Aiden (Members From Money Book 8)

by Katie Dowe

  It was as if her voice had drummed some sense into him. He moved off her and got up hastily, his body one tight coil as he looked down at her.

  She got up slowly and he moved away from her, shoving his hands into his pockets, his expression bleak. “You need to go to your room.”

  “I am not Holly,” she told him softly, dying to feel his mouth on hers again. “You cannot order me to my room and think I will obey.”

  “Do you want me to fire you?” His voice was dangerously soft as he looked at her.

  “Go ahead,” she told him softly. “If that will make you feel better then do so but try and explain to that little girl upstairs why you needed to do that.”

  He stared at her for a moment in frustration, and then with a sudden movement, he took a step to her and lifted her into his arms.

  “What are you doing?” she asked as she curled her arms around his neck.

  “I think it’s time you saw my bedroom,” he told her hoarsely. “I need to get you out of my head.”

  He took the stairs two at a time and pushed his door open not letting her down until he dropped her onto the bed. “Aiden…”

  “Don’t say anything!” His voice was biting, and he did not know if he was angry with her or with himself. “Just be quiet.”

  He undressed and got on beside her, pulling off her loose pajamas and panties and then her top, staring at her naked body. “I could not sleep last night because of you.” His hand went between her legs and eased it open, touching her mound and causing her to arch towards him in response. He slipped a finger in and then another one, watching the expression on her beautiful face as he moved his fingers inside her. He took them out and ran one finger over her mound and then back inside her, tormenting her with the slowness of the movement.

  “Aiden, please!’ she gasped. He removed his fingers and used them to lubricate the fiery red tip of his engorged penis, his movements unhurried, his blue eyes holding hers before she looked at the thick member in his hand, her body crying out!

  “Go on your knees,” he told her thickly. She scrambled up and went on her knees, crouching as he came behind her and drove himself deep inside her! Ciara reared up in shock as his penis went in deep. He gripped her hips and started moving slowly, waiting for her to become accustomed to his length and width before increasing the pace. Ciara gripped the sheets and felt the scream tearing from her throat! Aiden heard the animal sounds coming from his mouth as his control broke and he almost tore her apart!

  Chapter 7

  He had lost control of the situation entirely! After that night, he would come home and spend time with Holly and then he would take her back to his room. She slept in his bed and snuck out in the early hours of the morning back to her room. He did not talk to her about anything of importance; as a matter of fact, they hardly talked at all, but there was a chemistry between them that they had a hard time hiding! One night, he came home and his mother was in the living room with Ciara where the two were sipping wine and watching something on television. He had gone up to his suite fully expecting her to follow him. When after a few minutes she had not done so, he had called her cell phone praying that she had taken it down with her.

  When she had answered it, he had felt the relief so much that he had wanted to weep. He had told her to come up and she had made her excuses to his mother and hurried up to his room.

  “You can’t just expect me…”

  “Take of your clothes,” he ordered her thickly. He was naked and standing near the door. With her mouth dry and her hands trembling, she had taken off the wool dress she had been wearing and the panties. He had gone down on his knees before her and buried his mouth in her pubic area. Ciara had been lost!

  But as much she loved the fact that he was so hot for her and could not keep his hands off her, she wanted more and wanted to know how he felt about her.

  It was the middle of April before she finally decided to ask him.

  They had just finished making love and were recovering their breaths when he said to her, “I have to go on a business trip to Europe for a week and was thinking that you and Holly should come.” He was still hard and it was a matter of waiting a few minutes before he had her again. He was greedy when it came to her.

  She lifted her head and looked down at him. “Why?”

  “Two reasons.” He traced her cheek lazily. “I get to show Holly some sights and I get to have you during the nights. I am becoming addicted.”

  “Is it just sex between us, Aiden?”

  “Hot, mind-boggling, and out of this world sex,” he clarified.

  Ciara felt her heart breaking. “I don’t think it is a good idea for me to come.”

  “Why not?” he demanded.

  “Because I am afraid that this has become more for me. I am in love with you,” she told him quietly.

  His body stiffened as he looked at her and if she did not feel like crying she would laugh at the dazed expression on his face.

  “I am sorry to hear that.” He got off the bed and pulled on his loose sweatpants and then turned to look at her lying there on his bed. He was magnificent, she thought, her heart aching as she looked at his bare chest with the smattering of hair. She had spent so much time exploring his body that she thought she knew every corner of it.

  “Why?”

  He raked his fingers into his hair causing his chest muscles to flex. “Because it is going to be awkward between us from now on,” he told her impatiently.

  “It does not have to be.” Ciara pulled at the sheets and wrapped them around her nakedness. “You feel something for me too, Aiden, because there is no way we can share something so intense for it to be just physical.”

  “I think you should go and sleep in your room tonight,” he told her grimly.

  “What? Because I am speaking the truth?” she asked him challengingly.

  “Ciara, please, I am not in the mood for an argument. We are on two different pages and I am not going to feel guilty because I do not return your feelings. We have a good thing going, so let’s leave it at that.”

  Ciara went to get her clothes and put them on hurriedly.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “You are right. I think I need to sleep in my room,” she told him coolly.

