Chapter Eight
“Dayton!” Aaron’s mom stands and opens her arms to me when we enter the restaurant. I step into her warm embrace, then his father’s, and take a seat opposite them at the table.
We’re seated in the back of Glassini, an upscale restaurant that neighbors the Southfall hotel. The curved shape of our booth means we’re practically invisible to prying eyes, and the lighting is just bright enough to make out the shade of red velvet on the chairs but low enough to be cozy and romantic.
“It’s wonderful to see you again.” Carly smiles across the table. “I’m glad for the chance.” She flicks her eyes to Aaron.
He tenses next to me. “Mom.”
She smiles and raises a wine glass to her lips. His dad steps in, offering us both a glass of wine, and pours them.
There’s a heavy awkwardness between Aaron and his mom. It’s palpable, and I know he said that she didn’t like Naomi, but I can feel it. Her name hasn’t even been mentioned and I can feel the hatred for his ex-wife glittering in her eyes. And I can see the anger that she came between us—and that Aaron let it happen.
We order our food, and as we wait, Aaron engages in a conversation about the company with his dad. Turns out, Brandon isn’t as comfortable being retired as he thought he would be, and as I listen in, the conversation is more a comforting session for the older man.
Carly rolls her eyes in a move that makes me smother a laugh. “Men,” she sighs. “I can’t take those two anywhere without them discussing work. Someone needs to inform them that the world doesn’t revolve around it.”
“Have you tried?”
“Several times. They’re too stubborn to listen to me. I’d hoped Aaron would skip his father’s need-to-be-in-control gene, but it took to him and it stuck.”
I nod my head. If only she really knew. “You don’t need to tell me that. He honestly drives me crazy with it sometimes.”
“Darling, Aaron delights in driving women crazy. Mostly myself.”
Our food is placed in front of us, and we eat in near silence. The only words exchanged are from Aaron and Brandon, who are still discussing work.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, you two,” Carly snaps. “You’re at a family dinner, not a work one. Dayton and I do not want to hear about it. I for one hear enough about it at home.”
I bite my bottom lip to hide my smile.
“Of course, honey,” Brandon soothes her, patting her hand. “What would you rather we discuss? Clothes? Shoes? The latest installment of The Bachelor, perhaps?”
“My guilty pleasure.” Carly winks at me.
“I’ve never seen it,” I admit. “I don’t watch much television.”
“Oh my. We’ll have to rectify that. I can’t say I’m much for the women on the show—they’re all rather catty—but the bachelor is always worth it.”
“That was a rhetorical question, Mom.” There’s a hint of a groan to Aaron’s voice.
“Really?” I ignore him. “Maybe I’ll have to start watching.”
“Dayton.”
“You really should. It’s rather addictive though. Goodness knows Brandon has come home to me shouting at the television more than once. Those girls are vile sometimes. It’s hard to believe they’re real at all, but I’ve had the displeasure of meeting one or two over the last thirty years of my life.”
“Mom!”
Carly turns to her son. “Yes?”
“Are we done with the trashy TV talk?” Aaron grinds out. “You’re making it a little personal now.”
His mom delicately chews a piece of pasta, her eyes on him, and the tension rockets up. She doesn’t say a word. She merely pins him in place with her stare until he backs down and looks away.
I look between them. Ha! He might be CEO of the family company, but his mom can still give him a look that makes his tail go between his legs.
Oddly, I love it. He obviously respects her enough not to challenge her too much. And that warms something inside me.
The rest of our meal is finished in silence. Brandon looks at Aaron when the plates are cleared by our server.
“Let’s go and get a drink at the bar, son. Perhaps then we can discuss business in peace.” Brandon throws Carly an affectionate smile. “And replace the empty bottle of wine on the table.”
They leave us alone for two minutes. Aaron brings an opened bottle of Pinot over and places it between us, his hand on my upper back. He pauses before leaving and drops his lips to my forehead. I close my eyes at the brief touch, aware of his mom watching us but not really caring as his gentle kiss warms my skin.
I pour our glasses without a word and bring mine to my lips. I’m not prepared to be left alone with his mom. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have come. Not because I don’t like her—I do, very much—but because I’m not sure if I’m ready for the conversation we’re about to have.
