At the time, Hope had wondered if her sister was just being mean. She didn’t know Montgomery like Hope did. In fact, Faith didn’t know him at all. But then Hope had considered the reason why and cringed.
The truth was Hope had intentionally withheld details about Montgomery and their relationship from her sister. Why? Because somewhere deep inside she’d known Faith would see right through their arrangement and be disappointed or perhaps just sad.
In the two years Hope had dated Montgomery, he’d never been interested in spending time with Faith. He would make excuses or flat out turn down Hope’s suggestions. They could have gone on double dates with Faith and Rowen. They could have had them over for dinner. There were dozens of opportunities. Montgomery’s reluctance should have been a red flag.
Hope’s nerves hadn’t improved throughout the day. Not at the hairdresser nor at the luncheon nor when they arrived early at the church to start pictures.
At three o’clock, with an hour to go before the wedding, she still hadn’t seen Montgomery since the weird incident in his hotel room the night before. She was pacing alone in the dressing room when her mother barged in all cheerful.
Jane gasped and set a hand on her chest. “You look awful.” She rushed forward. “It’s your wedding day. Your makeup is a mess, and your eyes are puffy.”
“I need to see Montgomery,” Hope had stated matter-of-factly.
Jane ignored her and began dabbing at her face with a makeup brush, tilting her head from side to side, her eyes scrutinizing every blemish.
“Mom. Can you get him for me?”
“Who?” she asked.
“Montgomery. Mom. Go get him. I need to speak to him.”
Her eyes widened. “Certainly not. It’s bad luck.”
Hope had rolled her eyes. “That’s a superstition. This is important.”
“Well, it’s tradition. Now let’s fix this mess of your face. We have less than an hour. You’ll see him plenty after the wedding. You can wait until then.”
For a while, Hope had stood there letting her mother fuss over her stupid makeup. When Jane rounded behind to check Hope’s hair, Hope stared down at her dress. It was ugly. Ridiculous. She’d hated it from the moment she’d tried it on. But her mother had loved it and insisted it was perfect.
What Jane had really loved was the ridiculous price tag and the fact that she could brag about the cost and the designer to her friends to show off.
Hope would have preferred something that hugged her curves and showed off her legs. Something that made her feel beautiful and sexy. This dress made her feel like she was heading to a quinceañera.
“Mother,” she said when she realized her blood pressure was rising by the moment and her hands were shaking. “Get Montgomery.”
Jane harrumphed and then stomped from the room. She returned three minutes later to announce that Montgomery agreed with Jane. It was bad luck. He would see her at the altar.
Perhaps that should have been the last straw. Nevertheless, Hope allowed herself to be escorted to the back of the church. Her mother took her seat at the front. Hope could see the pews were full. She stood next to her father and took a deep breath, glancing around at all the faces turned her direction.
Everyone was smiling. Who were these people? She scanned the audience. Friends of her parents and Montgomery’s. A few of them were classmates of Hope’s, but not many and none that she’d remained in contact with.
She hadn’t done anything social for months. She had no close girlfriends to speak of. Why was that? She shivered as she considered the answer. For one thing, Montgomery hadn’t had the patience for her friends. He’d preferred his own. But more importantly, she hadn’t wanted to introduce him to people because he was boring and often rude.
At her father’s urging, she began to walk forward. She wasn’t in her own body however. She was detached. Her heart raced. Her hands began to sweat. She thought she might faint.
When she lifted her gaze to seek out Montgomery, she found him staring in another direction. He turned his head slightly as she grew closer, but only to focus on a spot past her. He wasn’t smiling.
She stumbled.
Her father caught her.
A few people gasped.
Her gaze remained on Montgomery who hadn’t even noticed and didn’t flinch.
That was when she snapped.
She jerked her arm free of her father, turned around, and ran as fast as she could while holding the giant pile of tulle off the ground. She ran out the front door and down the steps. She had no idea what she intended to do until she saw a car pulling up and slowly stopping.
She hadn’t cared who was driving it or what might happen. Any fate would be better than her current one…
A noise behind her made Hope jump where she stood staring into the mirror, seeing nothing. She glanced around, realizing she was still standing in the bathroom. Naked. The water was running. She hadn’t entered the shower.
“Hope?” It was Aaron. He was calling her name from the other side of the door. Maybe he had knocked.
She stared at the door, pulling her shoulders back as she took a deep breath. She was a fool. She also wasn’t ready to face him. She’d spent some time thinking through the first half of yesterday. Now she needed to ponder the second half. “Getting in the shower. Be out in a bit.”
She did just that, opening the glass door and shutting it behind her with a snick.
He didn’t respond. Thank God. She didn’t want to face him.
As the water ran down her face, she absorbed the warmth and closed her eyes. She shuddered as the stream hit her nipples. She’d never before gotten aroused from a simple shower. But today was a new day. Today was the first day she was so totally aware of how it felt to be pampered and adored and well-fucked.
Never mind that they hadn’t finished the deed. She understood perfectly well that Aaron was right when he called that missing step a matter of semantics. What he’d done to her and for her had been life-altering.
