“So?”
“What you saw the other morning
was nothing more than a performance staged for the photographers’
benefit. If we had you convinced, we must have played our parts to
perfection.”
Aiden’s mind raced to make sense
of the information. “What are you saying? That you’re not
together?”
“Erika tells me you’re a man of
honour. Someone who can keep a secret. So I’m about to trust you
with information the press would kill for.”
Aiden braced himself, expecting
to hear Ben had married Erika secretly, or that their engagement
was more than just a rumour.
“I love Erika,” Ben admitted,
knocking the wind out of Aiden. “She’s beautiful, funny, talented
and sexy. But you don’t need me to tell you that.”
“No I don’t.” Aiden tensed, not
knowing whether to punch Ben or get in his car and drive off. “I
hope you’ll be very happy together.”
“I doubt it.” Ben laughed
grimly. “You see, I’m gay.”
“Gay?” Aiden took a step back in
astonishment, wanting to laugh in relief but feeling it
inappropriate. “If this got out, your career would be over.”
“Duh!” Ben pulled a face and,
this time, Aiden did laugh.
“So Erika was only
pretending.”
“To great effect apparently.”
Ben smiled and held out his hand again toward Aiden. “Shall we
start afresh? I’m Ben. And a good friend of mine is apparently very
much in love with you.”
Aiden grinned in relief and
shook Ben’s hand. “Forgive me. How is she? I’ve missed her.”
“Miserable,” Ben laughed. “And
she never stops talking about you. In fact, I’m bored to death with
hearing how wonderful you are.”
“So why hasn’t she called? When
I saw the pictures of you both, I thought…”
“I know what you thought.” Ben
rebuked him silently for jumping to conclusions. “But when Marty
saw your photo and the YouTube videos he went crazy and smashed her
phone. She has a bodyguard outside her door 24/7.”
“Bastard. I should have laid him
out when I had the chance.”
“Good job you didn’t. He also
has the CCTV footage from the hotel car park and is threatening an
assault charge if Erika contacts you.”
The curses Aiden now uttered
made Ben and Richard laugh. Ben took off his coat and handed it to
Aiden.
“Here, put this on. There’s a
hat in the pocket too. You’re going to Claridges so I’m hoping you
can do a good enough impersonation of me.”
“You’re taking me to see Erika
now?”
“Unless you don’t want to.”
After four days without her,
Aiden didn’t need to be told twice and pulled the hat down low to
hide his face.
“Stay close to Richard and let
him do all the talking,” Ben warned. “There’s a helluva lot riding
on this – and not just for you.”
“I’ll be careful. I promise.” He
reached for and shook Ben’s hand again. “I owe you for this.”
“I know you do.” Ben sounded
serious suddenly. “And I’ll be collecting – big time.”
Erika opened her door
tentatively at the appearance of Richard so late in the evening.
She was already half asleep and hid behind the door, not wanting
the bodyguard to see she was already in her pyjamas.
“Ben wondered whether you’d like
to join us for a nightcap,” Richard said, nodding slightly at her,
silently urging her to agree.
“Thanks but it’s late and I’m
ready for bed.” Erika yawned on cue. “I’ve had dinner with Marty
and I’m worn out.”
“Please!” Richard put his foot
in the door, unusually insistent, and widened his eyes at her. “It
would mean a lot to Ben.”
He willed her to understand how
important it was that she accompany him and, thankfully, the penny
dropped.
“Don’t bother changing,” Richard
added. “It’s only us.”
Erika interpreted this as, don’t
ask questions, just come quickly, so she dodged back inside to
throw her coat on over her pyjamas. The bodyguard predictably
followed them along the corridor so Erika made small talk instead
of quizzing Richard, for fear of having everything reported back.
Richard flashed her a grateful smile and unlocked the door to Ben’s
suite.
“What’s going on,” she demanded
as soon as they were alone but Richard raised his finger to his
lips and shook his head. “No time to explain. You only have an
hour.”
“An hour for what?”
“For me.”
