“Yes.” There was no question of whether or not she was going to come, it was just a matter of how long she could hold off before an orgasm overcame her. The harder she tried to put it off, the more her hips moved. Tiny tremors started to ripple over her body and she knew she was a goner. Her eyes opened at the feeling of Aidan’s fingers brushing over her breast. He looked into her eyes as his tongue jutted out and teased her nipple. He did it twice more, flicking a trail of slippery wetness over the brown tip, before drawing it into his mouth and sucking gently.
The short hairs in his mustache tickled her skin for a brief moment before he opened his lips wider and sucked a little harder. That was all it took. Shae’s hips ground down hard against his pelvis, driving his cock in a perfectly firm press against the walls of her cunt. She came hard, pressing her forehead against Aidan’s. His arms wrapped around her body, holding her close as she rode out her orgasm.
When she could breathe a little again, he started to move.
✶
Shae couldn’t sleep. Aidan was awake too, probably for different reasons though. They both lay awake in his bed, looking at the ceiling with their bodies still intertwined. Aidan ran his fingers down Shae’s side. She had a little roll that sometimes made her self-conscious, but she didn’t mind when Aidan touched her there. Her fingers trailed the soft hair on his stomach. Her anxiety was at bay for a moment, but Shae felt like she was watching the clock, just counting down the seconds until she’d used her peace and calm all up.
“So you have your nudes. You have a man who can wield a slow cooker like no other. What else do you want in a relationship?”
And there it was. Shae suddenly felt her eyes stinging. This is exactly what she didn’t want, to have to think about her feelings, especially when she was with Aidan. It was too much, too overwhelming to try and wrap her mind around. She swallowed, stopping the tears from touching the corners of her eyes. “I don’t know.” Her body was vibrating with anxious tension. She quickly sat up. “I am wide awake.”
“I’m surprised,” Aidan chuckled as his hand slipped over her thigh. “You did say a good orgasm usually knocked you out. Either I’m doing a terrible job—”
“No! No. You did a great job. A great job. I mean, that was some good stuff. Trust me, I am a terrible liar. If it was bad, I would have rolled off you and army crawled out of here naked just to get away.” The sound of Aidan’s burst of laughter calmed her nerves. They just needed to keep talking about things that had nothing to do with their actual feelings and she would be fine.
“Good to know a rejection from you will be really in your face. There’s no ambiguity with naked army crawl escape.”
“Yeah, you’d know.” She toyed with the edge of the sheet, that sourness in her stomach rising again. Why couldn’t she just enjoy this?
“Hey,” Aidan said softly. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. I’m good. Actually…” Shae gave him a half-hearted smile, then tapped her temple. “A lot going on up here. Cursed with an overactive mind.”
“Is there any way I can help calm it?”
“I mean, you could go down on me,” Shae said. She was joking of course. Aidan chose to ignore her sarcastic quip though. He shot her a sinful look and then gently nudged her on her back. “Aidan, no—I was kidding.”
He looked up at her, his head inches away from going under the covers. She froze at the intent in his eyes. He was not playing around. “Do you want me to stop?” Shae shook her head. She’d be a fool to turn him down. “Just relax,” he said. Seconds later, his head and shoulders were between her legs and his tongue was slowly moving over her clit.
Shae managed to will her body to settle into the sheets and just enjoy the magical way his mouth worked, but in the back of her head Shae knew one day this thing between them would end. Aidan would eventually come to some unfavorable conclusion about her and he would walk. She knew it, but that didn’t stop her from thinking of how used to all this she could get. She could be with Aidan Meyer, really be with him, and that scared the shit out of her.
✶
Shae needed to get a fucking grip. On edge was the only way she could describe the way she’d been feeling since she told the girls that Aidan would be coming to their Friendmas Eve celebration. They were all so excited to meet him. Shae knew it would be fine. Aidan was incredibly sweet and an absolute people person. She knew he’d charm the pants off her friends and Keira. Didn’t help her relax one bit. It had been so long since she’d introduced anyone she liked to her inner circle. Surely that was reason enough for her heart rate to be up somewhere around one million beats per second.
