No Strings...

by Janelle Denison

  “So, what do you think?”

  Chloe didn’t miss the anxious note to Aiden’s voice, as if her opinion mattered to him. Glancing up from her monitor, she met his gaze and gave him the truth. “I think it’s phenomenal.”

  The stiff set of his shoulders relaxed. “Really?”

  She smiled. “Yes, really. But how is it that you and your presentation made me believe in Hattie and the magic of this island when you have your doubts?”

  “I’m creating a perception of the resort and engaging the consumer,” he said with a nonchalant shrug. “That’s what you and I do. I don’t have to believe in the product in order to sell it. As long as it works for the resort and their matchmaking theme, that’s all that matters.”

  His reply was logical and rational, and she couldn’t argue his point. “You’re right.”

  He stood up and began gathering the files and papers he’d spread out on his side of the conference table and tucked them into his leather attaché case. “There’s a few things I need to follow up on before we leave the resort tomorrow, but we’re still on for tonight, yes?”

  More than anything, she wanted this last night with Aiden before their affair ended and they returned to real life. And she was feeling selfish enough not to want to share him with anyone, or anything. “Instead of attending the farewell gala, how about you come up to my room? We can order room service and have our own private party, just the two of us?”

  His gaze heated, matching the slow, wicked smile on his lips as he added his laptop to his bag. “I like that idea. A lot. I’ll come by around seven.”

  She honestly couldn’t wait, and she planned to make the most of their final night together. She watched him walk out of the conference room, already planning in her mind how the evening would go.

  It wasn’t until she was finished working on her own campaign an hour later that she realized she still had his flash drive with his PowerPoint presentation. She tucked the small device into her briefcase to give to him later, and with the rest of her afternoon free, she decided to take advantage of the complimentary spa package the resort had extended to her when she’d first arrived.

  * * *

  AIDEN ARRIVED AT Chloe’s room a few minutes before seven. As he stood in front of her closed door, he was struck with the somber realization that tonight was the end of their time together. Tomorrow was Sunday, and after nearly a week at the St. Raphael Resort, they were heading back to Boston and to real life...as colleagues, not lovers.

  His gut twisted with a twinge of disappointment, because he knew that reverting back to being just friends and coworkers was going to be incredibly difficult to do—and it wasn’t all about giving up their sexual encounters, though he was definitely going to miss that, too.

  No, it had more to do with their comfortable conversations and how quickly and easily he could laugh with her. She made him feel lighter inside than he had in years...and she also made him realize all the things he wanted in his life. Marriage. A family. A wife who shared his same life goals. He wished Chloe could be that woman, but there was no possible way.

  As much as he and Chloe clicked, intellectually and physically, they had no future together. Their goals were on the opposite end of the spectrum. She was career-focused and competitive, and while he admired her drive and determination, all that ambition was a sharp reminder of just how far his ex-wife had gone to achieve her own personal success. Though he no longer believed Chloe would betray him like his ex had, their future desires were incompatible and out of sync.

  He exhaled a deep breath and knocked on the door. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t keep his past out of the equation when looking at his future. So, he’d made sure his heart and emotions were kept out of this affair. It didn’t matter that the resident matchmaker had deemed them soul mates, or that a silly flower had backed up Hattie’s claim, because he was pragmatic and realistic enough to know that compatibility went much deeper than just sexual chemistry.

  Those thoughts quickly fled his mind as the door swung open and Chloe filled the frame, happy to see him, a soft pink flush on her cheeks and the green glow in her hazel eyes outshining the gold and brown. Her peach-colored halter-style dress exposed a lot of smooth, sun-kissed skin that tempted him to touch and caress. She’d left her hair down, falling around her shoulders in those soft, careless waves that told him she’d let her hair dry naturally, instead of blow-drying the silky strands straight. She wore minimal makeup, just a sweep of black on her lashes and a glossy shine on her lips, and he loved this “au natural” look on her.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” she said with a welcoming smile.

  Her comment, rife with unintentional innuendo, fed into the need for her that seemed to suddenly consume Aiden. “I’m famished,” he murmured as he stepped into her room and kicked the door shut.

  Her eyes widened as he pressed her up against the nearest wall and dropped his mouth to hers, devouring her as if he was a starving man and she, his last meal. That’s certainly what tonight felt like to him, and he couldn’t stop the desperate urge to gorge himself on Chloe in hopes of satisfying that overwhelming need he felt for her.

  But as he deepened the kiss and her mouth softened beneath the wild, reckless onslaught of his, the longing inside of him grew stronger, making him feel as though he’d never get enough of this woman, no matter how many times he had her.

  He was so lost in the heated desire coursing through him that it took him a moment to realize that Chloe had placed a hand on his chest and was giving him a gentle push to end the kiss. Reluctantly, he lifted his head and stared down at her. They were both breathing hard, and he wasn’t sure what to make of her putting a stop to something that clearly could have ended with them both naked and him buried deep inside of her. He knew his thoughts were selfish and reckless, but if this was their last night together, he wanted to make sure they made the most of it.

