Girl Next Door - The Complete Series (12 page)

I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair and slathered on conditioner. I liked Aidan, a lot. I liked him even more than I had ever liked Jack, and I’d told Jack that I loved him. This realization hit me like electrical current. I loved Aidan.

I immediately began to argue with myself. Of course, I wasn’t in love with Aidan. We’d only been together a week. It was too short. I may have liked Aidan more than Jack, but that didn’t mean I loved him. I knew I hadn’t really loved Jack, but that didn’t mean I had fallen in love with Aidan.

I was so deeply engrossed with my internal argument, I yelped when an arm wrapped around my middle and a hand cupped my breast. My feet slid on the bottom of the shower and I almost went down. Thankfully, Aidan held me up.

“Careful,” he said in my ear.

His voice was low and still rough from sleep. Oh, boy, was it sexy.

I forced myself to stay still, even though I was still having a mini nervous breakdown over all this love stuff.

“You scared me,” I whispered.

His fingers toyed with my nipple and his other hand slid low around my hip and pulled me into him.

“I’m sorry.” He chuckled low in his throat. “I’ll make it up to you.”

I shivered and Aidan laughed again. I felt him against my lower back, hard and ready. He turned me to face him and I looked up to see him smiling down at me.

When I spoke, I forced my voice to be light. “And how exactly do you plan to do that?”

He grabbed my ass and hoisted me up, pressing me against the wall. I gasped because the tile was still pretty cool, but I forgot as soon as Aidan lowered his head and kissed me. I immediately wrapped my legs around his hips and ground against him. One of his hands moved forward and two of his long fingers slid into me. I shifted against him, using my thigh muscles to move with his hand.

“That’s it, ride my hand.” His thumb found my clit, pressed in and rolled.

I loved it when Aidan did this, because, as much as I loved his cock, he was able to rub the special spot inside me and my clit simultaneously and it set me on fire. I suspected this is why Aidan did it so often. The orgasm was just out of reach when he removed his hand. I made a sound of protest. Sometimes he took me over the edge once, or even twice, before he would give me his dick. If he stopped before I came, it meant he was in the mood to tease me, which meant that I would be close to out of my mind before he would let me orgasm. Yes,
let
me orgasm. It drove me nuts. I had intense love-hate feelings about his teasing. I hated the frustration but I loved the intensity of my climax when he finally let me finish.

Aidan slid one of his fingers into his mouth, which caused my girlie parts to spasm. Then he slid the other into my mouth. No other man had ever done anything quite so kinky before, but, surprisingly, it turned me on even more.

“You’re sweet,” he said. “Inside and out.”

Okay, that aroused me so much I thought I would combust, so I was done playing around. I used my thighs to lift myself up, grasped his cock and positioned myself over him. I lowered down, impaling myself. Aidan didn’t try to stop me, he just smirked. I honestly didn’t care. I was so turned on, I needed him inside me. I braced my back against the wall and used my arms and legs to help me ride him. His hands gripped my hips and he began to force me down harder. That was it, I felt every muscle in my body tighten before I experienced the most intense orgasm of my life. I sank my teeth into Aidan’s shoulder and held on for dear life. I was dimly aware that Aidan was coming with me.

When I finally calmed, Aidan and I were both breathing heavily. I was nowhere near recovered when Aidan set me on my feet and proceeded to soap down both of our bodies. Weakly, I stood and let him towel me off, then watched as he dried himself. He threw the towel over the bar, looked at me and grinned. He guided-slash-shoved me back into the bedroom and back into the bed. We were both still naked and he pulled me down onto the mattress with him and threw the top sheet over us.

Aidan positioned me on my side, facing him, and then mirrored my pose. He brushed my wet hair away from my face.

His face became serious. “It’s time to talk.”

I swallowed audibly. Oh, crap. I was still trying to convince myself I wasn’t in love with him, and he wanted to have a “talk”. I traced patterns on his collar bone, keeping my eyes down.

