Chapter Twenty
His shirt is open, showing every perfectly sculpted pack of muscle on his chest. A blue tie is tucked beneath the collar, hanging undone around his neck, and a cell phone is perched precariously between his ear and his shoulder as he buttons his fly.
“No…. Jesus, Derrick, I said no…. Working with them last time was less than desirable... Set up a meeting if we must, but the probability of a contract is next to f*cking nothing.” Aaron sighs. “You’ll have to speak with Dottie. She has my schedule on hand… No, she won’t be in the office for another hour… I’m positive Mr. Dawson won’t combust if he doesn’t have an answer within the next ten minutes. Call him back and tell him you’ll touch base during office hours… That’s my final say on the matter, yes. I’ll see you later.” He throws his cell across the room, and it bounces off the sofa and onto the floor. “F*cking incompetent bastard. Who calls their boss at eight in the morning unless it’s life or death?”
My lips curve, and I lift my coffee mug. My eyes roam shamelessly over his exposed body, and if the spark in Aaron’s eyes is anything to go by, he’s caught it.
“Like what you see?”
“Do you?” I meet his gaze and flick the collar of one of his shirts.
“I’m not sure. I can’t see all of you.”
I tilt my head to one side and put my mug down, standing slowly. His eyes darken as they coast over my body the way mine just did his, and he clenches one hand into a fist when he realizes I’m wearing nothing beneath the shirt.
“Is this going to be a habit, Dayton?”
“Is what going to be a habit? My being up early enough to see you off to work?” I raise an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t count on it, baby. I don’t do mornings.”
He leans across the bar, wrapping his hand around my neck, and pulls me into him. “Oh, I know you don’t. You’re a little night owl. Do you know how exhausted I am?”
“Perhaps you should reconsider changing your schedule. A ten a.m. start may be more fitting for your current lifestyle.”
“The lifestyle in which I take you to our bed every night and f*ck you until you see black?”
A spark of red-hot lust shoots through my p-ssy, dissipating into a heavy ache at his words. “Or we could go with the one in which I flip you onto your back and f*ck you until you see black—like I did last night.”
A growl rumbles deep in Aaron’s throat. “Are you trying to send me to work with a raging hard-on?”
“Are you going to be going with one?”
“Unless I lift you onto this counter and sink inside you and make you come in ten minutes, yes, I am.” He buttons his shirt slowly, his eyes never leaving mine.
I shake my head with a rueful smile. “Not going to happen. I’m actually rather offended at the idea that you’ll come in ten minutes of sex with me. That’s a hit to my ego, you know? I know for a fact I can work you for longer than that.”
“Dayton, sweetheart.” Aaron rounds the bar and slips between my legs on the stool. “That’s not an insult. It’s a compliment. You’re so f*cking sexy you’re lucky I don’t come the second I slide inside you.”
“You’re lucky you don’t, you mean.” I grab either side of his tie and knot it for him. “If you did, I’d be really f*cking mad you denied me of an orgasm.”
“Trust me, if that ever happens—which it won’t—I’ll slide down your body and taste you until you come several times over to make up for my incompetence.”
The thought of Aaron being incompetent in the bedroom is seriously laughable.
I flatten his collar over the neck of tie and pat it down, making sure his tie is perfect. “I’ll remember that.”
He threads his fingers into his hair. “Look at you, dressing me. Can I count on that being a rarity, Miss Black? I much prefer the alternative.”
“Dressing yourself? There’s no fun in that.”
His lips curl in the smirk that always gets me, the one that sets a dangerous spark off in his eyes and tightens my muscles. “I can safely say getting dressed is the least favorite part of my day. Especially since you moved in.”
“Since I was forced to,” I correct him, lightly pushing on his chest. He straightens, his mouth twisting in annoyance. “Oh, don’t pull that with me. We both know I had no choice in the matter. I chewed your ass out and now I’m all good with it. Kind of. Sort of.”
Aaron takes my coffee and finishes it. Bastard. “Lose one of the sugars. Makes the coffee taste funny.”
“You know, there’s a reason I made two mugs. One for me and one for you.”
