by Teague, AS
Mel’s eyes widened as she slid her hand over my thigh. “And then you leaned in close and whispered in my ear, ‘Yeah, you. The way your face lit at whatever your friend said, I’ve never seen anything so breathtaking in my life.’”
I grinned. I had said that and I’d meant it. The way Mel’s entire body laughed, her face lighting up at whatever it was Brooke had said, had ignited something inside me and I wanted nothing more than to make her laugh like that. If she hadn’t approached me just moments after that, I would have abandoned my boys to get to know the woman who I couldn’t take my eyes off of.
Mel sighed and shifted, her hand falling from my leg. “That was a long time ago, Aiden.”
She pushed to her feet and snagged her wine glass from the table before making her way over to the bar in the luxury penthouse suite I was staying in and poured another glass. She turned and propped a hip against the wooden counter and took another swallow. “What are we doing here?”
I shoved to my feet and followed, pouring a bit more whiskey into my rocks glass. “What we should have done a long fucking time ago.”
“And what exactly is that?” She popped a brow in my direction.
She knew exactly what I was referring to. She just wanted to hear me say it. “Figured out what we were going to do about this thing between us.” I gestured a hand between us and then looped my fingers around her slender wrist and pulled her toward me.
When her breasts were pressed against my chest, I dropped my head and whispered, “We wasted so much time.”
I could feel her breath on my neck as she let out a shuttering exhale and dropped her forehead to my chest. “Maybe the time was wasted because it was never meant to be in the first place.”
I tipped her chin back with my thumb and forefinger, staring into the eyes that I saw in my sleep some nights. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
She screwed her lids shut when I pushed my hand through her curls and anchored her head in place. Before she could protest and I could lose my nerve, I brought my lips to hover over hers, tracing at the seam with my tongue. When they parted on a sigh that I felt in my gut, I sealed my mouth over hers, tasting her for the first time in years.
She tasted exactly as sweet as she always had. As her mouth moved in rhythm under mine, her arms wrapping around my waist, her hips rolling into mine, I couldn’t stop the groan that rumbled from deep within.
Mel had always been the woman who I’d let get away. She’d been the obsession of every fantasy I’d had since the night we’d spent in a hotel suite barely half as nice as the one we were in now. This was the longest amount of time we’d spent together in the years since then, and I couldn’t resist the pull that we had any longer.
I brought my other hand to her neck, caressing the soft skin under my fingertips, and deepened the kiss as she sighed into my mouth.
I could have fucking kissed her all night. And if the night went the way I was hoping it would, that’s exactly what I would be doing. Except it wouldn’t just be her lips that I kissed.
Her hips rolled again, my cock thickening at the contact. I turned us until her back was against the bar and then palmed her ass and lifted her to the ledge, never breaking the seal of our lips.
I was sliding a hand up the soft flesh of her thigh when my phone began to ring.
She pulled away, panting. “Do you need to get that?”
“Fuck no.” I shook my head and began trailing kisses up her neck, following the exact path that I’d imagined a few minutes ago. She moaned as my tongue circled the hollow behind her ear.
My phone stopped ringing, leaving the room silent except for the short pants that were slipping through Mel’s gorgeous lips. Soon, the room would be filled with moans and shouts of pleasure, and I had to work hard to keep from ripping her clothes off and taking her right there on the bar.
We’d waited too fucking long for it to be over in the matter of a few minutes.
My phone began to ring again, and I growled.
“Just answer it,” Mel said, breathless.
I shook my head. “No. Whatever the fuck it is, it can wait.”
The room went silent again, and I pushed my hands into her hair once more, pulling her face to mine. “I’m not letting any fucking thing get in the way of us again.”
Her eyes sharpened and she smirked. “Right now, you’re letting two layers of clothes come between us.”
Fuck, this woman would be the death of me.
“How attached to this dress are you?” I rumbled as I began pulling it over her head. If it got torn in the process, I didn’t want to hear her bitch about it later. Hell, if it got ruined, I’d buy her three more.
“This old thing? Just something I pulled out of the back of my closet.”
‘This old thing’ was a dress from Prada. I tugged it over her head and tossed it aside, revealing the sexiest red bra and lace panties that I’d ever seen in my life. The contrast between her tan skin and the bright lace was damn near breath-stealing.
I dipped my head to her chest, running my tongue along the edge of the fabric as she pawed at the hem of my shirt. I only pulled away from her breasts to pull my shirt over my head and then went right back to what I’d been doing.
Her delicate hands traced the muscles in my back, the sharp bite of her nails in my flesh eliciting a groan. “Fuck, Mel. You are fucking incredible.”
She murmured, “You’re not too bad yourself. Could stand to hit the gym more often maybe.”
I smirked. Busting my balls, just like always.
“I’ll get my cardio in tonight.” I winked up at her just as my phone began to ring for the third time.
“Goddammit!” I roared.
She leaned back. “Just answer it and tell whoever it is you’re busy.”
Reluctantly, I shoved away from where I’d been standing between her legs and took another glance at where she was lounging in her underwear, like we hadn’t just been about to fuck.
