One Night With Her Best Friend (8 page)

“Thank
you,” he murmured, a thickness in his voice that was becoming more familiar. “Do
you need anything?”

“No.
Too tired for anything else now.”

They
got out of the shower a few minutes later, dried off, and then got into bed.

Kate
was so sleepy she could barely concentrate, but she didn’t object when Aaron
pulled her into his arms.

It
felt just about right. She fell asleep almost immediately.

***

When she woke up a
couple of hours later, she was in a strange position. She’d moved down Aaron’s
body as she slept and ended up with her cheek pressed against his flat belly.
One of her arms was wrapped around him, clinging to his hip.

She
shifted, stretching out her legs, which had been curled up tightly against his
leg.

Aaron
had been asleep too, his breathing slow and steady and his body completely
relaxed, but her shifting must have awakened him. When she looked up at his
face, his eyes were open and soft on her face.

“What
are you doing down there?” he asked.

She
smiled and repositioned herself so her head was in better proximity to his. “I
can’t be held responsible for what I do in my sleep.”

“Is
that right?”

“Yes,
it’s right.”

He
leaned down to kiss her.

“Did
you sleep the whole time?” She slowly brushed her palm across the lean muscles
of his chest and abdomen, amazed she had the right to touch him like that.

He
shook his head. “I was half afraid I would wake up and find none of this had
really happened.”

His
expression was teasing, but his words made her stomach clench. “It did happen.
You said you believed me when I said it was real.”

“I
do believe you. You just don’t know how long I’ve wanted this. It’s going to be
a transition for me to finally have what I’ve wanted for so long.”

She
raised her hand to his rough cheek. “If you’ve wanted this for a while, why
didn’t you do something about it before?”

“What
was I supposed to do? Haul you into a kiss when you were lecturing me about
putting up my laundry?”

“You
could have said something.”

“I
know. Maybe I should have. But I knew you weren’t in the same place, and I knew
how you would react.”

“How
would I react?”

“You
would have thought your perfectly constructed world was falling apart, and I
would have borne the brunt of it.” He kissed her hair lightly to take the sting
out of the words.

Her
belly twisted in concern, thinking about how right he was, how blind she’d
been, how much it must have hurt him for her to not consider him as anything
but a friend.

“That
wasn’t a complaint. It was just an explanation. Maybe I was just being a
coward, but I felt trapped between my feelings and what I knew would happen if
I said something. You mean too much to me. I couldn’t take the risk.”

She
nodded, understanding completely. “No need to explain to me about being afraid
to take risks. I’m sorry it took me so long to come to my senses.”

“It
didn’t take you that long really.”

“Fourteen
years?”

“No.
It was less than an hour between the time you realized what I wanted and the
time you realized you wanted it too. That’s a pretty quick turnaround for
someone who prides herself on her rigorous planning.”

She
chuckled at the irony in his tone. “Then I’m sorry it took me so long to even
recognize we could be something more than friends.”

“Don’t
be sorry. You’ve been a better friend to me than I deserve. And I think the
timing was just about right.”

She
smiled, warmed from the inside out. “Me too.”

They
kissed for a minute—gentle and tender. Then her curiosity got the better of
her. She pulled away enough to ask, “So exactly how long have you wanted
something more from me?”

He
glanced away almost diffidently, which just heightened her curiosity.

“Aaron,”
she prompted, turning his head so he looked back at her. “How long?”

“Honestly,”
he said, his voice almost rough, “I’ve been crazy about you from the first day
we met.”

“No!”

“It’s
true. I think I’ve always wanted more.”

“That
can’t be right,” she gasped, sitting up straight in the bed. “You’ve dated a
ton of other women. You were married.”

He
sat up too. “I wouldn’t say I’ve dated a ‘ton’ of women, but, yes, I kept
trying to talk myself out of it and fall for someone else.”

“But
your marriage?”

He
swallowed hard—she could see it in his throat. “I did love Carole, and I was genuinely
committed to her. I did everything I could to make it work. But I do think part
of the problem with the marriage was that she wasn’t—and couldn’t be—you.”

“You
told her?”

“No.
But, no matter how hard both of us tried, I could never get as close to her as
I was to you.”

Kate
stared down at her hands, which were twisting together anxiously.

“Please
don’t tell me I’ve creeped you out with this embarrassing confession. I promise
I’ve never been obsessive or stalkerish about it. You were always my friend.
That much has always been real. I just always wanted even more.”

“I
wish I’d known,” she murmured, torn between guilt and an irrational
exhilaration.

“No,
you don’t. Can you really tell me, if you’d known I had a thing for you, that you
ever would have become my friend back in high school?”

“No,”
she admitted. “I wouldn’t have.”

“Then
there’s nothing to regret. Because, without your friendship, my life wouldn’t
have been nearly as good. I wouldn’t have traded the years we’ve had for anything.
Not for
anything
.”

“Me
either.” She reached out for him, letting him pull her down so they were lying
together again.

She
was almost dazed with this new revelation, but her surprise was slowly
transforming into joy.

She
couldn’t think of anything to say that would come close to answering what she’d
heard from him. So she just whispered, “I love you, Aaron.”

It
must have been the right thing to say. He looked downward in his characteristic
way, and when he lifted his head, he was smiling—pure and absolute. “Good.
Because I love you too.”

They
lay in each other’s arms for a minute, not needing to say anything. He was warm
and strong and tense with emotion. He was hers.

She
felt a brief flicker in her happiness as she started to reflect on how he must
have felt all this time, with her constantly treating him as if he wasn’t
worthy of being desired this way.

She
was about to get upset about it when he said curtly, “Stop it.”

“What?”
She blinked at him in confusion.

“Stop
it. Stop brooding. You’re not allowed to beat yourself up about it.”

“But—”

“No
‘buts’. Just stop it.”

His
grumpy objection actually made her feel better, but she frowned at him anyway.
“Wow. Give a man a little sex, and he turns immediately from a nice guy into a
bossy jackass.”

He
chuckled warmly.  “Just think how bossy I’ll be after we’ve had a couple of
decades of sex.”

“I
think I can probably handle it. I’m good at managing bossy jackasses.”

“Good,”
he murmured against her lips, “Because I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”

They
kissed more deeply. Then the embrace became even deeper. A few minutes later,
when she was crying out on a taken breath as he pleasured her with his mouth,
her eyes happened to land on the clock next to her bed.

It
wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning yet.

It
might have been a miracle or just the normal workings of an inexplicable
universe, but her world had completely reshaped itself.

All
in one night.

About the Author

Noelle handwrote her
first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she
hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and
currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she
can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

She
loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of
her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and
focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out
her website: noelle-adams.com