aterovis_bm_reapthewhirlwind.p65 (26 page)

“What if?”

I cried for a moment, then managed to find my voice enough to say, “If Joey was here right now I’d tell him—

that it’s too late now. I’d tell him that I gave him my heart once, totally and completely. And he took it and smashed it to a thousand pieces. But someone else came along, and they started piecing all the little parts back together. And even when it seemed like the pieces would never fit together and that some pieces must have been lost forever, they didn’t give up. And when it was as good as it would ever be, they gave it back to me, even though they longed to keep it. It was only when I got it back that I realized that it really did belong to that person after all, and I very much wanted him to have it.

Will you take it back, Aidan? Can I give you my heart?”

He stood deathly still for an eternity. Not a muscle twitched; he looked as if he had been turned into a statue. Then slowly his lips began to move, although no sound escaped them. Then finally, “Do you mean that?”

I held my hand out to him and nodded, “I love you, Aidan.”

He took a hesitant step forward, then another. I reached my arms around his waist and pulled him close, resting my face against his stomach. I slowly ran my hands up his back and then back down again. I kissed 236

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his chest and then his belly. He let out a low whimper as I loosened the towel and it fell to the floor. Then I slowly lay back, pulling him down with me.

The first time hadn’t been a fluke—the fireworks were still there.

***

I awoke a few hours later, his arms around me, my legs tangled with his. There were no misgivings this time, only a sense that everything was just as it was supposed to be. I inhaled deeply, savoring the sweet, musky scent that was left from our lovemaking. I twisted around so I could see his face. My stirring woke him and his eyes fluttered open. I smiled and kissed him softly on the lips.

“It wasn’t a dream,” he whispered in an awed voice.

“No, it’s for real,” I said softly. “I love you, Aidan Scott.”

A patented Aidan original grin spread slowly across his face and I realized how long it had been since I’d seen one. “And I love you, Will Keegan.”

We kissed again; this time neither of us was in any hurry to end it. We were working our way toward another fireworks display when the phone started ringing.

“Mmm…let it ring,” Aidan said.

“It might be important,” I said. I never could ignore a ringing phone.

“Then they’ll call back,” his lips started down my neck and I forgot what I was arguing about.

The ringing stopped only to start again a few seconds later. I sat up. “It must be important.”

Aidan sighed. “Fine, but I’ll answer it. You don’t move.” He stood up, then bent over me for one more 237

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quick kiss before running off to find the phone.

Aidan walked back in while he talked on the phone.

I took the opportunity to drink him in. His body was so perfect it was almost too beautiful. He looked like Michelangelo’s David come to life. His gently curling dark blonde hair framed a chiseled face and those beautiful, intensely green eyes. Under them was a straight, even nose that led directly to those full, incredibly kiss-able lips. His chest and arms were muscled without being huge and his stomach was hard and smooth. All that working out had obviously paid off. I was suddenly filled with two warring emotions; a sense of love and desire like I had never felt before and a deep shame at the way I had treated the one person who had loved me through the hardest times of my life.

Aidan held out the phone, interrupting my thoughts.

I hadn’t been paying attention to his side of the conversation, so I really had no idea who he was talking to or why they had called. Aidan read the confusion on my face.

“It’s Laura,” he said. “She wants to go talk to Blake.”

I took the phone. “Hello?”

“Will?” Laura said. “What’s going on? I didn’t think you were ever going to answer. I called the gallery and Nikki said you had the day off. You weren’t still asleep were you?”

“No, we weren’t asleep,” I said carefully.

“Well anyway, I was going to see if you wanted to talk to Blake after work, but since you’re off how about going now?”

“Now?”

“Yes, as in right now.”

“I can’t go now.”

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“Why not? You have the day off, what do you have to do that’s so important?”

“Nothing, it’s just—”

“Great, then we can go.”

“Now isn’t a good time.”

“Then when?”

“I don’t know.”

“For God’s sake, Will! Do you want to do this or not?

I thought you wanted to find Joey’s killer.”