Erika froze when she heard the
deep voice behind her and didn’t dare turn around. For a moment,
she thought she’d heard Aiden and she closed her eyes to cherish
the fiction for a few seconds. A lump rose to her throat but she
forced it down, smiling sadly as she turned in the direction of the
speaker. Logic told her to expect Ben but, when her eyes registered
Aiden standing in the bedroom doorway, her heart exploded with
joy.
Without a second thought she ran
to him and flung herself into his arms, letting him enfold her in
an embrace that spoke of longing, missing and desire, all at the
same time.
Aiden half pulled, half carried
her through into the bedroom before kissing Erika with a tenderness
that forced tears to her eyes. She responded eagerly, spreading her
fingers across the back of his neck and pulling him closer so he
could never escape from her again.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she
said against his lips. “I thought I’d never see you again.
Marty’s…”
“Shh.” Aiden quietened her again
with another kiss as he tangled his fingers in her hair and swept
it back from her face. “Ben’s told me everything. Just stop talking
and let me kiss you.”
His kiss deepened, awakening
sweet memories of all the times they’d made love and Erika pressed
herself against him, unable to believe she’d found her way back
into his arms.
Aiden’s hands slipped her coat
from her shoulders and then caressed every inch of her, relearning
the shape of her body and finding the sensitive curves and hollows
that brought gasps of pleasure from Erika.
She waited for him to begin
taking off her clothes but, instead, Aiden broke away from her,
breathing hard and studying her lips that glistened and begged to
be kissed again. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled her
onto his lap, cradling her against his chest.
“It’s been impossible without
you,” he breathed, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair. “When you
didn’t phone that first day, and then I saw the pictures of you and
Ben together, I went out of my mind.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. But we
needed to distract Marty.”
“I saw you outside the hotel
together and convinced myself it was all over between us. You
looked so happy. I thought the weekend had been about revenge.
Seduce me, make me fall in love with you again and then run back to
your lover so you could break my heart.”
“It wasn’t like that…”
But he didn’t give Erika any
more chance to explain. Instead, his hand slipped under her
camisole and traced the shape of her spine as he kissed her with
renewed passion, his caresses making Erika beg him to touch every
part of her body.
She needed to talk to him – to
explain exactly how she felt and how much she’d missed him – but
words would never go far enough. Instinct told her that her body
could speak more clearly so she sat up and straddled his lap before
taking Aiden’s face between her hands and kissing him again. Her
tongue circled his lips. tasting and teasing him while his hands
continued their exploration of her body, becoming bolder every
second.
She pulled at Aiden’s sweater,
obviously intending to strip him naked, but he caught her
hands.
“What about Richard?” he
asked.
She smiled seductively, turning
his heart over in his chest. “It’s you I want – not Richard.”
Before Aiden could put up any
more of a fight, Erika pulled his sweater aside and began kissing
his neck, sliding her fingers down inside his t-shirt where she
found his skin cold to the touch. Any resistance left Aiden at that
moment and he tilted his head to one side, allowing her breath to
warm him for the first time in days.
Unable to deny himself any
longer, he pulled Erika’s camisole up over her head and gasped with
longing at the sight of her, naked to the waist. He dragged her
mouth down onto his and ravaged its sweetness with his tongue,
impatient to taste the rest of her body.
Erika felt Aiden’s rising
excitement and writhed against him. The heavy wool of his sweater
scratched at her breasts, its roughness chafing her nipples until
they were too tender to bear and she moaned in frustration.
Overcome by lust, Erika pushed
against Aiden’s shoulders, overbalancing him back onto the bed and
knelt above him, dangling her breasts over his face and ordering
him to kiss them. Glad to comply, his tongue traced the shape of
each in turn, darting out across the tender skin under her arms and
lingering in the deep cleft that divided her bosom. By the time he
began biting, kissing and sucking her nipples he’d brought Erika
almost to the point of orgasm and she cried out, pleading with him
not to stop.
Refusing to wait one more moment
for him, Erika wrenched off Aiden’s sweater and t-shirt, both of
them laughing at the urgency that made them fumble and rush each
other out of their clothes. Aiden tumbled Erika onto her back and
pulled off her pyjamas, leaving her naked beneath him and helpless
under his hot tongue that scorched across her belly and around her
hip bones.