God, that woman was fucking perfect.
I snagged my phone and let out a string of curses when I saw the name on the screen.
“Hello?” I growled into the phone.
“Aiden,” Shay snapped. “I’ve called three times!”
“Yeah, I know. I’m busy. What’s up?”
“Owen’s sick.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Okay, what’s wrong?”
“He’s throwing up. Stomach virus.”
“Okay.”
“I’ve got a photo shoot scheduled for tomorrow morning. I can’t miss it. I need you to come home.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. This could not be happening. “You can’t reschedule that shit?”
“No!” she snapped. “Didn’t you just hear me say I can’t miss it? They’ll find someone else if I don’t show up. This could be my big break. I can’t miss it because one of our kids is sick and you refuse to come home!”
“Let me call Sandy and see what she’s doing.”
Shay scoffed. “Oh, so you’re just going to pass your sick son off to your housekeeper?”
“No, but I’m hours away, and that’s if I can even get a flight out anytime soon.”
“It’s fine, Aiden. Go back to whatever you were doing. I’ll just drop them off at my Uncle Jack’s house.”
The blood in my head began to pound even harder. “Have you lost your mind? I’ve told you that I don’t want them there without one of us!”
“Why?” she sneered. “What’s wrong with Uncle Jack?”
I squeezed my lids shut and raked a hand down my face. “He’s creepy. You say so all the time! And he lets them do whatever they want. Last time they were there, Owen ended up falling out of a tree and spraining his ankle!”
“They’re kids!” she said flippantly. “Kids get hurt. Stop being so overprotective.”
I swallowed the curse that was on the tip of my tongue. This wouldn’t be Shay’s big break. Every photoshoot she’d had for the l
ast three years was supposed to be the one that would launch her modeling career, and not a single one of them had ever panned out.
But this was Shay’s play. She knew that I was in Vegas this weekend. She’d known that I was going to be here for the last two weeks now. And she was pissed that I was going without her. Which didn’t make any sense, because I’d been living my life without her since we’d split up over eight years ago.
But no matter how many times I told her that we were over and would always be over, she still tried everything she could to stay in the middle of my life.
And because we had kids together, there was no way I would escape her manipulations.
“God, you’re impossible. I’ll find a flight.”
“Perfect,” she breathed. “Hey, since you’ll be here, can you keep the boys a few extra days?”
I groaned. I’d bet my next game check that when I got to Wisconsin, Owen would be miraculously healed. “Sure. No problem.”
“Thanks, baby.”
“Don’t,” I growled.
She huffed. “Whatever. See you soon.”
I disconnected the call without another word and steeled myself before I turned back to where Mel was still on the edge of the bar, her eyes narrowed in my direction.
“I, uh… I forgot that I’d made plans to help a buddy move in the morning.” I didn’t want to lie to her, but the lie was better than reality. And the reality of it was, Shay was complicated. And despite my best efforts, things with her had only gotten worse. I didn’t want to drag Mel into the middle of my drama. It wouldn’t be fair to her.
Her lips parted. “You forgot that you are supposed to help a friend move? It’s eleven p.m., and you’re suddenly remembering this?”
I shoved a hand through my hair, unable to look her in the eyes. “Yeah, and he can’t reschedule.”
“Uh huh.” She pushed off the bar and bent to grab her dress off the floor. “Okay. He can’t reschedule? Funny, that sounded an awful lot like a woman’s voice.”
I crossed the short distance between us as she tugged the dress over her head. “Don’t be like that, Mel.”
She put a hand in my chest, halting me in my tracks. “Nope.”
“Come on, baby. Things just came up.”
She pressed her lips together. “Things always come up.”
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
She shook her head. “No, you won’t.” She slid her feet back into her heels and grabbed her clutch from the table in the living area as she headed toward the door.
I followed her and put a hand on the door, preventing her from opening it. “Seriously, I’ll make it up to you. Next weekend, I’ll fly in.”
She dropped her head, and I swear I heard a quiver in her voice as she said, “Move your hand.”
“Mel––”
Her head snapped up and her eyes were laser beams pointed in my direction. “Move your hand.”
I was desperate to keep her here with me for even a few minutes more, but as much as I wanted her to stay, she was determined to leave. And I couldn’t blame her. I dropped my hand, and she pulled the door open. She stepped through it and then looked back at me over her shoulder. “Don’t follow me.”
She didn’t bother to wait for a response before I watched as her ass swayed down the hall toward the elevator.
She shot me one last look, and it was the hurt in her eyes that gutted me as she stepped through the elevator doors.
I stepped back inside and shut the door to my suite before resting my forehead on the door.
“Fuck!” I shouted.
Chapter Five
Mel
Pecker: I’m in town this weekend.
I glared at the phone just like I had every time he’d messaged me over the last two months since our disappointing night in Vegas. My fingers itched to reply, to tell him to fuck off and lose my number. Instead, I dropped the phone on my coffee table and grabbed the remote, unpausing the movie I’d been watching.
“Who was that?” Brooke asked.