“Okay. So talk.” My voice was soft and, to my embarrassment, shaky.

Aidan cupped my face and brushed his thumb over my cheekbone. “Will you look at me, Natalie?”

I closed my eyes. “Do I have to?”

Again, Aidan laughed. I wasn’t trying to be amusing. I mean, I was glad he wanted a relationship with me, but I had a strong suspicion he wasn’t as deeply invested as I was. And I could understand why he might not be, but it still hurt. Being with someone every day who did not, and might not ever, return my feelings would tear me down. It wouldn’t break me, but it would damage me, maybe even irreparably.

“I guess not,” he sighed. “Just promise me you’ll listen to everything I have to say before you respond.”

I focused my eyes on his collarbone again, tracing light and aimless patterns on his skin again. “Okay.”

He pulled my face into his chest, and I rested my cheek against his skin, hearing his heart thumping away. When he started speaking, I felt the vibrations under my cheek. I liked it. A lot.

“Natalie, I meant what I said last night. Last Sunday, when you came into my house, being smartassed and cute, I realized that I would be missing out on a lot if I only spent time fucking you and nothing else. I was right. I think I’ve had more fun with you the last week than I have in the last year. You’re funny, you’re sexy, and you’re spunky and I like all those things about you.”

Okay, so far, I liked this “talk”.

“What I don’t like is that you kept things from me, especially since those secrets put you in danger. I also don’t like that you assumed I was only interested in fucking you, when I went to a lot of trouble to show you otherwise.”

Now, I didn’t like the conversation so much, so I spoke.

“Aidan, according to you, we were friends with benefits. With the exception of fucking my brains out, all your other behavior is the same as my other friends, hence, my confusion about your thoughts on our relationship. If you had mentioned this to me, I would not have been confused. I never would have let that conversation with Anya freak me out. I mean, she was pretty nice, but she also acted like we were going to be sisters or something. After she left, I realized that I was getting too emotionally invested and was trying to get a little distance. Also, I haven’t shared my problems with Jack with any of my friends. I only need one obsessed stalker on my ass. If Cat and Michael heard about this, they would be glued to me every second of every day. Amy would just try to figure out a way to take Jack out and make it look like an accident.”

Aidan stiffened halfway through my spiel. “When did you see Anya?”

I closed my eyes. Crap, I hadn’t meant to blurt that out. I blew out a breath. “She came by this,” I paused. Technically, it was after midnight. “Yesterday morning. She wanted to let you know she didn’t need your help moving because she and Patrick made up. She mentioned that I seemed nicer than your other girlfriends. I realized that I liked the idea of your family liking me more than your other girlfriends and Anya wanting me as a sister-in-law and it freaked me the hell out, so I came home and holed up. I thought taking a day to think that I would be able to get my head together.”

Aidan’s muscles were rock hard now. “She and Patrick made up?”

I patted his back. “I know you don’t like her, but she seemed okay to me.”

Aidan snorted. “Don’t let her fool you. She can go from sweetness and light to bitchiness and bitterness in five seconds flat.”

I shook my head, smiling.

“Are you sure you’re cool?” he asked.

I nodded. “I’ll reserve judgement until I know her better. If I get to know her better, that is. She did give me one hell of a wake-up call, both literally and figuratively.”

I felt Aidan’s chuckle through my cheek. “Okay, so now we’re clear on those things. Next up, what are we going to do now?”

I felt a sudden need to see Aidan’s face, so I pulled back and blinked at him.

“Huh?”

There was that half-smile. Shit, I really liked that.

“I think we’ve skipped the getting to know you part of the relationship process. I also think that we’re beyond taking it one day at a time.”

Again, I just blinked up at him. “Huh?”

His half-smile turned into a full-fledged grin.

“I want to move in with you, and, after six months, if things are still good, we’ll see about getting you a ring.”

I gaped at him. “A ring?” I squawked. “Move in?” I gulped again. “Why?”