  “For Christ’s sake, would you knock it off!” he said impatiently. She grabbed her bra and panties and made to leave, but he came after and stopped her by barring the door. “I am not ready…” He sighed and reached out to grip her arms. “Stay. Please.”

  “You told me to leave,” she reminded him.

  “The bed is too big without you in it.” His hand reached up to grip the back of her head, pulling her to him. “Stay,” he muttered. Ciara quivered as she felt his erection against her.

  She braced her hands on his naked chest, feeling the firmness there. Without a word, she bent her head and ran her tongue over his warm flesh, feeling the satisfaction of the shudder that went through him. She lifted her head and his mouth came down to meet hers in a kiss that had them shaking against each other.

  *****

  He came home one night after a meeting with the board and saw she and Edward sitting together at the kitchen counter, their heads bent together as the chef demonstrated the technique for creating objects on pastry. He felt the jealousy shoot through him as she successfully made the tiny rose and looked up at him with a smile on her exquisite face. She had never looked at him like that and he felt the acute resentment inside him. “Am I interrupting?” His voice was cold as he came into the room.

  “Mr. Carter, of course not!” Edward said hastily. “I was just…” His voice tailed off at the stony look on the man’s face. “I will finish this tomorrow.” He made a hasty retreat.

  “You scared him away with…”

  “Did he kiss you?” He interrupted her as he shrugged out of his dark blue jacket.

  Ciara gathered up the cupcake she had been working on with Edward and threw it away, before cleaning o
ff the marble counter. “Well?” he asked her rudely, blocking her way as he crowded her against the counter.

  “Why do you care?” she taunted him. “It’s not like we are in a relationship.”

  “I am the one screwing you, Ciara, so I would hate to think that another man is sampling what I am enjoying.”

  Without thinking, Ciara lifted her hand and slapped him hard across the cheek, causing his head to snap back. Her heart raced as she looked at him in horror. She had not meant to do that and she had no right, but he had made her so angry!

  She was just about to apologize when he spoke. “Just because I put my dick inside you almost every night does not give you give you the right to do that,” he told her coldly.

  Ciara was so near to tears that she had to fight to keep them from coming down her cheeks. “Move out of my way.”

  He moved aside and allowed her to get pass him. “I will be up in a minute.”

  “I am sleeping in my room tonight,” she told him, fighting the tears. “You do not own me.”

  She turned and ran out of the room, not stopping until she got to her room. She locked the door behind her, and sliding down against it, she buried her head in her lap and gave in to the tears!

  ******

  This time, she was the one who avoided him. She would have breakfast up in the sitting room that was attached to the suite of rooms that belonged to Holly, and when the girl wanted to see him, she would make sure she had her bathed and ready and go down to have breakfast with him. At night, when he got home early, she would leave him in Holly’s room and go to her own, locking the doors behind her in case he tried to come after her. She had cried herself to sleep that night, determined to get her life under control. She had fallen in love with him and foolishly allowed herself to have hope and that had been shattered. She was not sleeping well and she had started feeling sick during the day.

  It had been three weeks since the awful incident in the kitchen, and she had not been with him since. He had stopped trying to get her into his bed and had started to treat her like the rest of the employees. A cool nod and brief conversations about his daughter and that was it. Ciara did her best to hold it together, but she was falling apart at the seams. What had she been thinking? She knew beforehand that she was not in his league and had still gone ahead and slept with him over and over again!

  It was the last weekend in April that she realized what was wrong with her. She had been doing a lot of thinking, and with Holly going off to school in September, she might as well hand in her resignation. It had become unbearable working at the manor and seeing his indifference, knowing that she was in love with him. She had left the Friday night instead of the Saturday morning, making sure to leave before he got home.

  “Why do you have to leave tonight?” Holly had demanded. “Daddy will be coming home early and promised that we would go to the movies together. Don’t you want to come with us?”

  “I have some things to do, honey, and besides I thought you wanted to spend some time alone with your dad?” Ciara felt the despair threatening and had to bolster her spirits.

  “But I love spending time with the two of you,” she said petulantly.

  “Next time.”

  She was at home in the early hours of the morning when she felt the vomit coming from her. She rushed to the bathroom and got there just in time, puking her guts out. It was the first time she had vomited, but she had been ill for the past few weeks. She leaned her head against the cool tile of the bathroom and closed her eyes. She knew exactly what was wrong with her. She had checked the calendar and realized that she had not seen her period for the past two months! She had been so busy having hot lurid sex with Aiden that she had forgotten about the consequences. Now she was pregnant by a man who did not want her! She could not stay there for much longer because they were bound to find out. His mother was a doctor and very soon she would know. But Holly! She bit her lip and felt the tears starting. She had fallen in love with the little girl and it was going to break her heart to leave her.

  With a squaring of her shoulders, she got to her feet and made her way to the sink. She had to be sure, so she was going to go to the doctor.

  *******

  Aiden stared into his drink moodily. It was a lovely spring afternoon and he had decided to go to the club to play a set of tennis. His mother had decided to take Holly to the zoo and then to the movies, so he had decided to get out of the house and get his mind off things. He had done the right thing, he told himself. She had wanted much more from him than he was prepared to give and it was good that he had cut it off or not pushed when she had started to avoid him. He was not a snob, but he did not see himself marrying her or anyone right now for that matter. He had no time for that.

