“Role-play?”
“Yeah, like the criminal and the victim? That kind of thing. I don’t personally know anything about it, but that seems like something my brother would be into.”
Probably because her brother is a criminal, but I don’t say that. I barely know the guy, anyway—odd, given that he’s Boyd’s best friend, but it’s not like he shares that part of his life with me.
Or any part, really.
My toes flatten against the tub tile, and I push thoughts of Boyd away. “If it’s not anything like that?”
“If it’s not…” Switching to her other foot, she sighs, seeming to roll her answer around in her head before speaking. “If it isn’t, then I stand by my previous judgment. Hypothetically, it sounds like you need therapy.”
Popping a pink bubble against her lips, she re-caps her nail polish and sticks her legs out, picking the phone up to recline on the bed.
“What brought that up, anyway? You’re not sleeping with anyone, are you?” Her brows raise, wrinkling her freckled forehead. “God, do you have a stalker? Please say no, or Boyd’s gonna freak—”
“I don’t have a stalker,” I say quickly, cutting her off just in case my brother’s lurking somewhere close by. Technically, it’s not a lie—Aiden’s been less of a stalker lately, and more like a vampire I let in once, who now refuses to leave.
In the days since we fucked in his living room, I’ve spent about every night with him. Partly because the heat in my cabin just got fixed today, but also because I’m learning I really like falling asleep wrapped up in him.
Waking up on his luxury silk sheets and smelling that spicy cologne of his gives me an immediate serotonin boost each morning, and selfishly, I’m ignoring everything that led up to this point in favor of those things.
We haven’t had sex again, though not for lack of trying on my part. Each time, he shuts me down and uses his talented fingers to make me come instead.
I’d be a lot more embarrassed about it if the orgasms weren’t so fucking good.
“Are you sure?” Fiona asks, a skeptical look on her face. “No one’s contacted you from King’s Trace? Because if they have, we can fly you back here—”
“No, Fi, it’s fine. I’m fine. I’ve just been watching too many K-dramas, I think.”
“Oh, well that checks out.” She laughs, and some kind of buzzer goes off in the distance. “Shit, I’ve got to switch the laundry over. Call me tomorrow, okay? We’ll talk Christmas logistics.”
I cringe. “Do we have to?”
“Yep. I’ve let this little rift between you and your brother go on long enough. It’s time to fix it.”
Rolling my eyes, I hang up, groaning as I plunge myself into the warm water. Counting to three beneath the surface, I let it calm the uneven pace of my heart and snap back up, gulping for air.
Movement in the corner of my bathroom startles me, and I grapple for the side of the tub as I turn, a scream catching in my throat.
When heated gray eyes meet mine, I let out a strangled breath and sag into the tile.
“Jesus, Aiden. A little warning would be nice.”
He smirks, making his way to the tub. Bubbles cling to my skin in all the right places, barring me from his unabashed gaze as he settles on the edge.
“A warning would defeat the entire purpose of this dynamic.”
“Yeah, but shouldn’t the dynamic shift, as the relationship… um… develops?”
I can feel shame coloring my face, likely as pink as my hair, so I scoop some of the bubbles into my hands and press them into my cheeks.
Aiden grins, wiping some of the soap away. “Do you want to go back to being my stalker? I have to say, being on this end of things for once is far more refreshing than I’d ever thought it’d be.”
“Stalking someone is refreshing?”
“Not being under the microscope is.”
Standing up, Aiden unzips his black hoodie and discards his T-shirt. Without moving his eyes from mine, his hands reach for the fly of his distressed jeans, undoing it with a slow fervor that has something hot stirring in my core.
My breath hitches when he shoves his pants off his hips, grabbing his dick as he kicks his legs free.
God, I don’t know if it’s possible to get used to someone who looks as good as he does naked; the deeply defined planes of his chest that turn into finely cut abs, and that V thing that you always hear about but never actually see on real people.
Not to mention his cock with its thick, veiny shaft and the reddish-pink mushroom top. I don’t know if genitals are supposed to be attractive, but seeing his lengthen in front of me causes my core to throb, aching to be filled.
As he steps into the tub, moving my legs so he can prop his back against the edge opposite me, I’m practically salivating.
“Hungry?” he asks, bracketing me in with his calves, pulling my feet over his hips.
“Huh?”
His teeth scrape across his bottom lip, and he gives me a knowing look. “You’re drooling, angel.”
“Oh.” Alarm has me straightening, dragging my knuckles across my chin, and he tips his head back and lets out a rich laugh.
The vibrant cadence of it catches me off guard, and I realize it’s the first time I’ve heard him laugh since that night in New York City.
It’s the kind of laugh you feel in your toes, that has the power to send butterflies on their migratory pattern to the South.
I’m in so much trouble.
The Jacuzzi jets kick on, blowing out against us and displacing the bubbles. Most of them pop with the motion, and then it’s just two naked people in a tub, watching one another with guarded expressions.
Like they want to act on the obvious attraction pulsing between them, but are still afraid of the other’s potential nefarious intentions.
Part of me feels like Aiden gave up on his quest for revenge too quickly, and it keeps me from diving in headfirst to all of this.