She’d been the first to arrive at her cousin’s house. Filled with too much anxious energy to sit home and wait until the party actually started, she headed over early and baked an extra batch of cookies in Keira and Daniel’s kitchen while they finished setting up the backyard. Now the party was in full swing. The girls were all there, Daniel’s buddies from Fire in the Sky Pyrotechnics. Keira’s friends from work, Grant and Armando and their girlfriends Violet and Nailah. Darby’s husband had to work a final shift with FedEx, so she’d decided to tag along.
When Aidan arrived, she did her best not to hide in the bathroom. Introducing him around had been a special kind of agony. She’s tripped over her words a few times, but Aidan graciously threw her a life preserver and started introducing himself, leaving their relationship perfectly grey with the simple words “I’m here with Shae.”
Aidan hadn’t left her side all night. At every opportunity he was touching her in some way. Holding her hand, resting his arm around her shoulder. During the White Elephant gift exchange, he’d gamed Daniel’s friend Mike into giving him the light-up toy microphone Shae wanted just so he could slip it to her once the festivities ended. Aidan was the perfect holiday party date and while she was enjoying her time with him, something still felt off and she knew he could feel it too.
Finally he pulled her out to the front foyer. It was darker and quieter there and Shae finally felt like she could think. “How are you holding up?” he asked with a kind smile.
“Oh, fine.” And then for the first time in ages she lied. “Keira’s wedding is literally in a week and we still have a ton more to to do.”
“Are you handling the cake?”
“Yeah, but it’s just a little one tier set up for them to cut during the pictures. We’re doing a dessert bar. Most big cakes go to waste once they’re cut up.”
“There’s so much to dessert management that I have to learn.”
“You will, in time.”
“I’d just like to point out that we are under the mistletoe,” he said. Shae looked up and sure enough a little bunch of green leaves clustered with little white berries tied in a red ribbon hung above their heads.
“You’ll go to jail if you don’t kiss me,” she teased, trying to lighten her own mood.
“Yeah, that wouldn’t do.” Aidan closed the distance between them and a second later their lips met. Shae sighed, her eyes slipping closed as she soaked in the softness of his mouth. A second too late, Shae could feel that they were no longer alone by the front door. Her eyes still closed, Shae could hear telltale clicking sounds from a camera phone.
“So cute!” Erica said as Shae broke the kiss and stepped away, her hand still on Aidan’s chest. “See.” Erica turned her phone so they could take a look. It was a sickeningly sweet picture. Romance and the spirit of the season captured in one perfect image. Their outfits even looked nice. Shae felt like her whole body was starting to vibrate from the inside out.
“Hey, can you send that to me?” Aidan said.
“Yeah, sure! Here.” Shae watched Erica hand him her phone. “Text it to yourself.”
“Thanks.” Aidan pressed the necessary buttons on the screen and then handed the phone back to Erica. A second later he said, “I sent it to you too.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll leave you two love birds to it.”
> “I’m actually going to take off,” Aidan told Shae.
“Okay.” The party usually went late into the night. Shae would make her way over to her folks’ place sometime in the wee hours of the morning and try to catch enough sleep before her mom and grandmother woke her up to help with breakfast. She didn’t expect Aidan to hold out that long.
“I just gotta grab my coat.”
Shae made the rounds with him again as he said his goodbyes. Daniel and Grant made plans to catch up with him again. There was talk of a group guy outing to a Kings’ game at the start of the new year. The girls were very sweet, telling Aidan how happy they were to meet him and how they hoped they would see him again soon. Meegan managed to only waggle her eyebrows behind his back.
