“If you end up missing something, we can get it there,” he said. He took my hand, grinned down at me with that incredible smile, and pulled me toward the escalators.
People kept looking over at us and then quickly looking away when I met their eyes. The first time it happened, I could only wonder if they knew I was doing something completely rash and borderline insane. Suddenly self-conscious, I looked down to see what I was wearing. There was nothing unusual about my outfit and my shoes matched, so I didn’t think they were looking at me.
As it continued to happen, I realized they were actually staring at Aiden and his tattoos. I began to pay more attention to the passersby. Most people just gave him a subtle sideways glance, but several stared outright.
I had been in the midst of a near panic attack since I sent the text message, and being in the airport with him as people stared wasn’t making it any better. I was excited to be going, but all my focus was on the feeling of his fingers interlaced with mine and the looks other passengers were giving us. I couldn’t concentrate on the actual trip ahead.
“You’re going to love it,” Aiden said. “I live right on the beach. It’s not overly fancy or anything, but the view is incredible.”
“Do you have roommates?” I asked.
“Nope. Just me.”
My heart began to pound again. I had to have lost my mind to be doing this. Yes, it was exciting, but it was also terrifying. I was going to spend a week alone with this man. What if his beach house only had one bed in it, like the apartment he stayed in here? I hadn’t even considered what the sleeping arrangements might be, and now I was too embarrassed to ask.
I wasn’t even sure how Aiden was viewing this little adventure. He said he’d like it to be a date, but we hadn’t said for sure one way or the other. This was completely uncharted territory for me, and I had no idea what he was expecting. I’d let him pay for the plane ticket, and I was going to be staying at his house. What was he going to want in return?
“So, is this a date?” I asked. “I mean, a long date?”
“Do you want it to be?” His fingers tightened around mine.
“I…I’m not sure.”
“How about we just play it by ear, then?”
“All right.” I had to move fast to keep up with his long strides as we headed toward the gate.
“Are you nervous?” he asked as he gripped my fingers.
“No,” I lied.
“You’re shaking.”
“Um...well, maybe a little,” I admitted. “I’ve never done anything like this.”
“Spontaneity suits you,” he said. He reached his arm up to place it over my shoulders and brushed my cheek with his finger. “It puts color in your cheeks.”
He pulled me next to him and pressed his lips to the top of my head.
“I’m a little nervous, too,” he said quietly. “I just want you to have a good time. I want both of us to have a good time.”
I still wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but I didn’t ask. Instead, I leaned into his body. My mind focused on the feeling of his arm around my shoulders. It was warm and comfortable, but it was something else too. I felt…protected.
Maybe that was the reason women were drawn to muscled guys. I’d never thought about it before, but despite his appearance, I felt safe with him next to me.
Getting through security took forever. Though we didn’t have any of the forbidden items, Aiden was pulled aside and searched thoroughly before we could get past the checkpoint to find our gate. By the time we got there, we only had about twenty minutes before our flight would begin to board. That gave us just enough time to stop at a kiosk to grab some snacks for the flight. I picked out some trail mix and a bottle of water, and Aiden grabbed a bag of Swedish Fish.
“Really?” I asked as I nodded toward the candy.
“I love these things,” Aiden admitted. He looked away from me. At first I thought he was embarrassed, but there was something off about his expression. He looked almost sad, and I wondered if I had offended him.
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” I said as I touched his arm.
“It’s all good.” He took the bag of trail mix from my hand and walked swiftly to the counter. The curve of his biceps increased in definition, and I noticed his hands were clenched around the bags of food. Despite what he said, it obviously wasn’t all good. I wasn’t sure how, but I had definitely pissed him off, and we hadn’t even gotten on the plane yet.
My former boyfriend, Zach, had been a mild-mannered guy. There wasn’t a whole lot that upset him, but over the eighteen months we’d dated, I learned what kinds of things set him off. You couldn’t talk bad about the Catholic Church, even though he no longer attended mass, or you would definitely get an earful. I’d also learned to avoid conversations about Microsoft products because they would send him into a tirade about good software versus popular software.
This was why this trip was such a bad idea. I didn’t know enough about Aiden Hunter to know what his triggers were. I had no idea what I’d said about Swedish Fish that upset him and didn’t know him well enough to be comfortable asking about it. Anything I said might end up being a taboo subject for him, and it would be like walking through a minefield. Then again, he had said the trip was a good opportunity to get to know him better, so maybe I just needed to ask.
Another traveler walked past us and eyed Aiden up and down.
“Does that happen to you a lot?”
“What?”
“The whole security check thing,” I clarified. “I’ve never been searched.”
“Yeah, pretty much every time I fly,” he confirmed. “I guess I’m used to it.”
“Like the people who…well, who stare when you walk by?”
“It happens,” Aiden said with a shrug. “People make their assumptions about you as a person, based on your looks. It happens to everyone, I suppose.”