“She was a bitch. If you’ll excuse my language.” Carly smiles slightly.
“Naomi?”
She nods. “She was one of those people I took an instant dislike to. You know when you meet someone and something about them rubs you the wrong way? This was akin to a cat rubbing against a scratching post vehemently.”
“Funnily enough, I felt the same way when I met her,” I reply dryly.
“I imagine you would. She’s a very unlikable person.” She runs her finger around the top of her glass. “I couldn’t imagine why Aaron was entering into a relationship with her. The last person he saw seriously was you. The two of you are so incredibly different, and it surprised me. Naomi was and is everything I’d never wished for him. She was vindictive and selfish and very one-minded. She took so much but never gave anything. All she ever truly was was something pretty on his arm for dinners and functions.”
“Why did he marry her?”
“Who knows, honey? Guilt? I know that Brandon’s assistant at the time convinced him it was for the best. He would be stronger for taking over the company later if he was married and had a good woman beside him. Not to say I don’t agree with that statement, but a good woman isn’t enough. He needed the right woman, and unfortunately Naomi was neither.”
She’s silent for a moment before she continues. “I told him to tell you. When he told me you were going with him on the trip, I told him you had to know. You weren’t just anyone. You’ve never just been anyone. Not to him.”
I swallow and look down. “What did he say?”
“He said he would. He said he planned to tell you, but I couldn’t push him into it. He didn’t want to lose you again.”
“And he still couldn’t tell me.”
Carly sighs heavily. “I think he spent the day in bed with a migraine when I was through with him. He’s loved you since you met, and because of his stubborn pigheadedness, he hurt you in a misguided attempt to protect you.”
“I think I said the same thing to him,” I say softly, looking up.
“He fired her.” Her lips twitch. “He forced her to sign the divorce papers in front of us and our lawyer. Then he signed the papers that transferred ownership of Stone to him while she watched. And he fired her.”
Smugness fills me. She was holding out for more, hoping he’d get the company before the divorce was settled, and he did it all right in front of her.
“She lost while she thought she was winning.”
“Couldn’t have put it better. She got the settlement she was after, but not what she truly wanted. She wanted some of the company, but my boy is smarter than that. He refused until it was done. That was something that was made more important when he met you again. She had to be out of his life completely.”
I pause before asking, “And is she?”
Carly tops up our glasses. “My son is no fool. When you have the best lawyer in the city, you can slip anything into a contract.”
“Like what?”
“Like if Naomi contacts him in any way, except in business situations which are unavoidable, the agreement will be null and void and she’ll have to pay him fifty percent of the settlement.”
My smile mirrors hers. “He really did cover everything, didn’t he?”
“When you left, all he was focused on was doing whatever he could to get you back. That meant rushing his business in Paris, canceling his London trip, and finalizing his divorce before coming to Seattle. He’s just taken control of a multimillion-dollar, worldwide company, but all he wanted was you.”
I open my mouth, but no words come out.
“He messed up. He messed up hugely, Dayton, but that doesn’t have an impact on the way he feels for you. As well as inheriting his stubbornness from his father, he also got his capacity and ability to love. I can see it in Aaron’s eyes when he looks at you. There isn’t a mountain he wouldn’t climb or a sea he wouldn’t cross if it meant making you happy. I don’t know where you two are now, but I can see how very much he loves you.”
“He could try telling me sometime. I might like him a little more then.”
She laughs. “I’ve loved Brandon for thirty-five years, but I’ve liked him for only a handful of those. It’s something you carry with you, I’m afraid.” She winks then drops her smile and takes my hand. “There’s a hollow kind of sadness in his eyes, but he’s still happier with you than I’ve seen him for seven years. If you can forgive him for keeping her from you, please do it.”
I squeeze her hand lightly. “I think I already have. I just don’t plan on telling him so anytime soon.”
***
Aaron takes the seat next to me when his mom joins his dad at the bar. He turns to me and rests his hand on my knee. Heat sears through the dark material of my dress, and I feel the resounding sparks as he trails his fingers up my thigh. They skim my hip, and I turn to him instinctively, raising my eyes from the table to meet his.
