“Goddamn it!”
-ended up covered in what looked like ranch dressing as Rylie, who really seemed to hate the large Bradford that went out of his way to piss her off, reached inside the bag with Black Jack’s written across it-
“Knows what?” Melanie asked, biting back a yawn as they watched Arik get hit in the chest with a large Caesar salad.
“That you’re in love with him,” Rebecca said, sounding bored as they watched Arik move to grab the bag away from Rylie only to rethink it, curse, and-
“Oh, come on!”
“He won’t let me tell him,” Melanie said, unable to help but smile as she glanced down at Cody, who was sitting in his bouncy chair, to find him turning his head so that he could watch his uncle try to duck out of the way of a large pizza only to smile around his bottle when it nailed Arik in the chest.
“I see,” Rebecca said, sounding thoughtful before she asked, “and that seems normal to you?”
“Nothing about this is normal,” Melanie admitted, sighing heavily as she leaned over so that she could kiss Cody’s baby toes.
Keeping his eyes locked on his uncle, Cody wiggled the toes on his other foot in silent demand, making her lips twitch as she moved to kiss his other foot. He was such a sweet baby, Melanie thought, unable to help but smile as she watched him close his eyes and fall asleep with a small smile playing on his lips.
“True,” Rebecca murmured absently as she leaned back as they watched Arik trip over the curb to get away from Rylie’s food assault only to end up getting shoved to the ground, having the small woman that he should probably stop antagonizing straddle his stomach, grab a handful of fries, and shove it in his face.
“I’m scared,” Melanie finally admitted.
“Because of Adam?” Rebecca asked, sighing heavily.
“Yes,” she said only to frown when Rebecca closed her eyes and said, “Please, tell me that you’re not still in love with that asshole.”
“It’s not that,” Melanie said, shaking her head with a sigh as she moved to take Cody’s bottle away only to have her son open his eyes, glare, grab hold of his bottle, and commence suckling as his attention once again went to Arik as Rylie shoved one last handful of fries in his face before she got up, muttered something that had Arik’s eyes narrowing dangerously on her as she grabbed her delivery bag and stormed off.
“That doesn’t really answer my question,” Rebecca said as she got up and walked over to the outside faucet, turned on the water, and-
“Goddamn it, woman!”
-began hosing Arik off as she waited for an answer, one that Melanie wasn’t sure how to give her.
“No, I don’t love him. I don’t even think that I like him to be honest,” Melanie said, moving over so that Arik, who was now completely drenched, could storm past her and head inside where he would most likely spend the rest of the night trying to come up with a way to get back at the small woman that was providing them with countless hours of entertainment.
“And you’re afraid that you’ll end up hating Aidan, too,” Rebecca guessed as she tossed the hose aside and joined her on the front step.
“No, I’m afraid that he’ll end up hating me,” Melanie said with a sad smile as Rebecca wrapped her arm around her and-
“Please don’t make me kill you,” her best friend said, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze that she really didn’t find all that comforting at the moment.
“Is there a reason why you’re threatening me, waddles?” Melanie asked, turning her head so that she could watch her best friend’s eyes narrow dangerously on her.
“I don’t waddle.”
“Not yet…”
“I really do hate you,” Rebecca said, nodding solemnly.
“The feeling is mutual,” Melanie said, unable to help but smile when Rebecca glared.
“Don’t screw this up because of what Adam did. Aidan is nothing like him and would never hurt you,” Rebecca said, giving her shoulder another squeeze that had her frowning.
“I didn’t think you liked Aidan.”
Rebecca dropped her arm away and grabbed her drink as she cleared her throat and mumbled, “I may have, ummm, underestimated him.”
“What makes you say that?” Melanie asked, watching as Rebecca threw a nervous glance over her shoulder.
“Many things,” was all Rebecca said as she took a sip of her drink.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“I’d really rather not talk about it if that’s okay with you,” Rebecca mumbled as she started to look over her shoulder again, rethought it, cleared her throat, and said, “Stop overthinking this and tell the man that you love him so that you can put him out of his misery.”
Chapter 40
Maybe this was a bad idea?
Definitely a bad idea, Melanie decided as she glanced around the empty waiting room and decided that it was a bad idea to bother Aidan at work. Definitely a bad idea, she thought, worrying her bottom lip as she glanced over at the white door that led to the back and found herself shifting nervously in her seat as she slowly exhaled.
She could do this.
She could definitely do this, Melanie told herself, following that up with a firm nod only to realize that she was shaking her head and eying the exit again. That was followed by telling herself that she was overthinking this and decided that as soon as Aidan opened that door that she was going to tell him just how much she loved him and-
“I told Dr. Bradford that you were waiting,” the very friendly receptionist said with a warm smile before she closed the privacy glass and Melanie decided that she should probably go since she was a coward.
Decision made, she grabbed the brown paper bag filled with takeout from Aidan’s favorite burger place that she’d picked up hoping to distract him, carried it over to the receptionist desk, placed it on the counter with, “Can you please give this to Aidan. I um, have to go,” before quickly making her way back to her seat, threw her bag over her shoulder, grabbed Cody’s car seat, noted that he was still asleep, and rushed out the door, only to sigh in relief when she spotted her car, and-
“What are you doing here?” came the unexpected demand that had her berating herself for not moving her ass faster.