I thought about it but wasn’t so sure I agreed with him. I never thought people were judging me by how I looked. Of course, there wasn’t anything particularly unique about how I looked, either. Aiden, on the other hand, had gone out of his way to make himself look different from everyone else. That was bound to get people’s attention.
As we sat down to wait for the flight, Aiden’s phone rang before I had a chance to inquire any more about him. He looked at the number, glanced at me darkly, and then stood up and walked a few feet away before answering. He spoke in a low tone, and I couldn’t hear any of the conversation though the desire to eavesdrop was great. He held the phone tightly against his ear and gripped his other hand into a fist as he spoke. He paced a few feet farther away then turned and glanced at me for a moment before looking back to the floor.
A voice over the announcement system called for first-class passengers to begin boarding, and several people around me stood up and grabbed their bags. Aiden continued to pace, and his voice rose in pitch as he started yelling.
“Listen here, motherfucker! You need to get off your ass and do something about it before I show up there and explain to you just how I feel about all this shit!”
I tensed and gripped the arms of the chair as a few other passengers looked up at him. He lowered his voice again, but I could still see the tightness in his jaw as he spoke into the phone for a few more seconds then ended the call.
He took in a long breath and huffed it out before returning to where I sat.
“Everything all right?” I asked quietly.
Aiden didn’t look at me. He continued to glare at his phone for a moment before he shoved it back into his pocket and dropped his butt down in the seat beside me.
“It’s fine,” he said curtly.
Whatever it was, he clearly didn’t want to discuss it. All ideas of asking about Swedish Fish left my head, so I went with a subject change instead.
“So, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m in sales,” Aiden said.
“Right.” I nodded and fiddled with my hands in my la
p. “You said that, but you didn’t say what kind of sales.”
“Pharmaceuticals.”
My heart skipped a beat, and my palms began to sweat. I was right! He was a drug dealer! And here I was, about to get on a plane and head to Florida with him.
What the hell was I going to do?
Our zone was called, and Aiden stood and picked up our carry-on bags.
“Ready?” he asked.
I wanted to say no, I was not ready. I wanted to turn around and run as fast as I could back to my car in long-term parking. I wanted to tell him it was all a mistake and whatever desire I had for a week of beach-life had vanished.
I didn’t.
Aiden had paid for a plane ticket for me. We were here, and the plane was boarding. People were probably still watching him after his outburst on the phone. How would it look if I ran off now?
Instead of running, I simply nodded and joined him in line to get on the plane. I remained silent as the ticket agent checked our boarding passes, and the flight attendant led us to our seats. Aiden tucked our luggage into an overhead bin and handed me my trail mix before he sat down and buckled his seatbelt.
“Do you fly a lot?” I asked. I really wanted to return to normal conversation and forget his harsh words on the phone.
“Some,” he said.
“Do you travel to Ohio a lot?” I asked.
“Pretty often,” Aiden said. “I’m from the area, and I go back to visit friends and do a little business from time to time.”
“Is your family there?”
“My mom is around somewhere.” He turned toward me. “How about you? Have you always lived in the area?”
“Most of the time,” I said. “I went to school out of state, and my mom moved away to San Francisco last year after my father passed the year before.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“It’s all right,” I replied quietly. “I’ve gotten used to the idea of him being gone. It was hard at first, but I’m coping with it.”
“Do you have siblings?” he asked.
“No, it’s just me. How about you?”
“None,” Aiden said.
“But your parents live in Cincinnati?”
“My mother does,” Aiden confirmed. “My father died when I was in high school.”
“Oh, wow. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” he said. “It was a long time ago.”
I had been twenty-five when my father died. It had been so hard on me—I couldn’t imagine losing him when I was still a teenager. I knew through my father’s stories how difficult it was on a child when a parent was lost, and the child was still young.
That brought me to another question.
“So, um…how old are you?” I asked.
“Twenty-seven,” Aiden replied. “You?”
“The same,” I said with a smile. “I’ll be twenty-eight in November.”
“What date?”
“November fourth.”
“Hmm.” Aiden raised his eyebrows and smiled wickedly. “An older woman. I have to wait until the twenty-seventh.”
“You make me sound dirty,” I said with a laugh.
“Well, I’ve never dated an older woman before,” Aiden said. “This is a whole new territory for me. I’m a little intimidated.”
“You?” I crossed my arms in front of me. “Intimidated?”
“Oh, yes,” he said with a serious nod. “Women are scary anyway, but an older one?”
“I’m sure I’m just terrifying.”
“You are.” He shuddered, and we both laughed.
I was glad his mood had lightened although I couldn’t help but wonder what the phone call had been about. Was it one of his drug dealer associates? Was there some big deal about to go down, and something wasn’t right about it?
Was I really thinking this way?
I never should have gotten on this plane, but I was stuck with it now, so I pressed my luck.
“Were you visiting those guys I saw you with at the bar?”
Aiden glanced over at me and then tore open his bag of Swedish Fish. He ate three of them before answering.
“Basically.”
“Who were they?” I pressed. “Friends?”