“I do!”

“Then act like it. You know we need to talk to Blake.

Killian even said it could be really important.”

“You should go,” Aidan said softly into my ear. He’d been lying next to me the whole time, lazily trailing his fingers across my chest.

I covered the mouthpiece of the phone with my hand.

“What about us?”

“We’re great, don’t you think?” he said with a grin.

“Besides, I’ll go with you. I’m free; I slept through the only class I had today. I’ll follow wherever you go, oh fearless leader.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and sighed. It was obvious the water was moving too fast for me to swim up-stream; I might as well go with the flow. If Aidan was offering to go with me, there was no point in arguing. I spoke back into the phone, “Okay, let’s do it.”

“Great! How soon can you meet me at the dorms?”

“I don’t even know where the dorms are.”

“I do,” said Aidan.

“Give us a couple hours,” I said.

“Great.” I could hear the triumph in her voice. “I’ll see you then. Oh, and Will, are you and Aidan…?”

She left the question unasked but I knew what she 239

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was after. With a malicious smile playing on my lips I said, “Bye Laura,” and hit the end button disconnecting the line. Revenge was sweet and I knew the best torture for Laura was unsatisfied curiosity.

I dropped the phone off the side of the bed and turned toward Aidan. His arms wrapped around me.

“A couple hours, huh? That should be enough time.

Shall we pick up where we left off?”

He didn’t have to ask twice.

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

We were late meeting Laura. She was sitting on the curb waiting for us when we got there. She eyed Aidan with suspicion as we approached.

“He came along to help,” I said before she could ask.

“At least you’re here,” she said grumpily. “What took you so long?”

“We were, uh—in the middle of something when you called,” Aidan said with a wide grin. I couldn’t hold back one of my own even as I felt my face flush. Laura looked back and forth between us for a second, then her eyes slowly grew wide.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “You two are together, aren’t you?”

I blushed even harder and Aidan just nodded happily.

“When did this happen?”

“This morning,” I mumbled.

“And again this afternoon,” Aidan added with a snicker. My face became even hotter and I briefly feared it might burst into flame.

“Oh God! I did not need to know that,” Laura said with a slightly stunned expression on her face. For a moment, I wondered if Aidan had gone too far, but sud-241

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denly she grabbed us both in a ferocious hug that removed all doubt. “I’m so happy for you guys.” Her voice left no doubt that she meant what she was saying.

I got a little misty eyed for a second as she pulled back. Aidan just kept on grinning.

“Okay, enough mush,” Laura said briskly. “Wipe that grin off your face, Aidan. As long as you’re here we might as well get to work.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Aidan said, snapping to attention.

I giggled and Laura rewarded me with a scathing glare. The emotional moment was over. I made an effort to become more serious. “So what’s the plan?” I asked, trying to redeem myself.

“Why do we need a plan? We’re just going to talk to Blake.”

“All three of us?”

“Well I didn’t know Aidan was coming, did I?”

“If we all show up she might feel as if we’re ganging up on her.”

“Good point.”

“And do we know for a fact that she’s in her room?”

“No,” Laura admitted reluctantly.

“I think we need a plan,” Aidan said, earning him a glare of his very own.

“Then come up with one,” she growled.

“Okay, well first we need to know if she’s in her room.

Why don’t you call up and see?”

I could tell Laura resented Aidan taking over as the unspoken leader of the group, but the logic of Aidan’s suggestion was obvious, so without a word she stalked over to the call box. She found Blake’s room code and dialed it in. A female voice quickly answered.

“Is Blake there?” Laura asked.

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“No, she’s in class,” the girl responded.

Laura looked at us questioningly. I shrugged.

“Um, okay, thanks,” Laura said awkwardly.

“You want to leave a message?” Blake’s roommate asked.

“No, that’s okay. Thanks anyway.”

“No problem.”

“Okay, now what?” Laura said after she had disconnected.

We stood for a minute, staring at each other in silence.

“I’m fresh out of ideas,” Aidan admitted at last.

