I knew he was just trying to bait me. "I'm not getting an abortion," I repeated, “And I’d like you to leave. Now.”
Anger exploded out of him. He flipped my coffee table over and pounded his fist into my wall, leaving a hole. I jumped away from him, terrified at his sudden violent outburst.
"I'll schedule it myself. I'll even take you there. You don't have to do anything."
"Still no," I said flatly. Despite the slight tremble in my voice, I was adamant and I wasn't going to be bullied. Ever since the night we'd slept together and the condom didn’t hold up, I'd felt like he was keeping tabs on me, maybe he was afraid I’d have something to hold over his head. After I told him I was pregnant a few days ago... well, something inside him seemed to have snapped.
"You can forget the press conference today," he said. "Don't even bother showing up."
My mouth dropped open. "Why not? You said—"
"I said a lot of things. But that was before I found out what a fuck up you are. I called you fifty times last night and you never answered. You already missed one interview. I wasn't about to let you miss this press conference too. I sent Gary."
"Gary? Gary can barely tie his shoes!"
"Well next time I send you for an interview, you make damned sure you get the fucking interview. Where were you last night anyhow?"
"Nowhere," I said, blushing. He stared at me a second, deciding something.
"Next time I call you, you answer. And don't forget, if you ruin me I'll ruin you," he finally said. "Got it?"
"Got it," I said quietly, turning so he wouldn’t see the tears pooling in my eyes. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he made me cry. Without another word, he turned to leave. I let out a long sigh and locked the door behind him.
Chapter 6
I stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around my body and another around my hair, and stepped into the bedroom to turn on the TV. The press conference where I was supposed to have been was on ESPN. The Knights were making some big announcement about their new goalie, Erick Calquin. He was the first hockey player native to Africa who would be playing with the Knights.
Aiden sat beside the coach. His eyes kept flicking back and forth between the camera and the crowd of reporters. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought he was looking for someone. It can't be me. He doesn’t even like me right now. In fact, he probably hates me.
Last night had been amazing. Not only had Aiden taken me in the kitchen, but later again in the bedroom, and then in the shower as well. I sighed. But I knew better. One-night -stands weren't about like or dislike, they were about lust. Sometimes, as in the case with Troy, they were about the worst kind of lust—drunken lust that didn't make any sense to either party in the light of day. But with Aiden, the lust was definitely based on good chemistry. Physical chemistry, anyway. We obviously didn’t do so well otherwise, if this morning’s harsh words to each other was any indication.
My stomach turned over. Oh, no, here it comes. I made it to the bathroom just in time. The toilet bowl was becoming my new best friend.
I returned to the bedroom and climbed up against the pillows to watch the press conference. My phone lit up with a new text. I was shocked to see Aiden's number pop onto my screen. He'd put it in my phone last night sometime between the kitchen and the shower. I'd figured he'd just been playing around.
"He can't be texting me now," I murmured to myself. "He's still at the live press conference." I looked back up at the TV and saw Aiden, still sitting beside his coach, with his phone in his hand. I looked back at the text.
WHERE R U?
I couldn't believe he might really be messaging me on TV.
@ HOME
I saw his face fall the second he got my text.
U WATCHING?
I couldn't understand it. He'd dropped me off three hours ago and the last words we'd exchanged were angry ones. Why did he look so upset that I wasn't at the conference? Why the hell would he care where I was or if I was watching?
YES
Suddenly, he stood up. His coach stopped talking and looked at him.
"Uh," Coach laughed, turning back to the press. "Aiden just wants to give Erick a proper Knights welcome," he said. Then he covered the microphone, but everyone could still hear him tell Aiden to sit the fuck down.
Aiden was standing there with a sexy grin on his face. "I just wanted to give Erick a proper welcome, like Coach said."
Then Aiden turned his back to the cameras and dropped his pants. His bare ass came into view and flashes went off everywhere. Coach shook his head as Aiden wiggled his bare ass for the press. Coach tried to laugh it off, but I could tell he was pissed.
