Saving Beth

by Kaylee, Katy

  Chapter 29

  Aiden

  I felt her stiffen against me, and then melt like hot honey. Her soft curves pressing against me in a way that had my body instantly rock hard and aching so bad I felt like I was about to burst through the zipper of my jeans.

  It only lasted a moment though, one perfect moment, before she was stiffening again in my arms, pushing against my chest until I finally let her pull back enough that she could look up at me. We were both panting and out of breath, but the look in Beth’s big gray eyes stopped me before I could lean down and take her lips once more.

  “You can’t just kiss me and hope that I stop talking Aiden.” She said breathlessly, whispering the words as her eyes grey wide and dark as charcoal.

  My mouth kicked up wryly on one side at the arch look that she gave me.

  “I can try, can’t I?’

  “Aiden.” She sighed my name, just that, but that one words spoke more than an entire novel. I shrugged, still trying to grapple with the storm inside me, trying to keep it all on the inside so it wouldn’t spill over onto her.

  “I’m just kidding! I know how important this is to you, but I need you bella.” My voice roughened suddenly and there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it, “You scare the shit out of me. You terrify me more than any other person I’ve ever met.”

  Beth snorted at my remarks but I meant it. I meant every single word.

  “Oh yeah, because I am so intimidating.” She said, snorting again as she shook her head at me and I fought now to find the words to explain. And suddenly, they all tumbled out in a rush. Not what I had meant to say, but what I needed to.

  “No, because you are so god damn reckless. You don’t think about yourself or your own safety at all. You just put yourself in terrible, dangerous situations without a second thought to how it could hurt you.”

  “I do think about it, Aiden,” Beth said softly, and then looked away, the light in her gray eyes dimming for a moment before she looked back at me, “It’s just…sometimes the risk is worth it. And tonight, I think it was worth it.”

  “Not the note, Beth,” I sighed, “That couldn’t be worth it. Nothing is worth your safety, bella.” I cupped her cheek once more, turning her face back towards mine until she had no choice but to look me in the eye, “Nothing is worth losing you, Beth.”

  “Maybe someone saw something, Aiden! Maybe someone saw who hurt my sister. Who killed…” Beth gasped, biting back the words before they could fly out but I could see the truth shining in her eyes.

  “Beth, I know…I know how hard this much be for you.” I swept my thumb across her cheek, feeling her soft skin underneath the pad of my finger and I hated the agony that flashed into her dove gray eyes. All I wanted to do was take her pain away. The only thing I wanted to do was erase all of the bad and replace it with only good.

  She deserved so much better, so much more than the terrible hand she’d been dealt. And she sure as hell deserved better than me. But I was too selfish. Too demanding. Too possessive. I couldn’t give her up. And damn it, I needed her. And deep down, I knew that she needed me too.

  I kissed her then, taking her mouth once more with mine as we stumbled together against the wall of the elevator. At the last moment, before the very last of my brain cells went into overdrive I remembered to cut off the security camera just in case.

  I was wild for her. Completely wild. The beast was struggling to break free and I was fighting to hold on to my control with the barest of grasps but I could feel it slipping. With every kiss, every nip and lick, every single addictive taste of her.

  I could feel the beast slipping its leash, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t care. With a gasp, I let all of my vaunted control go. I let every go and I was instantly swamped with emotions as I kissed her.

  I speared my fingers through her hair and tilted her head so that I could deepen the kiss. Even though I was holding her in my arms, I felt like she was sliding away, like trying to hold on to grains of sand in an hourglass.

  I kissed her hard, hungry. I was starving for her. All I wanted to do was lose myself in her, in the feeling of her pressed against me, feeling her softness against my hardness. Inside, the beast howled in triumph.

  With a gasp, I pulled back, staring down at her in shock.

  “I’m so sorry. I can’t keep my control around you tesoro.”

  “I don’t want you in control, Aiden. I don’t…I’m not in control either.” She let out a shaky laugh, “and besides, you were in control enough to stop yourself.”

  I looked at her, my eyes wide but before I could say anything she was pushing me back against the elevator. We came together like two waves crashing into one another, disappearing beneath an ocean of lust and need and soul deep desire.

  Beth kissed me and I let the last of my control fade away like it had never been as I moved to the buttons of her shirt, trying to strip all of her clothes off at once but my hands were shaking from impatience.

  Finally, she was down to nothing but a lace bra and a scrap of panties that teased more than they hid and all I could do was marvel at how beautiful she was. I was astounded that she had found her way back into my life.

  “Fate. It must be fate.” I murmured against her neck.

  “Fate?”

  “To have you back here in my arms after all the years.”

  Beth shook her head, “I don’t believe in fate.”

  I looked down into her eyes, lust and need and something else, something so much more sweeping through me, drowning me in her, and I knew that she was wrong. Destiny had led her back into my arms. And I wasn’t about to lose her again.

  * * *

  Beth

  The breath shattered out of my lungs at the look in his eyes. They had deepened to a azure blue, like the sky on a perfect summer day. I could almost feel the sunshine glowing on my skin, warming me from the inside out. And it was all in that look.

