He nodded. “Patience, this is Ian Zerlinger.”
I may not have recognized him at first sight but I definitely knew the name. Zerlinger Beer was one of the top leaders in the wine and spirits industry.
“Mr. Zerlinger, pleased to meet you.”
He turned his dark, brooding eye on me and the edges wrinkled as he lifted his mouth in what could be construed as a smile. As if he needed more practice doing it. “My pleasure,” he greeted, nodding but not extending his hand. “You are more charming than your husband.”
“She’s better than me at a lot of things. Kicking someone’s ass isn’t one of them,” Aaron commented warningly, pulling me back into his arms and farther away from the two men.
Ian nodded, looking back to Aaron.
“We’re leaving,” Aaron informed them.
I was surprised but didn’t say anything.
“We’ll take up this conversation tomorrow,” Ian affirmed.
Aaron grunted, placed his hand at my lower back, and after making our good-byes to the two men, along with a few others, he led us out of the gallery to the awaiting car. I could tell he was pissed and I knew it had nothing to do with anyone but me. He was eerily silent as we drove off from the gallery.
“Aaron–”
“You know I’d give you anything you wanted, right?”
I furrowed my brows. “What?”
“I don’t know how to be gentle but I’ve tried. For you. For Kyle. For Kennedy.”
I took his hand, tugging it until he looked from the window to me. “I know that. Where is this coming from?”
“You won’t say it. I see it in your eyes, the way you look at me, the way you look for me even in your sleep. But you won’t say it.”
I pushed out a harsh breath. “Why? Why do I need to say it?” I commented, exasperated.
“Why the fuck won’t you say it, is the real question!” he roared.
I attempted to move back to the other side of the seat but he pulled me closer.
“Why won’t you tell me you love me?”
My eyes watered and I tried to look out the window instead of at him, but his hand caught my face, preventing me from turning.
“You know why,” I whispered.
His face tightened angrily. “Because of what happened the last time you said those words,” he stated, as if it was no big deal.
But it was to me. I pulled his hand from my face and turned away, closing my eyes as the memory of the first time I told him I loved him washed over me.
****
Then
“Why’re you walking so fast?” I asked Aaron, laughing. I yanked my hand away from his hold. “Slow down. It’s my graduation day. The last one I’ll ever get. I don’t want to rush through it.”
He stopped and turned to me, frowning. That only made my smile grow. I could tell by then his different frowns. This was his concerned frown.
“It’s raining, heavily.”
“I know, right?” I stepped from under the umbrella he held over us, fully immersing myself in the rain.
“What the hell are you doing?” he growled, grabbing my arm, pulling me to him.
“Getting wet,” I giggled. We had just come from my graduation. One my father had attended but left soon after. Even his absence hadn’t dampened my mood, once I realized Aaron had kept his promise and showed up. Instead of going out with friends to celebrate as I had originally planned, I chose to spend the rest of the day and night with him. “What are you rushing for anyway?”
“We need to get to the bookstore.”
It was my turn to frown. “For what?”
“I need to pick up something.” He took my hand again, pulling me under the umbrella but it was too late. “You’re soaked.” He eyed the sleeveless white spring dress I’d worn for the occasion. My nipples hardened when his gaze lingered at my breasts. My body’s automatic responses continued to fascinate me. It was less than two months since our first time together but in that timeframe he’d shown me pleasure beyond even my wildest imaginings.
“Will you make me strip?” I asked, breathless.
His nostrils flared, his hand tightened around mine. “Let’s go,” he responded, pulling me behind him into the bookstore.
“Hi Sam,” I waved to the clerk as we entered.
Sam looked up, smiling wide, but it faltered a bit when his eyes fell on Aaron. “H-hi Patience. Congratulations…on graduating today.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you have it?” Aaron interjected.
“Y-yeah.” Sam moved from the counter, to the shelf behind him, picking up a gift bag.
“My assistant took care of payment.”
“Yes, Mr. Townsend. Payment’s been taken care of. You’re all set.”
Aaron nodded and took me by the hand again, picking up the gift in his other hand.
I was so excited to see what Aaron had in the bag that I forgot all about Sam until he said, “Bye, Patience.”
I turned and waved over my shoulder.
“What’s in the bag?” I asked as soon as we made it out of the bookstore.
He didn’t answer, instead moving to the car that was now directly in front of the store, pulling the door open. I didn’t even bother to ask how the driver knew where we were, or had gotten there so quickly. We’d taken the subway from my graduation to get to the bookstore.
Once inside, Aaron told the driver to drive around a while, one of my favorite things to do with him. He pressed the button to roll up the partition before handing me the bag.
I took it, opening it up, and gasped when I pulled out a first edition copy of my favorite book ever, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. My eyes watered when I opened the book and saw that it was an autographed copy, addressed especially to me. She’d congratulated me on my graduation and thanked me for appreciating her writing.
