Chapter 23
My cheeks flushed,and my belly fluttered. If I had learned one thing about Aires from the beginning, he spoke his mind anytime he opened his mouth. He never held back, which was one of the things I liked the most about him.
He seemed as genuine as they could come, and I hadn’t met a lot of honest people in my life. Especially when it came to dating men who were always trying to prove something.
It was refreshing.
He was my breath of fresh air.
Which was yet another reason I never stopped thinking about him.
His eyes bore into mine and once again rendered me speechless as I sat on the railing in the zoo, which was our destination. We’d just spent the past two hours on a private tour he scheduled for us.
Despite visiting Australia a few times, I got to hold a koala for the first time in my life. Not only did I get to hold one but I also got to feed it. It took everything inside me to give it back to the tour guide. I loved animals. If I hadn’t become an actress, I would have been a vet or something along those lines.
We got a picture with it and then fed the kangaroos and all sorts of other animals. It was the perfect first date. He remembered how much I wanted to hold a koala every time we traveled here, so he made it happen for me. I could have burst from that alone.
He stared at me with the same swagger and confidence he always exuded. Another thing I liked about him was how he looked at me. There was something about him. Since the first time I laid my eyes on him, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his. He had this magnetic pull I was instantly drawn to.
It came from something deeper.
More meaningful.
A connection I couldn’t explain, growing stronger with each minute that passed between us. I knew he felt it. He was the type of guy who would notice everything. Neither one of us said a word for a couple of seconds, but it didn’t matter. Our eyes spoke volumes, causing the nervous feeling in my core to subside.
“Tell me about yourself, Bailey.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“You say that like you mean it.”
“I don’t say anything I don’t mean.”
I ignored his response, asking, “What do you want to know?”
“I mean, you don’t have to tell me your blood type, but I do want to know if I could trust you with my heart. You can never be too careful. My mom tells me so.”
I laughed.
“Honesty truly is the best policy. I’m upfront, and I don’t want women falling in love with me.”
“Commitment phobic?”
“Quite the opposite. I’ve committed my entire life to being single, and I’ve never hurt a woman because of it.”
“I see. So you’ve never been in a relationship? Never had a girlfriend?”
He grinned. “And that surprises you why?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “You seem like you would be an amazing boyfriend.”
“Enough about me.” He kissed me. “I want to hear all about you.”
“You’re a paradox of contradictions, Nicholas Aires.”
“Do you need me to start slow? How about I lead you in the right direction? Tell me about your favorite color?”
“I don’t have a favorite color.”
“You mean it isn’t your beloved pink anymore?”
“Actually, I’m not a fan of pink.”
He narrowed his eyes at me.
“I’m more a blue kind of girl now.”
“Well, my blue balls agree with you.”
I giggled as he took me in with those eyes again. Knowing he could see right through me made my stomach flutter for entirely different reasons. And as much as it terrified me, it also thrilled me.
I smiled. Despite the awareness in his eyes, I looked away. I had to. Reaching into my purse, I turned my attention to a piece of gum I was pulling out, avoiding the look in his eyes that I wasn’t ready to feel. I put it in my mouth, needing some sort of distraction from the sudden realness between us.
“Sharing is caring.” He nodded toward the wrapper in my hand.
“I think that was my last one.”
“You don’t share your candy. I’m having flashbacks to our childhood. Will I have to chase you around like I did when we were kids?”
“You mean terrorize me?”
“And you loved it then as much as you would right now.”
“My mom never told me that boys were mean to me because they liked me.”
“I find that hard to believe. If that were true, you wouldn’t have dated the douchebags you’ve been linked to.”
As if on cue, my stomach did that somersault thing again. Except this time, it felt like it would never end, twisting and turning and flipping.
Never taking his eyes off mine, he leaned over with a mischievous grin. I felt this jolt. This immediate spark made my mouth dry and my face flush, a burning sensation all over my body.
“You kept up with my dating life, huh?”
“Had to make sure you were being taken care of.”
“I see.”
His cunning smile told me he knew exactly what I was feeling, thinking, wanting. We spent the next hour talking. His hand remained on my thigh, brushing his fingers ever so lightly over my sensitive skin.
We laughed.
We joked.
We picked on one another.
He asked me about my family, and before we knew it, the morning rolled by, and it was like I blinked, and the sun warmed our already heated skin. It was warmer that day than it had been, and I loved that we were taking advantage of it. I was doing something out of the ordinary for me and enjoying every minute of it.
I was already counting down the seconds when I’d see him again. I shut off the voice in the back of my head that kept trying to tell me I needed to stay away from him.
He reminded me of the girl I wanted to be, the one who could act her age and live in the moment with him. Question after question tore through my mind as we locked eyes.
