Making a mistake in his personal life was likely to cost him more than a broken heart and a bruised ego. The Goddess franchise alone was worth millions, and hundreds of people depended on him to keep things running smoothly and ensure that they kept their jobs and their benefits. He’d need more than one day – no matter how great that day was – to make a decision like that.
“So?” Lexi asked first thing Monday morning. She was waiting in his office, fresh imported coffee in hand. “How’d it go?”
“Great. You really outdid yourself, Lex. Mary loved the food. Told me I shouldn’t spend so much money on her, though.” He grinned at that.
“She sounds like a keeper. When can I meet her?”
“Not yet, Lex. I’m not ready for her to know about all this.”
“Why not?”
“If she knows, it might change things.”
Lexi nodded. It was unfortunate, but true. “Well, what if we did a double date or something? You know, do it up old school with dinner and a movie?”
Aidan considered it. It sounded like a great idea. Lexi promised to talk to Ian and arrange for someone to watch the kids, looking more excited than Aidan had seen in a long time.
Before she left, Aidan stopped her. Something Mary had said kept niggling at the back of his mind. “Lex, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, shoot.”
“Do I, uh, smell good?”
A slow smile began to grow on her face. “Oh, yeah. Like great sex on a stick.”
He rolled his eyes. “Cut it out, Lex. I’m serious.”
“So am I. Geez, Aidan, you mean you really don’t know? All these years I thought you were doing it on purpose.”
“Doing what on purpose?” he asked, bemused.
Lexi leaned in, closed her eyes, and inhaled. “Your scent,” she said, leaning back. “I’ve never smelled anything like it. It’s fantastic.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope. Ask any woman.” She got a mischievous look in her eye. “Wait. If you don’t believe me...” Lexi pulled out her cell phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Sssshhhh,” she shushed him. “I’m going to put it on speaker. Just listen.”
“Hey, Lex, what’s up?”
“Hey, Taryn. Just a quick question. Have you been able to figure out what Aidan’s cologne is yet?”
“Fuck, no,” Taryn answered, “and it’s driving me crazy. God, that man smells delicious. If Jake wore that I’d be climbing him like a set of monkey bars 24/7. Well, more than usual anyway,” she laughed. “Hey, maybe if you can swipe one of his shirts or something we can get Nicki to run it through some kind of analyzer or something...”
Lexi laughed at the totally shocked look on Aidan’s face. “Great idea. I’ll work on that. See you later tonight?”
“You got it, sister.”
Lexi disconnected the call and looked at Aidan with a smug expression. “Now do you believe me?”
Well. Damn.
*
“It’s pornography, that’s what it is,” Fiona McFarland said, her voice a harsh whisper that was easily heard over the back of the booth where Mary sat, waiting for Aidan. It was just her luck that the one day she came into Pine Ridge for lunch, the Birch Falls Book Club had to be meeting here. Fiona was Esther Shaughnessy’s sister, and held the unofficial title of “Biggest Town Gossip”.
“You mean you actually read it?” Celia Davenport asked, her voice filled with mortified awe.
“Well, naturally I was curious,” Fiona sniffed. “Why, you can’t pass a bookstore without seeing Fifty Shades in the window. And now they’ve made it into a movie.”
“And?”
“And it’s filth, pure and simple,” Fiona said emphatically. “One would have to be depraved to enjoy that sort of thing. Bondage and sensory deprivation and spankings, for heaven’s sake! Like any decent, self-respecting woman would ever allow a man to do such things. It’s unimaginable.”
Thankfully, the waitress arrived with their orders and Mary was no longer forced to listen to Fiona’s blanket condemnation. Mary had read the trilogy and loved it so much she read it twice more. Admittedly, she felt a little shocked at first to realize that she was fascinated by the types of things she’d read about, but those feelings quickly gave way to others.
The very idea of having a man take control like that thrilled her. She wasn’t into pain, and she definitely didn’t want to be hurt, but to surrender total control to someone, just once, and not have to be the one in charge? It was something she fantasized about often – in secret, of course.
Then, with Aidan, she had actually experienced it, and it was better than anything she could have dreamed. Her cheeks flushed as she remembered the light sting of his leather belt, the way he had taken charge of their lovemaking, carrying her so far into ecstasy that she would have done just about anything he’d asked for a little more. While he had pushed her to her limits, he hadn’t once hurt her. On the contrary, she could honestly say that she had never felt more treasured than she had in those few hours.