Chapter Twenty-Five
Dottie takes my phone from my hand and her eyes flick over the screen. “F*ck!” She yells the word. A real, full-bodied yell, and it draws the attention of everyone around us.
Still I stare at her. I’m frozen, unable to move due to the unexplainable feeling spreading through me. Nothing I can say can make this better. I’m helpless.
“Aaron!” Dottie yells again, her voice louder than that of the music. She wraps an arm around my waist, guides me from the stool, and deposits me straight into his waiting arms.
“What’s wrong? What is it?” His voice is panicked, his hand rubbing my back.
Dottie shows him the phone wordlessly, and he growls. He actually f*cking growls. A primal, angry, possessive growl that vibrates throughout my body.
“F*ck!”
“Son? What is it?” Brandon appears, resting a hand on his shoulder.
I bury my face in Aaron’s chest, fisting his shirt in my hands. This can and will ruin everything.
I can’t believe she’s done it.
I can’t believe she’s exposed me.
No, I can. I just can’t believe it’s happening right now.
My phone buzzes again, and I catch a glance at the screen before Aaron can turn it away.
Happy birthday.
“We’re leaving. Right f*cking now. Dottie, call for two cars then follow us down. I need you to help me. Dad, can you come? Mom?” Aaron’s voice is strong, and I wonder if I’m the only person who can hear the underlying anger.
“Monique,” I whisper.
“Get Monique,” he orders Dottie. “She needs to be here.”
Aaron sweeps me from the room with the confidence of a man who is in control of the situation. In reality, he couldn’t be further from it. In reality, he has absolutely no control over it.
We travel down the elevator. Dottie has her cell attached to her ear the whole time, and I vaguely hear the words, “Mr. Carlisle… Now… Yes…” as Aaron holds me even closer.
“Dottie, you take the limo with my parents and everyone else. I need to speak with Dayton alone.”
“Of course. We’ll meet you back at your apartment.”
Aaron deposits me in a car and climbs in next to me. I feel numb. Totally numb. I didn’t need to read the whole post to know what she wrote. To know that she’s exposed everything I was.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, looking at my feet. Guilt and remorse—they flood me. Consume me.
Aaron pulls me into him and tilts my face back. “Look at me, Dayton.”
I shake my head. I can’t. Not this time. I can’t look in his eyes and know that everything we have is on the line. Everything he and his father have worked for is now hanging in limbo because of me.
How many reporters have picked that up? How many stories will I see tomorrow? How many news alerts will pop up on my cell?
“Dayton.” His voice is hard. No-nonsense. “Look at me. Now.”
My eyes disobey me. They rake up his body until they find a sea of bright blue.
“We will figure this out. Do you understand me? It’s unexpected and sudden, but we will fix this.”
Tears born of a real fear fill my eyes. “My past could destroy you. How can you even look at me?”
“I can look at you because I don’t see the woman of your past. I see the woman I fell in love with, the woman I love right now. Please, baby, don’t look at me like I should hate you. I can’t and I don’t and I won’t. I love you for who you are today, right in this moment, and I will fight for that woman until the day I die.”
“How?” I whisper. Vulnerability. It’s not something I’m used to.
“How? Because you’re the very air I breathe, Dayton. You’re the one thing that keeps my heart beating.”
“But you could lose everything.”
“I won’t.” He looks so certain, and I don’t understand it. “I don’t pay the best lawyer on the West Coast a shit-ton of money for nothing. I don’t have the best people I know around me to sit idly by while the woman I love is torn to shreds publicly. Regardless of what happens, of who gets this supposed story, I will be standing by your side through it all. Understand that, Dayton. There isn’t a second I won’t be supporting you. Even if I have to lift you onto my shoulders and carry your weight as well as mine, I’ll f*cking do it. Do you understand that?”
I nod. “Yes. I understand.”
“Good. Now, please, trust me. Trust me and everyone I have around me. I don’t give a f*ck if I have to slap lawsuits left, right, and f*cking center. No one who even sniffs this will get away with it. She made a big mistake in telling you just after she posted it. A very, very big mistake.”
“How do you know? How do you know it isn’t already being spread across the country?”
“Because Stone Advertising has a web hosting company integrated within it, and her website is hosted by us. It’s being shut down as we speak.”
I stop as the car does. I look at him. The clench of his jaw, the harshness of his eyes, the tightness of his grip on mine.
“How?”
“Dottie.” He smirks slowly. “She called for a car, then my lawyer, then Miguel, the man who runs the web hosting company. That site will be down within the hour.”
