14. Aiden #3
We stayed there for a long moment, holding each other under the cooling water, both of us reluctant to break the spell that had settled over us. I could feel his heart beating against my chest, could taste the lingering salt of his skin on my lips.
“We should probably get out of here,” he said eventually, though he made no move to pull away from me.
“Probably.” But I tightened my arms around him instead, not ready to face the outside world and all the complications that waited there.
“Aiden.” There was something in his voice that made me look at him, something serious and uncertain. “What are we doing?”
It was a fair question, and one I wasn’t sure I knew how to answer. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But I know I don’t want to stop.”
“Even though it’s complicated? Even though our families…”
“Fuck our families.” The words came out more vehemently than I’d intended, and Rhett’s eyes widened in surprise. “Sorry. I just…I’m tired of living my life based on what other people expect from me.”
“Is that what this is about? Rebellion?”
The question hit too close to home, touching on the exact fear I’d been trying not to examine. “No. Maybe it started that way, but it’s not anymore. This is about you and me, nothing else.”
“You sure about that?”
I pulled back to look at him properly, taking in the vulnerability in his expression, the way he was looking at me like he was trying to see past all my defenses to whatever truth lay beneath.
“I’m sure,” I said, and meant it. Whatever this had started as, it had become something else entirely. Something that mattered in a way that scared and thrilled me in equal measure.
He studied my face for a long moment, as if trying to determine whether I was telling the truth. Then he nodded slowly, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “But we need to be careful. If anyone finds out about this…”
“They won’t. Not unless we want them to.” I didn’t need reminding. With Dad’s health the way it was, telling him I was falling hard for—and, let’s face it, inside of—Rhett Morrison would speed up my inheritance and crowning to an undesirably short timeline.
“Do we? Want them to?” His brow furrowed in concern, and I wanted to lean in and kiss the creases away.
The question hung in the air between us, loaded with implications I wasn’t ready to unpack. The idea of being open about whatever this was, of not having to hide or sneak around, was terrifying.
“Let’s just see where this goes first,” I said finally. “Figure out what we are before we worry about what other people think about it.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“Good. Now, come on. We really should get out of here before someone comes looking for us.”
We separated reluctantly, both of us reaching for towels and trying to make ourselves presentable. The intimacy of getting dressed together in the small space was almost as affecting as what we’d just done, domestic in a way that made my chest feel tight with unfamiliar emotion.
As we gathered our gear and prepared to leave, I found myself watching Rhett’s every movement, already addicted to the way he moved, the way he looked at me when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.
“So,” I said as we headed toward the exit. “Your place or mine tonight?”
“Mine,” he said without hesitation. “Lennox is at Oliver’s until tomorrow morning.”
“Perfect.” I couldn’t keep the satisfaction out of my voice, and Rhett shot me a look that was half-amused, half-exasperated.
“You’re awfully confident about this.”
“About what? Getting you naked again? Yeah, I’m pretty confident about that.”
“You’re impossible.” But there was a smile on his face, even if he tried hard to conceal it.
“And yet here you are, inviting me over for a sleepover.”
“It’s not a sleepover. It’s…” He cut himself off, realizing he’d walked into that one.
“It’s what?” I pressed, grinning at his flustered expression.
“It’s whatever it is. We’ll figure it out as we go.”
That seemed to sum up everything about whatever was happening between us. We were making it up as we went along, navigating uncharted territory without a map or compass. It should have been terrifying, and maybe it was, but it was also exhilarating in a way I’d never experienced before.
As we stepped out into the cool evening air, I felt lighter than I had all day. The frustration from my mother’s call was still there, the pressure of family expectations still waiting to be dealt with, but for now, none of that mattered.
What mattered was the way Rhett’s shoulder brushed against mine as we walked, the anticipation building between us, the promise of another night spent discovering exactly what we could be when we stopped fighting it and each other.
I was probably heading for heartbreak, probably making the biggest mistake of my life. But looking at Rhett in the fading light, seeing the way he looked back at me with heat and affection and something that might have been hope, I couldn’t bring myself to care.
For the first time in my life, I was choosing what I wanted over what was expected of me. And what I wanted was him.