My heart hurts. My thoughts are heavy. Indecision holds me captive as I’m toured around the strange party.
The rest of the evening drags on like a boulder around my ankle. Every time I think I’m about to get a chance to breathe, Aiden introduces me to someone else. Each old man looks oddly familiar. They all say they’ve seen me before. I try to be polite, but really my mind is a thousand miles away.
Father’s words ring through my mind. If he’s right, then every hand I shake belongs to a cheater. My father would know. These are the men who he used to call his friends before Aiden got his retribution.
But how would Father know about Aiden?
I don’t want to believe his words, but at the same time, I do. It would make it a hell of a lot easier to make my final decision. If Aiden was a lying cheating bastard, then I would know that the part of him that makes me smile, that makes me feel so good, is fake. It would shatter the illusion I’m wrapped up in now.
The problem is, another part of me doesn’t want that cover to be pulled down. My heart isn’t so convinced that my father was telling the truth. And not just about Aiden either.
What about Felix? None of it makes much sense, and the thought of using Bree Kilpatrick’s garden to betray Aiden doesn’t sit right with me. But then, again, nothing is sitting right with me anymore. I’m surrounded by emptiness on all sides and I’m the only one who can fill the space up with answers.
My big problem is, I don’t know who to trust. I just don’t know.
When Aiden finally grabs my hand and leads me from the theater, through the maze of increasingly dank corridors and out into the warm night, I feel like I don’t know anything.
I’m still just as frozen as I was before we came in, but now, it’s for a different reason. Now, I’m not scared. I’m numb. Overwhelmed. Tetherless. I don’t know who I am or what I should believe. If Aiden wasn’t holding onto my hand, I might float off into the blackness of space and drift forever.
“Are you alright?”
His deep voice soothes me. A light drizzle has started to fall from the cloud covered night sky.
“I’m just tired,” I sigh. It’s the half-truth. I’m exhausted.
“Me too,” Aiden opens the backdoor to the limo and I dip inside. He follows in behind me. “Let’s stay in the city tonight.”
The novelty of being away from our castle in the hills has barely settled in. Between my nerves and so many unanswered questions, I haven’t had time to dwell on it. But right now, the distraction is a welcome one.
“Really? Where would we stay?”
Aiden undoes his tie and tosses it down to the seat. “I have a penthouse not far from here. We’ll stay there for the night and then head back to the hills tomorrow morning.”
The thought gives some life to my frozen soul. Changes in scenery have been hard to come by in my life. Maybe a new place to rest will help clear up my busy mind.
We ride in silence for a little while before Aiden’s hand finds its way over to mine. Unlike my father’s touch, his isn’t cold. The warmth cradles my frazzled nerves. So do his words.
“You did good in there,” Aiden says. We’ve both been looking out our separate windows, but I turn to him at the compliment. That damned sweet mouth of his is what’s making everything so complicated. Well, that and the sliver of his tattooed chest that I can see where he undid the top few buttons of his dress shirt.
“Thank you,” I rasp, finding myself brushing my thumb back and forth over the back of his big palm. “Thank you for letting me see him.”
Aiden grunts and his hand clenches under my grip. I can tell that he didn’t particularly want to let me talk to his most hated rival, but he did anyway. He made a sacrifice and it was to make me happy.
But I’m not happy. I used that opportunity to set up a possible betrayal. “Do you get to see your family often?” I ask, trying to busy my mind from the threads of guilt that threaten to sink it. It was strange meeting Aiden’s brothers. It was equally odd to see his father in such an informal setting.
“We see each other enough,” he says, hand unclenching over mine. “My brothers work for me now. Dad is retired, but he still shows up to lend a hand when it’s needed.”
“You guys all seem to have a good relationship.” A little pinprick of grief trickles through my heart. I’ve never had the chance to have a good relationship with any kind of family. My father never treated me anywhere close to how I saw Aiden and his dad interact.
“We do,” Aiden confirms. “The four of us are lucky to have each other, and even though we fight sometimes, at the end of the day, we’re family. Nothing comes between family.”
It’s a nice sentiment, but I’ve heard my father say similar things in the past. And then he went ahead and sold me.
“It might have been nice to talk to them more,” I say, very softly.