Now she knew. She knew with certainty that she’d made the right decision when she left that church yesterday. She knew how it felt to have a man lick and suck her entire body as if she were the most precious person on earth. She knew she would never in her life settle for less.
As she shampooed her hair, she thought about the man who’d helped her see this new world. God, he was sexy. She’d known that before yesterday. But after last night…
She rinsed her hair and grabbed the conditioner. Why did he have to be so cold this morning? The look in his eyes last night hadn’t matched his behavior today. Had he decided he’d made a mistake?
That last thought pissed her off.
Switching from sad to angry, she exited the shower and dried off. With one towel wrapped around her hair and another around her body, she opened the bathroom door.
Aaron must have been pacing because he stopped and spun around to face her. “You okay?”
“No, I’m not okay. I’m also not going home. So stop asking me. You had no right to call my sister, and you certainly had no right to do so without telling me.” She stomped across the room toward her open suitcase. She needed clothes above all else. And whatever she put on was going to be skimpy because that was all she’d brought. She’d done so in hopes of seducing Montgomery. Now she was stuck with this honeymoon wardrobe, so Aaron was going to have to suck it up.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I should have told you. Honestly, I forgot. You came out of that bathroom wearing…almost nothing, and all reason fled my mind.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him. At least he was looking at her, even if his brow was furrowed. “Well, don’t do it again. I’ll call them when I’m good and ready to call them. You don’t get to go behind my back and make decisions for me.”
“You’re right. However, you can’t just stomp away and leave the state without facing anyone and apologizing.”
She spun around to fully face him. “I’m not apologizing to that asshole.�
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Aaron cocked his head to one side, his shoulders dropping, his eyes piercing her. “Yeah, you are. You have no choice. It doesn’t matter how big of a prick he is, you still left him at the altar, so you have to be the bigger person and face him. More importantly, you have to face your parents. And probably a bunch of your guests. Bridesmaids. Other family. Ainsley’s parents.”
She stared at him, hating that he was right, but not willing to admit it. “I will. Eventually. But not today. Not while I’m traveling with you.”
He groaned. “When exactly do you suppose you’ll start acting like a grownup and face them?”
“Fuck you.” She spun back around to stare unseeing into her suitcase.
She stiffened when she heard him approach. In seconds, his hands were on her shoulders and he spun her around. He gripped her chin. “That’s twice you’ve cussed at me. Don’t do it again. You’re pushing the envelope.
“You got into my car and placed demands on me, not the other way around. The problem is, I’m not the kind of man who’s used to being ordered around, Hope. I’m a Dom. A strict one. I do the demanding in my relationships. So, though I realize you have no experience in my world, I can’t spend three days driving across the country with you playing vanilla fuck buddies.”
Her face heated. Hell, her entire body heated. She opened her mouth, but he stopped her with a simple commanding look.
“I never should have taken advantage of you like that last night. It was totally unfair of me. You had just walked away from your fiancé. You were distraught and confused.”
“I begged you,” she pointed out.
He glared at her harder. “Don’t interrupt me again.”
“Yes, Sir,” she whispered. The words just slipped out. She didn’t think about them. She just spoke.
He swallowed, hesitating. She’d shocked him. Was that a good thing? “It was a totally douche move on my part to set a finger on you last night, no matter how much you begged. I can’t continue to do that. And I won’t. You should go home. Make amends. Find yourself.”
“I’m not going home, Aaron. So, you either help me, or I go alone.” Couldn’t he see that she needed time? That she needed to explore this sexual side of herself he’d just introduced her to last night?
He groaned. “You are the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met.”
“Yeah, well, I just found that side of me yesterday. Before that, I was a fucking doormat. So, get over yourself and let me enjoy it for a few days.”
He closed his eyes and hung his head, his hands still on her shoulders, holding her at arm’s length.
Was it her turn to speak? “How about if I make you a deal?”
He lifted his head and one brow shot up.
“You take me with you. It will take us three days to get there. I want to experience what you can give me. I want to have sex. All kinds of sex. Every kind. I’ll do it your way. However you want me to be, I’ll do it. I’ll submit to you or whatever you want. I know you don’t want to do vanilla. I’m not asking for vanilla. I’m asking for you. You have to admit, we have chemistry.”
“Of course we have chemistry. I never said we didn’t. But that doesn’t make it right.”
She took a deep breath. “It’s what I need. You opened a new world up to me last night. I want to explore it. Do you have any idea what my life has been like? Being constantly watched and judged. Being unsure if I’m doing something wrong? Being unsure if the man I was supposed to marry even wanted me? I need you to give this to me. Please, Aaron, help me explore your world. It’s what I want. If you can’t or won’t do this for me, I’ll find someone else who’s willing.”
He flinched, his jaw tightening. Good.
“I know you well enough to know you’re a good guy. I don’t have to worry about you hurting me or leaving me somewhere or stealing my credit card in the night or something.”
He growled. “Hope, you can’t seriously entertain the idea of spending three days with a stranger.”
