Craved (6 page)

“Good evening, Gwen,” he said, with
his oh-so-sexy voice.

“Hello, Aiden,” I said back, not
entirely sure why I was still smiling like an idiot. It couldn’t
have been my time with Micah, I was definitely over him. Our
conversation though helped a lot. It’s amazing what an apology can
do for someone. That had to be why I was in such a good mood.
Having Aiden visit wasn’t a bummer either.

I started up the concrete stairs that
led to my second floor apartment, with Aiden following in my wake.
I hoped that our place was halfway decent, since I hadn’t been home
long enough to really clean and Fiona only did the minimum, but I
doubted Aiden would care.

I fished my keys out of my sweater
pocket but was frozen in place when Aiden’s energy pushed against
my back, sending rivulets of power cascading all around me. I
shivered against the feel of it as he pushed my long dark hair to
the side and touched his lips to the nape of my neck. It was
amazing, that he could turn me on with barely a touch. How I had
resisted him for two years was beyond me.

Suddenly the warmth of his lusty power
withdrew, leaving me shivering for a completely different reason. I
looked over my shoulder just to make sure he was still
there.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, afraid of
what he might say. He was leaning against the far wall with his
arms crossed and looking at me with annoyance.

“I thought you said this case wasn’t
about Micah?” he said accusingly. In true Aiden fashion, he had
turned me on, only to dump a bucket of ice-cold bullshit onto my
head. Otherworldly men were incorrigible. Of course, he’d be able
to smell traces of Micah on me, even though we hadn’t
touched.

“Aiden, you can either stay and
discuss the information you said you had, or you can leave. I don’t
have to explain myself to you,” I forced out, with the sudden urge
to smack the stupid out of him. Without waiting for his answer, I
turned the key in the lock and strode into my apartment. I tried to
fling my sweater off, but during my little rant, it got tangled
around my arms and I was stuck with what looked like a cashmere
straightjacket.

Aiden was in front of me, untangling
my limbs by the time I had uttered my third cuss word. I looked up
at him and tried to portray the anger I felt, but all I could do
was laugh.

“Hold still,” Aiden chuckled as he
unbuttoned the rest of my sweater. Finally free of my stupidity, I
smacked him on the arm.

“What was that for?”

“You are the most complicated person
I’ve ever met! One minute you’re trying to seduce me and the next,
you’re pushing every single one of my ‘piss-me-off’ buttons. How
I’ve dealt with you for the past two years is beyond me.
If…”

My words were suddenly cut off when
Aiden smashed his lips on mine. I resisted at first, my anger still
burning. I pushed against his chest but he only held me tighter,
wrapping an arm around my waist while his other hand tangled in my
hair. His tongue darted out, teasingly and my anger was
extinguished.

I opened my mouth and
accepted what he offered, massaging my tongue with his. Tingles
radiated up my thighs and settled between my legs as I felt his
hardness press against me.
Man could he
kiss!

I snuck my hand under his shirt to
feel the sinews of muscle that waited underneath. I had wanted to
get my hands on his sculpted chest ever since I first met him and I
was surely taking the opportunity now that I had it. He answered
with a moan that I mimicked and suddenly, there were too many
clothes between us for my liking. I made his shirt disappear so
that my hands wouldn’t run into any obstacles as I explored his
beautiful landscape. He pressed soft kisses all the way down my
neck, rendering my body into a boneless mass.

“Um, hello?” Fiona called from the
front door. I quickly untangled myself from Aiden to see Fiona
wasn’t alone. Her father stood next to her with his steely gaze
aimed at me. My mouth hung open in humiliation at what Fiona and
her father had just witnessed. Aiden didn’t seem to mind, though,
as he held out his hand to Mr. Bennett who looked at it as if it
held a deadly virus. Unfazed by the rudeness that was Fiona’s
father, Aiden wrapped an arm around my waist. I nudged him with my
elbow and stepped out of his embrace.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that,” I
grimaced. Fiona answered with an amused grin while her father
remained silent. Luckily, I was still wearing my white tank top,
but Aiden’s shirt had been banished to God knows where.

“Daddy and I are just coming back from
one of his banquets and he wanted to see our apartment,” Fiona
explained. I’d have to question her later about why her father
suddenly wanted to be in her life. After what he saw tonight, he’d
probably demand that Fiona never speak to me again.

I nodded my head, unable to speak
without offending Mr. Bennett in some way.

“We’ll just get out of your hair,”
Aiden said, pulling me towards my bedroom. In normal circumstances,
I would have stopped him but I really wanted to flee the judgment
in the old man’s eyes.

I grumbled and fell back
onto my bed, ashamed of getting caught. Not that I really had any
reason to be ashamed, I
was
an adult, after all, but Fiona’s father could
made me feel as big as a Tic-Tac.

Aiden lay on his side next to me and
pushed a stray strand of hair out of my face, manifesting a sexy
grin on his lips.

“It‘s been entirely too long since
I‘ve gotten to feel your lips!” I smiled up at him, my bedroom
instantly seeming perfect with a bare-chested Aiden in it. We had
kissed a few months after Micah broke up with me but I was still in
the process of licking my wounds. I couldn’t offer Aiden what he
wanted. I’d been keeping my distance ever since that night but,
like everything else, Aiden hadn’t made avoiding him
easy.

“If I knew what you were hiding under
your shirt, I would’ve caved a long time ago. My imagination failed
you.” I said, eyeing his perfect chest.

