Wisely remaining quiet, Aiden kept his own counsel, letting her continue to vent.
“I don’t even know what I was doing. I don’t take risks. Barring the last month, usually, I avoid taking chances entirely. I certainly do not ever do things like have unprotected sex with a man I barely know. Hell, up until now, I’ve barely even had any sex at all! I think I fucked my ex-boyfriend, Daniel, a grand total of four times in two and a half years. And every stinkin, lousy’ time, I did make the mistake of sharing my body with him, I always made sure he wore a fucking condom!” she concluded on a shout.
Okay, he wasn’t a fan of hearing about his woman’s past sexual partner. He knew she was in crisis, but if he had to hear one more detail about that fucking asshat, he was gonna lose his mind. Silently observing as Carolina Mayfair whirled and began pacing in the opposite direction, Aiden merely rolled onto his side and propped his chin on his hand while he continued watching the floor show unfolding in his bedroom. Fighting a grin as his girl continued to ramble neurotically, he bit his lip. He knew it wasn’t funny, but good Lord, she was cute when she was in a tizzy. In spite of his amusement, though, it was hard to watch his recently-found soulmate lose her mind, but if he had to witness her breakdown, he was glad she’d remained naked while she had it. At least he could enjoy the scenery while she had her emotional moment.
Watching as she shoved a hand through the unruly mass of long cinnamon colored hair flowing down her back, he wondered if he should say something to try and calm her. Wincing as she began to mentally calculate how long it would be before her next period was due to arrive, he decided it was probably in his best interest to keep his mouth shut for the moment. After all, he really didn’t have anything worthwhile to add to the conversation yet, and he honestly had never been all that great at math anyway. Honestly, there really wasn’t much he could say at all to console her at this juncture. ‘Sorry I forgot to suit up my dick, but hey…would a baby be so bad?’ probably weren’t the words she needed to hear right now.
Even if that’s exactly what he had been thinking since she’d started panicking several minutes ago.
At the moment, however, he knew there was only one absolute, overwhelming certainty for his beautiful Carolina: They had, indeed, forgotten to use a condom.
“Three weeks, Aiden! I won’t know for three freaking weeks if this night will have a lifelong repercussion for us. How in the hell am I going to keep from going insane for three weeks? I can’t believe I did something so blatantly asinine,” she whimpered as her breathing began to get choppy and shallow.
Hell, it looked like the emotional storm was about to have a physical effect on his woman, and now it was time for him to intervene. Planting one fist in the mattress, her distress catapulted him out of his bed and to his Caro’s side. “Okay, babe,” he advised, his voice firm and face inscrutable, “I need you to breathe for me. Just inhale through your nose and blow it out through your mouth. Everything is gonna be okay, but you gotta keep breathing.”
Narrowing her eyes dangerously as she blew out a furiously breath, Carolina spun on her toes to face Aiden, her rage a palpable entity in the room with them. “Excuse me?” she drawled slowly as she took a step toward him, completely glorious in her righteous, but naked fury.
“Carolina,” he began calmly, despite the fact that he was pretty sure she was going to lunge for him in a fit of rage at any second. For real, her eyes were currently making grisly death threats even though she remained strangely still and mute. “This is not an insurmountable problem.”
Caro’s hands curled into fists at her sides and she nearly vibrated with indignant anger. “I beg your pardon?” she whispered, her voice dropping to a scary soft level. “What did you just say?” she asked, every word surging from her lips with the force of a bullet.
“A baby would not be the end of the world, Dimples” Aiden foolishly asserted.
“A baby,” Carolina begin sharply,” is the absolute last thing I could handle right now, you insensitive jerk, because I am not ready to be somebody’s mother yet! And if you value your continued safety, you will stop calling me Dimples right now,” she demanded on a shriek. “In case you missed it, I am NOT smiling. Do you see dimples right now?” she yelled, jabbing two fingers toward her cheeks. “And for God’s sake, will you put on some clothes?” Pointing her glare toward his groin where his half-hard dick still dangled between his legs, she waved a hand toward the appendage and growled, “Put that thing away!”
