28. Isla #2
Maybe I am being too hard on him.
“Did you ever imagine this? Us?”
He gave her a sidelong glance, his eyes both gentle and filled with a frankness that warmed her. “I imagined you. In fact, I’ve been imagining you quite a bit since that night at the guesthouse. But us? Not quite.”
A thrill passed through her at his words, and she felt herself growing wet.
“So how did you imagine me?” She traced her thumb against his, awed by how much larger his hands were than hers—his practically engulfed hers. But she’d never compared her hands to Aiden’s. Never walked anywhere with him, holding his hand.
Like a couple.
“Untouchable. A very bad idea.”
She slowed, hesitation curling through her. “And now?”
“Still a bad idea.” He raised her hand and kissed the back of it. “But worth every obstacle.”
She couldn’t quite bring herself to meet his gaze, but a warmth filtered through her body, surrounding her heart and peeling back some of her walls.
They came to a food booth and stopped. “Don’t laugh, but I’m going to get a hot dog. Only because the other options sound too sweet. Do you want anything?”
“Water. I’ve had so much sugar today that I feel like I can’t get enough of it.”
“You may be the cheapest date I’ve ever taken out.” He grinned and ordered.
Once he’d paid, she turned her back to the booth and leaned against it, looking up at him. “Is that what this is? A date?”
“Well, as close to one as we’ve ever been on. If you don’t count our night of obliterated, drunken vows.”
“Still hard to believe we skipped the dating part and went straight toward lifelong commitment,” she said with a shake of her head. Or that, for now, Aiden is still technically my husband.
That thought did something funny to her.
Just like when he’d called her his wife in Nashville. “So what do you want to do after this, husbee?”
He choked out a laugh. “Husbee?”
“Yeah, I don’t know. Husband sounded too stiff. Though maybe that would suit you more.”
“Whatever you want, wife. ”
God, why do I like the sound of that so much?
It was completely ridiculous. She wasn’t looking to get married, and they were barely in a relationship or whatever this was.
Yet the word wrapped around her, grounding her with a sense of security and comfort. Of something that she couldn’t name. Something—someone—that was hers. Of belonging.
“I think maybe I’ll take a tiger after all,” she said, accepting a water bottle from the man working the register.
“I’ve heard—supposedly—Aiden Camden is a crack shot with a rifle.
At least, that’s how he used to brag when he was in the military.
Before he became a stuffed suit. Maybe he’s lost his skills now, though.
It has been years since he probably even held a gun. ”
He took the paper food tray with a hot dog, French fries, and soda and balanced it on one hand as he walked toward the condiment table. “You make me sound ancient. But fine—you’re on. I’ll win you a stuffed tiger. Your curse will be having to carry it around this damned carnival.”
“Like I said, you’re awfully cocky for someone who’s a lot of talk.” Isla looked around for a game booth with rifles. Finding one, she tugged him by the elbow toward it, a girlish feeling of enthusiasm starting to move toward her.
“Hang on, impatient wife. Your husband is eating.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “I’m going to have fun with these nicknames until our divorce.”
“ Annulment, ” Aiden said, then took a bite of hot dog. “Meaning technically, the whole thing never happened.”
She frowned, not loving the way that sounded. Of course, they needed the annulment, but it all had happened. Maybe they could erase it on paper, but otherwise? That was impossible.
That night in Vegas had changed both of their lives.
Sobering, she looked away. A group of teenagers passed, laughing and shrieking. Despite the cold, the girls wore high crop tops, and the boys—pimple-faced and lanky boys clutched their hands or had their arms around them. Maybe not so innocent but free. Without anything really weighing them down.
“I still haven’t told Callum yet.” She cleared her throat. “Honestly, I think I held off because I wasn’t sure if there would be anything to tell. But now that you’re here, we have to think of a way to tell him.”
“Maybe we can tell him together at the party next weekend. In person. I don’t want you to have to do it alone, Isla.” Aiden sipped through his straw. “But I can’t say I’ve been the best at answering his texts recently.”
