinking myself. When you touch me, it’s as if a missing part
of me has been returned and your pulse falls into step with mine.
The line between us was always blurred and, when we broke up, each
of us was left with a hard, jagged edge. Those edges would still
match as perfectly now as they did back then.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“Because it always was.” His
shoulders tensed and he couldn’t meet her eyes. “…until I ruined
it.”
There was no denying this, but
times had changed.
“You’re talking about someone
you knew a long time ago,” Erika said, “but I’m a different person
now. How can you be sure it would still work?”
“Instinct.”
“Wishful thinking,” she
corrected him.
“Maybe.” He shrugged but didn’t
look convinced. “But there’s nothing wrong with holding out
hope.”
Since first meeting Aiden all
those years ago, Erika had gone through every emotion – from
bottomless love to deepest hatred – but that didn’t mean she could
now lie, or even let him carry on with false optimism.
“No.” She made herself sound
adamant, even though her resolve skipped a beat. “It’s too big a
step. Meeting you again has been about nostalgia and neglected
physical needs.”
“You’re fooling yourself if you
think it’s just sex and memories.”
“It is for me.” She willed him
to believe her. “All I can think about right now is the fight I’m
facing to keep my music. Even without that, I don’t know if I’d
have the strength to involve myself with you again.”
Aiden laced his fingers through
Erika’s and pulled her hand close to his chest where she felt his
heartbeat through his shirt. As he’d predicted, her pulse picked up
the rhythm of his heart and slowed, losing its turbulence.
“I’m not talking about going
back to where we left off,” he said. “We can take it as slowly as
you like. Start fresh and see where it goes.”
“Right back to heartbreak,” she
thought out loud, indecision writ large across her face.
“Why? You can’t deny there’s
still a connection between us. We’re finding it hard to keep our
hands off one another. Why else would you have kissed me?”
“That’s different. Of course
there’s physical attraction, but you’re talking about a
relationship. Love, commitment, trust and everything in
between.”
“Then let’s start with the sex
and work up from there.”
“What!” The suggestion came so
unexpectedly Erika could barely gasp out a reply.
“You heard. And don’t pretend
you’re shocked. You have a body made for sin and the other morning
proved you’re still no angel. If this weekend is about sex and
memories, why don’t we play to our strengths?”
Devilment sparked in his eyes as
he waited to see whether she’d take the bait. The hook snagged
somewhere close to Erika’s libido and embedded itself, releasing
the dam burst of desire she’d held back since first seeing him that
evening.
Where would be the harm, she
asked herself? After all, he took sexy to a whole new level and it
would be a shame to waste it, particularly as they only had thirty
six hours to play with.
Erika wasn’t the only one with a
body made for sin and Aiden’s remembered wickedness had inspired
every raunchy lyric she’d ever written, including a few too x-rated
to record. Not to mention the delicious dreams that visited her
most nights as she drifted off to sleep.
“I can see you’re thinking about
it,” Aiden said after Erika’s silence had gone on too long. “We
could have a lot of fun before you head up to London.”
Erika tilted her head and
pretended Aiden had nothing of interest to offer her. “You forget,
I’ve already sampled the merchandise,” she reminded him, playing
along. “Maybe that option won’t appeal to me either.”
“And perhaps you just need a
little more convincing.” His eyes widened suggestively. “The other
morning, you took what you wanted and left. I wasn’t allowed to
join in.”
“Would it have made any
difference?”
In reply, Aiden reached up and
placed his fingertips on the side of her neck, just below her ear,
allowing them to flutter against her skin like butterflies’ wings.
“If I kissed you here right now I’d give you goosebumps along your
arms.”
Erika half closed her eyes as a
thrill of arousal trickled through her skin, just as Aiden had
predicted.
His fingers then moved around
under her hair and circled each one of her neck bones before
caressing the sensitive nape. ”When I gave you a massage, I started
here and, by the time I was half way down your spine, you’d be
begging me to make love to you.”