Aiden pats the back of my hand and takes a deep breath. When he turns to the window that breath fogs up the glass. “There will be plenty of time for that in the future, little flower. I know you’re not from a big family. Any more interaction with those goons tonight might have overloaded your senses.”
I feel a tear well up at the thoughtfulness in Aiden’s words. He’s right. I was already overwhelmed. It would have been too much.
“Did you get to talk to them at all?”
“Yes, while you were busy.”
“…. What did they think of me?”
Aiden chuckles. Looking back away from his window, he turns to me. My fearless prince caresses my jaw and stares deep into my eyes, as if it’s him who is deciding what he thinks of me.
“They thought I was lucky to have you.”
His words make me weak. “Really? Even your father?” Could the man my father betrayed so cruelly really find it in his heart to look at me with anything but disdain?
“Especially my father.”
Aiden doesn’t expand on that statement. Instead, he lets his fingers fall from my face. We both let the sentiment linger as we turn back to our passing views of the dark drizzling city outside.
But the silence is too heavy for me. All of my father’s threats and proclamations echo around in my head, clashing with the short history I now share with the man who is supposed to be my enemy.
When I turn my attention back to Aiden, I find him absent-mindedly doodling in the fog canvass his breath has created on the window.
The finger drawing takes me by complete surprise. It’s sketched well enough that I instantly recognize the rough shapes and patterns. It’s Bree’s garden.
Our garden.
The garden of betrayal.
Guilt gnaws at me and I have to speak up to escape it’s lashing jaws. “I didn’t know you were an artist?”
Aiden chuckles. “Hardly. I’m a prison carver. These are cave drawings.”
I’m about to ask him when he was in prison, but then it hits me. He’s referring to his captivity under my father.
Suddenly, I want to kick myself for not being more persistent when asking Father about his part in that. He took a child from his family. As horrible as my arrangement is, I’m still an adult.
Plus, hearing Father’s answer might have been an important barometer of truth. I believed Aiden when he told me what happened; if my father had told me something different, I might have known that his words were empty. Instead, I’m stuck in the middle of a road, waiting for a truck to hit me with an answer that I know deep down can only come from my own heart.
I choose to ignore the dark implications of Aiden’s prison drawings. “It’s good,” I say.
He shrugs. “It helps pass the time.”
“What else helps pass the time?”
Aiden abandons his masterpiece and turns his attention to me. “Fucking you,” he smirks.
My cheeks flush a little, but I still manage to roll my eyes. “Besides that,” I say. “Before me.”
Aiden’s eyes drift past me and he gazes out onto the rainy streets. “When I want to clear my head, sometimes I’ll hop on my Ducati and ride it real fast.”
“What’s a Ducati?”
“A motorcycle. A really fast one.”
I can’t help the grin that comes over my lips. Boys and their toys. At least Aiden isn’t some complete enigma. As sensitive as I’ve seen him at times, he still likes to do stupid boy things like ride a bike needlessly fast. That’s something I could have guessed about him from the moment we met. Most everything else about him has come as more of a surprise. It’s nice to know that he’s not completely unpredictable.
“Is it dangerous?” I already know the answer, but it’s refreshing to just talk to Aiden about his interests.
“Everything I do is dangerous, princess. Including you.”
“Ha!” I chuckle. He just couldn’t keep himself from bringing this all back around to sex. “Is that all you think about?” I tease, feeling lighter now that we’re away from all the things that complicate our relationship. Whatever that relationship really is. “Sex and danger?”
“That’s all I think about when I’m around you.”
“How romantic.”
The limo slows down at a red light and the mischievous smirk widens over Aiden’s devilishly handsome face. The dimple is back. He leans forward, blanketing me in his muscular warmth and musky scent. Puckering his lips, he creates a foggy canvass on my window. “See that building?” he says, drawing a broken circle that looks awfully close to a heart around a tower that darts up through the city skyline.
“Yes.”
“That’s mine. We’re going up to the very top. Want to see romantic?”
“You know someone who could show me?” I tease.
Aiden clicks down on the handle and pushes open my door. The sounds of the city cascade through the light rain. “Let’s go.”
“What do you mean?” It’s late and the well-lit streets are practically empty.
Aiden knocks on the partition and when it lowers, he announces his intentions to the driver. “We’re walking.”
I can hear the driver struggling to relay this worrying information to Aiden’s security team as my unpredictable prince clicks off my seat belt and tackles the both of us outside.
