Chapter Sixteen
I slip my hand into Aaron’s and curl my other around his arm, leaning into his side. He smiles down at me and kisses the top of my head, pulling me into the hustle and bustle of Camden market.
It’s not the kind of place I ever imagined him to go. With its endless stalls of vintage clothing, designers no one knows, and knickknacks, it doesn’t fit in with his M.O. Oxford Street? Yes. A thousand times, yes. Camden market? Never.
There are people everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I push myself right into Aaron to avoid being shoved from every direction. He shakes my hands off his arm and wraps it around my waist, curling me right into him.
It doesn’t make a bit of difference, but I definitely prefer it. The warmth from the sun beating down on us is nothing compared to the warmth that emanates from his body.
“You surprise me.”
Aaron leans down and speaks over the various levels of chatter around us. “Why?”
“I was expecting you to whisk me off to a ridiculously expensive store and force me into a fitting room like you did in Italy.”
“Do you want me to?”
“Hell no.” I laugh. “Nice try though, Mr. Stone.”
“Perhaps. Although we will be going somewhere later where I intend to spend a lot of money on you.”
I look at him from the corner of my eyes. “Where?”
“There’s no need to sound so suspicious. I can guarantee it’s a place you’ll be completely at home in.”
“Where?”
He taps my hip. “You’re a little small without heels. Do you know that?”
I smack his stomach. “Aaron! Don’t change the subject! And I am not short.”
His lips spread into a grin. “I know, but you’re a good few inches shorter.”
“This isn’t the conversation we’re having. I want to know where you’re taking me later. And I want to know now.”
“Is that a demand, Miss Black?”
“It’s a requirement I know, Mr. Stone. Or I’m not walking another step.” I stop and put some extra oomph into stamping my foot down.
Aaron chuckles quietly and stands in front of me. I put my hands on my hips and stare him down.
“God, you’re sexy when you get that fire in your eyes,” he murmurs huskily, cupping my chin.
“Don’t try and seduce me.”
“I thought you didn’t get seduced.”
I run my finger down his chest. “Don’t play dumb with me, baby. Now tell me.”
His blue eyes bore into mine for a long moment, and he sighs. “Come on. We’ll go now.”
That’s not telling me. Still, I let him link his fingers through mine and tug me after him and back to the car. He pulls out his cell and informs someone that we’ll be there early as we drive through the streets, and I press myself against the window, trying to work out where we’re going.
“Oxford Street?” I squeak. “You said no Oxford Street.”
“Incorrect. I said no ridiculously expensive store. This time,” he adds under his breath. “The store I’m taking you to is here.”
I narrow my eyes and grab my purse before slamming the car door. Aaron takes it from my hand and throws it back into the car.
“You won’t need that, Dayton.”
“I might want it.”
“Don’t be so f*cking difficult. You don’t need it. Want it or not. Now move your sexy little ass or I’ll be forced to haul you down this street over my shoulder.”
“Is that a demand?”
He spins me so forcefully that I fall into his hard body. “You’re pushing it, woman. Move. Now.”
I smirk. “I don’t know where I’m going. Remember?”
“You’re sure earning that spanking. I’ll tell you that much.” He flattens his hand on my back and forces me forward. I smile to myself as he steers me to wherever we’re going.
I take in each storefront as we stroll down the iconic street. I recognize hardly any of them—and I especially don’t recognize the one we stop in front of.
But I do recognize what it sells.
“You’re bringing me to buy lingerie?”
Aaron places his mouth by my ear. “And the whole store is yours for one hour.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You think one hour in a lingerie store is enough? Oh, baby. You have a lot to learn.”
He pushes the door open and we step inside the empty store. One wall is covered in baby dolls and chemises, one with bras and panties, and another holds a doorway to a section at the back labeled “18+ only.”
Well, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that that’s where the toys are.
The bright colors assault my senses and a streak of excitement fizzles through my body. Lingerie shopping is my favorite thing ever, but in a store I’ve never been in? This is a whole new level of heaven.
“Go wild,” Aaron whispers in my ear, lightly squeezing my ass.
I walk to the wall of bras and trail my fingers across a few different styles. T-shirt, balconette, push-up… There’s lace and frills and trims, and oh, God. I can’t.
I turn back to Aaron and shake my head.
He raises his eyebrows. “I’m not taking no for an answer.”
I shake my head again. “I can’t. I don’t know if you realize how financially destructive I am in this environment.”
He walks to me and pulls me close. “It doesn’t matter. One day, everything I own will be yours, so you might as well spend it now.”
My breath catches. “You have to get me to move in with you before anything remotely close to that happens.”