They’re startlingly blue. Clear and honest. I see how he feels. I see that guilt and remorse, but this time, they’re wrapped in hope. A hope that tugs at my stomach, because we’re hoping for the very same thing but in different ways.
He’s hoping I’ll forgive him, and I’m hoping he’ll tell me what I need to hear.
We’re both hoping for the kind of happiness that can only be found intricately threaded into love.
I lean forward and kiss him softly. It must surprise him because he stills for half a second before curving his hand around my hip and pulling me closer to him.
The satin of his jacket is soft beneath my fingers as I run them across his shoulder and down his body. His chest heaves beneath my touch, and he rests his forehead against mine, our noses next to the other’s, our breaths mingling in the whisper of space between our mouths.
He takes my hand in his and squeezes it tightly. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.
I close my eyes at the sound of those words. I told him that they were important, but I never realized just how much until now. With them hanging between us on a delicate thread, the words validate every ounce of regret I’ve felt in his touch and seen in his eyes.
“It nudged it,” I whisper back, tightening my own grip on his hand.
“Good.”
He pulls back and brings our hands to his mouth. Gently, he presses a kiss to each of my knuckles then flips my hand over and kisses my wrist on my pulse point. I can feel his lips soft against my skin and the way my pulse increases at the intimate touch. I can feel the way my heart speeds up, threatening to break through my ribs with the sheer force of it. With everything I feel for this infuriating man.
“Nice talk with my mom?” His smirk cuts through the intimate moment, and I’m almost glad as some of the heaviness lifts. I can breathe again. Only just.
“Oh yeah. What did you see in Naomi?” I raise my eyebrows.
He laughs, but it more closely resembles a growl. “She’s never going to let it go.”
“She won’t. She’s a woman. We hold our grudges, even when you think we’ve let go.”
“Good to know.” He grabs his drink from the table and sips the amber liquid. “We’ve already discussed her. I don’t want to talk about her anymore with you, Day. She’s my past, and right now, sitting here with you, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, she’s nothing. The time we spent together is a blur of nothing. She’s barely even a memory, but you? You’re everything.”
“I seem to remember you saying you were everything.”
“I am everything, but only to you. That doesn’t mean you’re not everything to me, because you are.”
I run my fingers down the lapel of his jacket. “Did you really rush your business to get back to the US?”
“I condensed a week of meetings into a few days. I had no choice but to attend them, but the second I could leave, I was on the plane back to New York.”
“Why?” I swallow and look at him.
His mom might have told me, but I need to hear it from him. My crazy mind, the insanity he makes me feel, needs to hear it. It needs to hear something to validate the relationship he believes he pays for but is so very real.
Aaron’s lips curl slightly at the corners, and he brushes some hair from my face. He leaves his hand cupping my head and draws our faces closer together.
“Because I couldn’t be away from you for any longer than I had to be. I couldn’t stand by and not fight for you when you were back here. There wasn’t a single part of me that would let me do that.”
“Your fighting could use some work.” I tap his nose. “Pinning a girl to her front door and kissing the shit out of her isn’t exactly a way to win back her heart.”
“But you’re so stubborn,” he teases. “You wouldn’t listen to what I had to say, so I had to make you feel it instead. Of course, I ultimately decided you were going to listen to me anyway.”
I narrow my eyes. “Men.”
His parents rejoin us, and I slide back along the booth seat. Aaron clasps my hip and slides me back into him, and he digs his fingers into my skin in a warning. Don’t move.
A light is shining in his mom’s eyes, and the way his dad is smiling tells me that they were watching from the bar. At least his mom was.
“So, son,” Brandon begins after checking we all have enough to drink, “are you all ready for London?”
I stop, raise an eyebrow, and slowly turn my face to Aaron. “London?”
He parts his lips then closes his mouth again, instead choosing to wet his bottom lip.
“Aaron! You didn’t tell her?” Carly scolds him.
“No, no he didn’t,” I answer for him. “Evidently we need to work on the talking part of our relationship.”
Aaron’s eyes widen in a move so slight I’m sure only I noticed it. His grasp on me tightens even more, like he wants to hold on to my last two words and not let them go in case he’s imagining it.
“Yes,” he says slowly. “Evidently, we do.”