"Aiden," I mumbled to myself. "What the hell are you doing?"
Chapter 7
I paused in the hallway, peeking around the corner towards my front door, listening to the banging of a fist as it flew over the heavy wood.
Troy again? It had to be, who else would be pounding on my door like that at midnight? He'd called me again after Aiden's press conference and told me he'd made an appointment for my "remedy," as he called it over the phone. He was so paranoid that someone would find out he'd slept with me. I knew why. I thought I did, anyway. According to Jessica, the office gossip, Troy was heavily courting the station owner’s socialite daughter. As the station manager of KGLB, he could be easily replaced at the owners discretion. Troy was just trying to cover his own ass.
I crept slowly towards the door and peeked out the side window. I was shocked to see, not Troy, but Aiden standing in the dark with a goofy grin on his face and a bouquet of flowers under his arm.
I opened the door and a flash of relief passed over his face. "Oh good," he said, obviously drunk. "I thought maybe you weren't home." He shoved the flowers towards me. Red roses. I took them, confused.
"Aiden, it's midnight. You know that right?" He smiled sheepishly and leaned in to kiss me. I pushed him away.
“Is this some sort of booty call?” I asked. He actually looked hurt.
"I just... I wanted to see you," he said it so sincerely that I almost considered inviting him inside. But that was a really bad idea. I mean, one night of earth-shattering sex was great, but anything more than one night seemed a little too close for comfort right now. Being pregnant, and with Troy acting crazier and crazier every day, I wasn’t in any condition to entertain even a casual relationship.
"I wanted to apologize. I once heard that you should never go to bed angry with someone, so I didn’t want you to go to bed still angry with me.”
I was pretty sure that saying only applied to people with whom you were in a committed relationship, but this time I was able to keep my mouth shut instead of blurting out that fact. Besides, the flowers were a very nice gesture.
“Thank you. I’m not still angry," I told him. "and you can see me at your next game, unless your coach banned you after that stupid stunt of yours."
He grinned at me. "You saw that, huh? I hoped you would."
Even drunk off his ass, Aiden was adorable. His hair tousled in a carefree style, rock hard pecs peeking out from behind his shirt, and sexy half-grin. Desire flooded me when I thought about the way his hands had slid over my body, and how his dick had slid into my body. I shivered in the doorway thinking about it.
"Oh," he said. "You're cold. Here." He took off his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. It was a surprisingly tender gesture.
"Is there something else, Aiden?" I asked, softer this time.
"Yeah, let me take you out. Tomorrow night."
"Out? You mean on a date?"
He nodded.
I bit my lip. "I don't think that's such a good idea. Why would you even want to?"
He shrugged. "Why wouldn’t I? I can't stop thinking about you, and something tells me... that you might be good for me."
I smiled in spite of myself.
"C’mon, just give me a chance. Let me cook you dinner."
"You cook?" I asked.
It might have been the way his eyes glimmered in the moonlight, or the way his silhouette looked so sultry and delicious as he leaned up against my doorway or the way his T-shirt bulged with his rock-hard chest and muscled arms, but the man breached my every defense.
"Alright," I agreed. "Dinner at my place tomorrow night."
Chapter 8
Aiden showed up at my place at seven with a huge grocery bag of take-out cartons from my favorite restaurant, Luigi's.
"I can't believe you read my mind," I said, as he began opening up boxes. It almost looked as if he'd ordered everything on the menu, afraid that I wouldn't like what he picked. I dug into some eggplant parmesan, my mouth watering. I kept waiting for him to get drunk and paw at me, but the strongest thing he had to drink was Diet Coke.
As I pulled out plates and silverware, he wandered around my living room, looking at my diplomas. I'd had them professionally framed and hung on the wall. I was incredibly proud of them.
"Looks like you're smarter than I gave you credit for," he grinned at me when I narrowed my eyes and glared. I threw a couch pillow at him. He caught it and threw it back. "Yale huh? I couldn't even get in there."
