I did so, and Aiden leaned to the left, shoving his whole hand and arm down into the water. I bit into my lip to keep from squealing as the kayak swayed left. I wasn’t enough counterbalance and had to lean over further.
“I got it!” Aiden said as he sat back up, and the kayak rocked right, startling me.
“Warn me!” I cried out as I righted myself.
“You aren’t going to fall out,” Aiden said again. He leaned forward and held out his hand. Lying in his palm was a brownish mass that resembled a giant, lumpy dill pickle that had been in the back of the refrigerator for far too long.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A sea cucumber,” Aiden said. “It’s about the most disgusting thing in the world.”
“It is gross,” I agreed.
“Hopefully it won’t do this now,” Aiden said, “but when they feel threatened, sea cucumbers have a wonderful defense mechanism.”
“What’s that?”
“They puke up their intestines.”
“They what?”
“Basically, it looks like they turn themselves inside out. They go from kinda gross-looking to completely vile, making predators think they are already dead, and therefore, unappetizing.”
“You have to be joking.”
“Not at all.” Aiden looked up, and his eyes glimmered with boyish mischief. “Want me to see if I can piss it off?”
“No!”
“Touch it, then.” He held it a little closer, and I cringed.
“Not a chance.”
“If you don’t,” he warned, “I’m going to start fucking with it until it pukes!”
“No!”
“Then touch it!”
“Ugh!” I scrunched up my face, terrified the thing was going to jump out at me, and reached out tentatively with one finger. I stroked the top of it, surprised it wasn’t as slimy as it looked. It was still gross though, and I said so.
Aiden smiled as he tucked his hand back under the surface of the water and let the thing go.
“That’s twice you’ve lived today,” he said. “Shall we go for number three?”
“I think my quota of touching gross sea life has been reached.” I folded my arms over the paddle’s handle.
“I had something else in mind,” Aiden said. He dipped his paddle in the water and moved us away from the trees.
We paddled a little farther down the canal and closer to the bay. There were plenty of others out and about, mostly in kayaks or standing on paddleboards. There were even a couple of groups led by a nature guide.
The weather was perfect, and the water was perfect, and the whole thing was just beautiful. I relaxed as I became more comfortable moving the kayak around, but I was still glad Aiden was behind me and doing most of the actual steering. When I looked back at him, he was peering over the edge again.
“Hang on,” he said as he paddled backward for a moment. The kayak stilled, and Aiden took his cap off and placed it backward on my head.
“What are you doing?” I asked as I grabbed the cap and turned it around the right way.
“Just hold onto the edge of the kayak and brace yourself,” he commanded. Then he stood up.
“Aiden!” I cried as he dived into the water, causing the kayak to rock back and forth. A few moments later, he surfaced and swam up to the front of the kayak, grasping the side with one hand.
In the other hand, he held up a giant conch.
“Oh my God!” I screamed. “Is it…is it alive?”
“It is,” he said. He turned the huge shell to the side and let me look. Right around the edge where the shell coiled back into itself, I could see the pink flesh of the moving conch, hiding itself from the air.
“I wasn’t expecting to find one this big,” Aiden said. “A lot of them get taken home by tourists. Sometimes they don’t even know it’s a living thing—they think it’s just the shell.”
I reached out without prompting this time, and ran my finger along the edge of the shell. It was smooth and cool to the touch.
“I figured since you liked collecting shells, you’d like seeing a live one.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“I do like it,” I said softly. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He slowly lowered the giant shell back into the water.
“Now hold on tight again,” he instructed. “If you were going to fall out, now would be the time.”
“I don’t want to fall out!”
“Then hang on!”
Aiden managed to pull himself back into the kayak without upsetting us and sending me into the brackish water, but his dripping body still managed to soak me.
“I might as well have dived in myself!”
“I could toss you in,” Aiden teased.
“You better not!
He laughed and began to paddle us around again. Eventually, we had both endured enough sun, and he guided us back to the dock.
“You getting hungry?” Aiden asked as we turned in our paddles and lifejackets.
“Yeah, I am.” I realized I was still wearing his baseball cap, so I removed it and handed it back to him.
“Let’s go find a good place to eat,” Aiden said as he placed the cap on his head. “How about a trip to South Beach, where all the beautiful people hang out?”
“I think I’d be very out of place.”
Aiden narrowed his eyes at me and then smiled.
“You’re right,” he said. “If I take you down there, they’re all going to be extremely jealous of you. You could start a riot.”
For a moment, my heart lodged in my throat. I knew I didn’t fit in with the glamorous and famous people known to frequent that area and wasn’t sure what I thought of Aiden’s flattery. I hadn’t even brought any clothing suitable for a fancy restaurant.
“Most of those places have dress codes,” Aiden said as if he were reading my mind. “I don’t want to ride all the way back home. If you aren’t starving just yet, let’s go shopping.”
“Buy new clothes just to go out to eat? You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“That seems a little…I don’t know…wasteful.”