He glances over my shoulder to the coffee machine and winces when he sees the second mug. “Dammit. Still, lose the sugar. I prefer stealing yours.”
Of course he does. Why would he have his own when he can just steal mine? He obviously thinks I make it for shits and giggles. I don’t. Coffee is serious stuff.
“I’m going to start making myself two mugs every morning so that when you steal one, I still have one for myself.”
“You do that, sweetheart.” He kisses me softly. “I have to go to work. What are you doing today?”
I shrug a shoulder. “Probably the same thing I’ve done for the last few days. Not very much.”
Guilt flashes in his eyes for half a second. “Why don’t you call Liv?”
“She’s working.”
“You’ll think of something, I’m sure. I’d invite you to come into the office with me, but I can guarantee I wouldn’t get a great deal of work done.” He flicks his eyes to the space between my breasts that’s exposed by the open front of his shirt. “Make that none.”
“Go to work before I suddenly make plans for my day and call you in sick,” I warn, seeing the heat clouding his eyes.
Aaron smirks, pulling me into him again and sweeping his lips across mine. “I fail to see how that sentence is supposed to convince me to leave you here alone.”
I kiss him hard and shove him off me, standing. “Go before I make good on my threat.”
“You drive a hard bargain.” He slaps my ass and grabs his jacket. “Behave yourself, and no DIY orgasms.”
I gasp, turning and walking backward toward the bathroom. “How did you know what I was thinking?”
He winks and disappears out the door. A smile curves my lips. All the bullshit aside, being with him is so easy. Living with him is so easy.
His blue eyes are the first and last things I see every day. His arms around me is the first and last thing I feel every day. His voice is the first and last thing I hear.
If it weren’t for the bullshit simmering beneath the surface courtesy of his ex, this would be pretty much perfect right now.
If perfect existed, that is. It doesn’t, but true love is the closest thing you’ll get to perfect. And despite everything, all the fights and the time that’s passed, I know this is true love.
Nothing but true love can make you feel as if you’re walking on air, even during the bad shit.
I shrug off his shirt, drop it in the laundry basket, and run naked back to the second bedroom. My lingerie room. My fingers brush across the endless fabric until my eyes fall on that turquoise bra I fell in love with in London.
Briefly, I glance at the red outfit Aaron loves. I discard the thought just as quickly.
I have no idea what his response will be when he finds out that Tyler is taking my portfolio shots, but I bet it won’t be pretty if I wear that one.
No, I’ll leave that for another day.
I grab some black panties, slide them up my legs, then slip into the bra. My lips curve at my stupidly when I stand in front of the mirror and jiggle my boobs in the cups to make them sit right. Inside-bra-boob-adjusting: necessary but idiotic, and something every woman does.
A knock sounds at the door as I tie the belt of my robe, and I cross the apartment to answer it. I open the door to Tyler, and he ruffles his hair and grins.
“I’m still amazed you’re up.”
“Shut up.” I step to the side and let him in. “Coffee?”
“Tea, thanks. You can keep your bloody coffee.” He hangs his jacket on the hooks in the hall and follows me into the kitchen, looking around. “I see you’ve added some femininity to this place.”
“Believe me, it was by force,” I reply dryly and hand him his tea. “Here.”
“Thanks. Did you tell him yet?”
I shake my head and lead him into the front room. I sink onto the sofa and tuck my legs beneath me. “What am I supposed to say? ‘Oh, hey, baby, I forgot to tell you that your conniving, gold-digging bitch-whore of an ex-wife dropped by my place three weeks ago and threatened me unless I pay her two and a half million’?”
“It pretty much sums it up.” A smile teases his lips, and I smack him with a throw pillow, narrowly missing his tea.
“It’s just so good right now, like we’re finally where we’re supposed to be, and I’m scared it’ll ruin everything. I know I have to though. I think she’s keeping tabs on me.”
Tyler looks at me, a frown marring his features. “What do you mean, keeping tabs on you?”
“It’s totally irrational, but when I went home the day after we left London, there was a letter from her in my mail. All it said was, ‘Tick tock.’ I bet she knew I wasn’t home. There was no postmark and it was handwritten. And it was sitting on top of the pile. It had only just been delivered.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t a couple of days old?”