“I feel cheated,
your
shirt is still on.
Come on, off with it, it’s only fair,” he teased as he pulled at
the bottom of my tank top. We were in a sort of tug-of-war, with my
shirt acting as the rope.

“Stop,” I managed to get out between
laughs, “We should talk.” Aiden immediately stopped, a somber look
taking over his happy one.

“If you tell me that this can’t happen
again and that we’re better off friends, then stake me now; end my
misery,” he said, with amused sarcasm.

I sat up and straightened my hair that
got messed up during our war over my shirt. “I was going to say
that we should take this slow, maybe go on a few dates to see if
there’s anything between us besides sexual lust. I’m not looking to
get my heart stomped on again or interested in just being a booty
call,” I admitted honestly. Aiden started laughing silently so I
slapped his arm lightly, “I’m serious.”

“And I’m serious when I
say, that I have wanted you for two years, body
and
soul,” He cupped my face in his
hands and pressed a kiss on my forehead, “But I have no problem
wining and dining you. Prepare to be wooed,
my
Gwen,” a smile of accomplishment
stretched across his lips to reveal perfectly white teeth. I smiled
at him through a strand of my dark hair that acted as an ebony
curtain. I eyed his chest and reluctantly, conjured a gray t-shirt
to cover the masterpiece. Gray fabric crawled along his ribs and up
towards his shoulders, stretching and connecting to form a shirt.
He looked down in awe at his new garment,

“That’s amazing.”

“So, what’s this information you just
had to see me about?” I asked.

“I called a friend of mine that lives
in Chicago and I pretended to be interested in finding something I
could serve in my club that would attract younger
vamps…”

“Aiden! I told you not to mention
anything,” I interrupted.

“…
I didn’t mention your
name or anything to do with this case, I’m not an idiot. Anyway, my
friend told me about a new blood that I could sell that would keep
a steady flow of young vamps coming. Guess what the blood was,
Gwen?” he asked with sarcastic pleasure.

“Brew?” I answered
knowingly.

“Bingo! He said that it had come
through Chicago a couple months ago and the vampires up there love
it.”

“Does he know what kind of blood it
is?”

“He didn’t say and I didn’t ask. There
have been a handful of bloods that have been altered to expand our
palate, so I wanted him to think I assumed it was one of those so I
wouldn’t raise suspicion,” he said proudly.

“Good job, Nancy Drew,” I laughed, “I
can’t share this information with the FPD though because you’re not
supposed to know,” I grinned at him.

“Don’t you think I thought about that?
He’s shipping me a sample and then if I like it, he’ll have the
dealer contact me,” he said, giving me a smug grin, “Nancy Drew has
nothing on my detective skills.”

Could it really be as easy as Aiden
getting the culprit’s information just handed to him? I had to stay
optimistic about the possibilities.

A knock sounded at my door and both
Aiden and I turned our attention toward it.

“Come in,” I called. Fiona pushed the
door open with her hand covering her eyes and said,

“Daddy’s gone and I have pizza out
here.”

“You can uncover your eyes, Fiona,
we’re just talking,” I told her. She dropped her hand and looked at
us with humor.

“I thought you said you two weren’t
dating?” she teased.

“We’re not, well we weren’t. It just
kind of happened tonight.”

“Not for a lack of trying,” Aiden
chimed in, “I must thank you and your father for interrupting what
could have been the highlight of my year.”

“Sorry, he insisted on driving me
home,” Fiona said.

“Um, excuse me, we were just making
out. It wouldn’t have gone any further so you didn’t interrupt
anything,” I told both of them. Fiona gave me a “yeah, right” look
while Aiden smiled knowingly. I shook my head in aggravation; even
I couldn’t convince myself.

We all sat around the table, Fiona and
I stuffing our faces with pizza topped with chicken while Aiden
drank bottled water. I really wanted to play twenty questions with
Fiona about her father but I didn’t think she’d want Aiden to know
her business, so I resolved to just ask later.

“So I take it you’re going to the
Founder’s Gala together now?” Fiona asked between bites of
pizza.

“Yep. Everyone will be envious of me
with Gwen on my arm, no offense, Fiona,” Aiden bragged. I looked at
him, remembering I had told him that I already had a date to the
Gala, so I decided to have some fun with it.

“Aiden, I’m so sorry but I already
have a date, remember?” I said and pretended to wince at the
thought of offending him. The look of shock on his face was
priceless.

“I thought you said you were going
alone?” Fiona said, blowing my joke out of the water.

“I don’t remember saying that,” I said
innocently.

“What his name?” Aiden said with
suspicion. Crap on a cracker, I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.
I took entirely too long to answer but finally said,

“Jason.”

“You’re worse at lying than you are at
resisting me,” Aiden laughed. I smiled at him, knowing the truth
was now out.

“Hey, with all the crap you’ve put me
through the last couple years, you deserve a little crap back,” I
said.

All three of us were laughing and
talking when my phone rang. I flipped it open and noticed it was
Micah’s number.

“Hi, Micah, what do you need?” I said
into the receiver.

“Another body has been found; meet me
at Hollow Creek Park.”

I pulled my car into the
wood-chipped parking lot and went to the passenger’s side to
retrieve Aura, who wasn’t too happy that I had woken her up. There
were two black SUVs with red and blue lights flashing against the
darkness of the park. Micah and Wyatt stood at the edge of the
woods, looking down at a body. Gruesome things were not my strong
point. I got faint at the sight of blood from a paper cut, but
helping out the FPD was rewarding just to know I might help catch
the lunatic behind these girls’ deaths.