“Are you going to throw it all out when you get home?” he asked.
“Of course not.”
“Then where’s the waste?”
All right, he had me there. Still, when I went shopping, it was always for a specific purpose. I bought clothes for work and leisure when the ones I had were worn out or didn’t fit right anymore. I didn’t just go buy an outfit to avoid running back home.
“How do we have to dress?” I asked.
“For me, some dress pants, button down, and a jacket of some sort,” Aiden said. He looked me up and down. “For you, I’m thinking a nice, short cocktail dress. Maybe red.”
He winked.
“This is going to be that kind of place?”
“It’s South Beach,” Aiden explained. “They’re all that kind of place—even the burger joints.”
I tried to argue a little more—I didn’t mind the trip back to his house—but he was insistent. I gave in to him, which I noticed was becoming a trend.
The kayak rental center had locker rooms and showers. As soon as we were out of our bathing suits and cleaned up a bit, we headed to the Lincoln Road Mall and found a nice department store. I looked at dresses, and a woman came up to me almost immediately to help me with my selection. She gave me a friendly smile and started to talk about the latest styles, but as soon as Aiden walked up, she excused herself and walked away.
“That was rude,” I muttered under my breath.
“Happens to me all the time,” Aiden said dismissively. He indicated the red cocktail dress I had in my hand. “I like this one.”
I checked the price tag and rolled my eyes, but it became very clear very quickly that Aiden wasn’t going to compromise on anything, including who was paying for the expensive—and very short—dress he picke
d out. He claimed it would be the only way I could ride on the back of the bike since a long one would get in the way. In protest against his overindulgence, I quickly bought matching shoes and a purse while he was waiting in line to buy my dress along with the clothes he had selected for himself. He glared at me when he saw what I had done then smiled half a grin.
“Sneaky thing,” he muttered.
The attendant at the changing room didn’t seem inclined to help us, but Aiden slipped her some cash, and she let us use the store to change into our fancy clothes. He was already done changing when I walked out. The lack of backward cap, the dress pants and blazer made him look like a completely different person from the one in the casual clothes he had worn so far. I almost didn’t recognize him without all the tattoos showing.
Of course, when I moved closer, I could still see some of the marking around his neck. I realized I didn’t even know what it said though there were obviously words written across his throat. I would have had to get up close to read them, and that just seemed so rude.
We ended up at a steak house right on the beach and sat out on the patio. The evening was perfect, just like the day had been. I had a glass of the best wine I had ever tasted, but Aiden didn’t try it. He said he never drank when he had the bike out.
“Are you glad you came?” Aiden asked as we finished our dinners.
“Yes,” I said. My face warmed, and I wondered if he could see my blush.
“Good.” He sat back and looked around the patio. “See anyone you recognize?”
“No,” I said, “should I?”
He leaned close to me.
“Judge Judy is over there, just at the edge of the patio near the gate.”
“Really?” I glanced quickly, trying not to be too obvious.
Aiden snickered quietly.
“She lives around here somewhere,” he said. “I’ve seen her a few times. David Beckham and Posh Spice are inside, just by the door.”
I tried to look through the window and thought I could see the couple he meant, but it was hard to tell.
“He plays soccer, right?”
“Yeah,” Aiden said, “or at least, he did. Now he’s starting up a major league soccer team here in Miami. You never know who you might see around here.”
Aiden’s phone beeped, and he glanced at it. I tried to look around at the other patrons, wondering how many other famous people were around me, but I kept peering back at his face. His jaw tightened as he glared down at the illuminated screen.
Whatever message was on the phone, he wasn’t happy about it.
“Ready to go?” he said suddenly.
“Um…sure.”
Aiden called for the check and led me back out to his motorcycle. He didn’t say a word as he strapped the helmet to my head, climbed on, and started up the engine. I wrapped my arms around him. I could feel the tenseness in his chest as I held on, and we sped north up Ocean Boulevard.
“I have some work to do,” Aiden announced as soon as we arrived back at his house. “I’m sorry about that. I had planned on ignoring it while you were here, but sometimes it can’t be helped. You want a glass of wine or something? I could get a fire going in the fire pit if you wanted to hang out there.”
“That works,” I said. I smiled to let him know I didn’t mind. “I’m sure you have better things to do than entertain me the whole week.”
Aiden turned away from the wine bottle and looked at me.
“Better? No. Definitely not better. Just unavoidable.”
“I run into that sometimes,” I said. “No matter how many team members are on a project, sometimes nothing gets done unless I spell it out for people.”
“Maybe I need you to manage my project,” Aiden mumbled.
“Do you work on projects?” I asked. I looked down at the floor for a moment, hoping I wasn’t going too far when it came to asking about his work. “With your sales work, I mean.”
“Not with the sales stuff, no,” he replied quietly. “The sales business is pretty straightforward. I have something, you want it, and we negotiate on price or quantity. Hopefully I come out ahead, and I usually do.”
“Do you have a sideline business?” I was pressing. I knew I was, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.