“Associates,” he said bluntly. “Do you want one of these?”
I took the offered sweet, as well as the hint, and stopped asking questions.
The rest of the plane ride went smoothly. I talked about losing my dad and how I felt about mom moving to the other side of the country shortly after. Aiden ate the remaining Swedish Fish with the exception of the yellow ones, and shoved the rest of the bag into his pocket. We talked about my job but not his. I did ask him more about his family.
“My dad was great,” Aiden said. “We didn’t have a whole lot, but he was one of those fathers who always made time for me. We did a lot of backyard sports stuff—throwing a football around, playing catch—all that shit. Then he died when I was fourteen. Mom pretty much lost it then, and I ended up raising myself at that point.”
“Oh, Aiden, I’m so sorry. That had to be rough on you.”
“I managed.”
“What about your mother?”
“She was already a mess before he died, but afterward, she was a disaster. Dad didn’t have any life insurance to speak of, and Mom couldn’t hold down a job. I almost didn’t finish high school because we were going to lose our apartment if we didn’t get bills paid. I started working at the grocery store, bagging, and then later running the cash register. I had to put in a lot of hours just to keep the lights on. As soon as I finished high school, I moved out. I just couldn’t take it anymore. My mother is still in Cincinnati and living off disability, but we haven’t talked in years.”
“That sounds really rough,” I said. “You were so young, too.”
“I grew up fast,” Aiden said with a humorless smile.
I still had questions, but the plane began its descent into Miami. Aiden retrieved our bags from the overhead bin, and we headed off the plane and out of the airport.
“Do you have another Civic parked around here somewhere?” I asked.
Aiden laughed.
“Nah, I leave that for Ohio. Actually, I hadn’t thought about transportation. We’re going to have to improvise a bit.”
“Improvise?”
“Yeah, not a big deal. I just hope it all fits.”
Across the lines of taxis, I followed him out of the airport and to the parking garage. We took the elevator up to the next floor, and he led me over to a line of motorcycles. He stepped up next to a sleek, black machine.
“I have an extra helmet at home,” Aiden said. “You get to wear this one in the meantime. I’m just not sure if your luggage is going to fit in the side bags.”
“So you do have a Harley.” I eyed him as he removed the helmet from the back of the bike and placed it on my head.
“It’s a Yamaha R1,” he said with a grin. He crammed our luggage into the large, black bags hanging across the back of the bike. They fit, but just barely. “Have you ridden on a motorcycle before?”
Holy crap, he was actually expecting me to ride on the back of a motorcycle. It looked like one of those super-fast, super-dangerous ones, too. What if I fell off? What if another car didn’t see us and ran into us? I couldn’t do this—it was far too dangerous.
But what choice did I have? It was the only vehicle he had. I glanced back toward the row of taxis near the terminal exit, thinking I might just grab one of those and have the driver follow Aiden, but I knew I couldn’t do that. Aiden was bound to be offended if I didn’t ride with him.
“Never,” I admitted, half hoping he would suggest a cab himself.
“Then you are in for a treat. Just hold on tight, and lean with me when we turn. I’ll take it slow.”
Aiden tightened the chin strap and made a couple more adjustments to the side straps before nodding and straddling the bike. He shoved the red cap into one of the side bags and strapped a pair of
goggles around his head. I noticed the word “blessed” written across the back of his neck, right below his hairline, and a star beneath the lettering. Shaking my head slightly, I awkwardly climbed on behind him, painfully aware that I had no idea what I was doing.
“Where do I put my feet?” My voice sounded strange through the helmet.
“See the little bars down at the sides? Place them there, and then hold on to me.”
With my feet firmly planted on the footrests, I leaned forward and placed my hands lightly against his sides.
“You’ll have to hold on tighter than that,” Aiden said as he turned his head to look over his shoulder. “Wrap your arms around my waist. Lean against me, and when I turn, lean with me.”
I nodded and wrapped my arms around him. I had to turn my head to the side because of the helmet. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but the only thing I was really feeling was the pressure of his ass between my legs. Even in the Miami heat, my entire body warmed.
“You want the scenic route?” Aiden asked.
“Sure.”
The bike roared to life, and I held on tighter as he put it in gear and moved forward with a slight jerk. It scared me, and I flexed my arms to hold myself on.
“You good?” he asked.
“Yes!” I called over the hum of the engine.
“Here we go!”
We zipped down the lane of cars, around other travelers hauling their luggage, and out of the parking garage. Aiden picked up speed as we merged onto the highway but stayed in the far right lane. I had the feeling he was going slower than he might have without me behind him, and I was glad for it. The ride was terrifying. Every time he shifted his weight, I moved with him awkwardly. I was sure I was going to cause us to fall.
We rode across a long bridge over the bay, and then turned north into slower traffic. I was glad we weren’t moving so fast and was also distracted by the sheer number of people and glimpses of the ocean to my right. I pressed the side of my helmet to Aiden’s back and held tightly to his torso, still keenly aware of his body where it pressed between my thighs.