15
Darren
Heart still beating rapidly,Darren smiled to himself as he made his way to the conference room. Aiden hadn’t been angry. He’d let Darren use his first name and… he’d called Darren by his. Satisfaction of the kind that made him smile even more coursed through him, right to the pit of his stomach, sending pleasant sparks across his skin. He didn’t give into them though, not yet. He lowered himself into a chair, booted up a screen and called Nyle through the secured channel.
“Hi,” the cute hacker said, excitement pouring off him as he flashed his sultry grin from the hideout’s war room. “I heard from Bea that you found it.”
“We believe so, yes. The object storing it had the same type of data point as the ring.”
Bea joined the call from the cockpit and Darren gave the two a recount of the events. Aiden walked into the conference room just as he finished explaining. He tipped his chin at Darren and claimed the chair on his left.
“Hey, Kesley, glad to see you in one piece. Darren just told us about your run-in with that patrol,” Nyle said over a chuckle, wiggling his blond eyebrows.
Darren lost the conversation from there, the tingling hum within him too distracting. To him, it wasn’t Kesley anymore, but Aiden.
“Darren?”
Taking Aiden to the mansion ruins had changed something. He still felt raw from the way he’d bared his soul to this man, showed that side of him where all the hurt and sorrow resided. Terror still pulsated inside him from having let Aiden witness him like that. But Aiden had held him through it, through the tears and the yelling and the sobs, he’d accepted it all, not walking away and not leaving him alone when he likely deserved both.
“Darren.” Aiden’s voice broke through the chaos in Darren’s mind, tantalizing and gentle just like the grip of his hand around Darren’s arm.
“Yes?” Darren blinked at him as Aiden squeezed softly, then turned his attention to the screen, where Nyle’s curious frown waited expectantly. “Sorry, I spaced out.”
Nyle made a thoughtful sound, but it didn’t seem like he was too bothered that he’d have to repeat himself. “I was saying that Nan is amazing because she arranged a meeting with Rick.”
Darren cleared his thoughts as Aiden let go, and focused on what Nyle had said, trying to work out the best way to make it happen. “Okay, that’s great. Where is he now?”
“Still Mars.”
“We could swoop in on the way to the hideout,” Bea chimed in, her video feed shifting to the center of the screen. She had her phone in her hand, tapping across the screen at what was most likely a game.
Darren peered at Aiden, asking him without actually asking. Aiden held his gaze for a few heartbeats, then glanced at the screen.
“Is it safe to do it with the Maine?” he posed, bringing up a rather valid point.
“I had no issues coming to pick you up, so I don’t think a quick detour will hurt. Also, we did a few extra tweaks to the frigate while you two were busy treasure-hunting. They’ve been working like a charm. And even if that wasn’t the cas—”
“There is no way anything I do will fail,” Nyle rumbled, his eyebrows drawn together as he gave her an overplayed death glare.
Bea chuckled, a spark of challenge sparking to life in her brown eyes. “Clearly not the case if you ended up in jail with Darren, baby angel.”
“What makes you think it wasn’ton purpose?”
Tossing the phone somewhere out of sight, Bea crossed her arms. “Oh? Are you saying itwas,then?”
While the two bickered back-and-forth, Darren turned to Aiden, who seemed lost in thought. He was likely mulling over his upcoming meeting with his friend. Darren was glad Rick had agreed, even if he might choose to part ways, because at least that chapter of Aiden’s life would have some closure.
Thinking of Aiden’s friend reminded Darren of the one he’d left in prison, but even if part of him wondered what Matt would’ve said if he’d found out the truth, he still felt like he’d done the right thing not dragging the man into this mess. Maybe one day they could reconnect, but he doubted that day was going to be anytime soon.
“Aiden,” Darren said when Aiden’s frown only deepened, feeling out each syllable on his tongue. His intention, he realized, was both to grab Aiden’s attention, and to see again that reaction he’d elicited earlier by using Aiden’s given name.
It lasted a heartbeat, Aiden’s whole body tensing up in a state of alert that carried a tinge of suppressed arousal as if Darren merely speaking his name was an intimate caress that could drive him crazy.
Would Aiden respond that way if it were someone else using his first name?Or was this response reserved just for him?
Darren didn’t know, but he wanted to find out. Aiden seemed to prefer to be called by his last name and, somehow, Darren doubted he let many people call him otherwise, which then meant that ‘Aiden’ carried some significance. Perhaps related to Claudia or an event from his past. It was too early to go that deep though, too soon to ask, so Darren didn’t and instead let contentment swell within his chest at the fact that Aiden didn’t correct him this time either.
“We can go back to the hideout first and arrange a meeting with Rick at a later time if you prefer?” he suggested, not wanting to rush Aiden into a meeting now just because it was convenient.