He smirks and puts his hands on my shoulders. He turns me so I’m facing the underwear again. “For the record, I like that turquoise bra with the black lace. And the matching panties. They have my mind spinning with all the ways I could take you out of them.” His lips brush my earlobe. “Just in case you were so inclined.”
I look at the set he’s picked out and my heart flutters a little. So it’s pretty. Really pretty, actually. And it would look good on me. And it would replace the turquoise set I have to throw out.
I make a sound somewhere between excitement and defeat and hold my hand out. “Get me a basket.”
Aaron releases me and hands me one. I skim through the hangers until I find one in my size and grab the bottoms to match. I prod Aaron in the chest.
“You better make it good, Mr. Stone. Real f*cking good.”
My hair flicks over my shoulder as I turn away from him again and peruse the underwear. Damn him. He knows how to work me and manipulate me into doing what he wants. Not that I need much convincing in a store like this, but I’d really rather be handing over my card at the end of it.
Soon enough, I’ve exhausted the bra-and-panties section and I’m swapping baskets with Aaron. He hands me an empty one with a smug smirk curving his lips and takes the full one. He sets it on a chair next to the register and combs through it.
“What are you doing?” I pause, holding a red basque in front of me.
“You didn’t think I’d let you buy anything without prior approval, did you?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Well, don’t let me stop you from combing through my choice of underwear yet again.”
He laughs at my subtle dig. “Dayton?”
My eyes find his.
“Put that in the basket.”
I check the tag. “It’s a lot of money for something that will just come off.”
His eyes darken. “That one won’t be coming off.”
A quiet cough comes from beside him, and I flick my eyes to the woman behind the register. She’s in her mid-forties, at a guess, and there’s a light flush on her cheeks.
“Mr. and Mrs. Stone. Can I help you at all?” Her crisp British accent doesn’t betray her embarrassment at having walked in on our conversation.
My eyebrows take up residence somewhere behind my hairline. Mrs. Stone?
“We’re not married,” I correct her politely. “Much to Mr. Stone’s chagrin.”
He gives me a look that says I’ll regret that later.
“Oh, I’m ever so sorry.” She places a hand on her chest. “That’s what one gets for assuming.”
“It’s okay.” I smile. “I doubt you’ll be the last to.”
She returns my smile. “Can I help you in any way?”
“Hmm…” My eyes find the tiny strings I saw Aaron eying contemplatively earlier. I pick up the white one beneath a matching basque and show her it. “Do you have this in any other colors?”
Aaron clears his throat and shifts when I look at him.
“We do. They’re just over here.” She waves me over and shows me a section of the wall with the exact pair of panties in an array of colors.
“Well,” I say, glancing back at Aaron and grabbing a couple of them, “would you look at that?”
***
“I warned you.”
“Do I look like I’m remotely bothered about the amount of money that just cost me? I love spoiling you.”
“Aaron, you and I both know that lingerie isn’t exactly spoiling me. You get far more pleasure from it than I do.”
He pulls my feet onto his lap and massages them. “But in the end, we both get the pleasure, so does it really matter?”
I lean my head against the seat and smile. “I suppose not.”
I really did warn him. After one long hour of wandering back and forth through the shop and trying on a few items I wasn’t so sure of, he handed over his card and a few hundred pounds. Despite my cringe at the time, I’ve accepted that it wasn’t my fault.
He made me do it with talk of pulling me out of and f*cking me in it all.
And after sitting in a restaurant with him for two and a half hours, I’m more than ready to see if he’ll make good on his promises. But first…
“Can I ask you something?”
“It sounds serious.”
“It is… Kind of. Did you mean what you said earlier?”
“About f*cking you in that devil-sent red outfit? Absolutely.”
I climb from the car after him and follow him into the house. “No,” I say slowly, kicking my shoes off at the door. “The other thing.”
“I said a lot of things to you earlier, Bambi. You’re going to have to elaborate a little more than ‘the other thing.’” He raises his eyebrows in amusement, and the movement tugs his lips up with it.
I sit on the edge of the kitchen table and watch as he maneuvers his way around it. He’s certain in everything he does, even if it’s only throwing a teabag in a mug and pouring water over it. If I’ve noticed anything, it’s that he never falters in his movements. There’s never a tremble of his hand or a slip of his fingers.
That’s something reflected in the rest of his life. He never does something unless he wholeheartedly means it, and the same goes for his words. He never says something he doesn’t mean.
“When you said that one day everything you have will be mine.” I swallow, and he freezes. “Did you mean that?”
“Does that scare you?” he asks without looking at me.
“Will that make a difference to your answer?”