  Chloe ran her tongue along her bottom lip, then smiled up at him. “That was a nice hello, but how about we save the rest of that for dessert?” she suggested huskily. “I went ahead and ordered dinner for both of us, and it’s already been delivered. It’s going to get cold if we don’t get started. Besides, the sun is just beginning to set and I don’t want to miss that, either.”

  Before he could reply, she clasped his hand in hers and pulled him toward the sliding glass doors leading to her balcony, giving him a chance to gather some semblance of control and calm his raging emotions. A small table had been set up for the two of them, with a white tablecloth, silverware and crystal glasses for the bottle of wine she’d ordered. Their dinner was covered with silver domes to keep the contents warm, and they had a spectacular view of the bright orange sun as it slowly lowered itself beyond the horizon.

  He sat down next to her and relaxed in his seat, inhaling the scent of jasmine—the island’s signature scent. He heard calypso music playing somewhere in the distance, and guessed it was probably drifting from the farewell party. Their dinner was intimate and private, yet still allowed them to enjoy many of the resort’s romantic nuances.

  “I hope you like chicken primavera,” she said as they both removed the cover from their dishes and set them aside.

  As soon as the savory scent of creamy garlic basil sauce filled his senses, his stomach rumbled, loud enough for Chloe to hear. She laughed and he grinned.

  “I guess I’m hungrier for food than I thought.”

  “Good, because I’m starving,” she admitted, smoothing her cloth napkin on her lap.

  He reached for the bottle of wine and poured them each a glass of the chilled Pinot Grigio, a nice pairing for the pasta. They ate in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the island atmosphere just beyond the balcony, as well as the stunning sunset dipping lower and lower where the ocean met the skyline.

  “So, tell me something about yourself that I don’t already know,” Chloe said after a while, her tone light and casual. “Something that might surprise me.”

 
; He knew she was just being conversational, but her personal question struck a chord in him, because the things she didn’t know about him were private incidences in his life that he’d normally only share with someone he trusted or had a connection with.

  And Chloe, he realized, was both.

  He ate a bite of his pasta as he mulled over what he wanted to share with her before deciding to give her some insight into how he’d shunned family expectations to follow his own career path. “I’m the first son in three generations who bucked tradition of getting a job in law enforcement.”

  “Really?” Her brows lifted in genuine surprise. “I just can’t imagine you as a cop. Was your family upset?”

  “My mother understood because I was always the creative one with these big ideas, but my father was disappointed in my choice to major in advertising and marketing in college. My grandfather was a cop, then my dad. He was this tough military guy who just assumed that both of his boys would follow in his footsteps.” Aiden absently swirled his wine in his glass. “At least my brother continued the proud family tradition, and while my father and brother still give me a hard time about being the black sheep of the family, it’s all in good humor.”

  Her eyes glimmered with amusement, and she tipped her head curiously. “Does your brother at least enjoy being a police officer?”

  “He did,” Aiden said, then seeing the questions in her gaze, he explained, “A few years ago Sam was shot on the job, and the injury made him reassess what he wanted to do. Now he’s a private investigator with his own business, so while he’s technically self-employed, he still has some involvement with law enforcement.”

  She pushed her pasta and chicken around on her plate, then found a carrot and stabbed it with her fork to eat. “He seems like a nice guy.”

  “Nice is being generous,” he said, though there was a rumble of affection in his voice for his brother. “Mostly, he’s a pain in the ass.”

  “I suppose siblings can be a pain sometimes,” she said softly, and drained the rest of the wine from her glass.

  He heard the wistful note in her voice, reminding him that she was an only child, with a mother who hadn’t been an ideal parent. “It’s your turn to tell me something I don’t already know about you,” he said, refilling her glass with more Pinot Grigio and topping off his own.

  She leaned forward and whispered mischievously, “I love reading romance novels. The hotter and sexier they are, the better. It’s like mind candy after a long day at the office.”

  Her sexy secret definitely intrigued him, because he would have pegged her for a straight literary fiction kind of girl. “So, you like books with hot sex and a happily-ever-afters?”

  She shrugged and placed her fork on her plate, finished with her meal. “It’s nice to believe that it’s possible.”

  “You don’t?”

  A small smile touched her lips. “Well, considering my mother’s track record, and my own with Neil, I think I’m better off making my own happiness.”

  Despite her past experience, he wanted to give her something to believe in. “My parents are still married after thirty-five years, so it’s definitely possible.”

  “And you’re divorced.”

  Her words were direct and to the point, leaving him little choice but to address her statement. “That doesn’t mean I don’t think I could be happy and settled with someone else who has the same goals and ideals that I do.”

  She relaxed back in her chair, her eyes meeting his for a moment over the rim of her wineglass as she took a drink. “Was that the problem between you and your ex-wife?” she asked, digging a little deeper. “Incompatibility?”