“I’m sorry. Did I say ‘we’? I meant you.” I smile sweetly and lay my hand on his chest.
“I guessed as much. You talk enough for the both of us, sweetheart.”
“And apparently you should tell me to shut up once in a while.” I jab him with my finger.
Aaron sighs and looks at his father. “Thank you, Dad. If you don’t mind, I think Dayton and I will call it a night. Apparently, we have an upcoming trip to discuss.”
We say our goodbyes, all the while my eyes cutting to Aaron in displeasure. Is this something he’s conveniently declined to mention yet again?
I get into the waiting town car without a word to him, and his sigh drifts across the car to me.
“Are you mad at me again?”
“I haven’t stopped being mad at you. I just got better at hiding it.” I spin in my seat. “When do you go?”
“In three days.”
“And when were you going to tell me?”
“I wasn’t. I was obviously planning to kidnap you in the dead of night, sling you over my shoulder, and hoist you off to London for ten days.” He grins.
“Cor, don’t hold back. Romance me, baby.” I roll my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You’re really mad I didn’t, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’m mad! Is this how it’s always going to be? Am I always going to be finding these kind of very important things out from other people?”
He rubs a hand down his face, and I follow him from the car. He doesn’t reply as we walk through the lobby and step into the elevator to take us to his penthouse apartment. Silence lingers through the journey, the only thing between us is my anger and his rapidly developing annoyance.
I can always tell. His hand twitches and he flexes his fingers when it’s building in him, and his eyes take on this heated hardness. I’m sure the heated part is only for my benefit, but angry looks good on him.
“No,” he finally says when we enter the apartment. “It honestly slipped my mind until Dad mentioned it tonight. I would have remembered when I arrived at the office tomorrow and seen it on my schedule.”
“Then you would have called me right away, correct?”
“No. I would have gone to my scheduled meeting then called you.”
I huff and stalk into the spare room. Dammit, I don’t even want to be here tonight. I want to go home and sink into the comfort of my own bed. I want to cocoon myself in my blankets and just breathe.
The floorboards creak as Aaron follows me. I slide my fingers beneath the shoulder of my dress, ready to push it down, but his hand stills the movement. His breath cascades over my bare neck, making the tiny hairs stand on end.
“Is this how it’s always going to be?” he whispers, repeating my own words back to me. “I do something wrong and you get mad at me?”
“There’s no getting.” I shrug his hand off. “I’m never not mad. We’ve covered this several times.”
He pulls me back into him, tilting my head to one side. His fingers splay on my stomach and hold me in place, trapped against the hardness of his body. “Even when I make you come?” His finger slips beneath my dress strap and slides it over the curve of my shoulder. “Are you mad at me then?”
“Deliriously so.” I sigh when he kisses the part of my neck where it meets my shoulder, that tender, erotic spot that seems to be connected to every nerve in my body.
“I like your deliriously mad.” His lips brush across the bottom of my neck, and he gathers my hair in his free hand, exposing the other side of my neck. He lets the dark locks fall to the side as he slides the other side of my dress down. “I wanted you in this dress the second I saw it, but now I believe I’d much prefer you out of it.”
Everything in me comes alive. My nerve endings tingle animatedly until the deep ache of my * overshadows it. I curve into him instinctively as he stands before me. His skin is hot as my hands find his waist, but the connection lasts only seconds before he steps back. My hands fall to my sides, and he moves to me again.
“No touching,” he murmurs, the low, demanding growl in it making me shiver.
His fingers trace the neckline of the dress, ghosting over the curve of my breasts, and his fingers are soon replaced by his hot mouth as he drags the material down my body. It’s so effortless for him, peeling the tight outfit from me, even as he lavishes attention on my breasts.
My nipples harden almost painfully inside my bra as he continues his journey down. A gentle breeze caresses me when the dress is pulled over my ass. It pools at my feet, my body finally free from its restraints.
Aaron’s tongue licks a lazy path just above my thong from hip to hip. I push my hips into him, reaching forward to steady myself.
His hands shoot out and grasp my wrists. He bends my arms around my body and pins my hands to the bottom of my back. I can’t move despite my best efforts. His grip is too strong and steadily certain.
“Let’s make you deliriously mad, baby.”