“You’re so confident. How? I’m petrified, Aaron. I’ve never been so scared in my f*cking life, and you’re acting like she’s spilled your grandma’s favorite muffin recipe.”
He clasps my face in his hands, his palms rough against my cheeks, his fingers brushing hair from my eyes, and leans in with a deep breath. “Because our love can conquer anything it comes across. It’s strong enough to fight for a lifetime together. That’s why I’m so confident. I know that, no matter what, I’ll still be able to look in your eyes at the end of the day, and that’s all that truly matters.” He slides me across the car and lifts me out, setting me in front of him. “Now let’s go and do some damage control.”
“And sic a lawsuit on Naomi’s ass?”
Aaron’s smirk grows. “Now we’re talking, sweetheart. Now we’re talking.”
With his arm firmly wrapped around my body, he guides me into the elevator and upstairs. When we step into the apartment, it’s alive with ringing phones and voices issuing commands. There’s a heavy layer of tension hovering above everyone, threatening to suffocate us with its intensity.
“Now, you,” Aaron says quietly, “are going to go and sit on the sofa with my mother and you’re going to let me handle this.”
“This is my mess,” I argue.
“And it’s my solution,” he responds without missing a beat. “I have the manpower to solve this. Please sit back and let me deal with this. Let me protect you.”
“I’m not the one who needs protecting. It’s you.”
“Naomi vastly underestimated the power and influence this company has. My father will be in my office contacting everyone necessary and explaining the situation diplomatically. There are twenty people in this apartment right now fighting to make this right because I said so. I know you feel like this is your fault.”
“It is.”
“Not,” he adds. “It isn’t your fault, and as much as I adore your desire to protect me and this company, it’s unnecessary. I need to protect you, Dayton. I need to protect you like I need air to breathe, so for the love of God, please go and sit with my mother and let me do this. I won’t ask you again.”
I take a deep breath and look into his eyes. I see the truth of his words reflected in them, but I have to argue. I want to do something. There has to be f*cking something I can do to right this.
“You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me,” I whisper.
“And you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me. Last chance.” He kisses me hard and turns me in the direction of the front room.
Carly, his mom, is sitting on the sofa, watching me. The compassion in her eyes undoes me, and I let the fear spill over. I let the pressure and the tension and the apprehension of the last few weeks release in the form of my tears, and I collapse onto the sofa next to her. She wraps her arms around me and rocks me gently, whispering in my ear. Just the way a mother should.
I cry silently into her shoulder, savoring every moment that her arms are around me, and let it all out.
I’m helpless.
I caused this and there’s nothing I can do to right it.
I’m powerless, out of control, only able to sit by and watch as everyone else cleans up my mess. Because that’s how I see it. If I’d just told Aaron right away, if I’d just been honest and not so f*cking stubbornly independent, this could be fixed. It would be fixed.
My cell pings again, and Dottie swipes the screen to open the message.
“Aaron!”
“What does it say?” I look at her. She bites her lip. “Dottie. Tell me now!”
“She said that if you don’t pay within the hour, she’ll have it distributed to a large number of websites and presses ready to run a breaking news story first thing tomorrow. They’re waiting for her story.”
“Will she f*ck.” There’s no wavering in his voice. Despite his lack of jacket and tie, Aaron looks as serious as ever. “Dottie, get me her on the phone ten minutes ago.” He turns. “Alexander, get something drawn up that prevents her from contacting either Dayton or me for the next f*cking lifetime. This ends right now.”
“Aaron, you can’t pay her!” I wrench myself from his mom’s grip. “Don’t be so f*cking stupid!”
He brings his eyes to mine. “I told you before that there isn’t a price I wouldn’t pay for you, Dayton. And now I’m telling you to sit the hell down and let me deal with this.”
I breathe in deeply. No. He can’t do this. He can’t pay her off. “You can’t. Your divorce terms.”
“Stated she can’t contact me. Not the other way around.”
“She’s on the line,” Dottie interrupts, holding the phone out.
Everything in me wants to reach forward and grab that phone. I want to tear it from his hands and scream into the receiver. I want to yell and cry and scream until I’m hoarse, until she understands what she’s caused.
Carly reaches for my hands, but I pull them away, shaking my head. Everyone in this room, this packed room, is on high alert. There are phones and tablets and laptops everywhere. There is no silence, not for the constant ringing and keyboard-tapping and talking. Even Monique is standing in the corner, her cell to her ear, speaking frantically into her phone. It’s a crazy kind of organized carnage.
I follow Aaron into his office and slip inside quietly.