He couldn’t help what he said next. He probably should have really tried harder to control his tongue, but he’d always been a smartass when under pressure. “Why? You feelin’ tempted, Dimples?”
“Yes,” she retorted, nodding vigorously. “I’m absolutely tempted, Aiden. Tempted to find the nearest butter knife and saw your trouble-making tallywhacker clean off!”
Dropping a protective hand to cover the jewels she’d been lovingly cherishing only minutes ago, Aiden took a quick step backward. “Woah, there, with the hacksaw, babe. There’s no need for that kind of nasty talk.”
“Ha!” Caro groused. “Then clearly you don’t have a clear grasp on my current predicament,” she accused, shivering as the coolness of the bedroom finally registered on her overheated skin. Looking down at her nude body, she frowned. “I’m naked,” she muttered blankly.
“Yep,” Aiden agreed, his lips twitching at the adorably perplexed look on her face, almost like she couldn’t figure out when her clothes disappeared. “People usually are naked when they make love, Dimples,” he pointed out with a grin as he turned and reached for his navy terrycloth robe hanging on the back of his bedroom door.
Taking the robe he held out to her like a peace offering, Caro sighed wearily. “We didn’t make love, Aid. We fucked. We don’t know each other well enough to call what we did making love.”
Okay, he couldn’t deny that hurt. Shit, if he was honest, that thoughtless fucking remark burned like acid and it was his turn to glare at her. “The fuck, Carolina?”
A flash of remorse appeared in her eyes only to be extinguished a split second later. “It’s true, Aiden.”
Tamping down on his own fury, he fought to rein in his temper as he reminded himself over and over again that losing it on her wouldn’t help anything. Calling on stores of self-control he hadn’t known he even had in him, he forced himself to count to ten in his head before he opened his mouth. “Look, Carolina, I’m gonna try and be a good guy here and give you a pass on what you just said for a couple of reasons.”
Stiffening, Caro’s eyebrows hit her hairline as she stared at him in shock.
“First, I know you’ve been knocked for a loop today just as much as I have. Neither one of us was expecting to find the other when we woke up this morning. We’re new. I get that. You’re off-balance. I get that, too. You need to understand, though, that what we just shared together in that bed together,” he went on explaining as he pointed toward the twisted sheets and rumpled pillows, “was fucking phenomenal. It was raw. It was passionate. And no bullshit here, Carolina, it was the best pussy I’ve ever had in my life. That said, what it wasn’t was mere fucking. I know you’re not experienced enough to know this, but when two people simply fuck, it’s detached. It’s a basic exchange of some bodily fluids. It’s a temporary high that – while it might be physically satisfying in the moment – is ultimately a pretty empty emotional experience. When a man just fucks, his cock is all in, but his heart remains untouched and uninvolved. So, you need to believe me when I say, what happened between us? That was NOT fucking,” he finished on a low shout as he reached out to grasp her hips and pull her body against his. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at her with eyes that blazed and tried to keep his cool as he whispered, “Are you seeing the difference yet, babe?”
Carolina looked like a deer caught in the headlights as she stood there facing him. Eyes filling with tears, she shook her head. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You weren’t supposed to happen. I’m not
ready for you yet.”
“That’s too bad, Dimples. Because I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for you. And whether you’re ready for me or not, you’re mine now. ”
“No, I’m not,” she blurted, her eyes dilating as she began to tremble.
Lifting his hands to cup her face, Aiden bent down to lean his forehead against hers. “Carolina, you gotta hear what I’m saying to you. You. Are. MINE. An hour ago, you trusted me enough to give me your body…”
“Yeah, and look how well that turned out,” she snapped back, frowning as a loud, high pitched beep echoed throughout the bedroom at the same time Aiden’s cell phone began beeping somewhere in the room.
“Well, fuck,” Aiden snarled, jerking his head toward the sound as a disembodied voice began to relay longitude and latitude coordinates.
