Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Why are you staring at me?”
Could I have tried to play off the fact that I’d been lying in bed with my head propped up on my palm, staring at him? Absolutely not. What the hell else could I have been looking at? I’d been doing it for so long that, knowing Aiden, he’d waited to make sure I was doing what he thought I was doing.
Which I had been.
I’d woken up maybe ten minutes before and laid there, appreciating how cozy it was under the heavy covers and on the perfectly comfortable mattress. But when I finally forced myself to open my eyes, the first thing I saw was the big guy. Aiden was on his side, his hand pillowing his head. That normally harsh face was… well, it was still pretty rough. It wasn’t soft and dreamy; he honestly looked like he was thinking about bad plays in his sleep. His mouth was slightly open with the softest, even breathing coming out of it. With the covers pulled up to his chin, he looked too damn cute.
I hated it.
Why? Why him?
Of all the people in the world I could have chosen to think the world of, it had to be this one. The one who didn’t want a real relationship because he didn’t want to put time into it. The guy who only loved one thing in his life and everything else came trailing after it.
Then again…
He’d been making a serious effort to spend time with me. He’d done things for me that I still couldn’t completely wrap my head around. He’d been more than just friendly with me.
What did it mean though? Weren’t those part of the requirements mandatory in a real relationship? Wasn’t it enough to be with each other when you could, or was I just trying to convince myself there was something there? He’d kissed me. That couldn’t mean nothing, could it?
That was exactly what I was in the middle of thinking of—and eyeing those great lips—when he caught me. So all I could do was give him a closed mouth smile. “Why not?”
Cracking both eyes open, Aiden rolled to his back and stretched his arms high behind his head, rolling his wrists in the process as he yawned.
“Thanks for putting me in bed last night,” I said, watching the swift line of his throat as he yawned again.
He grumbled, “Uh–huh,” as he rolled his shoulders before slipping his arms beneath the covers again.
“And for giving me a massage.” I had already tried moving my legs, and sure they were sore, but I knew how much worse they could be. I’d done everything I was supposed to do to help prevent the stiffness, but there was only so much a body that wasn’t 100 percent to begin with could handle.
“There wasn’t much to massage.”
Uh. “What’s the supposed to mean?”
“I have more muscles in my glutes than you have in your thighs.”
Anyone who had seen Aiden’s ass would know that was a fact, so I wasn’t going to take it personally. Maybe because I was still so sleepy, I raised my eyebrows at him and said, “Have you seen your butt? That’s not an insult. It has more muscles in it than most people have all over their bodies.”
His own thick eyebrows rose about a millimeter, just slightly but enough for me to notice. “I didn’t know you paid that much attention to it.”
“Why do you think you have so many female fans?”
Aiden let out another low groan, but he didn’t tell me to stop.
“You could raise a small fortune if you ever auctioned off the chance for a person to take a—”
“Vanessa!” Mr. Proper reached over to throw a hand over my mouth, like he was shocked.
That big hand literally covered me from ear to ear, and I burst out laughing though it was muffled.
“You make me feel cheap,” he said as he slowly pulled his hand away, but the shine in his eyes said he didn’t really mind it that much.
I stretched my own limbs with a yawn. “I’m just telling you what anyone else would.”
“No, no one else would ever say that to me.”
So he had a point. “Well, I’ll tell you the truth then.”
He made this noise that had me rolling to face him again. “You always have.”
Why did it feel like he was trying to tell me something? “I’ll always try to be honest with you,” I lied, hesitantly. Unless it was something I was scared to tell him, like my feelings for him, or me quitting.
“You can tell me anything.”
How was I supposed to live my life after that? Especially when I was lying on his bed and he was sitting up next to me, sharing the same covers. I wished I had the guts to tell him anything, but the truth was, I didn’t.
There was only so far I was willing to jump on my own.
I sensed the weight of a stare before I glanced up. Directly in front of me and his desk was the big guy. Literally right in front of me. I’d been completely hunched over, so focused on what I was doing that I had zoned out.
“Jesus Christ. How do you not make any noise?” He was stealthy like an overweight, mutant cat, damn it.
“Skills.” I swear to God I almost choked. He took a step forward, his hands planting themselves on the edge of the desk as he leaned over to look at what I was working on. “What is that?”
I lowered my pencil to the desk and slid the piece toward him. “It’s a diptych tattoo design.” I pointed at the images on the two separate panes I was still in the middle of outlining. “It’s supposed to be one for each leg, you see? One part is Medusa’s face and the other is her hair—the snakes.”
When he didn’t say anything, I held back a frown. “You don’t like it?” I thought it was coming along well.
“Van, that’s…” He lowered his face closer to the design. “It’s amazing. Someone’s paying you to do that for them?”
“Yep.” I looked back at the Medusa and had to agree with him. It was pretty damn awesome. “I know a guy in Austin who does tattoo work. Sometimes someone will ask for a certain style he’s not good at, and if no one else he works with can do it, he’ll reach out to me. My line drawing is pretty good.” I glanced back up at him and grinned. “My watercolors aren’t too shabby either. I’m a woman of many talents.”
Unless someone wanted a portrait, then I’d pretend to be asleep so I wouldn’t have to admit how bad at them I was.
“I’ve never really thought about tattoos much, but I might have to think about having you make me one,” he answered in a distracted voice.
“I could whip you up a nice clown. All you’d have to do it ask,” I joked, sliding the design toward me.
Yeah, that big, beautiful grin crawled up with full force over his mouth, cracking my soul open in half. “The five of us are going out for dinner. Take a break and come.”
I didn’t need to eye the sketch to know that I’d worked on it almost as long as I could. When I drew, I’d learned the hard way that I needed to pay attention to my limit, otherwise things started to go downhill. And I’d probably gotten there about fifteen minutes ago when my fingers began cramping.
“All right.” I reached across the desk to grab the case where I usually put my box of pencils. “Give me ten minutes to get dressed.”
Aiden nodded.
Fully aware that Aiden wasn’t dressed up and he wouldn’t go anywhere that would require him to put on anything dressier than jeans, I settled for a pair of skintight jeans that I’d resorted to sticking in the drier on high heat so they would still fit me, a V-neck red elbow-length shirt, and black heels I hadn’t worn since the last time I’d gone out, months and months ago.
Not surprisingly, all of the guys were downstairs waiting. I knew they were planning on leaving the next day. I had to take one stair at a time, and I winced every single step, muscles I didn’t even know I had responded to the achiness from my run yesterday. I’d briefly thought I was coming down with something but shoved the possibility aside.