For a brief moment, Melanie considered asking her sister what she was doing here, but since she really didn’t care…
“I can’t believe you turned out to be such a bitch,” Caitlyn said, somehow managing to say the one thing that would make Melanie slowly turn around, telling herself that there was no way that she could have heard her sister correctly, not after everything that she’d put her through over the years.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” Melanie found herself asking.
“I really just don’t understand how you could do that to someone,” Caitlyn said, shaking her head in disgust.
“Who am I doing what to?” Melanie asked, glancing down at Cody to make sure that he was still-
“Trying to force Aidan to marry you,” Caitlyn snapped, making her frown.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Melanie said since they’d never even talked about getting married, something that she’d been afraid that he would insist on when she was pregnant. As much as she loved Aidan and would love to spend the rest of her life with him, she couldn’t marry him because of Cody.
“You are so full of shit! You got pregnant on purpose to get back at me.”
“No, I didn’t,” Melanie said, shaking her head because she would never do something like that.
“Do you really think that I’m the only one that figured it out? It wasn’t difficult to count back nine months and figure out what happened,” Caitlyn snapped, shaking her head in disbelief. “I get that you weren’t happy about finding out about Adam and me, but going out and getting pregnant on purpose to try to get back at us is just pathetic. It’s been three years, Melanie, you really need to move on and get over it. Adam wasn’t in love with you, hadn’t been for a long time
, and every time he tried to tell you, you went out of your way to make him feel bad so that he stayed until he finally got sick of you and now, you’re doing the same thing to Aidan.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Melanie said, shaking her head as she forced herself to turn around and head to her car, afraid that she would finally give in to urge to slap her sister, something that she’d promised her parents that she would never do no matter how much Caitlyn pissed her off.
But god, did Caitlyn have it coming…
“Oh, but I really do. When I was walking to the exam room to get my checkup, I heard Aidan and his father talking in his office. He’s going to ask you to marry him because you got pregnant and he wants to do the right thing. He doesn’t deserve to be used like this. You need to do the right thing and let him go. This just isn’t right.”
“He loves me,” Melanie said firmly, reminding herself that Caitlyn was just trying to cause problems because that’s what she did.
That’s what she always did.
“Really? Then what about the Bradford curse, hmm? I heard all about it at the baby shower, which makes me wonder why Aidan is really proposing,” Caitlyn said as Melanie watched her sister head across the small parking lot to her car as she stood there, telling herself that she should forget about this only to end up pulling her phone out of her pocket and sending Rebecca a text message, hoping to figure out what was really going on.
*-*-*-*
“What’s the Bradford curse?” Melanie asked as soon as he opened his office door to find her sitting on his couch, holding a large fast-food cup in her hands and watching him with a sad expression that told him that she already knew.
“Where’s Cody?” Aidan asked, closing the door behind him before he walked over to the couch and sat down next to her.
“With your father,” Melanie said as he reached over and pulled her onto his lap, careful of the large drink in her hands as he helped her move until she was straddling his lap.
“The curse doesn’t matter,” he told her, leaning down so that he could steal a sip of her drink as he placed his hands on her hips.
“That’s not what I heard,” Melanie said, worrying her bottom lip and looking so damn lost as he stole another sip, trying to buy himself some time to figure out how to explain this to her without her realizing that his family was clearly fucking insane since he felt that it would be in his best interest to wait until after they were married before she found out.
“Who told you about the curse?” Aidan asked, wondering which one of the assholes that he was related to had tried to fuck him over.
“Caitlyn overheard something mentioned about the Bradford curse at the baby shower,” she said as he struggled against the urge to tell her what he thought about her sister as he took the cup from her.
“And she felt the need to tell you,” he guessed, sighing as he took another sip, finishing off her drink before he reached over and placed it on the side table.
“She did,” Melanie mumbled sadly with a small nod as he reached up and cupped her beautiful face in his hands.
“I love you, Melanie, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but we’re going to do this the right way,” Aidan said as he leaned in so that he could brush his lips against hers. “Tonight, Lucifer is going to watch Cody while I take you out for an incredibly romantic dinner where I’m going to spoil you with white roses, champagne, and chocolate while I tell you just how much I love you. After dinner, I’m going to take you to an insanely expensive hotel where I’m going to spend the rest of the night spoiling you in every way imaginable before I make love to you and before the night’s over, I’m going to get down on one knee and ask you to marry me.”
“What about the curse?” she asked as she leaned in and kissed him.
“It doesn’t matter, Melanie, because you and I are doing this the right way. I owe it to you,” he said, wrapping his arms around her as he struggled not to yawn. “We’re going to do this right and that means engagement parties, getting stressed over planning the perfect wedding that is going to cost an arm and a leg, a white dress, beautiful church, a stale wedding cake, and an obscenely expensive honeymoon to the destination of your choice where we don’t leave the hotel room the entire time.”