  I kissed him again, pulling him closer, still driven by a wild need inside me that was fuled by fear and panic and worry but underneath that, that warmth was there, golden and so comforting that I just wanted to wrap up in it and pull it close around me. I wanted to cover myself in that warmth and let it sink into all of the dark places of my soul. I wanted it to chase away all of the shadows that had haunted me for the past months, hell for the last ten years.

  Aiden was all impatience as his hands ran over my body but it wasn’t enough for him to touch me. I needed to touch him too. I needed to show him just exactly how he drove me wild. How he made me lose control every single time he kissed me or ran his hands against my skin.

  I tugged off his shirt and his shoes, socks, and jeans soon followed until he was standing there in nothing but his snug fitting boxer briefs. I hooked my thumbs in the waistband and drew them down his hips inch by inch. His breathing was ragged by the time they finally hit the floor and his eyes were pure promise.

  I didn’t give him a chance before I dropped to my knees in front of him, sucking him deep into my mouth in one, long stroke.

  “Fuck, bella!” Aiden said on a long moan. He reached down and I thought he was going to try and stop me but instead, his fingers tangled in my hair, drawing my mouth down on his thick erection once more. “Jesus, Beth, you’re going to kill me.”

  I didn’t bother with a response. I was too busy, sucking him, licking the tip with my tongue, teasing him until I would pull him all the way back in, hallowing my cheeks around him until I could feel his thighs start to tremble underneath my palms.

  I savored every taste of him, losing myself in the rhythm, in the pure pleasure of loving him but suddenly his fingers tightened, and he was drawing me back up to my feet.

  “Enough, Beth. I can’t…”

  “You could have let me finish.” I said, a slight pout in my voice that he rewarded with a hard, voracious kiss that left me breathless and needing all over again.

  “Turn around, tesoro.” Aiden growled the command and excitement f
luttered low and delicious as I did what he asked.

  He put both of my hands palm out against the wall of the elevator, covering my body from behind but I could easily see our reflections in the mirror like metal panel. My own gaze, heavy-lidded and languorous peered back at me and Aiden’s reflection met mine.

  “Lean back.” He whispered roughly, his hands at my hips guiding me until I was in the perfect position, spread out on display, bent at the waist and ready for him. Only him.

  “Aiden. Please. Fuck me.” The words had barely fallen out of my mouth before he was thrusting deep inside me. Stroke after stroke, he drove his hard cock as deep as he could before drawing nearly all the way out only to do it all over again.

  The slow start rhythm was starting to drive me insane and my fingers clawed at the smooth metal of the elevator wall but there was nothing to hold on to. Only the pleasure, the warmth, the heat that he sent through my body with every stroke of his.

  My gaze met his once more in the metal reflection and the look on his face sent me tumbling over the edge into an abyss of pure ecstasy.

  I cried out as my climax raged through me, a storm that I had no chance of holding out against even if I had wanted to, and damn it, I didn’t want to. With another moan of pleasure, I let it sweep me away, riding it out as I felt Aiden stiffen and shudder behind me.

  That golden light was still there, shining behind my closed eyelids, warming me all the way through even though the cool air had started to chill my sweat soaked bare skin.

  With an unsteady laugh I leaned against the wall of the elevator. My legs were like jelly underneath me, unable to support my weight as my body slowly returned to normal.

  “I can’t walk.” I said, my voice raspy and I had to swallow a few times but it still felt hoarse.

  “It’s okay, bella. I’ll take care of you.” Aiden whispered as he helped me put my clothes back on before hurriedly dressing himself and then he lifted me up in his arms as if I weighed nothing, “Let me take care of you.”

  I grinned up at him, lost in the blue of his eyes.

  “I think you already did.”

  Chapter 30

  Aiden

  Beth was already asleep in my arms as I carried her out of the elevator and into the hallway. I tried to keep my footsteps and light and quiet as possible so as not to wake her but she didn’t even shift from where she lay snuggled against me as I walked up the short flight of stairs towards my bedroom. The bedroom we had shared for the last two months.

  I held her closer as a terrible thought tried to chase away the warmth and satisfaction that still floated inside me. She would be leaving soon. As soon as we figured out what was really going on with what had happened to her sister, she would leave.

  The thought had me clenching my jaw in denial as I held her even closer. I couldn’t’ let her go. I knew that now. I couldn’t let her go now that I had her back in my arms. I would just have to find a way. I would have to show her, to convince her.

  I let out a deep sigh as I pushed open the bedroom door with one foot before carrying her inside. I laid her out on the bed, stripping off her clothes before pulling the cover over her. None of that had woken her up, but as soon as I moved to step away from her, her hand shot out from under the blanket and her fingers tangled with mine.

  “Wait, Aiden,” She whispered sleepily, her eyes still closed, “Don’t go.”

  “I just need to check on a few things,” I told her just as softly as I laid a kiss against her flushed cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

  I stood, about to step back again, but again, she held tight to my hand.

  “Wait a minute, Aiden.” She sighed, blinking open her eyes as she pushed herself up until she was sitting, staring at me in the dark. “I just want to talk to you about the note…”

  “Please, Beth.” I begged, sitting on the edge of the bed because I needed to be closer to her. “Please, just…don’t do anything about the note yet. Not until we can figure out who it’s from. We’ll see if Luca can track down who the number belongs to. So we at least know what we are going to walk in to.”

