Riding Curves (10 page)

I thought on that for a few seconds.
It hurt, felt like an intentional rejection, but I wasn't exactly
little miss innocent at the time. At least it had looked that way.
The truth was both embarrassing and painful.

"I didn't go to Harold's over
Christmas," I confessed. "I haven't dated anyone since that
day."

"I have." His tone was curt,
uncompromising, and I felt for a second like he was trying to
intentionally hurt me with his words and all they implied. And then
he removed the implication. and I knew he wanted to hurt me.
"Dated…fucked, whatever you want to call it."

I closed my eyes again. He intended to
make this hard, maybe even to push me away entirely. I had no
guarantee that there was any light at the end of this long tunnel.
I knew I had lost him as a lover, but part of me hoped that I could
have my friend back. I loved Aiden, always would, anyway I could
get him.

"I'm sorry I called you selfish,
I--"

"I am," he interrupted. "You can't
expect anything better from a Perry."

I shook my head. He had heard that
growing up, even after he went to work in my dad's shop, although
daddy would have fired any employee who dared utter the sentiment.
Still, all the town busybodies never quite stopped looking down on
Aiden, even after he graduated college and made the shop such a
success.

"You're not anything like your mom and
Frankie. Not anything like me…I was the selfish one. All I could
think about was how much I was hurting…" My tears started up again.
I didn't try to hide them, didn't swipe at them. It was all I could
do to keep the box from slipping from my fingers as numbness crept
along my limbs.

He shifted. If anything, his body grew
tighter. "Why are you here, Cecelia?"

Not an ounce of retreat in his tone. I
sucked another breath in, hiccupped half of it back out. I lifted
the box. "I need to return this. I didn't get it until
today."

I waited for him to say something, as
if the late delivery were some kind of exculpation for my months of
having remained silent. I knew it wasn't, just wished it could be.
It didn't matter that someone had lied or that I had promised daddy
I wouldn't tell. I didn't deserve Aiden's forgiveness. I could have
talked to him after I found out about Pamela's theft, could have
talked to my father so that he released me from the promise. I
could have gone into that hotel room without flinging accusations.
But I had been afraid to have tough conversations with the two most
important men in my life and so I stayed silent.

No, I didn't stay silent. I lied about
having a boyfriend weeks before Aiden showed up with the first new
woman on his arm. I stayed away half a year, making it clear with
my absence that I didn't want to face even the chance that I would
run into him.

Stuck in a noiseless vacuum as Aiden
continued staring at me, I walked the two steps to the nearest
table and put the box down. "I know how much work you put into your
pieces. You only do it for two reasons, a commission or
friendship."

I had to stop and force more air into
my lungs before I could continue. "Neither applies, so I don't feel
right keeping it."

I turned slowly toward the entryway,
my head spinning five times as fast as my body moved. I knew I was
in danger of passing out. My vision narrowed and I couldn't hear
anything over the roaring pulse. I had to get out, had to reach my
car and pull it out of Aiden's view and then I could pass out for
as long as I wanted.

When I woke, I would have a two state
drive ahead of me.

I reached the door, blinded by tears.
I fumbled for the lock, panicking because I couldn't breathe
in.

Aiden's hand covered mine. Gently, he
moved me away from the door then blocked it with his body. He
opened the lid of the box and pulled the pin out. Setting the box
aside, he ran his fingers over the edge of the wings, forcing the
bottom wings to flip up. The butterfly transformed to the shape of
a heart.

"You look like you're going to pass
out, Cece." He pinned the heart to my blouse then put an arm around
my shoulder and led me to the couch.

Once I was sitting, he pushed lightly
against my chest. "Lean back."

I started to comply, then reversed my
direction. "I think I'm supposed to put my head between my
legs."

"No." Using both hands, he maneuvered
my body until I rested fully against the couch back.

"I'm pretty sure," I argued, but
stopped resisting.

"Baby girl, I can't kiss you if your
head's between your legs."

I nodded even though I could not wrap
my mind around what he had just said. Why on earth would Aiden want
to kiss me? I had said awful things to him then hid like a coward
when I found out they were lies. And I had to look

"Shh…" Leaning close to me, he stroked
my cheek, his chin resting against my shoulder. Tilting his head
just a fraction, he kissed the line of my chin. A little push up
and his mouth pressed against the corner, just below my ear. He
cupped the other side of my face, his fingertips roughly caressing
my scalp and neck. He kept petting me like that, his lips taking
slow, biting kisses until I curled into him and he wrapped his arms
around me.

"I'm sorry I pushed you toward dating
someone else." His lips ghosted mine, a rapacious heat flaring
inside my body at the contact. My nipples went hard and my thighs
started to squeeze together as he continued. "That was the first
wedge between us, Cece."

His hand pushed along my spine, from
my tailbone up, my shirt moving with it. Feeling his hand on my
bare flesh, I arched into him and shook my head. "I was the bigger
wedge. I was listening to my own noise, Cecilia
Harpoon--"

Growling lightly, he pushed his chest
harder against mine as his hands drew me closer. "Stop that, baby.
You're so fucking beautiful, it hurts me to look at
you."

I closed my eyes and pressed my
quivering lips together. I could only imagine how purpled my tear
streaked face was at that moment, the long hours of crying making
everything twice as swollen and puffy.

"Baby," he growled again, the sound
more fierce than gentle. "You don't have to see what I see, you
just have to believe I see it."

He kissed my throat, a shameful, needy
moan erupting from me at the contact. I didn't deserve his touch,
not because of how I looked, but how I had acted. I had no faith in
Aiden despite his every action toward me proving I could trust
him.

