* * *
Morning comes too soon, and along with it, a fierce headache and a stomach roiling with nausea. I’m not as hungover as I thought I would be, though, so I would say I successfully survived Xena’s attempts at cheering me up. If I make it through the day without throwing up, I will consider this a resounding victory.
I sit up in bed, taking my time raising my head because it throbs when I move too quickly. Something on the nightstand catches my eye and I see two new bottles of water in addition to more painkillers.
Huh.
Aiden must’ve checked on me at some point and brought me more painkillers when he saw that I’d taken the ones he left me last night. Yet another thoughtful gesture from a man who was such a sore loser he had to run away when I beat him at that video game. Such a strange contradiction.
Fuck. I hope I wasn’t drooling or anything when he checked on me. That would be embarrassing.
I take the fresh painkillers and down both bottles of water before making my way to the bathroom across the hall. I take care of business and then use the toothbrush Aiden gave me last night to get the disgusting taste out of my mouth. Getting into the shower was my only concern last night, so I didn’t notice that the bathroom was actually really nice. Nothing at all like any of the bachelor’s bathrooms I’ve ever been in before.
Didn’t stop me from noticing the bottle of lube on the shower shelf, though.
Wait a minute. Maybe it’s not a bachelor’s bathroom. I don’t know if Aiden is even single. Maybe he’s married, or has a live-in girlfriend. Good thing I didn’t act on my attraction last night when we got back here. Of course, I can’t even be sure that I’m even still attracted to him. Not when he ran away after losing the game. It’s probably better if I’m not interested in a man who takes such a thing so personally, after all. Ugh, too bad it’s not so easy as that to turn off attraction.
After I finish in the bathroom, I make my way downstairs, taking a better look around than I did last night. Aiden has a ton of family pictures on the wall, but they all look pretty old. I don’t see any in which Aiden looks older than a teenager. There are several where he is pictured with a woman who is probably his mother, and a much younger girl, probably a sister, if I had to guess. A closer look tells me that the pictures originally had a fourth person in them, Aiden’s dad if I had to guess, but someone has ripped or cut them out. I wonder if Aiden’s dad was the cause of his shitty home life, like my mom was mine? Not that I’m going to ask him. If he wanted me to know, he would have told me already.
The closer I get to the bottom of the staircase, the louder the music coming from somewhere in the house gets. I guess Aiden is awake already, too. That’s good. The sooner he can take me to get my keys, the faster I can get away from his moody ass. Seriously, he did so much smiling, brooding, laughing, and running away last night that I think I may have whiplash.
I turn the corner to the kitchen when I make it to the bottom of the stairs and I can see where the music is coming from. What looks like the door to the garage is open, and the music is coming from there. Detouring to get another bottle of water from the fridge, I make my way to the doorway and peek in. The entire room is painted black and there are guitars hanging on the opposite wall. A stack of amplifiers is just inside the doorway beside me and assorted cords are hanging neatly from the wall above them. I step in a little further and that’s where I see the most amazing sight.
It’s Aiden, sweaty, shirtless, hair flying, playing a set of bright pink drums like a madman, and looking like the sexiest damn man in the history of men. This is the Aiden from the front of the shirt. Now I can see the resemblance.
And Ho-ly shit.
I only got a glimpse of his body last night at the club, and I was pretty sure the tequila I drank messed with my mind a little. Apparently, though, Aiden is just as built as I thought he was.
Standing in the doorway watching him play so aggressively, seeing the definition in every muscle, is giving me major lady boner. The facial expressions he makes as he plays are not helping with keeping the lust away. They’re practically obscene, and I can just imagine those expressions are a variation of what he looks like when he comes. I feel my pussy throb in response, making me swallow hard.
I guess he didn’t drive away the attraction with his poor sportsmanship like I had hoped. Imagine that.
He hasn’t noticed my presence in the doorway yet, so I take advantage of this opportunity to really look at him. He’s wearing black shorts, and black and white Vans sneakers, and nothing else. He’s moving so fast that I can see the sweat flying off of him, but I’m sure once he stops, it will drip down his skin like he just got out of the shower. His hair is even wet, and it’s flying around his head, sticking to his skin as he moves. I definitely see the resemblance to the shirt now. I don’t know how long I stand there just watching him play, but it has to be at least a few minutes.
He leans over and turns the music off now, so I guess my chance to perv on him is over. Too bad, I was really starting to get into it. I’ll definitely be keeping what I’ve seen stored away in the old spank bank for later, though. Can’t let excellent material like that go to waste.
“Hey, how are you feeling this morning?” He asks, grabbing a towel and standing up. He wipes the sweat off of his body as he walks over to where I’m standing, stunned and staring at him. I was right before. Sweat is dripping down his body, tracing the lines of his muscles, drawing my eyes and making it so I can’t look away.
Aiden reaches up and I follow his hand with my eyes, until he taps me under the chin with his knuckle, closing my mouth.
“You got a little something there,” he says, as he wipes my lip with his thumb. “A little drool maybe?” A little smirk flickers on his mouth and he raises an eyebrow at me.
He turns sideways and passes me in the doorway, heading back into the house. While his back is turned, I quickly wipe my mouth. There’s no drool. Jerk. I wonder if he was talking about finding me drooling last night? Still, I feel like an idiot because he clearly caught me staring.
“I’ll grab a quick shower and then we can go get your keys,” he says, heading upstairs.
It’s a good thing he doesn’t appear to be expecting any answers from me this morning, because seeing him nearly naked and sweaty has left me seriously tongue-tied.
Chapter 12
Aiden - Taking Care of Business
Rhea must’ve stood in that doorway for ten minutes at least. Well, it was ten minutes after I noticed her standing there. Who knows how long she was there before I saw her.
And the way she watched me. It was like she wanted to lick me all over, claim me as hers. And fuck if that doesn’t turn me on. Once again I find myself running up the stairs two at a time, trying to hide my hard-on before Rhea notices. Because there’s no way she actually wants me.
Even if she did, there’s no way I could actually have her.
