Chapter 36 Aedan
AEDAN
I woke up with a start and then listened. What was that? What the hell was that?!
It took me several seconds to realize that the thing I could hear was quiet. No trucks. No clatter of chains and whir of cranes.
I wasn’t in my apartment near the docks. I’d done what I never did: stayed over at some woman’s place after sex.
And then my brain caught up. Sylvie. It wasn’t some woman I’d picked up in a bar. It was my angel, and we were finally together. A warm calm descended on me. I smiled in the darkness.
I rolled over as carefully as I could. There she was—sound asleep, her black hair fanned out across the pillow.
Her lips were slightly parted and she looked utterly serene.
I could only see her bare shoulder, but I remembered her peeling off her dress before we fell into bed, which meant she was naked under the sheets.
If I just pulled them back, I’d see every gorgeous inch of her… .
I got up before I could succumb to temptation. I was wide awake and buzzing with energy, even though it was still the middle of the night. Why? Why wasn’t I cuddled up with Sylvie, in the same deep sleep? God knows we’d fucked hard enough to be exhausted.
I found my shorts and pulled them on, then stumbled to the bathroom.
It was only when I turned on the light that I saw it.
Something was different about me. I looked.
..normal. I looked like a boyfriend. Some guy that Sylvie had met at a coffee shop or on the subway.
A nice, normal guy who could take her on dates and buy her presents.
Someone, somewhere, had granted me my secret wish—
I was still half asleep, so it took me a few seconds to realize what had happened. In my bathroom, the light comes from the other side.
I twisted slightly and my scars appeared from the shadows that had been hiding them. And everything they represented slammed back into my mind.
Coming here hadn’t fixed me at all. I hadn’t changed. I’d just forgotten what I was for a few hours, thanks to lust...and maybe deeper feelings.
I’d been weak. I’d thought with my cock instead of putting her first. She said she wanted a bad boy but I was a feck of a lot more than a walk on the wild side. I was the worst sort of guy. She just didn’t know it, yet.
For her sake, I had to push her away.