“Really? Then what about the Bradford curse, hmm? I heard all about it at the baby shower, which makes me wonder why Aidan is really proposing,” Caitlyn said as Melanie watched her sister head across the small parking lot to her car as she stood there, telling herself that she should forget about this only to end up pulling her phone out of her pocket and sending Rebecca a text message, hoping to figure out what was really going on.
*-*-*-*
“What’s the Bradford curse?” Melanie asked as soon as he opened his office door to find her sitting on his couch, holding a large fast-food cup in her hands and watching him with a sad expression that told him that she already knew.
“Where’s Cody?” Aidan asked, closing the door behind him before he walked over to the couch and sat down next to her.
“With your father,” Melanie said as he reached over and pulled her onto his lap, careful of the large drink in her hands as he helped her move until she was straddling his lap.
“The curse doesn’t matter,” he told her, leaning down so that he could steal a sip of her drink as he placed his hands on her hips.
“That’s not what I heard,” Melanie said, worrying her bottom lip and looking so damn lost as he stole another sip, trying to buy himself some time to figure out how to explain this to her without her realizing that his family was clearly fucking insane since he felt that it would be in his best interest to wait until after they were married before she found out.
“Who told you about the curse?” Aidan asked, wondering which one of the assholes that he was related to had tried to fuck him over.
“Caitlyn overheard something mentioned about the Bradford curse at the baby shower,” she said as he struggled against the urge to tell her what he thought about her sister as he took the cup from her.
“And she felt the need to tell you,” he guessed, sighing as he took another sip, finishing off her drink before he reached over and placed it on the side table.
“She did,” Melanie mumbled sadly with a small nod as he reached up and cupped her beautiful face in his hands.
“I love you, Melanie, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but we’re going to do this the right way,” Aidan said as he leaned in so that he could brush his lips against hers. “Tonight, Lucifer is going to watch Cody while I take you out for an incredibly romantic dinner where I’m going to spoil you with white roses, champagne, and chocolate while I tell you just how much I love you. After dinner, I’m going to take you to an insanely expensive hotel where I’m going to spend the rest of the night spoiling you in every way imaginable before I make love to you and before the night’s over, I’m going to get down on one knee and ask you to marry me.”
“What about the curse?” she asked as she leaned in and kissed him.
“It doesn’t matter, Melanie, because you and I are doing this the right way. I owe it to you,” he said, wrapping his arms around her as he struggled not to yawn. “We’re going to do this right and that means engagement parties, getting stressed over planning the perfect wedding that is going to cost an arm and a leg, a white dress, beautiful church, a stale wedding cake, and an obscenely expensive honeymoon to the destination of your choice where we don’t leave the hotel room the entire time.”
“You would really do that for me?” Melanie asked, sitting back on his lap with a shy smile.
“I would do anything for you,” Aidan said as he leaned back in and-
“That’s really just not going to work for me,” Melanie said, sighing heavily with a sad shake of her head, leaving him confused as she climbed off his lap. He raised his arms to stop her only to have them fall back down as he found himself struggling to keep his eyes open seconds before everything suddenly went black.
Chapter 41
“You drugged me,” the man that she’d been starting to worry about said, sounding understandably pissed.
“I mean, technically, you did it to yourself since you stole my drink,” Melanie felt the need to point out as she turned the car off and decided that perhaps now was the best time to head inside to the room that she’d rented a couple of hours ago while she’d been killing time waiting for him to regain consciousness.
“Why?” Aidan asked as he rubbed his hands over his face with a groan.
“Tradition,” Melanie said, nodding solemnly when he dropped his hands away so that he could glare at her as he asked, “Where are we?”
“Somewhere in New Hampshire,” Melanie said as she opened her door and climbed out, deciding that perhaps now was not the best time to tell him that they were lost since he’d just use that against her.
“What are we doing in New Hampshire?” he demanded as he climbed out of the car and-
“I, umm, should probably carry Cody in,” Melanie said since he was having problems standing and all, she decided when his legs gave out and dropped him on his ass.
Decision made, she grabbed Cody’s bag and threw it over her shoulder before she grabbed his overnight bag, and-
Made another executive decision, one that had her giving Aidan a hopeful smile as he reached past her and took Cody’s car seat. She sent him a hopeful smile as he grabbed the travel playpen, threw it over his shoulder, and sent her another glare that had her grabbing the overnight bag that she’d packed for them, swallowing hard, and deciding that now was probably a good time to play the quiet game.
That decision lasted until they were in the painfully slow elevator that was stopping at every floor and she realized that now was probably a good time to say something, mostly because he hadn’t stopped glaring at her.
“Have I mentioned that I’m in love with you?” she asked with a hopeful smile only to end up worrying her bottom lip between her teeth when he narrowed his eyes on her.
“I had help?” Melanie said, deciding to test the waters to see if selling out her accomplices would save her ass.
Since that didn’t seem to help her, she decided to move on with, “Did I mention that I love you?”
Was that a growl?
Yes, yes, it was…
Swallowing nervously, Melanie started to look over her shoulder to see what floor they were on only to rethink that decision and went to plan B, but since she didn’t actually have a plan B, she decided to ramble.
“Proposals and weddings don’t work in your family. Every single Bradford marriage that started with a proposal ended in divorce and as much as I would have loved a church wedding, I’m not willing to take the risk,” she said in a rush, nodding for some reason as she gestured here, there, and everywhere, really hoping that he would stop glaring at some point.
He didn’t.
No, what he did was stalk forward when the elevator ding announced that they’d arrived at their floor and forced her to move or…
Well, since she had no plans of finding out what that or was, Melanie stepped off the elevator and sent a silent thank you to the desk clerk that had given them a room near the elevator. She grabbed the keycard
out of her pocket, opened the door, and-
“Did my father tell you the rest of the rules?” Aidan asked, sounding bored as he placed Cody on the bed so that he could set up his playpen.
“He might have,” she said, watching as he finished setting up the playpen before taking Cody, who was still asleep, from his car seat and made quick work of changing his diaper and put him down in his crib with his favorite blanket.
Once, he was tucked in…
“Then you know that this doesn’t work unless I lose my fucking mind, don’t you?” Aidan asked as she found herself backing up towards the bathroom.
“He might have mentioned something to that effect,” she mumbled only to bite back a wince when she felt her back hit the bathroom counter.
“What else did he tell you?” Aidan asked as he placed his hands on the counter on either side of her, effectively trapping her as he leaned in and ripped a moan from her as he kissed her neck.
“That you’re a stubborn pain in that ass that doesn’t listen,” Melanie said, loving the sounds of his chuckle as he pressed a kiss against her jaw.
“Anything else?” he asked as she felt his hand slide between her legs and-
“I-I don’t remember,” Melanie said, struggling to focus as he rubbed his palm between her legs.
“I see,” Aidan murmured, sounding thoughtful as he continued to move his hand between her legs. “We’re getting married, Melanie, but we’re doing it my way.”
“And what way is that?” she found herself asking as her head fell back, giving him more room as he kissed his way back down her neck.
“Pick a date,” he said as he rubbed his hand harder between her legs.
“Tomorrow,” Melanie said, licking her lips only to find herself turned around in his arms so that she was facing the mirror.
“That’s not going to work for me, sweetheart,” Aidan said, running his hands over her stomach as he pressed a kiss against the side of her neck.
“That’s your only option,” Melanie said because she refused to back down.
She didn’t care if this “curse” was real or not. She wasn’t about to take any chances, not when it came to Aidan. She loved him and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She didn’t care about anything else.