The men in the two black security SUVs trailing us empty out in response, but Aiden raises his hand and lifts up his shirt. I catch a glimpse of the gun tucked underneath his belt. “We’ll meet you at my place.”
They reluctantly agree and Aiden takes my hand. Together, we brave the light drizzle and head for the dim but romantic lights of the one-way street ahead.
It doesn’t take long for us to become lost in a hazy dream as we venture freely through the city. Despite the enormity of our hidden home town, it feels like we’re the only two people alive.
Everything is so new and exciting that the heaviness of my impossible decision fades away into the background.
I’ve never done anything like this before.
Even though Aiden is still my captor, it doesn’t feel like he’s escorting me anywhere. We float effortlessly from street to street, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, and for a shapeless moment, I actually feel like I’m one part to a couple.
By the time we stumble in through the front doors of Aiden’s building, I’m soaking and ready for more. In more ways than one.
The heaviness that weighed down my eyelids and made me sleepy earlier has evaporated. Aiden and I can’t even wait until we’re out of the elevator before we’re trying to lick the rain water off of each other’s bodies.
He’s just too tempting. This hazy fairytale we’re wandering through is just too tempting. I taste the desire in him and it only makes me crazier.
We push and pull our way through the huge open floor penthouse. The sparkling city skyline silhouettes our ravenous bodies. When we hit the doorway of Aiden’s bedroom, we’re already both completely naked.
“How has your night been so far, princess?” he asks, gently leading me onto the mattress.
“Amazing.” It feels like we’re back to the people I thought we were when we woke up this morning. All the fear and indecision are gone. In this moment, I know what I want.
Him.
Aiden crawls on top of me, the heat of his throbbing body tracing circles of warmth all over me. He leans down and his nose brushes against mine. Tingles of arousal scatter with his kisses as he makes his way over my cheek, down my neck, across my breasts and between my legs.
For the first time, he doesn’t stop there. Instead, he keeps kissing, all the way down to my feet, as if he’s marking the entirety of me with his tongue. When I’ve been fully coated in his lust, he moves onto his knees and towers over me, desire burning in his emerald eyes.
“Do you trust me, Elisa?”
My mind is tight with longing. The harder Aiden stares at me, the more I’m emptied of doubt. “Yes. I trust you.”
Aiden sucks in a powerful breath, his sculpted chest puffs out as he seems to consider what to do with me next. “Let me control you, little flower.” The mattress sinks under his weight as he stalks over to a bedside table. Out of the top drawer, he takes a key. That key unlocks the bottom drawer.
Thick leather straps swing from his palm as he shows them to me. “Do you want me to tie you up?”
An almost overwhelming pressure is building up in my core. The thought of willingly giving Aiden the last bits of my self-control is exhilarating, almost as exhilarating as him asking for my permission to do it. This is how partners love. He wants to control me, but he wants me to want it too.
I click my wrists together and raise them towards my hunky beast like a prisoner asking to be shackled. “Tie me up,” I rasp, lust thick in my throat.
“Have you been a bad girl?” Aiden whispers into my ear as he restrains my first wrist against the bedpost.
“The worst,” I whisper back, biting the bottom of his earlobe. A primal groan, deep and low, rumbles through his chest. The vibrations tickle my tits and make my back arch in expectant ecstasy.
“Let’s make sure you’re properly punished.” With a hard pull, I’m strapped into place. Aiden smothers me in his chest as he works the next restraint, and when both my arms are tied above my head, he moves down to my legs.
With a rugged care, he lifts my foot up by the ankle and straps it to the top rung of the column. Then he licks my calf as he does the same to the next foot.
Soon enough, I’m trapped. Legs up in the air, pussy exposed, heart racing. My wild organ pounds behind my chest and I have to clench my tied hands into fists just to keep from being overcome. I can feel the juices leaking from my pussy lips. Every inch of me wants to be fucked.
“Comfortable?” Aiden runs his hand down the back of my thigh to my ass. I whimper when he smacks the tender skin below. “Answer me, princess. Are you comfortable?”
“Yes,” I rasp.
Another smack sends a sharp shock of pleasure tingling up from below. “Good girl. Now, what to do about that mouth of yours? It’s too free.”
Aiden pulls apart my legs and crawls through them until the head of his hard throbbing cock is inches away from my lips. His powerful thighs lock me into a searing cage of his desire.