“Neither have I.” Isla stared down at her feet, twisting the toe of her shoe into the dusty ground.
And now, after all this time, it almost felt ridiculous to be so concerned. What’s done in Vegas was just that. And it could be annulled.
Why have we made such a big deal out of that? Considering a relationship...okay, that merited a conversation. But if Aiden was Callum’s best friend, then that suggested he was someone Callum thought highly of, right? Had they potentially made a mountain out of a molehill?
Maybe it was because they’d felt the need to lie in the first place. Owning those lies would be a tough admission. And considering that she’d been so angry with Callum after the whole Tomas situation, she hadn’t wanted to yield the moral high ground.
Not to mention the fact that she needed to talk to Callum about how unhappy she was at the inn.
But now, the longer they waited to tell him, the more it felt like they were making a mess of something that could be solved with a simple conversation. Yet avoidance was easier. Less intrusive to the tenuous happiness she’d found with Aiden after weeks of angst.
Aiden reached for her, then kissed the top of her head. “Why don’t we get that tiger?”
She nodded, pushing away the worries she’d allowed to creep into that moment. Aiden finished his hot dog, ate a few fries, then tossed his tray. He wiped the salt from his fingertips, then took her hand once again and headed toward the game booth.
“Two,” he said, reaching for a few bills.
“That’s twenty bucks,” the teenager at the booth said, pointing at two seats, worn with age. “You get three shots. If you hit the target three times, you win.”
Aiden raised his brows. “For a stuffed tiger?” He handed over the money, though.
“See, I could very quickly become an expensive date,” Isla teased. “Though I thought you only needed one try.”
“One is for me. The other is for you.” Aiden pointed at one seat. “You first.”
“I don’t know how to do this,” she protested but sat regardless.
“It’s easy,” Aiden leaned in close to her from behind, setting her hand on the trigger. “Look down the sight, pull the trigger.”
“Mmm. ..nothing like sexy mansplaining.” She let her cheek brush against his jawline, though, and her body tingled at his nearness. “If I win, you owe me a real date.”
“And if you lose?” He hadn’t moved, and the scent of his cologne made her want to lean over and kiss the smirk off his lips.
“Same thing.”
“You know how to drive a hard bargain, Miss Skye. Maybe I’ll drag you into my office with me next time I need to do business negotiations.”
She leaned away from him, smiling as she looked down the sights. “Oh yeah?” Her finger tightened against the trigger.
He pressed closer still. “Of course, if I had you in my office, I’d sit you on my desk like on that coffee table in the guesthouse. Except this time, it would be my mouth doing the work.”
The rifle went off, and the teenager at the booth ducked.
Aiden chuckled. “Nice aim.”
“Asshole. You made me miss.”
“Why?” His voice was silky in her ear. “Because I said I’m dying to eat you out?”
Another miss.
She glared at him. “You are a brat.” She took the last shot as he laughed, this time at least hitting the paper target.
As he sat for his turn, she sidled up beside him. “I’d return the favor,” she said. “But then I wouldn’t get a tiger.”
“Fine. But if I win, I get a kiss.” Aiden took the rifle in his hands, with practiced ease.
Goddamn.
“And if you lose?”
His eyes glittered. “Same thing.” He held her gaze. “But not here. Come back to the hotel with me.”
She gulped a breath. “That won’t fix everything.”
Aiden’s face relaxed, just slightly, as though he’d believed she’d say no. “This isn’t me fixing. This is me choosing you. Every second. Every messy, unplanned, impossible second. And hoping you choose me back.”
Every inch of her wanted him. Wanted to kiss him. Wanted to throw her arms around him right then and there and forget that she’d spent the past two days questioning everything.
“You’re making it really hard not to, Aiden. You keep saying all the right things, even on the heels of actions that worry me. How am I supposed to resist when you give me lines like that?”
“Don’t. Not tonight.”
She felt herself slipping, falling further under his spell. So she stepped back and crossed her arms, giving him a daring look. “Win me the damn tiger, and we’ll see.”
Three shots later, she picked a tiger from the shelf.