I looked to where my best friend was nestled into the end of the couch, glass of wine in one hand, box of Sour Patch Kids in the other. I didn’t know how she could stand those things, but if we were watching a movie, she was snacking on those rubbery candies.
“No one that matters,” I murmured and took a slug of my wine. I was going to need two bottles if he kept messaging me.
Her eyes lit. “Aiden, huh?”
I shook my head. His name wasn’t worth saying at this point. “Ready to finish this movie?”
She eyed me but pressed her lips together and nodded. She knew better than to push me where he was concerned. “I really don’t understand why people loved this movie. It’s one song short of a musical.”
I grinned. “It is a musical, B.”
She groaned. “Why is it that you always get to choose the movie?”
“Because I have better taste than you do, that’s why. Who doesn’t love Hugh Jackman?”
She started to grumble, but my phone chiming again interrupted her.
Pecker: Come on, Mel. You know you want to see me.
That asshole.
“You gonna answer him?” she asked, her lips twitching as she fought a grin.
I shook my head as I pushed play on the remote. “Nope.”
Brooke sighed, but she didn’t say anything more and popped another candy in her mouth, turning her attention back to the TV screen. She’d been on me nonstop since we’d gotten back from Vegas to know what had happened between the two of us, but I’d been vague. I was disappointed in the way things had ended with Aiden and me, and I just didn’t feel like discussing it in great detail. More than anything, I wanted to forget that it had happened in the first place, but Aiden refused to back off, and with every message he sent me, the way it felt to walk away from him washed through me.
I settled back into my corner of the plush sofa that fit perfectly in the large living room of her house.
We’d moved to Chicago a few weeks after our trip to Vegas, and while it was still warm here, the humidity was nothing compared to the heat of the south. When Brooke had told me that she was going to move away from Atlanta to be with Griff full-time, I’d understood. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t heartbroken over the thought of losing my best friend. But then Griffin had informed me that I was coming with them. I’d tried so damn hard to refuse to let him buy me a freaking house, but there was one thing I’d learned over the years about my best friend’s now husband. Persistence was his strong suit. And when he settled on something, he didn’t stop until he got it. Which is how Brooke had ended up married to the man she’d had a child with after a one-night stand over seven years ago.
That was a story for another day, though.
I glanced back to where Brooke was staring at the television, her eyes beginning to glaze over, and had to suppress a giggle. This was so typical of her. She rarely ever finished a movie that we started, and if she did, she never remembered what we’d watched.
Brooke and I were closer than friends and had been since college. She’d been my ride or die from day one, and our friendship was more like a sisterly bond than two girls that had been thrown together in a dorm room freshman year of college.
We couldn’t have been more different, and that was exactly why we were perfect for each other. She was reasonable and balanced my crazy. I was spontaneous and encouraged her to let her hair down every once in a while. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for the petite blonde at the other end of the couch, and I knew there was nothing she wouldn’t do for me. I could feel emotion clogging my throat and knew that I had to get my mind off of her if I didn’t want to end up explaining why this silly musical was making me cry.
I shook my head to clear it and tried to turn my attention back to the movie that was obviously boring Brooke, but instead of Zac Efron capturing my attention the way I’d hoped, he only made me think of the man who was blowing up my phone.
It was j
ust like him to text me on a random Tuesday night to tell me he was in town, like I gave a shit. And I didn’t. Give a shit, that was. Nope. I didn’t care one bit that Aiden Shaw was nearby, thinking about me, texting me, wanting to see me. Because he’d hurt me that night, lying about where he had to go instead of just being upfront and honest with me.
My phone chimed once again, and instead of even reading the text, I turned my phone off.
Brooke arched a brow at me, but I shook my head, and she didn’t say anything.
Ten minutes later, Brooke was snoring softly on the end of the couch and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I grabbed my phone and powered it back on, pulling up my text messages, and read the last one that he’d sent.
Pecker: I really miss you.
My heart squeezed. My thumbs began to move over the screen as I typed out a response that I knew I shouldn’t send. I stared at it for a moment, my finger hovering over the Send button.
Brooke stirred, jolting me out of my trance, and I quickly deleted the message and turned the phone off again.
I wasn’t falling back into Aiden’s trap. I’d done that too many times to count, and I’d made a promise to him, and myself, that I would never do it again.
No matter how badly I missed the feel of his arms around me.
Or the way he said my name while his hands tangled in my hair and his lips took my mouth in a kiss that was more of a melding of bodies than a simple slide of the tongue.
Or the way I only felt alive when he was beside me, the corner of his perfect mouth tipped up in a smirk as I gave him hell.
No. I wasn’t going down that road again.
We’d finally hit the dead end that we always knew we were going to run into. And it was time to move on.
The front door opened and Griffin Rockwell, star wide receiver for the Chicago Bears, walked in, his hair still wet from his shower after practice.
“Hey, Griff,” I whispered.
He chuckled as his eyes went to his wife. “She fell asleep, didn’t she?”
I glanced over at my best friend and pulled the half-eaten box of Sour Patch Kids from her lap before covering her with a blanket. “Of course, she did.” I shook the box. “She saved you a few gummies though.”