“Good. Then we agree. It has to be you. I trust you. Tell me this. Would it be such a hardship to spend three nights having sex with me?”
“God, no. Of course not. Don’t turn this around. How is anything you said part of a deal?”
“If you’re so gung-ho about me facing my family and friends, I’ll promise to return and explain everything to them after we get to Denver. I’ll even buy a plane ticket right now.”
He stared at her, which meant he was considering her proposal.
“You can do this for me, or I can find someone else to do it. But I’m not going back home. You choose.”
“You’re not fucking someone else,” he growled through gritted teeth.
“Great. Then you’ll do it?”
“Hope, this is a rebound thing for you. You’re pissed and hurting and rightfully angry, but rebound sex is a bad idea.” He stood firm.
She was losing this battle, and she wasn’t sure she really had the guts to find another man. Who the hell would it be? She certainly wasn’t going home, but she didn’t really have a plan B either for all the bullshit she was feeding him.
When he continued to remain silent, a damn tear fell from her stupid eye again. She hated being so emotional.
Aaron moaned and then slid a hand up to cup her face and wipe away the tear with the pad of his thumb. “I can’t take it when you cry,” he whispered.
She sniffled and shook herself free of him, turning back around.
He stepped closer to her back, wrapped his arms around her middle beneath her breasts, and set his chin on her shoulder. His lips rested close to her ear, his breath making her shiver. “You’ll buy the ticket. Right now. While I watch.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, Sir.”
She smiled, her heart racing. “Yes, Sir.”
“You’ll stop arguing with me.”
“If you stop telling me I’m a big immature baby who needs to go home, yes.”
“You’ll call your sister so she can stop worrying.”
She inhaled a deep breath. “Yes, Sir.”
“We’ll need more than three days. I can’t possibly introduce you to my world every night and then get up early and drive ten hours. Let’s make it four to get there, then one night in Denver, and then you return the next day.”
Music to her ears. “You’ll have sex with me?”
“More times than you can count.” His hand slid to her throat. His fingers stroked her sensitive skin. He kissed her neck.
Her breath hitched.
“I’ll do my best not to expect more out of you than you can handle, but you have to realize you’re not asking a regular guy to give you this. I’m a Dom,” he told her for what felt like the tenth time.
“I know. Sir.”
“I won’t expect you to submit to me in the car. But when we get to our hotel every night, you’ll do as I say. Your safeword is red for the next five days. I’ll go easy on you, but I’m not a pushover. You won’t try to top me. You won’t argue with me. You won’t decide how or when or if we have sex. I’ll make those decisions. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir.” Her voice was breathy. His fingers continued to dance across her shoulder, her neck, and the part of her chest exposed above the towel.
“Good. It’s a deal, then.” He reached across her body and pulled a white dress from the folded pile of clothes. “Wear this one today. It’s the last day you’ll have even a shred of purity left.”
She shivered.
He let go of her, turned around, and walked away.
She glanced over her shoulder as he reached the door to the room. “I’m going to get us checked out and grab us something to eat from the coffee shop downstairs while you get ready.”
“Okay.”
He lifted a brow.
“Sir.”
He smiled. And then he was gone.
She stared at the door for several seconds, wondering what the hell had just happened. She felt like she’d won some sort of battle.
Or maybe he had. She wasn’t positive.
She couldn’t help reacting. She bounced up and down and released a loud, “Yes! Yes, yes, yes!” before she dropped the towel and pulled on the dress. She had no idea what the next week might look like, but she was pretty sure she was going to have the best sex of her life.
She picked up her phone, considered calling Faith, and then decided a text would be easier.
Hope: OMG! Why didn’t you tell me how great your D/s sex life was? Aaron is… There are no words. I totally seduced him. Unlike the asshole I left at the altar, he was turned on, AND he made my body hum. I regret nothing. I’m fine. Give me a few days, then I’ll call. I’m totally taking advantage of this sexcapade for as long as I can.
She closed the phone without waiting for a reply.
Chapter 8
“Talk to me,” Aaron insisted when they were finally on the road. “It’s going to be a long drive. Tell me everything about Hope Davenport.” Aaron was still unsure about this deal he’d made with Hope. It remained to be seen whether he’d just hit the jackpot or sold his soul to the devil.
She giggled. “You’re going to get bored really fast. I’m not that interesting. Perhaps if I had been, I wouldn’t have come close to marrying such a boring man.”
He glanced at her, frowning. “Not buying it. Maybe you’ve been hiding inside yourself, but I know you’re in there somewhere. We just have to find you.” The woman who’d climbed into his car yesterday afternoon did not match the woman he’d known her to be, nor the one she’d even known her to be apparently.
“And you think regaling you with childhood tales will help?” She groaned around the suggestion.
“Yep. Plus, it will keep me awake.”
“Okay, but you have to reciprocate.”
“I can do that.”
She sighed and leaned back in her seat. “I’m four years younger than Faith, so by the time I was born, she’d already set the bar pretty low for me.”
“What does that mean?” He furrowed his brow.
“My mother was determined to climb the ranks in society from the moment she married my father.”
Trusting Aaron Page 8