Among the Heather (The Highlands, #2)

Instead of answering, she shoved away from me and scrambled off the bed. I only had a brief glimpse of her magnificent sweetheart-shaped arse before she shimmied into her skirt with impressive speed.

I launched off the bed as she yanked on her shirt. I grabbed her wrist.

“What are you doing?” she huffed in annoyance as I dragged her into the bathroom with me.

“I have to deal with this fucking condom, and I don’t want you running out while I do.”

“Oh, you’re being ridiculous.”

“Am I?” I released her hand to take off the condom and watched her glance down and then look away like a schoolmarm. If her olive skin could blush, I bet she’d be a hundred shades of red.

“Was that necessary?” she asked once I was done. She glared as she buttoned up her shirt.

Still annoyed but wanting her to feel safe, to know I would let her go without (too much of) a fight, I batted her hands away and began buttoning it for her. Aria sighed in irritation but let me.

“First, if I’d treated you the way you just treated me after sex, I’d be considered a momentous prick of the highest order.”

At my admonishment, she stiffened, then slumped as her agitation disappeared, replaced with obvious guilt. “You’re right. I’m … I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Even though it was really shitty to say what you said,” I told her calmly but honestly.

“What did I say exactly?”

I searched her face, seeing the anxiety creep into her eyes. “To make it out as if I wanted to have sex with you again out of pity. That’s what you were alluding to, right?” Sighing, I gave her a knowing look. “It says more about you than me, but it still makes me feel like crap.”

She lowered her gaze, and an ache swelled in my chest as I studied her stunning face. I could feel the blood traveling south as my body reacted to her. Why her? Why was she so beautiful to me in a way that transcended physical beauty? I barely knew her. But I really, really wanted to know more. And I knew I was in trouble. Because if I let her, this woman could hurt me.

“I’m sorry.” Her eyes flew to mine as she apologized again. “Trust is hard for me.”

At that moment, I regretted we hadn’t met sooner. Before those arsehole ex-boyfriends had time to shred her, to have broken her so badly she’d built mile-high walls around herself. “Woman, no one can fake what we just experienced,” I told her gruffly instead.

To my relief, a glimmer of heat and amusement entered her eyes. “I guess not.”

Stepping closer, I pushed, “Then stay with me.”

Indecision played across her features, and I held my breath, waiting.

She shook her head. “I would prefer to leave it as it is. You made me feel really good, and you helped me prove a point to myself. For that, I’m grateful. But I know that if we made this into anything more, everything we just had”—she gestured around the room, toward the bed—“would get poisoned by my trust issues.”

Frustrated, I scrubbed a hand over my face. My tone was sharper than I intended as I demanded, “Do you just plan to stay alone for the rest of your life?”

Aria frowned. “No. I don’t. But I also never intend to be …” Something like an apology softened her expression and her voice gentled. “I won’t ever be in a relationship with an actor or anyone in the industry, ever again.”

Part of me understood. She needed to know there was no motive other than wanting to be with her.

However, it fucked me off after everything I’d told her that she could ever think I’d use her to get to her father. “You know I don’t want that from you.”

She understood my meaning. And she didn’t agree. Seeing my frustration, she placed a hand on my chest. “North, I believed every second between us was about us. And after Lucas, I didn’t think I could ever say that again with another actor. But let’s just leave it at that. Leave it at a place we both feel good about.”

What did I expect? That my cock would magically make her trust me?

Fine.

I nodded and stepped back. “All right.”

Aria seemed relieved by my acquiescence. Her smile was soft and too gorgeous for my own good. “Thanks again.”

She walked back into the bedroom, and I followed her. The room smelled of sex, and I could feel myself growing hard, so I quickly pulled on the pajama bottoms folded on the nearest armchair. Aria tucked her shirt into her skirt, grabbed her underwear, and slipped into her heels.

My eyes traveled over her legs, and it just made me harder. The woman had the most fantastic pair I’d ever seen. I wanted them wrapped around my back.

When she was ready, she looked at me and quirked an eyebrow when she saw my arousal. “Oh.”

Her surprise made me smirk. She still wasn’t getting it. “I told you I still want you.”

She visibly swallowed. “Uh, huh.”

I tried again. “You could stay. Help me take care of it.”

For a moment, my heart sped up at her obvious indecision. Then, as if snapping herself out of a daze, she spun toward the door. “I have to go.”

Letting out a slow exhale, I took a second before I crossed the room to open the door for her. “Thank you for an unforgettable night, Aria.”

Her eyes widened ever so slightly, her lips parting in surprise. “T-thank you. Too.”

I gave her a small smile, forcing myself not to touch her. Not to kiss her. Only to watch her as she hurried out of my room, darting down the hallway without looking back.

Finally, I shut the bedroom door and leaned against it.

Plotting.

My life was a disaster at the moment, and the last thing I needed was to jump into another relationship. But I didn’t care. There had to be a way to get Aria to agree to see me. I just had to figure out how to convince her I couldn’t give a flying fuck who her father was. That all I wanted was to get to know her. And to make her come a million times more while I was at it.

Reminded of my arousal, I glanced down. It was time to take a shower and relive every glorious bloody second of my night with the one woman I apparently couldn’t have.

Apparently being the operative word.

Aria had been living in Scotland for a while, but she obviously hadn’t figured out the one thing that many Scots had in common. We were a stubborn bunch of bastards, and I was the biggest stubborn bastard of the lot.

When I wanted something as much as I wanted Aria, I never stopped until what I wanted was mine.





Sixteen


ARIA