Aiden was quiet as he poured me a glass of wine.
“I guess you could call it that,” he finally replied. “Did you get enough to eat? I’ve got more of that hummus. Or maybe some cheese and crackers?”
And he derails the conversation. Again.
“No, I’m still pretty full.”
“All right, then,” he said as he handed me the wine. “Let’s get you settled. Unfortunately, I’m probably going to be a while.”
I sat in the cool evening breeze and enjoyed the sound of the waves while I slowly sipped at the wine. The beach was completely empty, which surprised me. It was so beautiful, I guess I expected lots of people out near the water at night. As it was, my only company was the lights from a few ships at sea.
I thought about our kayak trip and dinner. It really had been very nice. I had never considered trying out a kayak before. I wasn’t one for physical activities, and doing anything for the first time felt intimidating. It had been nerve-wracking, but Aiden had talked me through it, and I was glad we had gone. I could have done without the slimy jellyfish or puking cucumbers, but the conch had been amazing. I had always wanted to find a conch shell when I was a kid but had only ever found pieces of them. I hadn’t even thought about the animal that lived inside.
The air chilled as I finished my drink and brought the glass back into the kitchen. Aiden was in the living room, where he had shoved some of the boxes out of the way and was typing furiously on a laptop. I walked into the room, and he jumped slightly before slamming down the cover.
“All wined out?” Aiden asked with a smile. There was no light in his eyes, though, and the smile seemed feigned.
“I suppose so,” I said. “Wine always makes me sleepy.”
“Well, don’t wait up on my account,” Aiden said. “I think I’m going to be a while longer.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “I’ll just…um…see you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Chloe.”
“Goodnight, Aiden.”
And with that, I headed off to bed.
SEVEN
I’d always heard that guys who were tall often had proportional dicks. If what I vaguely remembered feeling against my leg during our first drunken kiss was an accurate memory, Aiden fit the bill. I was certain that man’s sausage could feed a developing country of horny women.
“You want sausage?”
“What?” I cried, wondering how in the hell he could read my mind.
“With your eggs,” Aiden said. “Do you want sausage with your eggs?”
Oh yeah. Breakfast.
I twisted a little on my seat and tried to hide my blush with a cup of coffee. The thoughts running through my head this morning were troublesome, to say the least. Though the last time we had kissed was next to my car outside of Thirsty’s, sleeping next to Aiden Hunter apparently got my hormones going.
Watching him cook breakfast was the sexiest thing I had ever witnessed. I had to grab my phone and pretend to be busy turning it on just to make sure I didn’t get caught ogling him.
Every time he switched from one pan to the other on the stove, his ass moved in a way I couldn’t stop watching. The cargo shorts he wore weren’t tight at all, but that didn’t make any difference—the muscles in his ass were quite prevalent anyway. When he shifted his weight, I could see the line of his gluteus maximus muscles through the fabric.
It was quite distracting.
His shoulders were just as captivating. They were broad and as chiseled as the rest of him. The angle of his traps going up to his neck just made me want to draw a line there. Actually, the more I stared as his tattooed skin, the more I wanted to trace every line, every skull, every star, every flower…with my tongue.
I couldn’t believe I was thinking this way.
Muscled guys had never been my thing before. I’d always been attracted to the thin, wiry types in white, button-down shirts and Dockers. Tie optional. They never had tattoos or motorcycles or secret business dealings in the middle of the night.
Alarm!
I told the subconscious noise in my head to shut up.
“How about we do something spontaneous today?” Aiden suggested.
“Like what?”
“If I tell you, it won’t be spontaneous.”
“Not telling me makes it a secret,” I said. “That has nothing to do with spontaneity.”
“Good point.” Aiden shoveled another mouthful of eggs and cheese into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “I’m still not telling you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you to back out.”
“I can’t back out if I’ve never agreed,” I argued, “and I can’t agree without knowing what it is.”
“Taking a little road trip with me is agreeance.”
“It is not. I don’t even think that’s a real word.”
“Sure it is.” Aiden’s eyes brightened. “Besides, you understood what I meant, right? Isn’t that the essence of communication?”
I crossed my arms and looked at him sideways, earning myself another grin.
“So, another ride on the motorcycle?”
“We’ll take my jeep,” he said. “It’ll be more comfortable for a long ride anyway.”
We cleaned up breakfast, took our turns in the bathroom, and packed bottles of water for the road before Aiden took me out to the garage and helped me into a bright yellow Jeep Rubicon. The soft top, windows, and doors had been removed, leaving the whole thing open.
“Won’t I fall out?” I asked.
“Not unless you do it on purpose,” Aiden said as he adjusted the cap on his head. I was starting to wonder if he ever went anywhere without it. “Put your seatbelt on.”
I did, and he backed out of the drive and into the road, headed south.
“Where are we going?” I asked. I had to gather my hair at the back of my head with one hand to keep the wind from blowing it in my face.
“Homestead,” Aiden replied. “It’s just a little ways south of Miami.”