I shake my head. “No. The mailman had already been by when I went back to my house. It was definitely delivered that day.”
He runs his fingers over his lips, looking away thoughtfully. “That was what, a few days ago now?”
“Yep. And now there’s only one week until she’ll go to the press with who I am.”
“She might be bluffing.”
The look he gives me tells me that even he knows it’s farfetched.
“No. She’ll go, and she’ll expose me, and she’ll get paid a stupid amount of money for breaking the story about the whore Aaron Stone is dating.”
Now he hits me with a pillow. “Don’t call yourself that. You’re not a whore.”
I smile wryly. “Maybe not now. I was though. Don’t argue with me, Ty,” I add when he opens his mouth again. “I’m not sugarcoating shit. You’re one of the few people who know what I did for a living, so please don’t wrap it in fluffy crap either. It’s the blunt and ugly reality of my existence. It’s who I was. I’m not ashamed of it, but I’m ashamed of the fact it could destroy Stone.”
“Stone is a huge company, Dayton, and even if your past got out, it would take a lot to bring it down.”
“A lot Naomi could do. I don’t know her half as well as you do, yet you’re the one underestimating what she could do. She won’t stop until she’s destroyed the company and exposed every last one of my skeletons all because she wants to get to Aaron.”
“You really think Aaron will let that happen?” Tyler puts his mug on the table and shifts to face me. “Aaron will protect you as fiercely as he’ll protect the company, maybe even more so. You have to tell him.”
“I know.” I run my fingers through my hair and sigh, resting my elbow on the back of the sofa. “I just… I gave him such a hard time about keeping her a secret and now I’m doing the exact same thing. That makes me a raging bitch, Ty.”
“No. It makes you someone who’s afraid of hurting the person you love. Just like he was.”
I swallow. “I guess you’re right. I have a week left and no idea how I’m supposed to pay her off, so I don’t have a choice. I’ll tell him when he gets back from work tonight.”
He reaches over and squeezes my knee. “Good choice. Now, let’s go shoot you and put together some shit-hot pictures that’ll get you a superstar agent.”
I watch as he grabs his bag and stand. “Doesn’t it make you feel awkward, shooting your cousin’s girlfriend?”
“Do you feel awkward with me doing it?”
“A little, yeah.”
“Then don’t think of me as that. You won’t see my face anyway. I’ll be behind a camera. Pretend you don’t know me and this will be fine.” He points to the canvas on the bedroom wall. “See that? You’re a natural. Now take off that robe and let’s get to work.”
***
I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to looking at pictures of myself. If I’ll ever accept myself the way the camera sees it.
And it’s not even confidence. It’s…strange. Twenty-four is an old age to get into modeling—okay, so I’m three days away from twenty-five, but let’s not think about that right now—but I don’t look twenty-four. I’ve always looked a couple of years younger, and right now, that’s something that could work in my favor.
“I don’t know why you didn’t do this before.”
“Because it wasn’t my thing. It still isn’t, I don’t think.” I swipe my finger across the laptop screen and the picture flicks to the next one. I’m kneeling on the bed, my back to the camera, and my robe is sliding off my shoulder. I’m glancing over it and looking down, and I kind of get it.
I can do sexy pretty well. I’m just used to sexy-between-the-sheets.
“These are brilliant. At least the ones after you killed your giggles are.”
I laugh again at the memory. So the awkwardness was more awkward than I’d anticipated, and I spent the first hour in and out of random fits of giggles. There are a few shots of me laughing in various positions, and they’re probably my favorites because of how natural they are.
“Can I see those again?” I ask.
Tyler nods and taps the screen a few times. We sectioned them off and went through the images in batches, and when the folder comes up, I smile. I flick through them to find my favorite.
My knees are bent and I’m leaning forward, laughing. One hand is on my thigh and the other is curved around the neck of my robe and it’s tugging it down, exposing my bra on one side.
“Can you edit this and print it?” My cheeks flush a little. “I mean…”
“It’s a gorgeous photo and you want it for Aaron.”