He grabbed his jacket and they made their way out to the front porch, closing the sounds of the party out as the door clicked shut. Aidan shrugged into his coat, then smiled down at Shae. Shae wanted to smile back. She couldn’t though. That vibrating sensation had just gotten worse with each kind word and compliment about them as a couple that her friends had shared with her and Aidan as they made their way to the door.
She couldn’t smile because her lips were numb from the way she was tensing.
“This was great. I’ll text you tomorrow.”
She’d love nothing more than a Merry Christmas text from him, but she realized then that she couldn’t drag this out any longer. “Aidan I—I think we should take a little step back.”
“Oh...okay.” The shock on his face was clear and that made her feel even worse.
Shae groaned and rubbed her forehead. “It is absolutely not you. It is one hundred percent me. I’ve—I’ve been a divorced a few years, but I’m still new to the dating game and this is just too much for me right now,” she blurted out.
“Oh. Yah,” he stammered, but then he cleared his throat and seemed to recover a little bit. “No, I—yeah, I get it. I’ve never been divorced, but it doesn’t sound easy. Or fun.”
“I wish I could be one of those people who is just easy—”
“Listen. It’s okay. We gave it a good try. Timing’s just bad.”
Shae swallowed the massive lump in her throat. “Yeah. I want to be less difficult with all this, but I’m not there.” Shae looked up as eight different emotions danced across Aidan’s features. His lips settled into a soft, understanding smile, but that didn’t stop Shae from catching the look of pity that flashed through his eyes. He reached out and just barely touched the side of her hand before letting his fingers drop.
“Hey, at least we got off the app for a couple of weeks.”
“We did and I enjoyed it. Sorry I wasn’t a...sure thing or whatever. I’ll—um, I’ll make sure I delete those pictures you sent me. I should have already.”
“Yeah, whatever you want. I wasn’t worried about you having them.”
Shae clammed up. There was nothing more she could say and if she tried to make things better by talking more, she was confident she would just make them worse. Thank god, Aidan took the hint. He knew their time was up.
“Well, I guess I should head out.”
“Bye, Aidan.”
“Bye, Shae.” She hoped he would walk away and never look back. Instead, he stepped closer and wrapped his strong arms around her. She knew exactly what he was doing the moment his chin rested against the top of her head. He was taking her in one last time. She did the same, wrapping her arms around his waist, hugging him tight. She buried her face against his chest. The tears were so dangerously close to the surface, she nearly pushed him away just to get them to stop.
“Scram. Get on out of here before I do something extra stupid and make it impossible for us to run into each other in public one day,” she said.
“I’m going, I’m going.” This time it was for real. Shae watched him as he walked down the front steps and out of Keira and Daniel’s yard. When he was down the block and out view, she went back inside and hid in Daniel’s office and let herself fall apart. She liked Aidan so much, but no matter how silly it sounded when she repeated it back to herself, she knew she was no good for him. Aidan was the perfect guy and he needed someone who could be good for him. Not some neurotic bundle of nerves that was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.
As soon as she stopped crying, she’d rejoin the party. While she waited for her emotions to get their shit together, Shae pulled out her phone and deleted the MATCHED app. She’d meant what she said. She was not ready to date again and it was time to stop pretending she was.
8
Dear Santa, What the heck man?! Help me out here...
Being dumped on Christmas Eve wasn’t something Aidan had experienced before and it was not something he would recommend. It had been a long time since he’d cried real tears, and even though no tears actually leaked out, he felt them stinging the backs of his eyes the whole drive back to his place. He did not want things to end with Shae.
When he got back to his apartment, he did his best not to get too down on himself before he went to bed. Purposely skipping over the bottles of booze lining the top of his fridge, he queued up episodes of a new cartoon on Netflix to keep his mind off the fact that he was now alone and pretty heartbroken. Shae didn’t need space. She need to not be with him. It wasn’t hard to get that message.