Erika’s climax built like a
fever, taking over her senses. She needed Aiden on top of her and
inside her, wanted to feel possessed and conquered by him. Instead
he teased her and dodged out of her reach, even though his jeans
bulged.
“Tell me,” he said softly
against her neck before dropping his lips down to kiss her breasts
once more. When Erika arched her back toward him he pulled away
again, denying her the touches she grew wild for.
“Say it,” he ordered. “Tell me
you love me or I’ll get dressed now.”
“Oh my God.” Erika cried out
when he bit down hard on her nipple and her sex pulsated in the
first throes of orgasm. “I love you. I love you. I love you. But if
you don’t make love to me right now I think I’ll die.”
Aiden laughed so much his
fingers could hardly undo his jeans but he freed the buttons at
last and wriggled them lower down his hips. By this time, Erika had
lost patience and pulled him down onto her, wrapping her legs
around him and using her heels to force the jeans down over his
taut buttocks. Once free, she shifted so he could enter her in one
swift movement.
Four nights without her had made
Aiden huge and hard. He thrust deeply, his excitement matching her
own and their bodies consumed with the desperate need to satisfy
their desires.
Erika’s body erupted with the
intense shock of pleasure spreading up from her sex until even her
throat constricted.
Her body absorbed Aiden,
drinking him in and capturing him, gaining control over every touch
and kiss until his only thought was her pleasure. He slowed or
quickened his pace as she demanded until her body excited him too
much and he lost all control.
She intoxicated him, filling his
senses and discarding every inhibition, making him a slave to her
body. Her sex clenched when she came, propelling him inexorably
toward climax and forcing out every conscious thought.
Pushing one hand under her
pelvis, he yanked her hard against him, grinding himself into her
softness. Their bodies tensed together and, when they eventually
relaxed, Aiden slumped against her before burying his face in her
hair. He took a while to reclaim his voice.
“If I could freeze this
moment…,” he began but his words were stopped with a kiss.
“You don’t need to,” Erika
promised, the kiss still loaded with unspent passion. “I love you,
Aiden Thirstan and there’ll be thousands of moments like this ahead
of us.”
For four days she’d been haunted
by guilt and now everything she wanted to say came tumbling
out.
“You mean so much to me,” she
said. “I can’t believe how quickly I fell for you again – or how
hard. I know now that last weekend wasn’t only about sex and
memories for me – it was so much more. The past warned me not to
get involved but I can’t help myself.”
At this admission, Aiden kissed
her again and ran his hand down the length of her body, feeling her
mould herself to him at his touch and smiling as he realised he had
as much power over her as she held over him.
“I can’t help myself either.
I’ve been so lonely without you, Erika. And so cold.”
She laughed at this and let her
fingertips explore his scorching skin. “Well you’re not cold now,”
she said, brushing the damp hair back from his forehead. “You are
very, very hot – in every sense of the word.”
Aiden rolled onto his side,
pulling her with him but never loosening his hold on her. “I can’t
bear to leave you.”
“I know. And I wish I could come
away with you tonight.” Erika willed herself not to cry but the
tears came anyway, drenching Aiden’s hot skin.
“Only a little while longer,”
Aiden promised. “My lawyers are almost ready to lodge the
papers.”
Erika shook her head. “There’s
no time. Marty’s booked flights back to LA for next Friday. Once
I’m there, I’ll never see you again.”
The thought made Aiden’s heart
race and he clung to Erika. “It won’t go that far,” he said. “Ben
and I have an idea to get you away.”
“What? How?”
“I can’t tell you yet. Just be
patient. And brave.” He propped himself up on one elbow and looked
down at her; her face tear-stained but still achingly beautiful
against the pillow. “Everything will be fine. This will all be over
soon and we can spend the rest of our lives making up for lost
time.”
Only too willing to believe him,
Erika breathed in deeply to suppress the tears and forced a watery
smile. “We’d better get dressed. You need to leave.”