“Um, yes.” I laugh. “Look at me, all shy. That man is ruining me.”
“That’s far too much information.” Tyler snorts, shutting the laptop down. “It’ll take a few days to edit these, but when they’re done, I’ll email you them so you can pick the ones you want for your portfolio. Then I’ll put it together and email it out. A different name, right?”
I nod. “I don’t want anyone at the company recognizing my name. I’ve never met any of the agents, so there’s no chance they’ll recognize me. Is that crazy?”
Tyler shakes his head. “Nope. Perfectly sane. Until you have to explain you’re not Maria Espinoza Barielles.”
“Yeah, I’ll pass on that one. I’ll think the name up myself, thank you very much.” I grin and grab the ringing phone. “Hello?”
“Miss Black? There’s a letter downstairs for you. It was just delivered,” Jasper, the guy on security, says.
“Oh. That’s strange. Do you know who delivered it?”
“No, ma’am. I’m sorry. It was delivered by a courier.”
My heart pounds dangerously loud in my chest, and I close my eyes. “Can you have it brought up?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you, Jasper.”
I set the phone on the cradle and wrap my arms around my stomach. My hands are shaking, and I barely hear Tyler asking me what’s wrong. I just shake my head and open the door when there’s a knock before taking the letter from Jasper.
I drop it on the bar in the kitchen and stare at it. The handwriting is the same. No postmark. No stamp. Just a scrawling mass of letters that makes up my name and my address.
“Dayton?” Tyler rests a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s another letter. She knows I’m living here now.”
“F*ck.” His fingers flex and he drops his hand. He rounds the bar and stands opposite me, clenching the countertop. “Are you going to open it?”
“What choice do I have?” I ask weakly, picking it up and flipping it over. I slide my pinkie beneath the flap just like I did last time and pull out the scrap of paper.
One week. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? It’s a shame you told Tyler… I’ll let it pass. You’re getting desperate, after all. But if you tell Aaron…the world will meet Mia Lopez.
I drop it like it’s burning my fingers and squeeze my eyes shut. “F*ck. F*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck!”
The volume of my voice rises until the word echoes off the walls. Fear and anxiety run rife through my body, constricting my throat and sending my heart into a dangerously crazy rhythm. My eyes blur with unshed tears, and as I gulp for air, I feel two hands rest on my upper arms.
“Dayton. Calm down. Day, Jesus. You have to breathe, love. Come on.”
I shake my head, rubbing my hands across my arms to stop the cold. The room is spinning. I can’t breathe and I can’t think and all that’s real is the frantic rushing of blood through my body. It’s coupled with adrenaline and a fear so strong it consumes me.
Until his voice breaks through and the touch of his hand on my cheek bats it away.
“Dayton. Breathe for me, sweetheart,” Aaron says softly. “Come on now. Breathe.”
I take a deep breath in.
“That’s it. And out. And back in. That’s better.” He wraps his arms around me, and I realize we’re on the floor.
How did we get here?
How did I get here?
Aaron kisses my forehead as I continue breathing steadily, and I brush tears from my cheeks. He holds me until I’ve calmed down and my heart is beating somewhat more normally.
“I’m glad you were here,” Aaron says over his shoulder to Tyler.
“Sorry I pulled you from your meeting, cuz.”
Aaron shakes his head. “F*ck the meeting. The contract will still be there tomorrow morning.” He turns to me. “What’s wrong?”
There’s nothing but compassion and worry in his eyes, and a stab of guilt hits me in the stomach. Jesus. I should have told him. I should have been honest. I never should have kept this to myself. I’ve been so f*cking stupid.
“I have to tell you something,” I whisper.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
I glance up at Tyler, holding my breath, and he nods. “Naomi came to see me just before we went to London.”
Aaron’s whole body tenses. “What?”
I rub my hands over my face and stand, leaning on the bar. “She wasn’t happy with the divorce settlement, and she came to ask me for money.”
Tyler snorts, and I see Aaron’s eyes flit between us.
“You knew about this?” he directs at his cousin.
Tyler nods, and I see anger wash over Aaron’s features when he faces me.
