“Why does he make you so nervous?”
Suddenly Maya’s face turned very solemn. “Because he reminds me of your father. Ian Brannigan was the only man I’ve ever loved. I haven’t been able to feel anything for a man since I lost him.”
“Until now?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I feel.”
“I hear you. This vulnerability business isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, is it?”
“Not when you’re the one sitting in the seat of vulnerability.”
“Will you tell me about my father?” Bia asked. “I would love to know about him.”
Maya’s trademark placid smile returned to her face. A light the likes of which Bia had never seen on her mother’s face ignited as she began to tell the story of how she fell in love with Ian. It dimmed as she recounted how he left one day and never came back, leaving her pregnant with his child, how she eventually learned of his accident.
“He never knew about you. I couldn’t imagine him just running off without a goodbye. But when he didn’t come back, I thought the worst. I was so mad at him for a long time, for breaking all his promises. He told me he would love me forever and then he just disappeared. The more I thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense. It didn’t seem like him. But then my mother sent me away and you were born. After I got home I got this crazy idea that I was going to find him. That once he knew about you, he would come back and we would be a family.
“So I called his family, and that’s when I learned of the tragic news. It was like losing him all over again, only far worse and much more painful than I could ever imagine. It took me years to be able to smile again—and even then I might’ve just been going through the motions. I was dead on the inside until I got the letter from your adoptive father and there was the possibility of reuniting with you. My daughter.”
Maya reached across the table and took Bia’s hand in hers. “For the first time in decades, I am happy, truly happy. So I don’t know if these feelings for Charles are an offshoot from the joy I am feeling from our reunion. These similarities that I see in him, the mannerisms, the turns of speech that remind me of your father might just be transference—my wanting to imagine your father here. That’s why I need to be careful.”
“From what you said, though, Charles sounds like a nice guy. Why not give him a chance?”
Maya pursed her lips and her left brow shot up. Bia was beginning to notice that as one of Maya’s trademark expressions.
“I’ll make a deal with you,” Maya said. “If you give Aiden a chance, I’ll consider doing the same with Charles Jordan. Do we have a deal?”
Chapter Twelve
The Catering to Dallas shoot wrapped at about nine-thirty, and Aiden was at Bia’s house by ten-fifteen. He was surprised to see the yellow Volkswagen convertible in her driveway, but then he remembered that Maya was coming over to have dinner with Bia tonight.
The two women were standing in the foyer when Aiden walked in. They stopped in the middle of what they were saying, looking a little startled to see him.
“Hello,” he said. He kissed Bia on the cheek and felt her tense and pull away from him ever so slightly. He took a step back, giving her a quizzical look. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
Maybe he should’ve knocked, but he and Bia had an open-door policy. Neither of them ever knocked when they entered the other’s place. Especially not lately.
“No, you’re not interrupting,” said Bia. “I’m glad to see you.”
Her words said welcome, but her actions were cool and distant.
“Maya and I were just talking about the chocolate business. She is going to show me how to make chocolate. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
“Yes, I am,” Maya said a little too brightly.
That may have been the plan, but Aiden got the feeling that’s not what they had been talking about when he had walked in. That was fine; they had a lot to catch up on considering all the years they’d been apart. Aiden was glad that Bia had Maya to lean on during the pregnancy. Every woman deserved to have her mother there when she went through life’s rites of passage.
“I made salmon for dinner,” Bia said. “It’s in the oven. I kept it warm for you. Unless you’re absolutely starving, I’ll fix you a plate after I say goodbye to Maya. If you are starving, go ahead and help yourself.”
“Thank you,” he said. “You take your time. I can fix my plate. It was good to see you, Maya. Hope to see you again soon.”
“Yes,” she said. “I hope so, too. I appreciate the way you’re taking such good care of Bia. I know she does, too.”
Aiden glanced back and saw a funny look wash over Bia’s face. Had they been talking about him when he arrived? What was there to say?
“Take care,” he said, leaving them alone in the foyer.
“There’s coleslaw in the refrigerator,” Bia called after him.
He felt like an interloper until he found the foil-covered plate of salmon in the oven. They had talked about him coming over after work, and the dinner proved that she had been expecting him. Still, something didn’t feel right.
He heard the front door close, and a moment later Bia was standing in the kitchen with her hands clasped in front of her. She looked so damn sexy in shorts that showed off her long shapely legs and a V-neck top that hinted at just the slightest bit of cleavage. It was almost as if Bia was not aware of it. She obviously wasn’t aware of the effect she had on him. For as long as he’d known her, she’d never purposely dressed sexy. That was what made her so alluring. She had a quiet confidence that did more for his libido than if she would have gone for the obvious too-short, too-low-cut getup that so many women favored these days. In his book, subtle was way sexier than in-your-face.
