“I don’t know,” I whispered.
“Do you think I’d hurt you? I wouldn’t. I swear. I’d never do something like that.”
“No.” I shook my head, trying to make sense of the thoughts in my mind. “At least, not exactly.”
“What is it, then?” he prodded.
“I…I don’t know.” I took a deep breath. “All of this scares me to death.”
“All of what?” His arms tensed, and I could hear the frustration in his voice.
“Being here,” I said. “Everything about this week, it’s just been…well, it’s been…”
I trailed off, trying to find the right words.
“It’s been wonderful,” I finally said, and then I started crying again.
He cradled my head in his hands, staring at me intently.
“And that scares you?”
“Yes.” I sniffed and wiped my eyes.
“I don’t understand,” Aiden admitted. “I mean, if you’re having a good time, well…what’s the problem?”
Another tear slipped down my cheek, and he wiped it away with his thumb. He stared into my eyes looking as confused as I felt.
“Tell me,” he pleaded.
“I don’t know what happens now,” I said. “Where do we go from here?”
Aiden narrowed his eyes, obviously still unsure what I meant.
“I’m not a one-night-stand kind of guy,” Aiden said. “I’ve got my hand and plenty of porn when it comes down to that. I’m not going to toss you out in the rain now that we’ve had sex.”
“Well, that’s good to know.” My words were biting, though I didn’t really mean them to sound like that. I just couldn’t find the right words.
“Chloe,” Aiden started and then paused to take a deep breath. “When we first met, you were hesitant about everything. You didn’t want me to help you when you were too trashed to drive. You freaked out about waking up with me, and you wouldn’t even consider altering your normal schedule. I’m surprised you decided to come down with me at all. Even after we got to Miami, you were more scared than excited. I saw you looking at the cabs at the airport—you didn’t even want to ride on the back of my bike. Since coming down here with me, you’ve really opened yourself up to try shit you haven’t done before. You even went skydiving, for fuck’s sake, and I had been pretty sure you weren’t going to agree to it at all. It was a stretch on my part to even suggest it.”
He paused, his looked softened, and he smiled.
“When I looked into your eyes after we were back on the ground, do you know how you looked?”
I shook my head.
“Alive,” he said. “Really, truly alive. Your eyes were bright and without fear. You looked like you could conquer the world right then.”
He ran his thumb over my cheekbone.
“I watched you change. I watched you turn into a completely new and better person right then. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my life.”
I looked away, trying to process what he had said. Changing into another person was a bit of a stretch, but I had felt different after my feet touched the ground. I felt stronger, more powerful. It had been beyond just the thrill of falling through space and surviving. It was like something inside of me, long dormant, had opened up and demanded to be satiated.
I didn’t want to lose that feeling.
“What about when this week is over?” I asked. “When I go back home, what happens?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” Aiden admitted. “I hope we still want to see each other. I’m up your way often enough, and I’d bring you down here again whenever you wanted.”