“No. I’m just curious.”
I put my hands in my lap and look down, uncertainty swirling in me. Right now, we’re polar opposites. “Yes. It does—a little.”
A mug hits the countertop, and he appears in front of me. One of his hands creeps up my thigh, opening my legs, and he slips between them.
“Why does it scare you?”
I shrug one shoulder. “It just does. It’s a big step.”
“Now tell me the real reason.” He hooks two fingers under my chin and lifts my face until our eyes meet. “Dayton.”
“It’s something I can’t control,” I say softly. “I can’t control whether or not you want to ask me, and I definitely can’t control whether or not you do. And I wouldn’t ask you to wait until I definitively said I was ready because I might never be ready.”
“I would wait until you said so if that’s what freaks you out.”
I shake my head. “I wasn’t ready to go with you to Vegas. I wasn’t ready to say yes when you begged for another chance. I wasn’t ready to come here. It’s when the best things happen. Sometimes you want the exact thing you think you’re not ready for because you actually are.”
“Look at me.”
I keep my eyes down.
“Dayton, look at me, sweetheart.” He brushes a thumb across my cheek. “I’m not answering your question until you do.”
Reluctantly, I meet his gaze—his raw, emotion-filled, honest gaze that tugs at a part of me buried deep down.
“Did I mean what I said? Absolutely. I meant it with everything I am. One day, you will have everything I have. One day, you’ll walk into a store, they’ll call you Mrs. Stone, and you won’t have to correct them. You’ll smile and nod instead.” He swallows audibly and cups my face. “But only when you’re ready. If I have to wait ten years until you’re ready to say yes, then I will. You’re mine anyway. I know in my heart you belong to me. I don’t need the validation of a piece of paper to tell me you’re mine for the rest of my life. But it will happen, Dayton. There’s nothing I want more than to see you walking down an aisle toward me knowing you’re giving me everything.”
“But you’ve done it before.” My words are a mere whisper.
He touches his lips to my forehead and lets them linger for a long moment. “My body might have, but my heart hasn’t. My heart has always been married to you.”
I wrap my arms around him and bury my face in his neck. His go around me just as tightly, and I take a deep breath. I just need him to hold me.
This conversation wasn’t supposed to happen for a long, long time. It’s just one more wrench in the works of my life right now.
Except that this is the kind of wrench that sets my heart beating frantically with both excitement and fear.
“You still have to convince me to move in with you first,” I mumble against his skin.
Silence.
“Aaron.”
Silence.
“Aaron!”
I pull back and study his smirking face. It’s the same look he had earlier when I mentioned it. It’s the look that says he knows something I don’t, and it sets my body on red alert.
“Aaron,” I put a warning in my voice this time, and he laughs.
“Don’t worry. I’m not doing anything ridiculously impulsive or drastic. Not right now.” He covers my mouth with his before I can respond, and I lightly punch his chest.
“What have you done? Are you doing? Going to do? Whatever it is. What is it?”
“Nothing. I’m messing with you. I haven’t done anything. I promise.” He drops another kiss to my lips.
“Yet? There’s always a yet with you. Always.”
“I’m not promising I won’t, but I haven’t done anything at this moment in time.”
“Oh, because that makes me feel so much better,” I scoff, rolling my eyes. “You scare me. Do you know that?”
He pushes away from the table and grabs his tea, watching me over the rim of the mug with amusement. “Yes. I’m terrifying. I’m amazed you haven’t run from the room screaming yet.”
I grab a grape from the bunch in the fruit bowl behind me and throw it at him. “Shut up. You scare me because I can tell you not to do something and you’ll go and do it anyway. Why do I bother?”
“Yes, Dayton, why do you?” His eyes twinkle.
“Because I have an insane, evidently na?ve idea that I can ask you not to do something and you’ll actually follow my wishes. Gasp! Imagine how beautiful that day would be.”
“It would be very beautiful and even more unlikely.”
“So what we’re saying is the whole conversation we just had about the rest of our lives was a total waste of my time.”
His effort to keep a straight face is admirable but wasted. “I’ll maybe give you six months. A year if you catch me on a more amicable day.”
“Presumptuous, pushy bastard.”
“Seems like she’s got you all worked out, cuz.” Tyler strolls through the door and puts his camera bag on the table next to me. “What’s he on about this time?”
I sigh. “Don’t ask. Just don’t ask.”
“Suit yourselves. By the way, Tessa said she’ll pick you up at ten tomorrow. She needs someone to help her decide her final hairstyle or some bullshit I don’t care about.”
“But your mom is here now.”
“I know.” He grins. “Have fun.”