He whispered the last, leaning
so close his cheek brushed hers and the powerful, masculine scent
of him engulfed her, goading her into touching him. Without
warning, he dropped his hand and pinched the tender skin on the
back of her knee, making Erika gasp. “After we’d showered, I’d dry
you off and kiss you from ankle to thigh before letting my
tongue…”
“Okay. Okay. You’ve made your
point.” Erika jumped in before he could go any further, her skin
temperature having leapt by ten degrees. “Leave something for the
imagination.”
“Are you sure you don’t need
reminding how I could make you come simply by touching your
nipples? Or how I’d start at your navel and…”
“Enough!” Erika glared at him
but found it impossible to cancel the image of his tongue
travelling down across her belly, and her cheeks flushed. “People
are staring.”
Aiden laughed at her
embarrassment, the deep, rich sound setting off sensual vibrations
in Erika’s bones. “So why don’t we escape to your room?”
“No! I mean, we can’t.” Erika
felt control shifting dangerously in Aiden’s favour and reacted
quickly. Sex equalled power – in Aiden Thirstan’s book, at least –
and while she dictated the pace, she had some chance of making him
do what she wanted. She leaned back and moved her leg, breaking the
physical connection and slowing the tempo.
“You used to be more subtle than
this.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t have
time to waste,” he reminded her.
“That doesn’t mean I want to
leap into bed with you right now.”
“Doesn’t it?” He shot her the
same warning glance – the one telling her not to lie to herself.
“Because I can’t think of anything else. I want you more than I
have ever wanted any woman and, right now, all I can think about is
taking you upstairs and unzipping that very beautiful dress.”
“Whatever happened to
foreplay?”
Realising the game was finally
on, Aiden relaxed and let his eyes run over Erika’s body from
cleavage to ankle, their amber tones spelling out lust and
longing.
“It starts the minute I close
the door to your suite,” he promised, “when I’ll…”
“Oh, no.” Erika shook her head,
laughing, and rested her hand on Aiden’s chest to keep him at bay.
“You’ll need to do better than that. I’ve spent a long time getting
dressed tonight and you have to make it worth my while.”
“What do you suggest?”
“That we have dinner and see
what happens.” Erika feigned nonchalance but suspected her
expression gave away more than it concealed about the arousal
building within her. “I’ll give you exactly two hours to talk me
out of this dress – although I suspect you could shorten the time
frame if you tried hard enough.”
“I might have to play
dirty.”
“Is that a threat or a
promise?”
“More of an absolute guarantee,
really.”
“Oh, good.” Her breath caught in
her throat. “Dirty’s my favourite kind of game.”
Aiden’s mouth curved into the
sexiest of smiles that conveyed anticipation, desire and impatience
in equal measure, and his lips parted, ready to kiss her. He raised
his chin, beckoning her closer but Erika wasn’t prepared to give in
quite so easily. Instead, she dropped her hand from his chest and
onto his leg, very deliberately spreading her fingers across his
thigh. From there, it travelled up over his hips and inside his
jacket where she let it rest against his abdomen, feeling the
muscles clench beneath her fingers.
“Stop. You’re driving me crazy,”
he breathed, working his fingers under the hem of her dress and
sliding his hand up toward her stocking top. “Please let’s forget
dinner and get out of here now.”
“No way!”
Laughing, Erika grabbed his
wrist and put distance between them on the sofa. The idea that
Aiden’s rising desire made him hers to command excited her and she
was determined to play the advantage, writing her own rules as she
went along. Acting on this, she slipped one finger into the gap
between his shirt buttons and drew a circle on his skin, letting
her nail catch in the hairs.
“Go and find us a table,” she
ordered, “while I decide what I want for dessert.”
“I know what I’d like to see on
the menu.”
Erika knew Aiden’s after-dinner
tastes only too well and her nipples budded at the memory of him
licking ice cream and chocolate from her breasts. “Well I’m in the
mood for something new, so you might need to be creative.”
“That’s a challenge, if ever I
heard one.”
Aiden’s expression guaranteed
that, given the chance, he’d be as spectacularly inventive as he’d
always been. The promise sent desire shooting through Erika, who
could now barely control her own reactions, let alone his.