“She asked you for money? Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“She didn’t…ask…so much as blackmail me,” I finish in a small voice.
“How much?”
“Two and a half million.”
“What the f*cking hell, Dayton!”
“She gave me four weeks to get it to her, and I have one week left.”
Aaron takes a few deep breaths and waits for me to continue.
“When I went home after London, there was a letter waiting, and today, there was one delivered here.” I look accusingly at the paper in front of me. “She’s keeping tabs on me. She knows Tyler knows and she said if I told you all bets were off.”
“All bets for what? What could she possibly know about you that she could hold over your head?”
I hand him the paper. “She knows I was a call girl. If I don’t pay, she’s threatening to expose my past and destroy your business.”
Aaron’s eyes skim over the words in front of them and close briefly. When they open again, I see nothing but pure anger. It’s a rage so fierce that it scares me a little—and even more so from knowing that some of that is directed at me.
Because I did what I condemned him for.
But I did it worse. I put his whole life on the line because of my own fear.
He drops the paper and walks out without a word. The apartment door slams behind him, the sound ricocheting around the room with a finality that settles deep inside me.
I look at Tyler. “Go,” I whisper. “He needs you more than I do. I don’t deserve to need you.”
He looks at me uncertainly, but I merely nod my head. I don’t want him here. I can feel the pressure building in my chest, and I don’t want him here when it bursts. He crosses the room and kisses the side of my head before following Aaron out the door.
The door closes again, and I sink to the floor. I let the pressure run free, and a sob escapes my lips.
Yet again, there’s a part of me inside that’s broken. But this time, I have only myself to blame.
***
The mattress dips next to me, and I curl myself tighter into a ball. My hands fist the sheets covering me, and I screw my eyes shut. Uncertainty is all I feel, when all I want to feel is—
His arms wrapping around me, pulling me into his hard body.
Aaron buries his face in my neck as he holds me close to him. His chest rises and falls, and I can feel the pounding of his heart against my back. He slips his knee between my legs and kisses my shoulder.
“What are you doing?” I whisper, my words thick with unshed tears.
“I’m holding you, baby. What else do you think I’m doing?”
“You shouldn’t be. You should hate me.”
He urges me onto my back and leans over me. Even in the darkness, his eyes are bright blue, shining like a beacon through the blackness surrounding us. But they’re not angry, not at me. They’re soft and forgiving and everything I don’t deserve.
“I could never hate you, Dayton. Not ever.” He wipes away a tear that escapes. “So don’t say such ridiculous things.”
I lift my hand and cup his face, feeling the roughness of his stubble against my palm. “Why aren’t you mad at me?”
“Because you didn’t keep it a secret to spite me. You kept it to protect me, and yes, it was a little misguided and unnecessary, but you did it because you care.”
“But you did that, too, and I left you.”
He drops his face to mine and kisses me. Certainly. Strongly. “I’m not leaving you, beautiful woman, so get that thought right out of your pretty little head. I’m not going anywhere and neither are you.”
“But you did. Earlier. When you found out.” My bottom lip quivers and I bite it gently. “You left then.”
“Because I was a kind of angry I never want you to see. But it wasn’t at you. Not entirely, anyway. Most of it was at her, and if you hadn’t sent Tyler after me, I just might have found her apartment and done something incredibly stupid.”
“I’m sorry.” I wrap my arms around his neck and squeeze him tightly.
His arms go around me equally as firmly, and he rolls me onto my side and into his body. He brushes my hair from my face and looks at me, tugging the sheet up over us.
“I know. We’ll talk some more in the morning, okay? Get some sleep now.”
“Never go to sleep on an argument,” I murmur. “That’s what my mom always taught me. You sort it out first.”
“Bambi, we’re not arguing. Not even close.” He brushes his thumb across my eyelid, forcing me to close my eyes, and sets one of my arms over his waist. “Now we’re going to go to sleep together and wake up the same way, today and every day. Understand?”
I nod and push my face into his neck. “I don’t deserve you.”
“And I don’t deserve you, so I guess we’re even. Goodnight, sweetheart.”