“Because I’m pretty sure you are in love with me, and I’m falling fast.”

Oh, holy, holy crap. I tried to pull back a little more because my lungs suddenly seized and I felt like I needed space to breathe. Aidan’s hand tightened on my neck and he held me still.

“But we’ve only known each other a week!” My voice cracked. “Don’t you think this is a little sudden?” I refused to respond to the part about love. We could discuss that later.

Aidan’s face turned serious. “I know what I want, and I’ve never felt for another woman what I’m feeling for you. One week, one year, I know this is special and it’s headed somewhere important for both of us. Now, do you have something to add, or are you going to lay there and stare at me some more?”

I took a deep breath. Then, I decided to dive in head first. “You’re right. I am in love with you but I don’t do the live-in thing.” When he scowled, I continued quickly. “It’s one of my rules for myself, to keep from jumping into something that might bite me on the ass later. I won’t live with a guy unless I’m married to him.”

Aidan’s scowl turned a little scarier, so I continued on quickly. “That’s not an ultimatum or anything. I don’t expect a proposal, hell, I don’t want a proposal, tomorrow, or even next week. I just can’t live with you.”

I stopped talking and waited, tense and worried. This was where I’d lost a few guys in the past. They wanted to something more, but they weren’t ready for a deeper commitment. I understood it and never held it against them. I just didn’t want that for me and they weren’t willing to wait until we were both ready for the next step.

Aidan stared at me for a moment. “Okay, I can understand your point. I won’t move in here, but you will be seeing a lot of me, and we will be sleeping in the same bed every night, whether it’s yours or mine. In six months, if we both still feel the same, we will get engaged, and we will get married.” I opened my mouth, but Aidan put his thumb over my lips. “Before you start yapping about things moving too fast, answer one question for me. Have you ever felt about another man the way you feel about me?”

I shook my head. His lips twitched like he was about to smile. “Okay, one more question. Do you love me enough to give us both some time and not freak out and pull away like you did yesterday?”

My brows lowered, but I knew he had a point, so I just nodded.

“Okay, then. We’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing this week for a while and move on from there. If you feel in danger of an overload, or you want to pull away, talk to me first. You do not hole up in your house, ignoring my calls, texts, and visits. Do you understand?”

I nodded again. I felt in danger of an overload right now, but there was no way I could speak until I had processed all this.

Aidan pulled my face back into his chest and wrapped both arms around me. “Good.”

It finally hit me that he all but told me he was falling in love with me and that there was a strong likelihood he would ask me to marry him in six months. I wrapped an arm around his waist and snuggled closer. Then, I smiled.

Five months later…

I came home after a very long day at the office. Somehow I’d managed to crash my computer. The IT guy was not happy with me. He tried to show me what I’d done wrong, but I’d asked so many questions and gotten so confused by his answers, he’d finally kicked me out of
my
office.

By the time I arrived home, I was hungry, tired, and had a nagging headache. I pulled my car into the garage and headed inside. I went through the mudroom, dropped my stuff on the kitchen counter, and kicked off my high heels. I stopped and listened, but the house seemed to be empty. That was weird, because Aidan had called earlier in the afternoon to let me know he would be cooking us dinner at my house. He didn’t cook as often as I did, but he was surprisingly good at it. After the day I had I was relieved Aidan was planning to make my evening easier.

However, I looked around the kitchen, which was spotless. There were no dishes, no spilled food, not even a whiff of anything yummy. My shoulders slumped. Crap, Aidan must have had a problem at work. Sometimes that happened and he’d end up running pretty late. I decided tonight was a pizza night. I normally tried to eat healthily. I liked my ass the size it was, but tonight I was too worn out to give a shit. I wandered through the dark dining room and headed for the living room. Aidan had built me a gorgeous wine-slash-liquor cabinet, which held all my wine, hard liquors, and pretty wine, high ball, and rocks glasses. Before I called the pizza place, I was thinking I’d pour a humungous glass of red wine.