With a gentle savagery, he takes the back of my head and pushes me forward. I open wide and take him in my mouth with a gasp.
Aiden holds my head in place as I explore his thick shaft with my tongue, desperate to taste all of his manhood. The harder I lick, the deeper he pushes. I’m choking, but he doesn’t stop until the tip of his head hits the back of my throat. Through the hot tears blurring my vision, I look up at the man holding me hostage with his cock.
He smiles down at me, intense emerald waves crashing in his beautiful eyes. “Ready for more?”
My mouth is too full to speak. I can only give the slightest nod. It’s enough to start Aiden’s pumping. He pushes and pulls his cock between my outstretched lips as thunderous groans escape his. The heat of his body washes over me in thick waves of arousal. I’m drowning in lust.
But before I can sink to the bottom of this sea, Aiden unsheathes himself from me. Big gulps of air travel desperately down my gaping throat as I try to refill my lungs with oxygen. The second I feel like I can breathe again, Aiden plunges himself back inside my airway. I whimper with shock and joy. This time, he doesn’t move. Instead, I’m led by the back of my head up and down his thick shaft. My fingers desperately want to fall down between my legs and rub my clit while I choke on Aiden’s arousal, but my restraints are too strong.
The beast above me reads my mind. Letting my hair go free from his grip, he leans backwards and slips a greedy finger into my begging pussy.
A muffled cry of pure pleasure escapes my occupied throat. I bob up and down Aiden’s cock, setting my own ravenous pace now that his hands are occupied.
When he adds another finger inside of my tight passageway, a rapturous orgasm erupts inside of me. The bed creaks as I flail against the overwhelming release. But I’m not going anywhere. Aiden has me completely at his mercy.
When my spasms have eased, he unsheathes himself from my mouth. Drool drips from my lips in waterfalls and each breath I take is accompanied by a whine. Aiden knows I’m in heaven. He doesn’t need to stop to make sure I’m alright.
I’ve barely caught my breath before he sinks into position and slips his cock into my pussy. I cry out so loud that it even shocks me. Aiden responds with a hand around my throat. He presses down on my airwaves, blocking off the excess oxygen that the absence of his cock has left me with. My face burns, red with desire. Aiden pounds me hard, and soon another earth-shattering orgasm prepares to lay waste to me.
My primal prince isn’t far behind. With a vicious roar, he explodes inside of me. Hot streams of his lust fill up my passageway and my heart nearly bursts. My skin is burning. My world is on fire.
I’m in fucking love.
With a low, satisfied grunt, Aiden pulls out of me and lowers himself onto the mattress next to my tied-up body. Despite the rapturous pleasure that continues to tingle through my loins from what just happened, being restrained like this—so vulnerable and exposed—already has me begging for more. My toes curl and uncurl in the air and my fingers claw out from their restraints.
Aiden calms me down with a gentle kiss on the cheek. Without a word, he reaches up and back and undoes the latch on my ankle. Then he does the same to my wrist. My limbs fall to the mattress, completely spent, and he climbs over me to release my other side. When that’s done, he rolls beside me again and we both stare up at the ceiling, breathless.
For a while, we just lay there, content to soak in each other’s warm satisfaction. But then an itch crawls its way up from my chest. It’s through my throat and out of my lips before I can stop it.
“I’m falling…” I whisper, my voice hoarse and broken. The dangerous thought is said out loud, but I’m too exhausted to clamp up. I’ve let my walls down—or, at least, I’ve let down whatever few defences remained after Aiden blasted through them with his battering ram.
In response, there’s only silence. I almost dare to hope that Aiden is asleep and I haven’t let it slip that he’s conquered me so entirely. But then the sound of him turning onto his side sinks the bed. He leans over me, propped up on his shoulder. Those striking green eyes of his stare deep into my soul and my heart beats in slow motion.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “I’ll catch you.”
A soft kiss graces my forehead and the hulking beast who’s taken every last bit of me falls across my chest.
Our hearts beat next to each other’s as Aiden’s weight lulls me to sleep. Despite everything, I feel safe and secure. I feel appreciated. I feel loved.
It’s a dream that I don’t want to wake up from, even though I know I’ll have to.
For now, I’ll let myself have this night. My hard decisions can wait until the morning. That’s when the nightmare will restart.