Looking around as she tried to locate the source of that obnoxious beeping sound, Carolina frowned as Aiden dove for his cell phone. “What the heck is that?” she asked, raising her voice above the din as Aiden found his phone in the pocket of his discarded cargo pants on the floor and looked at the screen.
“It’s my emergency scanner. I’m the Fire Chief, remember?” he replied as his fingers moved across his iPhone’s screen, his eyes scanning his alerts. “Shit, I’m sorry for this, Dimples, but I’ve got a call out. A house fire out on Route 7,” he informed her as he slapped a hand to silence the scanner on his dresser.
Sighing as he watched Caro blink and absorb that information, he reached for his cargo pants and began pulling them on. “Listen, I don’t know how long this will take….”
“Okay, I’ll just go,” Carolina said with a quick nod as she began to scan the room for her own clothing.
“No!” Aiden automatically denied, freezing in the act of stepping into his trousers. She had to stay. He had a sinking feeling that if she left now, she’d slip right through his fingers, and he couldn’t stand the thought of that. “Just stay here, babe! I’m not sure how long this callout will take, but when I get back we can finish this conversation.”
“Aiden, I’m just staying right next door, remember? I can just go over and start unpacking my things. Then, if you still want to talk when you get home, you know where I’ll be,” she reasoned, spotting her own jeans and panties in a heap on the floor beside his bed.
Fuck, he thought unhappily. She had a point. The problem was, he didn’t want her next door. He knew it wasn’t realistic, but he wanted her unpacking her things here, in his home. Where she belonged, damn it. “Dimples, I don’t have time to argue with you about this. Can’t you just cut me some slack and stay here until I get back?” He continued to plead his case while he snatched his shirt from the end of his messy bed.
Opening her mouth to reply, she was cut off by the sound of yet another ringing device – this time, his landline phone.
“Well?” he questioned, pulling his navy Paradise Fire Department t-shirt over his head.
Frowning as the phone continued to jingle from its spot on the chest of drawers behind him, she shot him a disgruntled look. “Aren’t you going to get that?” she asked, lifting her chin and jerking it toward the annoying tone.
Aiden shrugged as he sat down on the side of the bed and began quickly pulling on his thick socks and shoving on his boots. “Forget the fuckin’ phone, Carolina,” he impatiently dismissed her. “The machine will get it. Answer my question. Will you just wait here for me?”
Opening her mouth to respond to him again, Carolina again found herself being cut off. This time by a low, seductive voice.
“Well, hello there, lover,” the sensual voice greeted. “Long time no talk, big fella. As if you didn’t know, this is Lorna, honey, and I’m back in Paradise for the week dropping off pharmaceuticals with several of the docs in town. Listen, baby, my pussy has missed you something fierce these last several weeks. I can’t wait until I feel that nice, thick cock filling me up again. Let’s hook up. Say, tomorrow night? Seven o’clock at our regular room? I’ll bring the wine and you just bring that fantastic dick. As a token to show you just how much I’ve missed your special brand of TLC, I even remembered to pick you up another dreamcatcher during the Trail of Tears celebration when I was down in Kentucky last week. I know how much you loved the last one I brought you. You can thank me by using that wicked tongue somewhere other than my mouth this weekend. Anyway, call me as soon as you get this message. Goodnight, lover!”
Aiden’s horrified eyes went from the machine to where Carolina stood, looking both stunned and sickened. “Dimples, I can explain,” he began, quickly rising and wincing when she took a stumbling step away from him as she wrestled with the clasp on her bra.
“Don’t! I don’t want to know,” she ordered shrilly, lunging for her shirt and pulling it over her head with shaking hands. “Just tell me one thing,” she demanded, shoving her feet into her ballet flats before she turned to face him with wounded eyes. “Are you safe?”
