Then he collapsed, holding her up by pinning her to the wall. Amy sagged and buried her head in his chest.
“Ohmygod. Ohmygod. Oh. My. God.”
Aiden skimmed his hands up her sides. “I know—” Amy shook her head. “No. Oh. God.” She couldn’t stop saying it. “I just had sex. In my kitchen. With my kids upstairs.”
He pulled away, his expression wary. “Amy—”
“You don’t understand. What if one of them came down? What if one of them saw us?” She pushed at him, clawing to get away, her embarrassment so acute she couldn’t look at him. He stepped back, holding her steady until she found her balance. “You have to get out of here.” She bent down, scooped up his clothes, and thrust them at him. What the heck had she just done? This wasn’t like her at all.
“Amy, please—”
“Please, please, just go.” She shot a panicked look toward the steps leading upstairs. How would she ever explain a naked Aiden to her kids? The thought had her mind spiraling out of control.
Anger tinged Aiden’s face pink and he raised his powerful body to his full height. “Now just wait a damn minute—”
“Shhh. You’ll wake the kids.” She tried to shove him toward the sliding glass door, not caring if he was still naked, her only thought on getting him out.
Aiden stepped into his jeans, grabbed his shoes and shirt and headed for the door, but not before looking back at her. “We will talk about this,” he warned as he stepped outside and slid the door shut.
Chapter Six
Aiden paced a circle from his dining room to his kitchen to his living room and back again, his head bent in concentration as he and Ben discussed Cerian’s whereabouts over the phone. His anger at Amy was still sharp. Too sharp to seek out her company and talk to her. And, if he were to be honest, it hurt too.
That had been the best, most profound, life-altering sex he’d ever had, and to be kicked out of her house before his heart had even stopped pounding had been humiliating and painful.
“I think he’s gone,” Ben said.
Aiden blew out a breath, tilted his head back, and rubbed his neck. “I agree.” He cursed in his native language. Cerian had been a pain in his ass for far too long. The man terrorized the world, flitting from one place to the next, wreaking havoc, killing innocents in the most sensational way, then moving on. Aiden and Ben had been tracking him, slowly closing the net around him, until they’d cornered him right here a month ago.
Now he’d disappeared again.
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Ben was saying. “Be prepared to pack up and move again.”
Aiden nodded as Ben gave more orders, but his mind was far from Cerian. Maybe that was the problem, he hadn’t been concentrating and the rogue vampire had slipped away. But, damn, he couldn’t keep his mind off the woman next door. The woman who’d turned his world upside down, then just as easily thrown him out.
Ben was right. It was time to leave.
They said their good-byes and Aiden flipped his phone closed just as the doorbell rang. Automatically he took a quick glance out the window to gauge the level of the sun and to his surprise found it had set long ago, plunging the street into darkness. He yanked the door open, neither needing nor wanting company at the moment.
Robby stood on the other side, looking a little sheepish and a lot scared, a lock of pale blond hair sticking up in the back. Startled, Aiden stared down at him. The boy hadn’t gone out of his way to be friendly, giving Aiden sullen looks and mumbling hello only if Aiden said it first. Of course, their schedules were a little off and they hadn’t seen each other all that much. What the hell could the kid possibly want with him?
“What’s wrong?” he asked sharply. “Is your mother okay?”
Robby’s eyebrows dipped in confusion. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t she be?”
Aiden blew out a breath and scraped his hair away from his face. Get a grip, Reed. Amy’s scared to death her kids’ll find out you two have something going on. No need to tip him off. But they didn’t have anything going on because she’d thrown him out the minute they’d finished making love. Jerking his thoughts back to the present, he stared at Amy’s son, seeing her in the tilt of Robby’s head and the shape of his nose. Somewhere in the region of his heart, a pain ripped through him. What would it be like to see bits and pieces of Amy in his own child? He pushed the thought away, back to the far recesses of his mind. Thoughts like that were counterproductive and impossible.
