It’s the last push I need mentally to get ready for the next step in our relationship. When we get home, we need to go public at the office. I want her in my bed every night, and I’m going to do what my dad said and not get in my own way.
I’m all fucking in.
27
EXPOSED
Going backto work on Tuesday is a complete buzz kill. I stayed at Aiden’s last night, purely for convenience, and maybe I’m slightly addicted to waking up next to him. But, given the choice between staying in The Bahamas or coming back here, I would pick The Bahamas every single time.
We’re an hour late because he somehow seduced me this morning, and we’re clearly unable to have a quickie.
Aiden parks in the back of the building, and we kiss one more time before walking toward the office. Penny is out front ripping taped pictures, and I tilt my head at her.
“Fuck, I thought I’d be able to get them all down by the time you got here,” she says, her cheeks pink as I walk closer and see the picture. It’s a still shot of us kissing on the kiss cam at the Rays game.
“Okay, so everyone knows we kissed,” I say in a calm but irritated tone.
Penny pales. “Zach is on a bit of a tirade inside.”
“Who put these up?” Aiden asks, taking my hand, and Penny looks just as frustrated as him.
“I called our security company and asked for the footage.”
“Thank you,” Aiden says, and Penny keeps ripping them down as Aiden pulls me to the side. “I was tired of keeping it a secret anyway. Are you okay with everyone knowing?”
I sigh. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“I’m not going to let Zach or anyone else treat you differently because of this.”
“I’m not sure if their treatment can get any worse.” He folds his arms and takes a deep breath, looking up at the sky. “I’ve been thinking about finding another job.” He looks down at me with a frown.
“What?”
“I mean, I love being with you all day, but I don’t really enjoy what I do. I think I want to go back to doing freelance, or I was thinking about creating some apparel designs. I was worried you wouldn’t like me leaving.”
“Baby, I want you to be happy.”
I shrug my shoulders. “I think I want to save some more money first because I don’t know how quickly I’ll be able to get business.”
He arches an eyebrow at me and shakes his head. “You know I’ll help you get up and running.”
“I know, and I love you for it. But I think I need this to be something I achieve on my own, you know?” Usually, I would accept his gift with no hesitation, but the thought of being on my ass again because I let a man provide everything is terrifying. I hate thinking negatively, always thinking about how things could go wrong, but when life has proven to me over and over that it loves to fuck me over, I have to protect myself. I also want to prove to myself that I can do it on my own terms.
“You could move in with me and sell the cottage,” he says, and I stare at him. As much as I want that, I can’t do this again. Be left on my ass if this fails. I never want to be that floundering mess of a girl ever again. I have faith in Aiden, and deep in my bones I know he’s a good man. I can’t see this going south, but didn’t I think the same thing when I first started dating Sean?
I want to be able to completely hand over all my trust and dreams in Aiden’s caring hands, but I can’t help but feel afraid to do that. What we have now is amazing, and I know eventually it will lead to more, but I feel like I have something to prove to myself. That I want Aiden, not that I need him. I’m more than willing for him to be in control of most things, but I want it to be a choice, not because I can’t take care of myself.
“Can we put a pin in that for later?” I ask him, and he sighs and nods his head.
“Let’s go get this over with,” he says as we walk into the office together. It feels like I have a red target on my head as every pair of eyes stares at us as we walk in. Heads popping up over gray cubicles. And then there’s smug Zach as he leans against the doorframe of Aiden’s office. I can feel the tension rolling off of these two, and I know that if it doesn’t get defused soon, it’s going to explode all over this office.
“Did you have a good time in The Bahamas?” Zach says, looking at Aiden, and I can tell that he doesn’t really give a shit, he’s just trying to get under Aiden’s skin.
“Good. Excuse me,” Aiden says, trying to walk past Zach and into his office.
“What did you do for the holiday weekend, Jessica?” I fucking hate being called Jessica and I’ve told him this so many times. It’s become clear that no matter how hard I try, Zach and I will never be anything, and I’ve accepted it. If anything, I’m about ready to give him a piece of my mind. Now that everything’s out in the open, what does it matter? He was never going to be kind or gracious to me, and I’m so sick of the high road.
I ignore him and sit at my desk. He leans against the thin cubicle wall with a smirk on his face. “So you couldn’t just help yourself, huh? Couldn’t just come here and take shares that don’t belong to you? You decided that you needed to fuck the boss too.”
