Her fingernails clawed my leg, and although the woman was doing exactly what she was paid to do, I was annoyed. The staff should be paying attention to the members. Not me.
I stepped back to give the hint I wasn’t interested, but she only reached out with her delicate hand and caressed my leg again.
I squatted so I could look her in the eye and quietly tell her that she needed to focus her attentions on one of the members as discreetly as I could. I didn’t want to reprimand a staff person at a Tasting and risk ruining the energy of the room.
“I appreciate your interest and effort,” I said, “but… Aria?”
“Meow,” Aria said with a twinkle in her eye and a wicked smile.
“What the fuck are you doing here? How did you get in here?” I stood up, and then I reached down and yanked her up to standing. I pulled her to a corner of the room and hissed in her ear. “You shouldn’t be here. I don’t even know how you got past the front door.”
“Lucky for me, I happen to be friends with the house manager.”
Fucking Tennessee.
I glanced down at her attire and felt a surge of primal possession. “What are you wearing? Why are you here as a kitty?” No fucking way was I going to allow this.
“Tennessee said—”
“I don’t give a fuck what Tennessee said. You are not allowed to be part of this Tasting. Did he hire you?”
She shook her head. “No, he just told me how I could find you. He was the one to push me to finally talk with you.”
“At a fucking Tasting? Dressed as a sex kitty? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Not being able to handle another second of knowing other eyes could see her firm little ass with a tail sticking out of it and getting hard by the vision, I took her by the arm and led her out of the room and to the office.
“Does your father know you are here?” I considered calling Harley Crow and telling him that Spiked Roses was in danger of an attack, but I needed to act on facts and not fear.
“No. He has no idea,” she reassured. “He’s in Monaco right now.”
“Why aren’t you with him?” I asked, taking off my jacket and covering her body with it. It was just the two of us, and I had obviously seen her naked, but I didn’t like having this discussion with her dressed in this attire.
“I haven’t been with him since I returned. Basically, I came back as damaged goods in his eyes. He no longer felt he possessed some flawless diamond. So, he just left me alone. Went about his business as if I didn’t exist. I think him seeing me was a reminder of how you won, and he lost.”
“I’m sorry. Had I known…”
“Don’t be sorry. That was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I actually could breathe for the first time in my life. It wasn’t like I was ever searching for Daddy Dearest’s approval. I was simply in survival mode being controlled by a very bad man. So, if his attentions are elsewhere now, then good.”
“Why are you here, Aria?”
She looked down at the ground and took a deep breath before making eye contact with me again. “I’ve been in contact with Tennessee ever since we left Colorado. He told me that you’re miserable. That you’re walking around like a lost puppy is the term I believe he used. And”—she bit the corner of her lip—“I was thinking that if you were even half as sad as I was, and if you were even missing me a quarter as much as I was missing you, well, then… I needed to try.”
“Try what?” My pulse quickened.
“I miss you, Matthew. I hate being away from you.” She took a tentative step toward me. “Am I alone in feeling this?”
“No, you are not alone,” I confessed.
“So then why are we not together?”
God, I loved her naive outlook on life. In her eyes, it was all so simple. But nothing about me was simple. Nothing about this entire situation was.
“If I could turn back time—”
“I wouldn’t want you to,” she interrupted. “Maybe our love story didn’t start off in the most conventional of ways, but I wouldn’t want it to change.”
“Love story? Are you hearing yourself?” I took a few steps away from her so I could give us both some breathing room. “How could you possibly stand there and use the word love?”
“Because it’s the truth.” She closed the distance between us. “If you don’t love me, then tell me now. But I can’t leave here and not be completely honest. I owe it to me, and I owe it to this baby.”
Baby?
What the fuck?