S I X
- Aiden -
I smiled at her icing filled mouth. “I just wish I’d thought to slather it on my balls before I served it to you.”
She laughed. “Thank you so much for not doing that.”
I had to ask her about the scars. I couldn’t not ask. Thinking about them was the only reason I hadn’t sprung out of my robe and pinned her against the bed already.
I thought after last night- after the cops and the sex and the coming for ages and the sleeping through the night together- that I knew everything I ever wanted to know about my best friend. And more importantly, I thought I knew everything I needed to know to pursue this thing with her, whatever it was.
But the marks on her arm disturbed me. Not because scars freaked me out. I had so many scars I couldn’t remember what they were even from. Still, I only had to look at her scars for a second to know that whatever caused them hurt. A lot. And it bothered me that she’d heard every gory detail about every broken, sprained, and fractured bone I’d ever had, every black eye.
I’d regaled her with stories about how I got certain bruises, boring her to death no doubt with the names of players she didn’t even know and would never meet. And here she was with these secret marks on her body that I didn’t know about. Marks that- by the look of it- she’d had a long damn time.
I wanted to forget about it, enjoy our cake, and see how long we could ride out the romance of our sexy wedding weekend, but I couldn’t put it out of my head.
Any other girl and it wouldn’t have mattered. It would’ve been baggage, something I could handle her telling me about or not, something I would assume she would tell me about when she was ready.
But Lucy should’ve been ready a long time ago, and I couldn’t distance myself from her pain that way… or her body. I didn’t want to anyway. I had to know what the hell happened and why I never knew about it. I had to know right now.
But I let her finish her cake first, even though she was trying to make it last forever by taking bites The Borrowers would’ve scoffed at. Still, cake had always been her happy place so I didn’t want to spoil it. And ice cream. And on some level, I hoped I was, too.
She’d certainly become mine anyway.
“That was delicious,” she said, laying her fork across a sparkling clean plate. “Thanks.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
“Every penny’s worth,” she said. “And it was really sweet of you to go down and get it.”
I shrugged. “I’m a sweet guy.”
“How will we burn off all that sugar?” she asked, tapping her chin.
“I have a few ideas,” I said. “But first I need to talk to you about something.”
“Really? You want to talk now? When we have a hotel room all to ourselves and we’re practically naked?”
I smiled. “Please don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
Her face fell. “Oh my god what is it?” She sat up straighter and leaned against the headboard, her bedhead tumbling over the outside of her robe. “You’re freaking me out.”
I took a sip of champagne and set it back down.
“Jesus, do I need a drink for this?” She reached for her champagne and took a large swig.
“No,” I said. “It’s not a big deal. Actually, it might be a big deal.”
She set her glass down on the nightstand.
“I’m hoping you can tell me.”
“Spit it out,” she said, her eyes searching mine.
“It’s your arm.”
“What about it?” she asked, pulling her hands in her sleeves.