Aiden grimaced as he looked at his alarm clock. He really needed to get his ass on the road, but damn, he didn’t want to leave Carolina behind with her feeling like he’d deceived her. His woman had entirely the wrong impression of his relationship with Lorna. Well, it was mostly the wrong impression. He was certainly not gonna look good in this scenario, but he wasn’t a villain either. He had slept with the traveling drug representative. Once. One fucking time. It had been a drunken hookup after a particularly bad fire in which his crew had lost two kids. He’d used the other woman to try and forget a horrendous night. It had been completely wrong and he’d regretted it as soon as he’d sobered up the next morning. He’d tried more than once over the last few months to make the determined Lorna understand that they’d been a ‘one and done.’ Unfortunately, the woman refused to accept the fact that he was never going there with her again.
Hell, his hookup with Lorna had been almost six months ago, but the Stage 5 clinger was still living in the land of delusion and hanging onto the fantasy that someday they’d be together. It was evident now that he was going to need to be a bit harsher with the bitch. Especially since he’d finally found the woman he was meant to spend the rest of his life with and she could potentially be carrying their child in her freshly fertilized womb.
Talk about a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
“Damn you, Aiden! Just answer me! Do I need to worry that you’ve given me some kind of funky disease?”
Gut twisting as he realized what Carolina was asking, he shook his head. “Of course not, baby. I’ve always gloved up before you.”
The look on her face spoke volumes. “Sure you have, Aiden,” she replied sarcastically with an icy smile.
“Fuck, Dimples, I don’t want to leave you like this, but I’ve got to go,” he groaned, shoving a hand through his hair as he tried to resist the urge to howl at the cruel unfairness of it all. “Please just stay here and we’ll talk when I get back. I’ll explain everything then, I swear,” he begged, gathering up his wallet and keys from the dresser.
“Oh, fuck you,” Carolina snarled at him, snatching her purse off the floor. “You are insane if you think I’m gonna sit down and have a chat with you about the other women you’re fucking at the moment. In fact, from this point on, we don’t have a thing to say to each other. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to know you. Forget tonight happened. In fact, forget you even met me. God knows, that’s what I’m going to try to do where you’re concerned! Men like you make me sick!”
Aiden stiffened at the cold finality he heard in her words. While he knew he didn’t have time to fight with her now, she damn sure should know their relationship was far from over. “Well, I’m real sorry, but I’m not gonna make it that easy for you, Carolina. As I’ve told you multiple times tonight, you are mine. What’s happening right here is just a big fucking misunderstanding – no pun intended. And it is one that I will happily explain to you as soon as I get home. But for the record, even if things were exactly what you think th
ey are, as you’ve also pointed out, you could be nurturin’ my child in your womb. If you think I’d walk away from that kind of miracle, then you’re the one that’s crazy.”
“If there are any consequences from my moment of insanity, then I’ll deal with it, you bastard. You just stay the hell away from me, Aiden James. Stay far, far away,” she warned as she stormed out of his bedroom.
Closing his eyes as he heard his front door slam a second later, Aiden sighed as he followed the path she’d taken, hating himself a little more with every step he took for the pain he was responsible for putting in her eyes. “Goddammit,” he muttered as he stepped outside and realized Zeke had already dropped off her car. Obviously, the sheriff had left her keys in the vehicle, too. Watching her peel out of their shared driveway, her 4Runner throwing gravel over his truck as she floored the accelerator, he cursed the fact that he couldn’t pursue her. Consoling himself with the fact that he’d spotted a new tire where her spare had been, he reminded himself that at least he didn’t have to worry about that.
For now, he’d go fight a fire. Maybe save a few lives.
Then, he’d concentrate on tracking his woman down.
She could run, but she couldn’t hide forever.
After all, he had an ace up his sleeve. He knew where she lived.
Chapter Five
Six Weeks Later
“Well, it was official, Verity. The rabbit is officially very, very dead. Time of Death: six freaking weeks ago,” Carolina announced morosely into her cell phone. Leaning her head against the cool glass window of her trusty 4Runner, she tried desperately to convince herself that this was all a dream that she was bound to wake up from soon.
Claimed (Passion in Paradise #4.5) Page 5