  Aiden had managed to avoid this particular conversation with Chloe numerous times, and he was tempted to evade the discussion now. His marriage and divorce wasn’t something he liked to talk about, with anyone, but she’d shared so much with him this past week, he felt compelled to do the same now. And maybe, by getting his own past out in the open it would help to serve as a reminder of why things with Chloe could never work out beyond this temporary affair.

  “Paige and I actually had a lot in common,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant, even though he knew this conversation was going to dredge up emotions he’d rather not relive. “On the surface, we enjoyed the same things, and had the same interests. She was a defense attorney, so we both had careers in the corporate world that required drive and ambition to succeed. But I never had a clue just how cut-throat she really was.”

  He rubbed a hand along his jaw, feeling a familiar tension twist through him. “Before we got married, we talked about having a family, and we both agreed we wanted kids after a year or so. But every time I brought up the subject of having a baby, she said she wasn’t ready because her career was really starting to take off. I understood and backed off, but when one year turned into two and she claimed she still wasn’t ready to have a baby, the issue became a huge source of contention between us.”

  “I could imagine,” Chloe said softly, as if she truly sympathized with the situation. And him.

  “The more we fought, the colder and more distant Paige became,” he went on, hating this next part but forcing himself to tell her the entire story, no matter how difficult. “Then one day I came home from work and she was already in bed and claimed she wasn’t feeling well, but I could tell something was off. Paige was never sick. Yet, she’d been fine that morning when we each went to work. I decided to go and get her some soup from a nearby deli, and since it was more convenient to drive her car than mine, I went to grab her keys from her purse and saw this piece of paper with a local hospital logo across the top. I was both curious and concerned, so I read the paperwork and discovered it was instructions for aftercare for a surgical abortion procedure she’d had that afternoon. She’d terminated our baby without ever telling me she was pregnant.”

  Chloe gasped, her eyes round in shock. “Aiden, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, obviously stunned and appalled by what he’d revealed.

  His hand curled into a fist on the table, but he managed to tamp down the bitterness threatening to engulf him. He could recall that moment so vividly, how everything inside him had gone stone cold and yet he’d wanted so desperately to believe that there was some kind of logical explanation for what he’d discovered...for what Paige had done.

  Instead, he’d been slapped with the truth of just how little she valued their marriage, and the lengths she’d gone to protect and secure her climb up the corporate ladder. She might as well have stabbed him directly in the heart with a sharp knife; the pain of her deceit had been that enormous and great.

  “I confronted Paige, and she didn’t even deny it,” he said with a harsh laugh that made his chest hurt. “She just calmly told me that the pregnancy was a mistake and she wasn’t willing to give up her job to take care of a baby she didn’t want. It didn’t matter to her what I might have wanted. She gave me no choice in the matter.”

  Chloe reached across the table and placed her hand over his fisted one, her thumb grazing across his knuckles in a soothing caress. “That was an incredibly selfish thing for her to do.”

  He met her gaze, seeing the compassion etching her features. He could feel her empathy for what he’d gone through, and her sensitive, supportive response played tug-of-war with his own emotions and made him see her in a different light, too. One week with Chloe, without any outside influences to dictate their feelings, and she was becoming a woman who knew him better than anyone else in recent years.

  She stood up, pushed the small table out of the way, and then sat down on his lap, the move more comforting than sexual. He welcomed the tenderness she offered, which was something that had been missing in his life for much too long.

  She pressed her warm palm against his cheek, so sweet and caring. “I can’t begin to imagine how difficult it was for you to find out about the abortion after the fact. You deserved better than that.”

  He shook his head, a part of him still mired in the past
. “How could I be so wrong about someone—someone I actually married?” It was a question he knew he’d never have the answer to, but it haunted him, nonetheless. “How could the one person I trusted so unconditionally betray me in a way I never thought possible, all because her career was more important than our marriage?”

  “You couldn’t have known what she’d do, and she should have been open and honest with you, instead of stringing you along with false hopes.”

  Despite his own bitterness, Aiden realized just how similar their past situations were, more than he ever would have expected. How Neil had presented one persona to Chloe, then revealed another after time. The same as Paige.

  She dipped her head and settled her lips on his, the touch soft and reverent. A healing balm to his fractured soul. He accepted the kiss, wanting it, craving her in ways that went beyond pure physical desire and shook him to the core, making him think about the reasons why he believed things could never work between him and Chloe. Made him wonder how something so wrong could feel so damn right.

  His confusion gave way to heated passion as their mouths fused more deeply, and that wild desperation rose within him again. An impatience to have her, to lose himself so completely in her lush body that only the two of them existed, and nothing else. The need to make this one final night together last as long as possible.

  Abruptly, he stood up with her in his arms and carried her back into the hotel room. Next to the bed, he set her down on her feet, still kissing her, his hands sliding around to the nape of her neck to untie the bow holding up the top panels of her halter dress. The fabric fell away, and he immediately filled his hands with her breasts, groaning into her mouth as her nipples puckered tight and hard against his palms.