"Well, it wasn't easy," I told him. "I had to work hard for it. Scholarships don't exactly fall of trees."
"You got a scholarship?" he asked, interested.
"Yeah. My dad didn't exactly have the money for me to attend. Yale was one of the schools that offered me a full work scholarship."
"Work scholarship?"
"Yeah. I got my tuition waved as long as I kept my grades up and worked on campus. I worked in the cafeteria." I wrinkled my nose.
"Didn't much like it, huh?"
"Let’s just say it taught me that I didn’t want to make a career of picking up people's leftovers. Have you ever seen cafeteria food when it's being made? It's all powders. Powdered eggs, powdered beef—"
"Powdered beef?" Aiden laughed.
"I'm not kidding," I laughed with him. "You try eating that stuff for four years straight. You'll never look at food the same way again."
He hesitated. "My family wasn't exactly rich either. That's why hockey's always been so important to me. It was my ticket to a different life, you know? I didn't want to end up being a custodian all my life, like my dad. I love him, and I’m proud of him for supporting his family, but... he's never seemed really happy to me."
"I get it," I told him. Aiden gave a smolderingly sexy look that told me exactly what was on his mind. He took a step towards me. I knew I should stop him before it went any further, but I couldn't bring myself to push him away. My body was crazy about this man. My blood flowed through my veins like liquid lava.
"Aiden, there's something you should know." But was there? Did I have to tell Aiden that I was pregnant? What did it matter? He wasn't the father, after all. A woman only had to tell the father. Chances were that what Aiden and I were experiencing wasn’t going to last much longer anyway. It was just something we had to work out of our systems, like the flu. So, our one-night stand turned into a two-night stand, so what? I was sure that tomorrow morning would probably be our final goodbye.
Aiden stopped moving towards me, waiting to see what I would say. But instead of continuing, I stepped closer and pressed my lips against his. My hands searched his chest and found the hem of his shirt, lifting it over his head. Now that we had started, it was like I couldn't waste any time. I didn't just want him, I needed him, craved him.
My heart rate quickened and my breathing sought to match it. I kissed his bare skin, tasting his body as I moved my tongue across the dips and crevices of his chiseled abdomen. My mind raced. What are you doing? Stop this now. What are you thinking? But I told my mind to shut up. Rational thought wasn't needed for tonight. My body took over and shut my brain down. There was no reason to think, only act.
Aiden's strong, soft hands cupped my breasts, feeling them through my bra. Slowly, he brought each strap down and slid it off me. We took turns exploring, tasting and pleasuring each other. I traversed the landscape of his hard chest and tight abs, but when he turned his attentions to my breasts, I was overcome with an acute surge of desire. His hands seemed fascinated by their soft roundness and heavy curve. His teeth, lips and tongue worshiped my nipples. An aching tension was building between my thighs and my body began to tremble, my knees buckled. Aiden scooped me into his arms before I could fall and carried me to the bedroom.
My bed was soft and inviting, and he laid me down in the center, while he stood at the foot of it unfastening his jeans. He slid them down his hips, freeing his large cock that jutted out towards me, thick, long, and erect. He stood for a moment while I admired the full length of his powerful physique. He watched me, eyes at half-mast, as I slid my own jeans off and kicked them off the bed. My stomach wasn't revealing anything yet; it was still hard and smooth and when I leaned back on my elbows, spreading my legs for Aiden, his eyes widened, and jaw slackened.
"I thought you might like to score," I teased. "Here’s the net, you bring the puck." I spread my legs wider and Aiden grinned at me. He slid on top of me, his bare skin against mine leaving his jeans in a pool on the floor. He didn't try to enter me right away. Instead, his deft fingers found that soft, sweet spot between my thighs and began to strum me like a violin. His warm, calloused fingers teased my pussy lips apart and gently circled the tiny bud of nerve endings. His fingers strummed my instrument, and with my head back, and eyes shut, a moan escaped my lips as the vibrations carried through my body.