“You know this is a date, right? You know, where two people go out, the guy pays for everything, and they get to know each other. Maybe there’s a reach-around?”
I giggled with a great big smile on my face. My belly did this somersault thing that only happened when he spoke to me in that suggestive way. I never had anyone talk to me like he did, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like that too.
“Don’t you have a no-dating rule?”
“I’m making an exception.”
“For me?”
He leaned in close to my lips and whispered, “Only for you. What are you thinking about over there?”
“Nothing.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You know when you lie, your lip twitches a little.”
“Are you always this perceptive?”
“It’s how I operate.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I know what you’re doing.” He nodded. “Just in case you don’t realize it, I’m aware that you’re trying to change the subject.” He flashed me one of his full-on dimple smiles. “Fully aware.”
I rolled my eyes, giving him my undivided attention. “Okay, buddy, new rule. This.” I pointed from him to me. “If it’s going to work, this perfect thing you got going on, it’s got to be taken down a few notches.”
“Perfect thing?”
“Don’t act all coy, Aires. You know what you’re doing.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but thanks for the boost to my ego.”
“Yeah, because you need a boost to that, Aires.”
He chuckled, making those damn dimples prominent and enticing. I wanted nothing more than to reach over and touch them. I blushed just thinking about it.
“I love it when you say my name.”
I slapped his arm. “Stop.”
“Stop what, telling the truth? You want me to lie? Tell you I’m not thinking of all the dirty things I want to do to you?”
I giggled. “I’m pretty sure you already have.”
“I’m just getting started.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Casanova.”
I truly enjoyed being the center of his attention. He moved a little closer to me, causing his cologne to instantly assault my senses. It was difficult not to turn into him just to breathe in his scent.
“How about we talk about you blocking all my topless cues for the camera?”
He smiled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I thought you didn’t lie.”
“Got me there, gorgeous.”
“What if B. Night didn’t agree with your direction of how those scenes should turn out?”
“He liked it enough to accept my proposal of taking a pay cut if you didn’t have to go topless.”
My mouth dropped open.
“I warned you. I don’t share, sweetheart.”
Meeting his stance, I asked, “What about future roles? How are you going to control the narrative there?”
“Cross that bridge when we get there.”
“Nicholas Aires III, I can’t believe you.”
“Believe it,” he bit. “Any other cards you want out on the table?”
“I don’t know. Are you going to say something dirty or flirty?”
The truth was written all over his face. “Tell me something about yourself that no one knows,” he prompted. “Not even Alexis.”
“Now that’s a hard one. There isn’t anything Alexis doesn’t know.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you seem like the kind of woman who might keep some things hidden.”
“Let’s talk about you instead,” I countered, not wanting to talk about the things that kept me up at night.
“I’m an open book.” He smirked. “So ask me anything.”
“You tell me something you’ve never told anyone.”
“Alright.” He nodded, carrying on. “When I was twelve, I found my father fucking his secretary on his desk in our vacation home.”
I gasped, jerking back. Never expecting him to confess that. His response was a slap in the face.
“I’ve never told anyone that,” he admitted, knowing how much it would mean to me that he told me.
My heart pounded in my chest with heavy thumps. “I hate that you went through that. Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“You come from a perfect family, Bay. You wouldn’t understand.”
I shook my head. “That’s certainly not true.”
“They’re all faithful to their wives,” he simply stated.
He got me there. “It doesn’t mean they didn’t fuck up in other ways.”
“Sex, drugs, and rock and roll, right?”
“Yes. That was my father’s motto for a long time.”
“Your dad is a legend. He’d never fuck over your stepmom. Family means everything to him.”
“Your family cares about you.”
“My family cares about appearances. Going home to me means I’m in a suit the entire time because that’s how the Aires men are made.”
My heart broke for him. “Your mom… she doesn’t know?”
“I’m not sure. It’s not something we discuss when the family gets together for holidays, summers, funerals… things like that.”
“Is that why you’ve always thrown yourself into acting? You work as much as I do.”
“Idle hands are never good for anyone.”
“Well, what about your dad? Does he know that you do?”
“Do you think it’d make a difference if he did?”
“I’d hope so.”
“Here’s one thing you need to know about my father, Bailey. He doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself and his legacy.”
“I guess that’s why you rebelled?”
“Nah.” That was all it took for him to lean in and claim my mouth once again, and I knew it was his way of changing the subject.
But that didn’t stop my desire to know more about him.
Even if it’d continue to break my heart for him.
This was the perfect moment to show him how much he meant to me. I turned around, placing my back to his chest, and grabbed my cell phone. He wrapped his arms around my neck while looking up at the camera with his signature smile that made me weak in the knees.
I snapped a quick picture of us and instantly uploaded it onto my social media with the caption…
Hard launch.