  “Hey, you playing or what?” Jeffry asked him impatiently as he put his glass down on the table.

  “I am deciding my next move, man, so be quiet,” he told him with a grin.

  “Your next move is going to cost you the game, man,” Jeffry told him, sweeping the band he had around his forehead and wiping the sweat. “You are distracted and that look tells me that it is a woman.”

  He came over to the table where the refreshments were and poured himself a tall glass of lemonade. His blues eyes measured up the other man briefly. “What is it or should I ask who is it?”

  “Just someone I was seeing,” Aiden said with a shrug. “I want to concentrate on my daughter now, so a committed relationship is not what I am looking for.”

  “Good luck with that, man.” Jeffry downed the ice-cold lemonade and put his glass down. “Let’s play.”

  ******

  “Two months pregnant, Ms. Greene,” the doctor told her with a smile, his light blue eyes kind. She knew exactly when it had happened! It had been after the Valentine’s Day party and he had come into her room when she was undressing. The first time they had made love. “I am going to give you some vitamins and folic acid for the fetus and you need to make an appointment to come and see me in May.”

  Ciara nodded as she sat there feeling numb. She was definitely going to have to leave.

  “Thank you,” she said, working up a smile.

  Ciara sat outside in her car for a very long time, staring off at the flowers blazing in the park. Spring was here, and she felt as if she had the world on her shoulders! Her phone rang just then, and for one wild moment, she thought it was Aiden calling to tell her that he had made a mistake and he wanted her to be with him.

  She stifled her disappointment as she looked at the screen. “Regina, how are you?”

  “Good. I thought you would have come to see me and my son. How about coming by today?”

  She was about to say no when she decided against it. “I will be there in an hour.”

  “Good, you will get to meet my husband officially.”

  She had a lot of time to think and she had come up with the solution while she made her way to the exclusive neighborhood where Regina lived with her husband. The girl had offered her a job, and whether or not she had been joking, she was going to ask her if she could stay there to help out until she decided what to do.

  She was met at the door by a uniformed maid who directed her where she should go. Regina was sitting in one of the chairs in the nursery with a chubby-cheeked baby in her arms. His hair was a mass of black curls and he had dark brown eyes. “I would get up and give you a hug, but this young man is serious about his food. Grab a chair and have a seat. Paul just went out for a little bit.”

  “He is beautiful,” Ciara murmured, her eyes drawn to the beautiful baby.

  “Isn’t he just? Leesa said he is beautiful enough to steal.” She looked up at the girl and noticed her drawn expression. “What’s wrong?”

  “What makes you think something is wrong?”

  “Girl, we black women might not change color, but we have expressive faces. You are crying inside.”

  “is the job offer still open?” Ciara asked the question that was uppermost on her mind.
She was going to break a little girl’s heart, but it would mend.

  “What job offer?”

  “The one you offered me when we were at the party.”

  “Oh.” Gina eased her nipple out of her son’s mouth and put him onto her shoulder for him to burp. “You mean babysitting?”

  Ciara nodded.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you or should I guess?”

  “Do you mind if we don’t talk about it now?” Ciara was on the verge of tears again, and she had a feeling that it had something to do with what she was carrying inside her womb.

  “Okay.” Regina looked at her searchingly, and then on sudden impulse, she handed the baby to her. “How about bonding with him from now?”

  “You are offering me the job?” Ciara looked up at the woman.

  “Let’s just say I am helping a sister out for the time being. I have a feeling you need a shelter,” she said softly.

  “Thank you,” Ciara whispered and blinked to get rid of the tears. “You have no idea how much it means to me.”

  “I think I do.”

  ******

  She was taking the coward’s way out. She was not strong enough to tell Holly to her face that she was leaving at the end of the month, and she did not want Aiden to know about it. She wrote a letter and packed her stuff the next Monday she went back to work. She had every intention of giving it to Angela that night after Holly had gone to bed. Aiden was away for the weekend on a business trip so she was grateful for that. She read her two stories and drew out her bedtime for longer than usual. “Your eyes are closing, Holly,” she told the girl with a gentle smile.

  “Ciara, are you sad?” she asked suddenly, fighting to keep her eyes open.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “You look sad. Are you?”

  “I am sad because this little piggy will not go to sleep.” She started tickling her until she screamed in laughter. “Take care of yourself, honey.” She waited until she settled down and went to sleep. Ciara brushed back her blonde curls gently and kissed her on the forehead before leaving the room and closing the door behind her. She took a deep breath before she made her way to Angela’s suite. She knocked on the door softly and pushed it open when Angela directed her to enter. She had been in the woman’s suite the time when she had been interviewed and another time after that. She could not believe that the time had gone by so quickly. It was a bold yellow and green room with elegant furnishings placed in strategic places. She was sitting, curled up on a sofa in the sitting room, and perusing a large volume. “I am consulting with a patient in the morning so I need all the information at my fingertips.” She put the book away. “What is it, my dear?”