"Baby," he nudged the side of my mouth
with his nose. "Can you believe me?"

"Yes." Opening my eyes, I drew a shaky
breath in. He was so beautiful, the raw emotions twisting his face
only magnifying that beauty. I licked my lips then nudged him back.
"Where is this conversation going?"

He pulled away just enough to run a
thumb over the pin. "I thought you had this all week and most of
last. I've been walking around in knots -- sad knots, angry
knots."

Cupping my face, he rested his
forehead against mine. "I thought I could make it through you
walking out the door. I couldn't -- I don't ever want
to."

His lips pressed against mine, the
first time our mouths had met since that weekend at the lake house.
His tongue gently forced me to open to him. He shifted our bodies
until he had one arm around me, the other one controlling the tilt
of my head as the kiss deepened. When he finally let me up for air,
he buried his face against my neck.

"I know you've planned a life away
from here--"

"No!" Shaking my head vigorously, I
clutched his shirt until I could calm down enough to speak. "I
haven't spent a penny of my signing bonus. I'm just on the hook for
a couple hundred dollars if I cancel the lease, and…I need a
job."

I frowned at that last bit, but Aiden
only grinned.

"I'm sure your dad wouldn't have a
problem if we hired a miscommunication--"

I slugged him playfully before he
could finish the joke. Then I wrapped my arms around his neck and
kissed him, both of our hands beginning to roam.

******************

Aiden's strokes turned to tugs and
pulls until he had me mashed up against his bedroom wall while he
brought the lights down to a sensual level and nibbled at my neck.
My head tilted in ecstasy and to allow him full access to my
throat, I opened my eyes just long enough to see a white box on his
dresser. One corner was slightly crushed and the ribbon drooped
like a wilted flower.

"What's wrong, love?"

Feeling him tense, I realized that I
had tightened while looking at the box. I tried to relax and
gestured shyly with my chin. "Is that…"

I trailed off, not wanting to remind
him of the scene in the hotel.

"Yeah." His snort managed to sound
embarrassed, which made my chest swell and my possessive grip on
his shoulders dig a little deeper.

I shifted my head until I could see
his face. The way his dark eyes glittered did strange, delightful
things to my body. "What about…you know…"

I rolled my eyes before looking back
at him. "Wasn't at least one of them curious?"

Chuckling, he buried his face against
my neck. "They were all curious, but they needed the
warning."

"What warning?" I groaned my way
through the end of the question as he put his hands on my hips and
tugged me closer to the bed.

Stopping at the edge of the dresser,
he palmed my breast and kissed the corner of my mouth. "That my
heart wasn't theirs to take. The pin and its box stayed there until
I mailed them."

A quiver ran through me at the
intensity of his voice and the look in his eyes. It was a cold
thing to do -- to those other women. But heat flared across my
breasts and thighs at the realization I would have been "the woman"
in Aiden's life -- the one that got away and for whom a small part
of him would have always pined.

It was only fair, he held the same
place within my heart. And I prayed each of those women would one
day find the same happiness, just not with my man because I didn't
plan on ever letting him go again.

My eyes growing moist again, I pointed
at the box with my chin. "Can I?"

"You don't want me to re-wrap it?" He
lifted a brow, his gaze a little cautious. "It's pretty banged
up."

I shook my head, conscious of how
puffy my face still was as my smile squashed everything
up.

"I don't know." He brushed a hand
against his cheek and sucked at his bottom lip. "That's a lot of
build up for what's inside. It's just a slinky bit of silk I wanted
to strip off your body, baby girl."

"Oh my." Smiling, I pushed
at his chest then reached for the box. "You just lost your chance
to say
no
, Aiden
Perry."

I opened the box, immediately
mesmerized by the silk camisole colored a dark gunmetal gray with
its bust and bottom hem edged in matching lace. Lifting it from the
tissue paper, I noticed how thin the silk was and knew even the
weakest light would make the fabric transparent enough for Aiden to
trace the contours of my flesh. Thinking of his eyes on me like
that, I didn't want to run and hide. I wanted the camisole on so I
could drive him crazy before he teased it off my flesh.

He cleared his throat, once again
sounding bashful. Sexy and entirely unlike his natural demeanor,
the sound lifted my gaze until I meet his in the mirror. He blinked
once then nuzzled his cheek against my hair. "I bought you two
pieces, love."

A soft smile parted his lips as his
eyes dropped and zeroed in on the reflection of my breasts beneath
my shirt. Reaching around me, he brushed a finger across one aching
nipple. "The other is open cup, black lace."

His finger moved up to draw an
invisible curve over the swell of my breast. "With a pink satin
band to frame the area."

His words devolved into a hungry
growl. He stopped looking at me, his eyes closing as his lips
sealed around the skin covering my neck and he started sucking. He
teased my nipple through the fabric, his other hand seizing my hip.
He sank into me, his groin nestled against my generous bottom and
his thick bulge crowding the valley of my cheeks.

"Come to bed," he rasped.

I shrank just the tiniest bit from
Aiden. He might be blind to the mess my hair was, the still swollen
eyes and everything else, but I wanted to come to him fresh. "I
want to put this on…after I shower."

"Baby, I want you now." His hand moved
from my hip to cup my mound and a full quiver ran through
me.

I had been trying to push down the
contractions rolling through me, but they became unstoppable with
his hand there, squeezing, his thumb finding a way to manipulate my
clit despite the layer of fabric. My knees started to give and he
cinched me tighter, his leg hooking and sweeping mine so that I
stood with my thighs spread.

"Please," I mewled. "It will make me
wide awake and--"

"Little girl," he huffed. "All the
things I'm going to do to you, there's not a chance in the universe
you'll fall asleep."