“Aaron,” I whispered. “How did you…” I trailed off. It was a silly question. He could do whatever he wanted. He had connections I’d never know about. But the fact that he took the time …
“I was late because I’d been making calls all night to ensure the book arrived on time. I had to reschedule a meeting for this morning, and–” His explanation was cut off by my lips on his.
My arms circled his neck tightly and I felt him lift me into his lap—soaked dress and all.
“I love you.” I finally said the words that I’d been holding back for weeks. I swallowed when I felt him harden beneath me.
His hand went to my thigh, squeezing. “Say it again.” He ran his teeth down the column of my neck.
“I love you,” I stated, shuddering.
His hands parted my thighs and moved up to the seam of my panties. He began massaging me through the silk of the garment I wore just for him. He ordered me to say it over and over again, while he used his hand to wring an orgasm from me. By the time we made it back to my apartment, I was soaked, but this time it had nothing to do with the rain. We spent the rest of the night in bed, my voice growing hoarse due to the number of times he had me shouting those three words repeatedly.
It was the perfect night, so naturally, everything went to hell the next morning.
****
I woke up, startled, by the banging on my front door. I blinked, looking around, groggy from the previous night. Aaron seemed just as surprised as I was.
“I know you’re in there with that whore, Aaron!”
His eyes widened and his mouth turned downward immediately. “Stay here!” He pointed at me, putting his pants and a T-shirt he kept at my place on.
“What’s going on, Aaron?” I sat up, covering myself with my blanket.
“Don’t move from this bed,” was all he said before heading out the bedroom door, shutting it behind him.
I continued to hear a woman’s voice yelling and banging at the front door. It stopped and I could hear Aaron’s voice though he spoke in more hushed tones. The woman sounded irate and she kept referencing someone as a whore.
Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I grabbed the button-up shirt Aaron wore the day before, using it to cover myself. I exited my bedroom and proceeded down the hall to find Aaron glaring at a woman. All I could see was the bottom half of her, as Aaron held his arm up, shielding her from looking inside.
“Who’s this?” I asked, startling the both of them from their heated conversation.
“This is her?” she shrieked, pushing Aaron out of the way and stepping inside of my apartment. “How cute. She’s even wearing your shirt. Whore!” she yelled in my direction.
“Excuse you? I don’t know who the hell you think you’re talking to, but it sure as hell isn’t me!”
“Who else would I be talking to, bitch? You’re the whore sleeping with my fiancé!”
Her hurled words slapped me across the face.
“Don’t try to play Miss Innocent, bitch! You knew what you were doing!”
“Alicia, that’s enough!” Aaron roared, yanking her by the arm away from me, toward the door.
“Aaron, what is she talking about? Aaron!” I yelled when he didn’t answer me at first.
“Now she’s playing the hurt act.” Alicia began clapping condescendingly. “Bravo, sister! And the Academy Award goes to–”
“I said that’s e-fucking-nough!” Aaron shouted, punching the wall next to where she stood.
His outburst silenced her immediately, but my head still swirled. A fiancée? That couldn’t be right.
“Go home. We’ll talk about this later.”
“Home?” Alicia and I shouted at the same time. He shared a home with this woman?
“I just came from home and your father calling incessantly when he couldn’t get in contact with you all night.” She turned her eyes on me. “Now I know why.”
“Why was my father calling you?”
“Because the Japan deal is going south and you’re nowhere to be found.”
My eyes volleyed between the two. I had a million questions but was rendered speechless. I was zoning in and out but I heard Alicia say something about a Japanese client pulling out because they deemed another service superior to Townsend’s. His father had been trying to contact him all night.
“Your plane leaves for Tokyo in three hours.”
“Fuck!” Aaron grunted. “Leave.”
“Aaron, what ab–”
“I said leave. Don’t ever fucking come back here again.” He pushed her out the door, slamming it in her face.
I peered up to see him rushing past me to the bedroom. I was jolted into action, finally pissed enough to speak.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded, bursting into my bedroom to see Aaron gathering his clothing. “Aaron, look at me, dammit!”
He stopped, doing as I’d asked. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? For having a fucking fiancée?”
He jaw clamped shut. “It’s not like–”
“Not like what?”
“I don’t have time.”
“Don’t have time to discuss you have a whole other life? Of course not,” I scoffed.
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
My eyes bulged. “Are you insane?” I screeched. “I’m being dramatic? After your fiancée shows up at my door at six o’clock in the morning after we spent the entire night making love. A fiancée I had no idea even existed?”
His eyes closed briefly. “What do you want me to say?”
“Something!” I briefly closed my eyes, then opened them to meet his gaze. “Is she really your fiancée?”
“Yes,” he answered flatly.
My knees went weak and I had to hold onto the dresser to keep myself upright. “D-do you love her?” Why that question even mattered, I didn’t know but it did.
His lips tightened. “There are far more important reasons to marry someone than love.” He tossed the last word as if it were garbage.
I swallowed, finally seeing, for the first time, the hardened, scowling, cold-hearted son of a bitch everyone else saw when they looked at him.
“You really believe that?”