Never letting her eyes drop from
his face, she gently placed her hand in his lap and felt a very
gratifying hardness beneath her fingers. Her pussy flooded and
tightened in anticipation of the hundred ways he’d bring her
pleasure later.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Aiden demanded, his features registering erotically-charged
surprise followed by a warning that she was in very real danger of
being carried bodily back to her suite. “Do you know how much I
want to fuck you right now?”
“Oh, yes.” Erika pressed her
hand against his groin, feeling it swell so tantalisingly into her
palm that she couldn’t hold back a sigh of arousal. “I know because
I want you twice as much and I’m already thinking up a dozen new
ways to please you.” She paused for a second to allow the idea to
penetrate and saw Aiden’s eyes darken with lust. “Maybe two hours
is too long to wait,” she added. “Let’s see how quickly we can get
through dinner.”
Erika stood up quickly before
sexual hunger overpowered her and she pounced on him. She needed a
moment to bring her desire down to the right side of indecent and
excused herself to freshen her lipstick. “I’ll see you outside in a
couple of minutes.”
“Take your time,” Aiden said
with a rueful smile. “If I stood up right now it’d be pretty
obvious to everyone in the bar how horny you’ve made me. I’ll
finish my champagne and let things…settle down.”
“Just as long as you can revive
them later.” Flicking up her eyebrows suggestively, Erika leaned
back in for a kiss that barely touched Aiden’s lips but which had
him desperate for more. “I have plans for you later that don’t
include a lot of lying still.”
After blowing Aiden a very
cheeky kiss, Erika headed out into the corridor where she heard the
excited chatter of a wedding party coming from the hotel’s large
ballroom. In the loo, she checked her make-up, topped up her
lipstick and brushed on a second coat of mascara, wasting time to
give Aiden chance to recover.
When she couldn’t wait any
longer, she opened the door, only to be knocked backwards by a
young woman in a wedding dress barging her way in. She flung
herself down onto a chair and hid her face in her hands, before
breaking down into noisy sobs.
“Whatever’s the matter?” an
astonished Erika asked, dropping to her knees beside the girl and
putting her arms around her. “Surely nothing could be so terrible
on your wedding day.”
The bride couldn’t control
herself enough to reply but the door opened again and Erika looked
up hopefully at another girl, obviously a bridesmaid.
“They can’t track anyone else
down,” the bridesmaid said, “but they’ve managed to find a mobile
disco that can be here in an hour.”
This news sent the bride into
more sobs and Erika asked what had happened.
“We hired a band but the lead
singer’s crashed her car on the way here and she’s been taken to
hospital,” the bridesmaid explained, so busy trying to stop her
sister crying that she hardly looked at Erika.
“Is there anything I can do?”
Erika offered.
“Not unless you can sing,” the
bride blubbed.
Having spent five years hiding,
this dismissal took Erika aback for a moment and she laughed out
loud. She passed the bride a tissue, at the same time catching the
bridesmaid’s eye and finally seeing recognition clang into
place.
“Oh my God, Georgia,” the
bridesmaid said, clutching the bride’s arm and staring open
mouthed. “She’s Erika Fenn.”
Georgia focussed through a blur
of tears and did a double take before all the colour drained from
her face. “Tell me I’m dreaming.”
“You’re not.” Erika rarely had
chance to meet her fans up close and the laughter came bubbling out
at both girls’ astonishment. “And seriously, I’d like to help out.
I worked my way through uni as a wedding singer. If you want me to
fill in…”
Georgia threw her arms around
Erika before she could finish the sentence.
“Fill in! As if you’d be second
best,” she screamed in delight. “We’re having Perfect Together as
our first dance anyway.” Georgia jumped up and down on the spot.
“Phil won’t believe this. I think he loves you more than he loves
me.”
The excited bridesmaid ran off
in search of the groom and the band while Erika helped Georgia
repair her make-up. Within minutes, Erika established she already
knew most of the planned songs and could sight-read the music where
she didn’t.