He got the coleslaw and dished it onto his plate. “This looks so good. Thanks for making it for me. I’m starving. We filmed at a wedding reception tonight, and the food smelled incredible. But everything was so chaotic that I didn’t get a chance to eat.”
He recovered the bowl with plastic wrap and put it back in the refrigerator. “Besides, I wanted to save my appetite for tonight.”
Realizing how that might have sounded like a double entendre—he’d actually meant it as one—he glanced over at Bia to gauge her reaction. There was that strange look again.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She stood there for a moment, looking a little vulnerable. Aiden waited for her to answer.
“I ran into your good friend Joanna at the grocery store this afternoon,” Bia said.
“Joanna Brandt?”
“I’m not sure what her last name is. The tall blonde you dated a few months ago.”
“I don’t know if you’d actually call it dating—”
Bia crossed her arms and furrowed her brow. “You see, that’s what I’m talking about. Why did she think you were dating if you weren’t?”
“What are you talking about?”
Okay. Maybe that’s what Bia and Maya had been discussing when he’d walked in. He didn’t give Bia a chance to answer.
“How is Joanna?” Aiden said. “I haven’t seen her in several months.”
“Gorgeous as ever,” Bia said. “But, sorry to say, she seems to be over you. She says she threw in the Aiden towel a long time ago, but somebody named Lisa is still hot on your trail.”
Lisa?
“Lisa who?” he asked, racking his brain, trying to call forth the face.
“Is there more than one Lisa?” Bia asked. “This one’s name is Lisa English. Ring a bell?”
“Lisa English? I never even went out with her. She’s a friend of Joanna’s. Did Joanna tell you I dated Lisa?”
“Let’s see if I can remember what she said.” Bia put a finger on her chin and looked up at the ceiling as if she w
ere trying hard to remember. “I think it was something to the tune of, ‘I have to warn you, Lisa English is devastated that you and Aiden are engaged. You might want to watch your back there. She’s not going to go away without a fight.’ Yes. That’s what she said. This, of course, came after Joanna said she wanted to get a good look at the woman who’d finally stolen Aiden Woods’s heart. You should’ve seen the look on her face when I told her not to worry—that you were still on the market and that this was all just a big farce.”
Aiden nearly choked on his dinner. “What? Did you really say that?”
Bia cocked her head to one side, holding his gaze. “Of course not. I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t say you were. I just know that Joanna can be a little...”
Bia had her elbow on the table; her chin rested in her palm. She arched a brow at him and moved her head ever so slightly as if saying, A little what?
Was she jealous? Aiden’s heart gave a little tug at the possibility. If she was jealous that meant she cared. All those years Bia had stood back as he brought different women around—of course, none of them were anything other than friends to him. Except for Tracey. He’d ended up eloping to Vegas with her. She was the biggest mistake of his life.
Bia had never shown the slightest indication that she was bothered by any of the women. Of course, she was a decent woman—she never would have said anything bad about any of them.
Plus, she had been engaged to Duane all that time.
“Joanna can be a little persistent,” he finally said. “She has a very strong personality.”
“And you think that I’m not strong enough to stand up to her?”
Oh, boy. This was going downhill fast. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to dig himself into a hole.
“I’m sure you can hold your own with Joanna or anyone who puts you in an uncomfortable position.”
“Which is why you had to jump in and tell the XYZ guy that we were engaged? Because I can handle anyone who puts me in an uncomfortable position?”
Aiden set down his fork. “I didn’t come here to fight with you, Bia. I’m sorry you ran into Joanna. I’m sorry she said what she said. But the truth is, I’ve dated lots of women. I’m not dating them now. I can’t change the past, and actually I don’t want to. Because the one thing I learned from dating all those women is that none of them was right for me. They weren’t you.”
She stared at him with big eyes. For a moment, she looked a little disoriented. He feared she might get up and walk away. But he’d said it. Said the thing he’d wanted to say since the first time he’d realized he was in love with her. As he waited for her to say something, he looked down at his hands, which were balled into fists in his lap. He consciously relaxed them.
“Aiden, do you think that’s because I’m just about the only woman who doesn’t find you irresistible?”
Ouch. Not exactly the response he was hoping for. But something in her eyes went counter to the words that were so confidently flowing from those lips that drove him crazy.
His gaze fell to her mouth.
“Is that the truth, B? You don’t feel anything for me? Nothing at all? You could just get up and walk away? From us?”
She inhaled sharply.
“Aiden, there isn’t an us, not in the terms that you’re talking about. I’m trying to keep us from making a big mistake and ruining everything.”
He leaned in. “So, you’re saying that you do feel something? Otherwise there wouldn’t be any reason for you to need to worry about us. To walk away from us.”
She got up and took his plate to the sink. Turned on the faucet, rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher.
He walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. She stiffened but didn’t pull away. He leaned in close and whispered in her ear.