“We could search her room,” I suggested.

They both stared at me as if I’d just grown a second head.

“Search her room?” Laura repeated.

“Yeah, to see if—”

“If what? To see if she spray-painted a confession on the wall?”

“Maybe we should search her room,” Aidan said, coming to my rescue. “It can’t hurt. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“What would we even be looking for?” Laura continued to argue.

“Well, like when we searched Joey’s room, you said to look for anything out of the ordinary.”

“How do I know what’s ordinary for this girl? I hardly even know her. At least I knew Joey.”

She had a point.

“Maybe her roommate can help,” Aidan suggested.

“She sounded nice.”

“We could talk to her,” Laura conceded. “Blake might have confided in her.”

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“So do we just march up and knock on the door?” I asked.

“We need a plan,” Aidan said with spirit.

“Here’s a plan, you dork,” Laura said. “You distract the roommate with questions and Will and I’ll look around discreetly.”

“I thought you didn’t want to search the room,” he pointed out.

“Will you quit making everything so difficult?” she snapped.

“Why am I distracting her? Why can’t Will?”

“Because I said so and that’s the plan.”

“How am I supposed to distract her?”

“You’re a cute guy, she’s a female—you’ll think of something. Improvise.”

“I’m not exactly an expert on guy/girl dynamics.”

“Wing it, Romeo.”

“If he’s Romeo does that make me Juliet?” I asked. “I want to be Romeo.”

“You’re the one with a thing for balconies.”

“Ouch,” I swung my cast at her head and she ducked.

“So I’m the distraction while you two get to do the fun part. What would you have done if I hadn’t come?

After all I wasn’t even invited to this party to begin with.”

“I would have made do with what we had. A good leader makes use of the resources available to her.”

“Okay, that’s what a good leader does, but what do you do?”

“Ha-ha. Are we going to stand here trading snappy one-liners or are we going to do what we came here to do? Now come on, we don’t have all day.”

We took the stairs up to the floor Blake lived on and 244

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found her room number.

“Okay,” Laura whispered, once again taking charge.

“Aidan, you knock on the door, we’ll be around the corner.”

“Why will you be around the corner?” he hissed. I was beginning to think that Laura was making stuff up just to be bossy.

“We just will. Stop arguing.”

“I’m not arguing—”

Laura cut him off by knocking on the door and quickly dragging me off by the wrist. Aidan took a few steps after us as the door swung open. From my vantage point of just at the edge of the corner, I could see Aidan but not the person who had answered the door. I watched as Aidan straightened suddenly to face Blake’s roommate, looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“I- uh—hi—” Aidan stammered. I stifled a giggle.

“Hey Aidan,” the roommate said. “What’s up?”

“Keisha! Hi!” Relief flooded his voice. Obviously, Aidan knew Blake’s roommate.

No one said anything for a second, so Keisha tried again, “So, what are you doing here? Did you miss an assignment in class?”

“Assignment? Oh, no. I, uh—”

“Aidan, boy, I know you’re not trying to hit on me!”

Her voice was filled with laughter.

“What? No! I mean, yes?” Poor Aidan sounded so flustered I couldn’t stand it anymore. I let loose with a loud snort of pure amusement.

Laura jabbed with an elbow to my side and Aidan looked aghast.

“Is someone with you?” Keisha asked, suddenly 245

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sounding suspicious.

“Um, yes?”

With a sigh, Laura pushed past me and went to stand next to Aidan. I followed still trying to keep from laughing. This was not going as planned.

“Hi, I’m Laura,” she said introducing herself to the young black woman standing in the doorway.

“I’m Will,” I volunteered.

“What’s going on?” Keisha asked. She had a wary expression now, as if she thought we were trying to pull something over on her. She was tall and a little on the heavy side, but not in an unattractive way. She wore the extra pounds well, as most African-American women seem to do. She had huge dark brown eyes and a short afro.

“We were friends of Joey Taylor,” Laura said. Keisha gave her a blank stare and she went on. “The guy who died at the party about a month ago?”