Aiden obviously wasn’t going to leave it at that. He reached out and touched Quinn’s shoulder, and Quinn tensed up.
“Aiden… please… just leave it alone. Don’t make it any worse.” Quinn hated that his voice was pleading. “I’ve never been so embarrassed in my whole life.”
“Embarrassed? Quinn, please turn around and look at me.”
Despite wanting to hide in a corner somewhere, Quinn slowly turned around.
“Why are you embarrassed?” Aiden asked, and he looked completely baffled.
Quinn averted his eyes from Aiden’s gaze. “Maybe because I thought there could be something between us, something real, and now I clearly see that’s not going to happen. It’s quite embarrassing to bump into the man you had sex with on the morning after.”
Aiden’s eyes widened and then he actually doubled over to laughing. That only infuriated Quinn even more.
“You’re laughing at me now?” Quinn was five seconds away from punching Aiden “You know what? I was going to do my job today and then tell you I would no longer continue working for you, but I quit.”
Quinn started to leave, but Aiden reached out and grabbed his hand, starting to pull him toward him, but Quinn tripped, falling into Aiden. Aiden reacted by leaning down and kissing him, and he started to kiss back until he came to his senses and pushed Aiden away. Quinn’s hand moved before he even thought about it, and he slapped him. Hard.
“Stay away from me.”
Aiden touched his cheek, but a smile remained on his face. “I deserved that, I suppose.”
“You bet your ass you deserved that. First, you make a fool of me by canceling our plans just so you can shack up with some other guy, then you kiss me the morning after you… you fucked someone else. Gods, did you at least brush your teeth so I didn’t have to taste his dick on your breath?” Quinn was breathing heavily and felt he was one minute away from a breakdown.
Aiden snickered. “Okay, Quinn, listen... I didn’t fuck someone else, and I didn’t cancel our date—and yes, itwasa date, not just plans—so I could hook up with some other guy. That guy you saw… that’s my brother.”
Quinn arched an eyebrow. Did Aiden think he was stupid? Did he really expect Quinn to believe that?. “Your brother.” He couldn’t help how flat the words had come out.
Aiden nodded. “Like I said to you yesterday, on the phone.” Aiden grew more serious before he went on. “His mother passed recently. He’s usually traveling or holed up in his apartment for work, and he doesn’t live in town. I haven’t seen him in a long time, and I wasn’t even expecting him to come yesterday since he didn’t call and tell me Honestly, I was looking forward to last night, a lot, whether you believe me or not. But I kept thinking about us having a romantic date while my brother was upstairs after just arriving, so I thought it was best to just cancel and raincheck it.”
Quinn bit his lips and ignored the heat in his cheeks for his behavior. “You could have just told me.”
Aiden nodded. “Did you listen to the voicemail I left for you last night?”
Quinn felt the heat race up his neck and cheeks all the way to the tips of his ears. “Well, not exactly… No, no, I didn’t. I shut the phone off as soon as the notification came through.”
Aiden’s look softened even more. “I should have explained more when I called you, and I’m sorry about that. You just became so distant by the end of the call.” He rubbed his cheek, then shook his head. “That hand sure packs a punch.”
“I’m sorry, but I thought you were… I don’t know… I guess…” His words trailed off. He didn’t know quite how to end the statement.
“You thought I was an alphawhore-alphahole all rolled into one.” Aiden snickered. “I got that, loud and clear.”
Quinn groaned, rubbing the back of his neck until Aiden took his hand.
“Look at me, please,” Aiden asked softly, and he slowly raised his head. “I wouldn’t do that. My father did that to my papa, and I’m not my father.”
Quinn bit his lips and slowly nodded. “I shouldn’t have assumed. Once I heard a man’s voice in the background, I thought the worst.”
Aiden shrugged, and Quinn couldn’t take his eyes off the red spot that bloomed where his hand had connected with Aiden’s cheek. Crap, that made him feel worse. He reached up and cupped the spot, holding Aiden’s gaze. “I really am sorry, you know.”
“I can understand how it looked. I didn’t handle that correctly. I’m not good at this. My brother has graciously gone to a hotel for the night, so I was hoping we could try again this evening. Besides, I went to the store and bought a ton of groceries.”
Quinn smiled. He thanked god his behavior… that slap, hadn’t deterred Aiden from wanting to try again, and Quinn wanted nothing more. “I need to see if Helen is free.”
Aiden nodded. “You let me know.”
“I will. I’ll call right now.” He fished his phone from his pocket and dialed up Helen.
“Hello?”