“You would really do that for me?” Melanie asked, sitting back on his lap with a shy smile.
“I would do anything for you,” Aidan said as he leaned back in and-
“That’s really just not going to work for me,” Melanie said, sighing heavily with a sad shake of her head, leaving him confused as she climbed off his lap. He raised his arms to stop her only to have them fall back down as he found himself struggling to keep his eyes open seconds before everything suddenly went black.
Chapter 41
“You drugged me,” the man that she’d been starting to worry about said, sounding understandably pissed.
“I mean, technically, you did it to yourself since you stole my drink,” Melanie felt the need to point out as she turned the car off and decided that perhaps now was the best time to head inside to the room that she’d rented a couple of hours ago while she’d been killing time waiting for him to regain consciousness.
“Why?” Aidan asked as he rubbed his hands over his face with a groan.
“Tradition,” Melanie said, nodding solemnly when he dropped his hands away so that he could glare at her as he asked, “Where are we?”
“Somewhere in New Hampshire,” Melanie said as she opened her door and climbed out, deciding that perhaps now was not the best time to tell him that they were lost since he’d just use that against her.
“What are we doing in New Hampshire?” he demanded as he climbed out of the car and-
“I, umm, should probably carry Cody in,” Melanie said since he was having problems standing and all, she decided when his legs gave out and dropped him on his ass.
Decision made, she grabbed Cody’s bag and threw it over her shoulder before she grabbed his overnight bag, and-
Made another executive decision, one that had her giving Aidan a hopeful smile as he reached past her and took Cody’s car seat. She sent him a hopeful smile as he grabbed the travel playpen, threw it over his shoulder, and sent her another glare that had her grabbing the overnight bag that she’d packed for them, swallowing hard, and deciding that now was probably a good time to play the quiet game.
That decision lasted until they were in the painfully slow elevator that was stopping at every floor and she realized that now was probably a good time to say something, mostly because he hadn’t stopped glaring at her.
“Have I mentioned that I’m in love with you?” she asked with a hopeful smile only to end up worrying her bottom lip between her teeth when he narrowed his eyes on her.
“I had help?” Melanie said, deciding to test the waters to see if selling out her accomplices would save her ass.
Since that didn’t seem to help her, she decided to move on with, “Did I mention that I love you?”
Was that a growl?
Yes, yes, it was…
Swallowing nervously, Melanie started to look over her shoulder to see what floor they were on only to rethink that decision and went to plan B, but since she didn’t actually have a plan B, she decided to ramble.
“Proposals and weddings don’t work in your family. Every single Bradford marriage that started with a proposal ended in divorce and as much as I would have loved a church wedding, I’m not willing to take the risk,” she said in a rush, nodding for some reason as she gestured here, there, and everywhere, really hoping that he would stop glaring at some point.
He didn’t.
No, what he did was stalk forward when the elevator ding announced that they’d arrived at their floor and forced her to move or…
Well, since she had no plans of finding out what that or was, Melanie stepped off the elevator and sent a silent thank you to the desk clerk that had given them a room near the elevator. She grabbed the keycard
out of her pocket, opened the door, and-
“Did my father tell you the rest of the rules?” Aidan asked, sounding bored as he placed Cody on the bed so that he could set up his playpen.
“He might have,” she said, watching as he finished setting up the playpen before taking Cody, who was still asleep, from his car seat and made quick work of changing his diaper and put him down in his crib with his favorite blanket.
Once, he was tucked in…
“Then you know that this doesn’t work unless I lose my fucking mind, don’t you?” Aidan asked as she found herself backing up towards the bathroom.
“He might have mentioned something to that effect,” she mumbled only to bite back a wince when she felt her back hit the bathroom counter.
“What else did he tell you?” Aidan asked as he placed his hands on the counter on either side of her, effectively trapping her as he leaned in and ripped a moan from her as he kissed her neck.
“That you’re a stubborn pain in that ass that doesn’t listen,” Melanie said, loving the sounds of his chuckle as he pressed a kiss against her jaw.
“Anything else?” he asked as she felt his hand slide between her legs and-
“I-I don’t remember,” Melanie said, struggling to focus as he rubbed his palm between her legs.
“I see,” Aidan murmured, sounding thoughtful as he continued to move his hand between her legs. “We’re getting married, Melanie, but we’re doing it my way.”
“And what way is that?” she found herself asking as her head fell back, giving him more room as he kissed his way back down her neck.
“Pick a date,” he said as he rubbed his hand harder between her legs.
“Tomorrow,” Melanie said, licking her lips only to find herself turned around in his arms so that she was facing the mirror.
“That’s not going to work for me, sweetheart,” Aidan said, running his hands over her stomach as he pressed a kiss against the side of her neck.
“That’s your only option,” Melanie said because she refused to back down.
She didn’t care if this “curse” was real or not. She wasn’t about to take any chances, not when it came to Aidan. She loved him and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She didn’t care about anything else.
Irresistible (Neighbor from Hell Book 11) Page 20