“Doesn’t matter what I believe. Look, I have to go.” He started for the door with a suitcase in one hand. He’d left that same suitcase here one night after coming straight to my place after returning from an overnight business trip. He’d torn my clothes off as soon as I opened the door, barely giving me time to close it behind him.
“Aaron.” I reached for his arm just before he exited the bedroom. “Wait…” I didn’t know what to say. I was pissed but also felt like my entire heart was walking out of the door.
“Patience.” His voice was soft, almost the same way he’d called my name the night before when he came inside of me, not for the first time. But then he turned and his face was the typical mask he wore for the world. “You’re being too sensitive. What we had is done.” He pulled his arm from me and walked away without a backward glance.
I flinched when I heard my apartment door slam shut.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Patience
“Why, Aaron?” I stared at Aaron as we stood in the middle of our hotel suite, the bitter taste of that last day still on my taste buds.
“Alicia was business,” he admitted. “Her father’s company was beneficial to Townsend Industries at the time. He made a deal with us in exchange for protection.”
I frowned. “Protection?”
Aaron nodded. “His family crossed some very powerful people. The Townsends were able to come to an agreement with said family, and in exchange, I was to marry John’s daughter, Alicia. I would’ve gone through with it, but after you…” He blew out a breath and pushed his hand through his hair. “I never loved her.”
I snorted as he answered the question I’d asked him six years earlier. I already knew that. I probably knew that the same day she showed up at my apartment, but I’d been too concerned with the breaking of my own heart to see what was in front of me.
“I know.”
His eyes widened, surprised.
“You’re not the only one who watches. I see you, too. The way your eyes light up around me and the kids. The parts of your history you’ve shared with me that no one else knows about you. Even your jealousy. I knew you never had that type of bond with anyone else. Even your tattoo.” I pointed at his chest.
For a man who wasn’t easily surprised, he was shocked again for the second time.
“I read it…in a book.” I grinned. Our eyes connected, and I knew he remembered our first time together when I’d made the same statement. “When did you get my name tattooed on you?”
“Six months after. I went back to your apartment to find you’d moved, no forwarding address.”
I nodded, wiping a tear away.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
He moved closer. “Of what?”
“You’ll push me away again.” I sighed. “I know you, Aaron. Alicia showing up at my apartment surprised you, but you used it. You used it because we were getting too close and you got scared.” I gave a humorless laugh. “Stupid as it might be, I could’ve forgiven you for Alicia. I loved you beyond reason. But you used her showing up and your work to push me away. I-I can’t go through that again.”
He cupped my face. “I won’t…I can’t put you through that again. You, Kyle, and Kennedy are my reason for living. I almost lost you once. I don’t make the same mistakes twice.”
I lowered my head, shaking it. He’d never lost me. Not even close. Dumb as it may be, my heart was always right there with him. Waiting for him. My head rose, when he lifted my left hand, placing it over his heart, the same location where he’d had my name tattooed. I swallowed, my vision blurring a little from the tears. He stepped closer, pressing my back into the wall behind me.
“Say it.” His voice was low, laced with steel.
My entire body began to vibrate with need.
His hand tightened around mine and he pressed closer. “Say it.”
My nipples hardened, and moisture sat
urated my panties. “I love you,” I whispered. Aaron wouldn’t stand for that wimpy decree. My head lifted to meet his gaze, his hand under my chin.
“Louder,” he growled, lips nearly touching mine.
“I love you!” I shouted with all the anger, fear, and love I held in my body, filling those three words. Because this man drove me crazy!
A sound began deep at the back of his throat. His lips were on mine in a nanosecond, demanding I open for him. The hand that had been under my chin moved to my throat, his thumb lining the column of my neck, possessively. My pussy ached with need. I needed him inside of me so badly, I hurt for it. Aaron obviously felt the same way, once again, ruining another item of my clothing, by tearing at it to free it from my body. The poor chiffon material never stood a chance against Aaron’s big hand pulling and manipulating it away from my skin. Before I knew it, I stood before him completely nude. He stepped back, removing the jacket of his tuxedo, but keeping his eyes trained on me.
“Touch yourself,” he instructed.
I worried my bottom lip.
“Now!” he growled.
My hands shot up to my painful nipples, pinching and plucking at them, while my head lolled back against the wall as the sensations moved through my body. Raising my head, I saw he was now stripped down to his briefs, a silk scarf in his hand. My belly jumped in anticipation.
“Turn around.”
I hesitated but when he angled his head at me, I did his bidding.
“Close your eyes.”
I shivered due to his warm breath scraping the skin of my shoulder. As soon as my eyes were closed, he covered them with the silk scarf, tying it behind my head, securely. I pressed my hands against the wall, anticipating his next move. My breathing increased, and his large hands came up, cupping my breasts and massaging them none too gently. My head fell back again, this time against his muscled chest.
I whispered his name and his hand moved to my throat once more. I felt his bare cock press against my ass.
“Why did it take you so long to say three little words?” His voice was right next to my ear, angry.
I didn’t say anything.
His hold around my neck tightened, not dangerously, but it definitely heightened the eroticism.