“No, Naomi. No. You’re un-f*cking-believable… No, I found out through necessity. She kept it from me because she was willing to destroy herself to protect me… No, you wouldn’t understand that, would you? You have no concept of love… Regardless, your demands have been met. Visit your bank in the morning and you will find the requested amount deposited into your account, plus interest for the last four weeks. You’ll also be receiving a call from your lawyer in New York explaining about the lawsuit being brought against you should you contact either of us again… Slander. Defamation of character. Invasion of privacy. Blackmail.”
Silence.
“Fantastic. Then we’re on the same page. One more word to Dayton or me and you’ll find yourself in the middle of a legal battle you’ll never win. And don’t doubt me for a second. I told you before you don’t f*ck with the woman I’m in love with. Goodnight.”
The phone hits his desk with a clatter. I bite the inside of my lip and stare at his back. At the way he leans forward, grasping the edge of his desk, and takes a deep breath. At the way he stands, turning to me, his eyes finding mine with a fierceness I’ve never seen before.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I whisper. “Paid her. She doesn’t deserve it.”
“But you do. You deserve every f*cking cent I have and more. Money is expendable, gorgeous. There’ll always be more of it. I can always make more. I can never have another you. She can have everything, but she can’t have you.”
I lean against the mirror and hug myself. God, to be loved this much. To be loved in a way you don’t feel you deserve, in a way so utterly that you are the center of their world. That you’re the f*cking axis their world hovers on, the gravity making it spin.
To be loved so much that you really are the most valuable thing they have.
Aaron touches his lips to mine gently yet firmly. A promise. A certainty. A forever.
I wrap my arms around his waist because I need him to hold me. I need to feel the warmth and security that comes from his arms, and I’m not afraid to admit that, after years of being so strong, I feel weak.
Like my world is being ripped from under me and torn into pieces. Like my fear could overwhelm me until I can no longer breathe. Like the very man I’m holding on to could be tugged away from my grip.
“Strength comes from giving yourself to another. It comes from deep in your heart, the very thing you share with that other person. It comes from knowing that fear isn’t an option where a future is so certain.” He cups my cheek and touches his forehead to mine. “It comes from every time we look into each other’s eyes and see every ounce of love we feel reflected back.”
I close my eyes and turn my face into his palm. “But it’s not over, is it?”
“No, sweetheart. Not yet. So you need to let me go again and let me finish this. Okay?”
I nod. “Okay. I’m going to bed. I need to be alone.”
Wordlessly, he takes me into our room. He pulls off his shirt and hands it to me. “Never alone, Dayton. Never.”
My dress falls from my body and I wrap myself in the soft, warm cotton of his white shirt, buttoning it before I bury myself beneath the covers. I feel almost childlike, needing to escape the horror situation born from me.
Aaron crouches before me, cupping my head, and takes my mouth in another promising kiss I feel beating away at the fear in my veins.
“When this shit is all said and done, I’m going to take you away to somewhere no one can find us and we’re going to make up for every second we’ve lost to another person,” he whispers in the dark. “I’m going to be the most selfish bastard in the world and keep you all to myself for as long as I can.”
“I’m totally okay with that,” I whisper.
“It was happening anyway.” He kisses me again, and a hint of amusement tugs at the corners of my mouth. Even now, in the midst of a hellish disaster, my man can make me smile.
True love, people.
Right f*cking here is true love.
When everything seems dark, like it’s all going to shit, but the love you have still lights up your body and sends your heart racing, you know you have a love worth holding on to. Even if it destroys you.
The door clicks shut as he leaves the room, and I pull the covers up farther. I tug them over my head until I’m fully encased beneath the warmth of our sheets and close my eyes, hoping that, tomorrow, everything will be a little bit brighter.
***
I wake to darkness and a welcome silence. The earlier hum of noise from endless conversations is no more. I stretch my arm to the side, feeling for Aaron, but instead, my hand lands on empty sheets.
I sit up, brushing hair from my face, and listen for any indication of him being around. There isn’t any, so I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and make my way out of the room.
The city lights flood the front room, and I glance at the clock. Four a.m. Where could he possibly be at this time?
Something creaks in the direction of his office, and I walk down the hall to it. His door is cracked open slightly, and a gentle light from the television is flickering through the tiny gap. I wrap my fingers around the edge of the door and ease it open, my eyes landing on his exhausted, shirtless figure.
He’s slumping over his desk, his fingers buried in his hair. His laptop is open in front of him, papers are scattered everywhere, some lying idly on the floor, and a desk light is illuminating the mess.
“You should be in bed, asleep,” he mutters without moving.
I hold in my snort and cross the room. I lay my hand on his shoulder. “Have you been to sleep yet?”
