Spring River Valley: The Spring Collection (Boxed Set) (27 page)

Brenda sipped her ice water. “So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I don’t think dear Dr. Fraser was ever in a friends-with-benefits relationship. I think Aiden thinks I’m falling in love with him, and I can see he’s already starting to worry about it, but when I said I didn’t think the sex meant anything, he looked hurt.”

Brenda gaped. “I don’t follow. Do you think he’s falling in love with you?”

“Of course not. This whole thing is his life philosophy. No strings. He’s worried
I’m
falling.”

“And you are?”

“God, does it show?”

“Only all over your face.”

Sam dropped her head into her hands. “He’s perfect, Bren. He’s…oh, my God. He’s sweet and considerate and so much fun, and his eyes, when he looks at me, I want to stop breathing. His hands…” Sam’s stomach clenched at the memory of Aiden’s hands on her body. “I’m such an idiot. I saw this coming. I knew it would happen. What made me think it wouldn’t? Don’t do that to yourself with Riley. If you like him and you want a real relationship, don’t settle for anything less. If he doesn’t want a commitment, then walk away before you get hurt.”

Brenda sat silently for a moment, contemplating her silverware. “You’re right. I’m in love with Riley already. I don’t want to have to pretend I’m not.”

“Good. Then you’ve learned from my mistakes.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” Sam leaned back in the booth feeling weighed down and defeated by the knowledge that she was already in too deep. “I can’t walk away.”

“Are you going to tell him?”

“No! Of course not. I’m going to ride it out.”

“For how long?”

“For as long as it lasts. I…” She paused to look out the window again at the bright summer sky. “I know I should give it up now, but I can’t. I can’t breathe when he’s not around. I feel like I’m living from weekend to weekend. When we’re together, it’s something I can’t give up. I’m going to be with him until things change, and then…”

“You’ll be crushed.”

Sam put a hand on her chest. The crushing was already there. She’d felt it this morning when Aiden had kissed her good-bye and headed for his own apartment. She’d wanted to beg him to spend the day with her, but the look in his eyes told her it would have been too much. He’d acted like he regretted staying all night, but they’d been so tired from laughing and running around the carnival and making love that they’d dozed happily. She’d reveled in the warmth of his body and the comfort of not being alone in her big bed. She missed him so much right now, her heart ached. “I know, but I’d rather be with him for as long as I can and be crushed later than lose him now.”

* * * *

It didn’t seem right to call Samantha on a Wednesday night, but he wanted her. He needed her. It was his one evening off from teaching his classes, and he didn’t feel like spending it alone. Of course he had Barkley, and he could have called Bailey and Matt to hang out, but he wanted Samantha, and not just for sex. He wanted to laugh with her and enjoy himself the way he had on Saturday night.

He dialed her number and let it ring and ring. She didn’t answer, and he didn’t leave a message. Was she out with someone else? They’d made the rule that they wouldn’t sleep with other people, because that called into question safe sex and the possibility of hurting someone else who wasn’t part of their arrangement, but they’d never said they couldn’t date other people.

He thought of her out with someone else, and that familiar burn started in his chest, just like the other night when she’d let slip that the sex didn’t mean anything.

Before he could shut his phone off and give up for the night, it rang, and he scooped it up. It was Sam. His heart thumped, and he had to rub his sternum to dull the ache. “Hey…” Sweetheart? Baby? Sexy? Hot Stuff? He wanted to call her all those things, but those were terms of endearment for a girlfriend, not a girl
friend
. “What’s up?”

“Did you just call me?”

He could have lied, but caller ID would betray him. “Yeah…feel like catching a movie tonight, or getting a burger?”

“How about both? I’m starving, and that new comedy is playing at the Triple Plex. We could get burgers at the café down the street.”

Relief flooded him. She didn’t have plans with anyone else. “Great. I’ll pick you up in ten?”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Aiden hung up and looked at Barkley who whined, probably because he sensed he’d be spending the next few hours alone. “What? It’s burgers and a movie. Totally innocent. No sex tonight. I promise. Why am I promising you? What do you care?” He patted the dog’s head, grabbed his keys, and headed for the door. He had to shake the feeling that had been plaguing him since he’d woken up in Samantha’s bed on Sunday morning.

He really hadn’t planned on staying the night, but each time he’d woken up with her sumptuous body curled next to his, he hadn’t been able to force himself to get out of bed, put on his clothes, and say good-bye. He’d never been so content, and before he knew it, it was morning. He’d sensed immediately that she felt weird about the whole thing. It wasn’t part of their arrangement to spend whole nights together without discussing it ahead of time. Neither of them wanted to get into the habit of living at the other’s apartment for days on end or stretching out their weekend dates to days in length. That was what dating people did, and they
weren’t dating
.

She’d mentioned having a brunch date with her friend Brenda, so that had given him a perfect excuse to get out…and even then, it had been difficult to leave. For a split second he’d considered asking her to break her date with her friend and stay with him, wrapped in his arms in bed. Thank God he’d talked himself out it. That would have really been weird. And needy. And desperate. Ugh. It was bad enough he’d stayed all night. That wouldn’t happen tonight. In fact, he didn’t plan on sleeping with her at all tonight. This was two buddies going out for an inexpensive dinner, a half-priced bargain night movie, and then home to their separate apartments. Simple. “No sex. Not tonight,” he repeated as he closed the door. “We’re just friends tonight.”

The moment Aiden’s car pulled up outside her apartment, Sam’s heart began to race. Seeing him turned her inside out, and no amount of pop psychology could make her relax. She was rummaging through her purse, making sure she had her wallet and her keys when he rang the bell, and she flung the door open to let him in. “I’m almost ready. Just looking for—”

He took her purse out of her hands and dropped it on the sofa. In the next instant he was kissing her, deeply, determinedly. Her mind blanked. This was the fantasy she’d always had of him, silent and commanding, taking her without preamble.