He understood. He really did. She’d been in a rough relationship and it had ended badly, but Aidan also knew what she wasn’t saying. He knew what the problem really was. He had fallen for Shae, hard, and he didn’t think she missed the effort he was putting in to make her happy and comfortable. He was pretty sure that’s what sent her heading for the hills. He’d come on too strong, made himself too comfortable with her friends and family. They hadn’t even discussed any relationship terms and he was in full boyfriend mode.
He knew it was a big deal to introduce someone new to the people closest to you and Aidan should have asked Shae how she wanted to handle it before he was all hands on at the party. He was drawn to Shae. He loved being near her, he loved touching her, but like his sister said, two people need to be happy in a relationship. Shae had been tense all night and instead of checking with her early on, he waited until the last second to see if she was okay. He got it. He’d fucked up. Shae wasn’t ready to go where he wanted to take the relationship and he needed to accept that. It still fucking sucked. He was missing her already.
When he woke up in the morning, he was glad to find that his gym was actually open. He went to work out and then grabbed a big breakfast. He powered through video chats with his sister’s family and his parents, grateful as fuck that his sister was too caught up in carting kids around an amusement park to ask about Shae. He thought he was doing okay until he met up with Matt outside the movie theater later that day.
“Ho ho ho, homie. Merry Christmas,” Matt said as they briefly clasped hands and went in for the one-armed back pat.
“Thanks. Merry Christmas”
“Talia will be here in a few. She’s parking.”
“Cool.”
“How’s my favorite baker doing?”
“Ah, good I guess,” Aidan said with a shrug. “She kinda dumped me last night.”
“Shit man, what happened?”
Aidan shook his head. “Don’t really want to get into it because I’m pretty fucked up about it. We’re just not really doing the whole ‘us’ thing anymore. She called it off.”
“Sorry, bro. I’ll boycott Sweet Creams for two weeks.”
“I appreciate that loyalty and dedication,” Aidan said with an empty chuckle. “You don’t have to boycott Sweet Creams at all. She’s doing what’s best for her and I think your business keeps their lights on.”
“Okay, good. Two weeks is too long. Still sucks though. You haven’t been this into anyone since Heather and you were pretty into her. I could tell you liked this girl. I saw you texting her all the time.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty into her. I’ll get over it. Don’t really have a choice.” Aidan looked over
at his buddy as he gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.
“I am sorry.”
“Thanks, man.”
Just then, the top of Talia appeared as she rode up the escalator.
“Are you boys ready to Star Wars?” she said, bobbing her head to the left and right. She walked right into Matt’s arms and gave him a quick hug then moved over to Aidan.
“Aidan got dumped. We gotta cheer him up.”
“Oh no!” Talia said as she stepped back. “Are strip clubs open on Christmas day?”
“I’m not going to a strip club with you!” Matt said.
“Who said you were invited?” Talia joked. “Come on, Aidan. All the candy and popcorn you can handle, on us.” She looped her arm through his and tugged him toward the theater entrance. He didn’t feel any better about losing Shae as they settled in to watch the interplanetary battle between good and evil, but at least he wasn’t alone. He just hoped that, in time, he’d get over Shae and move on.
✶
Shae had survived Christmas day, just barely. Her parents’ house was packed with her brothers and their wives and children, cousins and their children, aunts and uncles, including Daniel and Keira and her parents. She hadn’t told Keira what happened with Aidan. After she stopped weeping in Daniel’s office, she’d cleaned herself up and came up with the pathetic excuse that she had to head out to help her mom get a jump on desserts. Keira knew something was wrong, but she didn’t press.
That morning she’d texted asking Keira not to breathe a word about Aidan in front of her parents. She’d explain later. Keira understood as was evident by the zipped lip emoji she’d sent back. Shae made it through the opening of a ton of presents, two and a half meals and an impromptu kitchen dance party. Now she was sprawled out on her childhood bed, hiding from the noise downstairs. She stared at the plastic stars on the ceiling that had stopped glowing in the dark years ago.
WRAPPED Page 9