  “Then, you do think we should pursue it? We should call…whoever it is from and set up a meeting or find out what they know.”

  “I think…I think we shouldn’t do anything yet. Not until we are…sure.” I said after a moment and I could tell that Beth was disappointed by my answer by the way her expression fell. Her gaze dropped to our hands clasped together on top of the blanket.

  “Promise me, Beth. Promise you’ll wait until we think this through.”

  “I promise.” She said softly and I leaned forward, kissing her again and I could taste the bitterness on her lips.

  “I know you want to act.”

  “It’s been two months, Aiden. Two months and I still don’t know what happened to Leah.” Beth’s voice broke, breaking my heart right along with it.

  “I know, tesoro.” I brushed a stray lock of hair away from her face, forcing a smile that I hoped was comforting on my face when the last thing I felt was gentle. What I really wanted to do was punch something, preferably the asshole that tried to grab her from the bar, or whoever put that note in her hand.

  “Try and get some sleep okay?”

  Beth nodded, snuggling back down into the blanket but still she clung to my hand until she drifted off once more.

  I knew I should just climb in next to her, try and take my own advice and sleep. It was already well past three in the morning but something wouldn’t let me. A restless energy shot through me and I slowly, quietly slipped out of the room and down the hallway until I got to my office.

  I slowed, looking around, but nothing was out of place. Everything was exactly where I left it but the hair on the back of my neck was standing up and my instincts were screaming at me that I was missing something. But what?

  Beth was home, safe, sleeping in bed. And as far as I knew, the family was off for the night. I had scaled work back over the last few weeks as the search for Redman had intensified, not wanting any of them to get caught in the crossfire in case it came to open warfare with the psychopath.

  There had been some push back from the men but only because they were just as worried about Beth’s safety. She might not have realized it but over the past weeks she had wormed her way into the hearts of the the Diorno family, and not just me.

  Phillipe and Antony, Matteo and Luke, hell even Billy and Remy. All the others. They all looked out for her in their own way.

  I let out a sigh as I dropped down into the chair behind the desk. Now, if she would just realize that she didn’t have to do all this on her own. That there were a lot of people around her that were willing to help, if she would just give them a chance.

  I shifted uncomfortably, guilt filling me. I hadn’t exactly been as open with her as I could have been either. Over the past month I had done my best to scour the city, calling on every resource to track down the man who had threatened her, who had killed her sister, my father, and countless others.

  I’d had no luck, but I was fairly sure that Leah was dead. I closed my eyes, pinching my nose in between two fingers. I didn’t want to tell her. It would make it too real then, for her, and for me. Because if Leah was really dead, and Redman was really gone, what other reason did Beth have to stay.

  For me. She could stay for me. The thought echoed from the back of my head and I wanted to believe it more than I’d wanted anything in my entire life but I also knew Beth. Logical, infuriating, impossible Beth. She would never accept anything she thought was out of charity or pity, and that was exactly what she would think. If I told her that her sister was indeed dead, and that I wanted her to stay with me.

  I sighed, angry at the impossible situation, but more than anything else, angry at myself. I reached down to the cabinet beneath the desk and pulled out the bottle of scotch stashed there. I didn’t drink often but it seemed like the perfect moment.

  I had just popped the cap when the sudden high pitched ring of m
y cell phone made me jump so hard that I sloshed some of the liquor on to my hand.

  “Damn it.” I muttered, shaking off the droplets as I reached for my phone, wondering who the hell would be calling this late.

  “What is it?” I growled, not even bothering with pleasantries.

  “Aiden? It’s Phillipe. Listen, we have a situation.” My uncle said, equally without preamble on the other side of the line.

  “What is it?”

  There was a long pause, and that silence settled like a hundred pounds of dread in my stomach. That silence held nothing good.

  “Uncle Phillipe?” I said, prompting after the silence had stretched so long my nerves were nearly frayed. They hadn’t been that stable to begin with.

  “There…There’s been another murder, Aiden.” He said after another interminable minute. His voice sounded hoarse, as if he’d been shouting for hours. “It looks like it was Redman.”

  “Fuck!” The word hissed out of my mouth, equal parts shock and outrage. And the thing I least wanted to admit, but I could feel it like grease on the underside of my tongue. Fear. Cold and bitter and freezing me in my seat for longer than it should have. Not fear for myself. But for Beth.

  I hadn’t let myself say it out loud, but I had been all but sure that Redman was gone for good, that he would disappear for another ten years without a peep or sight of him and I would have been just fine with that.

  “Text me the address. I’ll be right there. Don’t…don’t let anyone touch anything.” My uncle didn’t say another word. There wasn’t anything else that needed to be said. Not yet.

  With another string of curses I shot to my feet, pushing back the fear as I considered waking Beth and telling her but all she would do was worry. Instead, I picked my phone up again. It rang once before the other end was answered.

  “Hey boss.”

  “Matteo? I need you to watch over Beth.”