“What can I do for you, then? Would you like to come in?”
Robby threw a worried glance at his own house. “Uh, no. Thanks though.”
Aiden looked at the house too, noted the lights on and the van gone. “Your mother know you’re here?”
The kid flushed and looked down at his worn sneakers.
His curiosity piqued, Aiden crossed his arms over his chest and waited. Robby looked up at him, then away. For the first time, Aiden noticed a piece of paper balled in the boy’s hand. It’d been nearly three hundred years since he’d been a youth, but the memories never went away. Aiden sensed the kid had to screw up his courage to ask something big. Stepping out on the porch, he sat on the wooden rocking chair, propping his bare feet on the railing and indicating with a wave of his hand that Robby was to do the same. The boy shook his head and remained standing, staring at his shoe, the paper in his hand becoming more and more wrinkled.
“I came to ask you somethin’,” he finally said, his blue eyes rising and meeting Aiden’s.
“Okay.”
He looked away, the flush turning into a full-blown, bright-red, blush. “Will you, uh…will you be my dad?”
Silence fell between them except for the crickets’ night song and a car that passed one street up. Aiden couldn’t have found the words if he wanted. He was so shocked, so stunned that the breath caught in his lungs.
“I mean—” Robby looked at him with something close to panic. “Not all the time. Just for a weekend.”
“A weekend. You want me to be your dad for a weekend.” Robby nodded, and as much as the boy’s question stunned him, the thought also warmed him. This kid actually came to him, asking him to be his dad. For a weekend.
Then all his good feelings came crashing down as the memory of Amy pushing his naked ass toward the door, panic just a breath away, intruded. If she didn’t want to admit to herself that she felt something for him—even if it was just physical—she sure as hell wouldn’t want her son calling him dad. Even temporarily.
Dad.
Of course he could never do it. How could he raise a human child when he couldn’t even go out in the sun?
“Look,” Robby said, his tone hardening and his face closing off all expression. “If you don’t wanna, that’s okay.” He turned on his heel and headed for the steps, his shoulders stooped.
“Why do you want me to be your dad?” Aiden asked, raising his voice just enough to reach the boy.
Robby glared at him over his shoulder. “What do you care? You obviously don’t want to do it.”
“I never said that.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t have to. Not saying anything is as good as saying no.”
“Who told you that?”
“No one.” He lifted his chin and glared at Aiden.
“Why do you want me to be your dad?” he asked again.
Robby’s bottom lip quivered before he sucked it between his teeth. Finally he shoved the crumpled paper at him. Aiden took it and smoothed it out over his thighs, tipping it toward the street lamp to read. Ah, now he got it. The Boy Scout’s Annual Father-Son camp out. He raised his eyes and looked at Amy’s son, but Robby refused to look back, staring at the street instead, his lip still firmly held between his teeth.
“Did you tell your real dad about this?”
Tears popped into the kid’s eyes but he quickly knuckled them away and Aiden didn’t mention them, preferring, as Robby probably did, to ignore it.
“Yeah.”
Rob not only left
our marriage, he left parenting behind as well. “And?”
“H-he said he w-was too b-busy.” Robby sniffed and wiped his nose with his hand, then wiped his hand on his shirt. Aiden grinned at the boy-like gesture even as anger boiled in his blood at a father who refused to accept responsibility. If he had a son like Robby he sure as shit wouldn’t blow him off and he’d never make it so the kid had to ask strangers to be his dad.
“I c-called his house and…and I heard a baby c-crying in the background.” The tears, too many to wipe away, began dripping. Aiden had to put a tight lid on his rage. The son-of-a-bitch.
A look of panic crossed Robby’s face. “Don’t tell mom. Please. About the baby, I mean. She’ll cry and I don’t like it when she cries.”