“You see, I think the big mistake would be not admitting that there is something here...between us.” He kissed her earlobe and then trailed kisses down her neck. She relaxed and leaned back into him, moving her head to the side, allowing him better access. “There’s been something brewing between us for a very long time. Tell me that’s not true, that you don’t feel it, too, and I’ll walk away.”
He nipped at her earlobe, ran his lips over the tender spot where her ear met her neck. Her breathing became heavy and she seemed to stifle a little moan.
But suddenly she pulled away and looked up at him, her eyes dark with need. “It’s not that I don’t feel anything for you,” she said.
Those lips that he’d longed to taste again were inches away from his. All he had to do was lean in and claim them.
“I’m the only woman who has ever said no to you. I’m just afraid that once you do get what you want, it will be the end of us. I’m afraid that you don’t really want me, Aiden. You just want what you can’t have.”
She stood and looked at him. She was so close that they were breathing the same air. She looking at him with an expression that made him want to pull her in close. To show her just how wrong she was about him.
“Did it ever dawn on you that maybe I’ve dated so many women because I was trying to get you out of my system?”
“No, that’s not true,” she said.
Her breath smelled vaguely like peppermint and chocolate and he couldn’t help himself; he leaned in and dusted a feather-soft kiss on her bottom lip.
“It is true,” he murmured. “That’s why no other relationship has lasted. I married Tracey because I thought that might be the best way to get over you. But you know how it turned out.”
Bia ducked out of his arms. “No, I don’t—not other than the obvious. That the two of you divorced. You never told me. Are you saying you didn’t love her, but you married her, anyway?”
Aiden crossed his arms and leaned one hip against the counter. “That’s not really a fair question.”
“It is, Aiden.” She grabbed a rag and started wiping down the countertops. “It’s a very fair and straightforward question. Did you love Tracey or not?”
This was a no-win situation. “She divorced me, B. So whether or not I loved her is a moot point.”
Bia shook her head and smirked at him as if she’d drawn her own conclusion.
“What about you and Hugh?” He held up a hand. “No, wait—don’t answer that. It’s a rhetorical question. The only reason I brought it up is because you had your reasons for Hugh. I’m not judging you, and I never will. It happened, but it’s in the past and that’s where it will stay. I just wish you’d give me the same latitude.”
She’d stopped cleaning. She was looking at him now with a softer, if not somewhat conflicted, expression.
“I’ve been up front with all the women I’ve dated. I’ve never cheated or promised them something I had no intention of delivering. They were a part of my past just like Duane and Hugh are a part of yours.”
He took a step toward her.
“I just need to know that I can trust you. I have more to think about than just myself now. I mean, I’m pregnant with another man’s child, Aiden. That’s a lot to ask you to take on. And as much as I would love to try on this—this—this...whatever it is that’s happening between us—I’m not in the position to test-drive a relationship and potentially make another mistake. What if we take that next step and it turns out terribly? What if we end up hating each other?”
“I could never hate you, B. Give me a chance. Give us a chance.”
He took another step toward her, and she didn’t move away.
“Just tell me you don’t want this as much as I do and I’ll never bring it up again. Just say the word and I’ll walk away.”
She bit her bottom lip, but she didn’t say it.
He drew her into his arms and held her, breathing in that familiar floral coconut scent that was so her. She melted into him.
/> “Stay with me tonight,” she said.
He picked her up and carried her into the bedroom.
Chapter Thirteen
There was proving a point, and then there was proving a point. Aiden had stayed. They’d made out like a couple of teenagers and then they’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms.
That’s as far as it went. It was all very innocent.
He said he wanted her to believe it wasn’t just the thrill of the chase. That even though he wanted her so badly it was all he could do to contain himself, he wanted her to believe that his intentions were honorable.
He was not just out to love her and leave her.
Huh.
For a long, heated while, Bia thought that it wasn’t her virtue that was about to be compromised—she told him he was the one who should be worried.
Yes. The chemistry that had always zinged between them had more than surpassed expectations once they took it to the bedroom. She could hardly wait to see what it would be like to make love to Aiden.
But they were taking it slowly.
With her propensity to get carried away in the moment, in the light of day, playing it safe seemed like a very good idea.
She was sitting at her dressing table finishing her makeup before work when Aiden brought her a cup of decaf coffee.
“Thank you,” she said, smiling up at him.
He set the cup down and enfolded her in a hug. “I loved waking up with you this morning. I want to wake up with you every morning.”
A spiral of need coursed in her lady parts.
“If you’re not careful,” she said. “I’m going to drag you back to that bed and have my way with you.”
He answered with a deep openmouthed kiss that she felt all the way to her toes. He slid his hands down the vee of her robe and cupped her breasts. A moan laced with all the pent-up want for him escaped.
“What are you doing to me?” she asked, her lips still on his.
He bit her bottom lip. “I’m proving that you can trust me.”
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