He shakes his head in response, and I close my eyes. His fingers close over mine on his shoulder and he pulls my hand to his mouth, brushing his lips across my knuckles.
I look at him as he tilts his face up to me. His eyes are slightly glazed, dark shadows forming beneath them, and I press my hand to his cheek.
He looks exhausted, like there isn’t another ounce of energy left in him.
“Come to bed,” I whisper.
“No. I need to finish this.” Aaron turns back to his laptop.
I reach forward and slam the top down. Slowly, he faces me again, his lips quirked to one side.
“Come to bed,” I repeat, firmer this time.
“Dayton, I have to finish this. I have to make sure we’ve covered all our bases and nothing has slipped between my fingers.” He knocks my hand from the laptop and opens it.
Once again, I slam it. This time, I climb onto the desk and sit on top of it, my eyebrows raised. I rest my feet on his chair in the small gap between his legs, and he runs his hands up my calves.
“Dayton,” he sighs.
“You’re coming to bed, Aaron, and I don’t care if I have to sit here for another hour. You’re not opening the damn laptop again tonight.”
He opens his mouth, but I lean forward and press two fingers against his lips. Instead of speaking, he kisses them.
“I know you don’t want to. I know you want to sit here until you collapse on the keyboard, but you’re not going to. I love that you’re trying so hard to fix this, baby, I do, but you need to sleep now. You’re no good to me or you if you’re stumbling around like something out of The Walking Dead.”
He smiles. “The Walking Dead?”
I shrug a shoulder. “So I watch some TV. Please come to bed now. You can come back to this in the morning. If you checked everything now, you’d probably miss something because you’re so tired. Look at it with fresh eyes. I’ll help you.”
Our gazes lock for a long moment, and just when I think I’m going to really have to argue my point, he drops his shoulders.
“Fine. I’ll come to bed, but know that I’m going to hold you so tight you might suffocate a little.”
I bend forward and touch my lips to his. “I don’t expect anything less.”
“And when I’m not so tired, this is happening again. You on this desk in my shirt, that is. I am incredibly tempted to f*ck you right now.”
I hop up and tug on his hand. “Not happening, Aaron. Come on.”
He waits while I shut off the light and TV and dutifully follows me into our room. I tug his sweatpants from his hips and he steps out of them, grabbing me before I can turn. Deftly, his fingers work the buttons on the front of his shirt and he takes it from my body.
We climb into bed together, and no sooner have I pulled the sheets up than he’s cocooning me in his arms. I snuggle into him and turn my face so my lips rest against the part of his chest where his heart is beating. He squeezes me tight when I press a kiss there, feeling it speed up beneath my lingering touch.
“I love you, woman,” he whispers into my hair. “So very, very much.”
“I know,” I whisper back, tangling our legs further. “I love you a lot, too.”
“Good.”
I close my eyes and listen as his breathing deepens and evens out. He’s asleep within a minute, but his hold on me never loosens or wavers. His arms are locked around me in an ironclad grip, and I slip one of my hands over his side and up his back.
Somehow, and I wish I knew how it was possible, she hasn’t won.
Naomi might have what she set out for originally—the money—but I have to wonder if that was her real motive. If, like Carly said, she always hated me, the Paris Girl, then it wouldn’t be crazy to think that blackmailing me would have some other outcome.
Like walking away from Aaron.
I truly believe that she loves him. Maybe it’s in her own twisted, vicious way, but I think she does. That could be me hoping that there’s a real reason behind this whole thing. That could be me seeing good in someone who doesn’t particularly deserve it, but I’ll never know.
Their relationship isn’t my business. I don’t know anything of it bar the basic facts Aarons told me, and I don’t want to know. Not because I don’t want to hear about him with another woman, but because it doesn’t matter.
We’re past the point of it having any impact on us. We’re past the point of her being a thorn in our sides. At least I hope so. The threat of a five-million-dollar lawsuit if she contacts us again should be enough to keep her away.
She may love him, but she loves the money more. She won’t give that up for something as trivial as trying and failing to come between us.
We’ve shown her how strong we are. We’ve shown everyone, including ourselves, how hard we’re willing to work for, fight for, and hold on to this relationship. We’ve made it crystal clear that our love has the strength of a thousand diamonds.
Yes, you can scratch it. You can even chip it if you’re really lucky. But you’ll never break it.
And craning my head back to look at the peaceful, restful face of the man who possesses every part of me, I know how true that statement is.
After everything, we’re still as strong as we were the first time around.
This time, we’re just not willing to let go. We learned our lesson.