Aiden had no intention of telling Amy that her ex had sired another offspring. He couldn’t bear to see her tears as much as her son couldn’t. Instead he held up the paper. “Have you asked your mom about this? Does she know you want me to go with you?”
Robby shook his head and scuffed the toe of his shoe on the wooden planking, sniffling.
“Maybe we should tell her.”
His head shot up and he bit his lip as he stared at the paper in Aiden’s hand. Anticipation scorched a path through Aiden at the thought of seeing Amy again, of inhaling that warm vanilla scent and hearing her voice. Hell, he’d been a fool if he ever thought having her once would quench his desire. Once wasn’t enough. A thousand times wouldn’t be enough. Only a lifetime would slake his hunger.
And he couldn’t do that.
Not living as a vampire.
Not with Cerian to catch.
His gaze swung to the paper. Oh, holy hell. Cerian.
It all made sense now. Why the rogue vampire had ‘disappeared’ so suddenly without his usual killing spree to precede his departure. He wasn’t gone. He was still here. Hiding. Biding his time. What better note to go out on than to hunt and kill a bunch of boys on a camping trip.
Aiden licked suddenly dry lips as the paper crinkled in his trembling hand. He turned to Robby, the words on the tip of his tongue to tell him he couldn’t go, that the pack needed to cancel the trip.
But, no. That wouldn’t work. Cerian would get wind of that and plan something worse, something more diabolical than this. At least now Aiden had an idea of where the rogue would strike. And he could catch him. Eliminate him.
He stood just as Amy’s van rumbled down the street. Robby shot it a glance filled with dread. Aiden needed to call Ben and they needed to gather reinforcements if they had to protect a pack of boys and their fathers.
Terror clenched his belly at the thought of Robby in danger. Amy would kill him for sure if she knew. Hell, Amy would fall over in a dead faint if she knew the entire truth about him. But he wouldn’t tell her. He’d make damn sure her son remained safe.
Then he’d get the hell out of town.
Chapter Seven
Amy couldn’t miss seeing her son standing on Aiden’s porch, because every damn time she drove down the street her gaze went to that porch.
“What have you gotten yourself into now, Robby?” The van lurched and sputtered as she took the turn into her driveway. For several long moments she sat inside, unwilling to get out, unwilling to look in the direction of Aiden’s house.
Sex with Aiden had been incredible. More than incredible. Fantastic. Mind-bending. And as physical as it had been it had also been warm and intimate, something she’d sorely lacked in her life. And then she’d panicked and kicked him out, using her kids as an excuse when in fact, she was afraid of her own burgeoning feelings.
She was falling in love.
Aiden was everything she wanted—warm and funny, sexy and thrilling. Never mind she’d only just met him, never mind her daughter was scared of him. She closed her eyes and groaned. Why couldn’t life be easy? Why all these struggles? All this heartache and pain?
With a fatalistic shake of her head, she grabbed her purse and shoved her shoulder against the car door to get it to open. She climbed out and resigned herself to walking across the lawn and over to her neighbor’s porch to find out exactly what her wayward son was up to. She stopped at the bottom step and looked up at a Robby, who looked too guilty for his own good, and an Aiden who looked too delicious for her own good.
He stared at her with those dark chocolate eyes that always seemed to probe the secrets of her mind. She’d expected to see anger in them tonight, but she didn’t. Just curiosity. And hurt. She’d never meant to hurt him, merely to protect her own fragile feelings. Her hand trembled and she tightened it on her purse strap. He looked so good, so delicious, so what she needed after a week without him. A week filled with fights with her children and the realization that her bank account was bled dry.
She ached to lay her head on his shoulders and knew if she did she’d feel so much better.
“We need to talk,” he said in that warm butter voice that invaded her dreams in the deep of the night. Yes, they needed to talk and she acknowledged that with a nod of her head.
“Can he come to dinner, mom? Please? Please?” Robby looked at her with hope and excitement, emotions she hadn’t seen in him in a long while. She shot Aiden a confused glance but he merely shrugged.