“Sorry,” he said breathlessly when he finally broke the kiss. “I’m…kind of charged up.”

“No…no need to apolo—”

He kissed her again, and she melted into him. With her brain shutting down, her body had no command center, so it moved instinctively. Her hands found the buttons of his shirt and began opening them; her hips collided with his. She moaned when he pushed her up against the nearest wall and tugged her skirt up over her thighs. He had her panties off before she could make the suggestion. “Bedroom,” she whispered on a gasp. “Condoms.”

He nodded, lifted her up, and carried her to the bedroom. She bounced onto the bed and scrambled for her condom stash, which she’d just augmented during her weekly shopping trip. He shrugged off his shirt and tugged his belt open but didn’t shed his jeans or his briefs.

They remained partially dressed, pushing clothing aside to accommodate the wave of lust that took them over. Sam’s only coherent thought was nothing would ever compare to this wild passion. It was like he needed her as much as she needed him. She was complete when he entered her, when she wrapped herself around him and gave herself over entirely to the sensations he aroused in her.

The sex was fast but far from impersonal. He caught her gaze and held it while the rhythm of their bodies built to a crescendo, and when they came together, he kissed her with such tenderness, she would have cried if she wasn’t still in a bit of shock.

While their rough breathing slowed, he collapsed next to her and gently stroked her cheek. “You’re not mad, are you?”

She almost choked on a surprised laugh. “About what? That was…” A final shudder rocked her, and she blushed. “That was the best ever.”

“I guess I got myself worked up on the way over, thinking about you. I should have finessed that a little. I really need to work on my foreplay.”

She kissed him and ran her hands over his shoulders. “Whenever you want to do that, just let me know, but don’t apologize for it. I never felt so…wanted in my life. I’m…I can’t even breathe.”

Aiden captured her gaze again. The depth of emotion in his eyes had her shivering, but when he spoke, her body began to cool almost instantly. “Samantha, I don’t want you to think I’m using you. We’re friends. That’s the most important thing to me. I was wrong to just barge in and—”

She sat up. “Aiden, I thought we said we weren’t going to get bogged down in having to explain ourselves all the time. I don’t need an apology at all. This was fantastic. I’d say let’s do it again, but I’m starving. Let’s go eat, see the movie, and forget about analyzing anything. Okay?”

“I promised myself no sex tonight. This was just going to be dinner and a movie.”

“Why no sex?”

“I want to make sure we don’t just fall into that pattern. I like spending time with you. I really wanted to hang out with you tonight. It doesn’t always have to include sex.”

“Okay. You’re right. It doesn’t. And the rest of the night can be no sex if you want…but you don’t have to prove anything to me.”

He sat up and retrieved his shirt from the floor. She moved around to stand in front of him, rearranging her rumpled dress as she went. She helped him button his shirt, then knelt in front of him and looked up into his eyes. “Are you sure that’s all this is about? Nothing else is bothering you, is it?”

“Nope.” His gaze flicked away from hers.

She ignored it and rose. “Okay. As long as everything is okay. Um…if you don’t mind, I’m going to change. This dress needs to be ironed now. I’m just going to throw on jeans and a T-shirt.”

“Sure.” He rose to discard the condom and buckle his pants. She watched him in the mirror as she sloughed off her dress and searched for a more casual outfit. He moved slowly, as though he was contemplating something. Despite having just been expertly satisfied, she would have thrown him on the bed again and had her way with him if she wasn’t so concerned that he was lying about something. There was definitely an issue, but he wasn’t ready to talk to her about it. She prayed it wasn’t that he’d met someone else already, but if it came to that, she’d have to accept it. The one thing she would never do was put any pressure on him or demand their relationship evolve into anything more serious.

She’d lose him for sure then, and she wasn’t ready for that.

*

Aiden relaxed over dinner at the café and allowed himself to forget the tide of emotions that had him claiming Sam like some kind of Neanderthal in her apartment. She wasn’t wrong, though. The sex had been amazing, and he’d have taken her home and done it all over again, if he didn’t hate himself for letting it happen like that.

He pushed all serious thoughts aside as they strolled to the theater and even managed to laugh at the movie while they shared popcorn and held hands. One question kept interfering with his enjoyment of the evening, though.
How is this not a date?

Every time he looked over at her, his heart thumped a little more insistently in his chest.

She was perfect, so perfect that she knew exactly what to say even when he didn’t really know what he wanted to hear. How could it be that the perfect girl for him to settle down with happened to be the girl he’d been searching for who didn’t want to settle down? Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe they could go along like this for a while – a long while. They could turn something casual into something serious without ever having to label it.

He squeezed her hand tighter, and she looked over at him and smiled.
You okay?
she mouthed.

He nodded.
Perfect
, he mouthed back. Never better.

* * * *

Friday night after his last class ended, Aiden headed to Colette’s Pub. He had originally wanted to meet Samantha, but since Wednesday, he’d been mulling over his own muddled thoughts, and when Matt had invited him to hang out since Bailey and her friends were all going to some kind of girls-only party, he’d jumped at the chance to kick back with a beer and distract himself from constant thoughts of Sam.

“Hey, Ace, name your poison,” Matt greeted him as he claimed a barstool.

“Whatever you have on tap is fine,” he replied and did a double take as he caught sight of the man sitting next to him. “Hey, doc. Why aren’t you at the Clinic? I thought tonight was your late hours.” Seeing Taylor Croft at the bar gave him a bit of a start. Samantha had mentioned having to work a little late tonight. Could she have been blowing him off?