Slowly, he lowered his head and allowed his tongue to delve into my soft mound. "You taste fucking delicious," he murmured, his breath hot against my skin. I wrapped one leg behind his neck and pulled him tighter against me. His tongue licked the length of my slit. "More," I whispered. He responded by dipping and swirling his tongue deep into my canal, tasting me from the inside. His tongue swam inside me, pulsing with soft precision. When he curled his tongue out and flicked my clit, my whole body shuddered and without warning exploded into an intensely delicious orgasm that had me crying out his name.
Before the last tremors of my climax subsided, Aiden brought his rigid, engorged erection to my slick entrance. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his mouth opened ever so slightly as his shaft slowly slid into my waiting pussy. I felt his heartrate quicken when I thrust my pelvis up hard to meet his. We moved against each other perfectly in sync to a rhythm only we could capture.
I couldn't believe how right it felt to be with him like this. I ran my fingers through his thick golden hair, pulling his lips to mine and slid my tongue into his mouth to entwine with his. I could taste my juices on him as his hips thrust forward again and again, pounding into me like waves against a shore.
Power surged between us, intense and electric, sending sparks up my arms and to my brain. I had shut down my thought processes earlier, not wanting to hear the mindless chatter of why I should or shouldn't be doing this. But now, my brain confirmed that I'd done the right thing by being here with Aiden. In fact, I couldn’t think of anything I’d ever done that had felt this right
As I felt the beginning flutters of my second orgasm, I used my legs to pull him tighter against me, and as my body convulsed into waves of ecstasy, I was vaguely aware of his body tightening and his hard, muscular ass cheeks clenching as he exploded inside me. My arms and legs were coiled around him like a snake. I didn't want him to let go. When I felt the energy subside, I loosened my grasp. He was staring at me with wide, wondering eyes.
"I've never felt anything that powerful before," he said.
I grinned. Score!
Chapter 9
I sat between Billy and Troy. Billy kept his camera trained on the game and didn't notice Troy's dirty looks directed at me. Troy had insisted on coming to the game tonight. He'd said that he was a fan of the Knights and wanted to see the game. H
e also added that as the manager of the station he had to make sure I got my interview this time. I assured him I would. Aiden had already set it up to make sure I was allowed full access to the locker room and told his teammates to cooperate. I'd been flattered when he'd offered to help, but had initially declined. I hadn't wanted it to seem like I was using him.
Aiden had persisted, and without informing me until it was done, had secured me the equivalent of a backstage pass at one of the biggest games of the season. I was thrilled. Technically, he wasn't helping me to anything that I didn't already deserve. As a member of the press, I should have been given full access from the beginning, but being a woman in a man's sporting world wasn't always easy.
"After the game," Troy leaned over and whispered, "I want to talk to you. Alone."
I tried to ignore him but his hand gripped my wrist much too hard. I turned to face him and he glared at me with a menacing look. "I'm serious," he said.
"Fine," I whispered, looking around. I knew it had only been a week since Aiden and I had first slept together, but I didn't want anyone reporting back to him that I was involved in any way with Troy. Even though it was just a hate-hate relationship. Luckily for me, Troy didn't want anyone noticing our relationship either. He had no idea about my involvement with Aiden and I intended to keep it that way. Even though Aiden and I hadn’t quite ended, as I thought we would, there still wasn’t any spoken commitment between us. I just didn’t want Troy knowing my business.
Despite only having slept with Troy once, he was bitter and jealous like no one I had ever known. He seemed to think he owned me. I had to turn off my phone every night when Aiden was over just to make sure that Troy's phone calls didn't send the wrong impression.
"Cooper's on fire tonight," Billy remarked.
I couldn't hide the smile that played at my lips. Aiden was indeed on fire. He made goal after goal, and it looked effortless. And he hadn't gotten booted from the game once.
Bears of Burden: STERLING Page 31