Her heart constricted because for the five billionth time she realized that what Robby needed more than anything was a strong male influence, someone who could understand his mood shifts and direct some of that intense energy into pursuits other than terrorizing his sisters. Aiden could be that man, a little voice inside her whispered.
She wanted to laugh at such fancy-schmancy ideas. Aiden never once let on that he wanted a ready-made family. You merely had sex, Amy. Don’t go making it into something it isn’t.
Her son’s cajoling voice brought her back to reality with a thud. This was what her life was—demanding kids, dinner to put on the table.
“Not tonight, honey. I’m sure Mr. Reed has other things to do.”
Robby turned to Aiden. “Do you? Have other things? Can you eat dinner with us? Please?”
Aiden didn’t pull his gaze from her and she both liked that and hated it. Liked it because when he stared at her she could believe she was the center of his universe. Hated it because she had this uneasy feeling he could read her most secret thoughts and right now those thoughts centered on him and the last time he’d been in her kitchen.
“I’d love dinner.”
“Yippee!” Her son swung to her. “What’re we having? Something good?”
She groaned in silence. Tonight, like a lot of other nights, was going to be what she and the kids termed a “Whatever Night”, meaning they ate whatever they wanted. Within reason. Now she would have to fix something and a mental tour of her freezer resulted in nothing. Nada.
“How about I order pizza?” Aiden asked, his eyes still firmly fixed on her. God, did the man know what she was thinking or what?
“Yay!” Robby jumped up and punched his fist in the air, then went flying down the steps, his sneakers slapping against the hard wood. “I’ll tell Claire and Lydia and I’ll even set the table,” he yelled over his shoulder.
Amy smiled as she turned back to Aiden. “You don’t have to do this,” she said.
“I want to. Is that so wrong?”
No. Yes. Why was it so hard to let this man into her life? Probably because the last man ripped her life apart and left her alone with three kids, a huge mortgage and no money.
“We need to talk, Amy.”
“I know. But not until the kids go to bed.”
“Good enough.” Silence descended as his gaze roamed over her, starting at her dirty Keds and traveling up her faded Levi’s to her oversized polo shirt and finally resting on her eyes. “I missed you.”
“Aiden—”
“It’s just a statement of fact, nothing to get excited about.”
But it did excite her and made her want things that for a long time she told herself she didn’t want or need anymore. Now she wondered if she’d be
en lying to herself.
“I missed you too. I’m sorry about the other night. I—”
“Mo-om. Come on.”
Her gaze swung to her son leaning out the screen door, hanging on it like a monkey, waving his free arm at them.
Aiden appeared at her side and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go. The natives are restless and hungry. What do you like on your pizza?”
She allowed him to lead her back to her house. Just five fingers intertwined with hers and she was jelly, all quivering and jiggly inside. Thoughts of their last night together, of her pinned to the wall while he plunged inside her, flew through her mind. Her face heated in a flush while her body turned to one big nerve ending, yearning for his touch, for his lips upon hers.
She stepped through her front door and had to stifle a groan. Aiden’s fingers slipped through hers and he hung back. If he’d harbored any thoughts of spending time with her, they were surely shattered now. Two baskets of laundry sat in the middle of the floor, one needing folding, the other waiting to go in the washer. Two weeks worth of mail and bills covered the little table by the couch. The floor could have used a good vacuuming, but first she had to find it under the Polly Pockets, Legos, My Little Ponies, markers and paper.
“I’m sorry, the place is a mess,” she said, turning to him, totally understanding why he wouldn’t step inside. Once again he stood just on the threshold, poised to enter. A question hovered in his gaze, one she didn’t understand. For several long moments they stared at each other and she got the feeling that he needed something from her but she didn’t know what. With a resigned sigh, she figured he probably didn’t want anything to do with the chaos of her life.
Night Song Page 4