Chapter 57
Mia
I hug Mason as he prepares to leave the cabin.
After Dagger and Libby burned, Mason and Aiden tossed them into the water, leaving their charred remains for the gators.
It was well after midnight by the time we were through cleaning the porch and most of the house.
Then Mason got a call from Wolfe, summoning him for club business, and Aiden told him we’d finish up.
“You need to see a doctor,” Mason insists yet again.
“As I keep telling you, I’m fine,” I say, giving Mason a gentle push toward his bike.
Mason sighs. “Please tell me you’re done working at Lavish, so at the very least I don’t have to worry about another fuck becoming obsessed with you.”
I’m just about to tell him to fuck off when Aiden pipes up from behind me. “She’s been promoted for the rest of the summer to assistant bar manager. She’ll work behind the bar with Roz, a woman I trust. She’ll handle scheduling and paperwork, no more customer contact.”
I look back at him. “I won’t make the same money doing that.”
Aiden chuckles and runs his hand through his hair. “Fuck, Mia, can you just make this easy? I’ll pay you enough. I’m just not going through this again.”
I look back at him, then to Mason.
“Sounds like a better deal.” Mason smirks.
“Fine,” I tell Aiden. “Since you saved my life and all.” I grin. “I’ll agree.”
“Christ, woman. You’ll be the fuckin’ death of me yet,” he says, kissing my forehead before moving closer to Mason, a serious look taking over his face. He pulls his knife out and cuts a shallow slice, a few inches long, into his palm, then hands the knife to Mason.
Mason immediately does the same and reaches out, shaking Aiden’s hand. “Till next time, brother,” Mason quips.
Aiden nods. “Till next time.”
When I hear Mason’s bike fire up, I turn to Aiden, holding my palm out.
He looks down at it, and I can see him hesitate, almost saying no, but something in him must know I won’t let it go. He hands me his knife, and I slice into my hand, then hold it out to him.
My breath hitches as Aiden grabs my wrist and pulls me forward, peering down to watch my blood trickle down my arm. He brings my hand up and slowly drags it down the front of his face, from his forehead all the way to his chin, coating himself in my blood.
“You’re mine, Mia. We don’t need a pact, but if you want one”—he raises his hand, and I guide his palm to press against my cheek—“then you’ll get one.”
“And you’re mine.” I stand on my tiptoes and place my bloody hand on his jaw, then wrap my free arm around his neck to kiss him.
The sight of my blood on him feels like my own claim as I pull him closer and kiss him deeply, losing time with every swipe of his tongue against mine.
Confirming that he is it for me. That I’ll never not want him.
The time we’ve spent together so far may be short, but we’ve endured something most couples would never dream of.
In the midst of chaos and ruin, I want him.
Maybe the chaos makes me want him even more.
I’m insanely, madly in love with Aiden Foxx.
I love everything about the man he is, even the deep, dark, and twisted parts. There isn’t anything I would change.
“I love you, Aiden,” I whisper into his lips, then open my eyes, placing my hand on his jaw.
“I’ve been fighting it because I’m afraid to lose anyone else.
But I’m losing.” I smile up at him. “It seemed fitting to tell you now, surrounded by the blood of the man you killed for me. That’s the pact I want. One neither of us can ever go back on.”
The line between love and hate is so thin, and the truth is that looking back, I don’t think I ever hated him at all.
That day with Nic in Lakeside, there were so many other men around, but all I focused on was him.
I was fixated, and maybe that was the universe guiding me to him at that moment.
Guiding me through the broken path of grief and loneliness that brought me here.
“I would burn the fucking world down around you if you told me you were cold, Rhiannon. I would rip flesh from bone off any man if you asked me to,” he murmurs into my lips.
His voice turns slow and languid. “The word love does nothing to describe my feelings for you, Mia. You’re my fucking deliverance. My savior. My fire.”
“So, you love me too?” I whisper.
“Yes.” He chuckles. “You little brat. I fucking love you. I would die without you,” he breathes out, kissing me deeply as I twist my fingers into his hair.
“Aiden?” I ask him.
“Hmmm?” he answers, his eyes closed, forehead pressed to mine.
I kiss his jaw, and he gives me those steely blue eyes. “You wouldn’t need to burn the world down for me, baby… We’d burn it down together.”
He kisses me, swiping the matted and bloody hair from my face, his eyes filled with the same love I feel for him.
“Yeah, I suppose we would, Rhiannon.” He chuckles deeply. “I suppose we fuckin’ would.”