Seasons (12 page)

“I see. Well then he won’t mind if I borrow you for a dance?” he asks reaching out a hand to me.

“I don’t see why he would.” I smile as I take his hand and following him to the dance floor.

Aden pauses at a table just before the floor. Dropping my hand, he turns to me. “Cheers,” he says holding up his drink.

“Cheers.” We clink glasses and down our drinks so we can leave them on a table before heading onto the crowded dance floor. Aden takes my hand and guides me through the crowd toward the middle. He spins me, pulling my back up against him. He leans into me as we start to follow the music together. It’s a slower, sexy song, and he rests his face in the nape of my neck at my hairline. His warm breath sends a shiver down my entire body. I feel his smile in my neck. I’m sure he felt me shiver. When the next song is faster-paced, he turns me so I’m facing him. I put my hands on his chest. Huge mistake. Aden is like a solid wall of muscle, and the feel of his muscles under his button down makes me gasp. This guy is like walking sex. I notice for the first time that his eyes are light blue.

Aden pulls me in closer, nuzzling his face into my hair as we dance and I let him. I’m not sure at this point if it’s the booze, the amazing scent of his cologne, the fact that he’s sexy as hell, or the combination of all three, but I just want to touch this man everywhere! He pulls back and looks at me for a split second before he kisses me, hard. His kiss is hot and needy. We dance and I contemplate walking back to the bathroom and ripping both our clothes off. I don’t know who I have become in the past hour, but dancing with him has me so hot and bothered, I could probably just bang him right here in the middle of the dance floor. I don’t even know this guy!

We continue kissing and I grind on him shamelessly until the song changes to another slow song. “Want another drink?” he asks over the music.

“Sure,” I reply following him back to the bar hand in hand.

Aden orders another round as Trevor comes slinking up to the bar. “There you are, baby girl. I see you’ve made a new friend.” Trevor winks at me.

“Trevor, this is Aden. Aden, this is my bestie, Trevor.” The boys shake hands and Aden offers to get Trevor a drink.

“Thanks, but actually, we were just discussing hitting up the Velvet Rope to finish out the night. Is that cool, Brynn?” he asks.

“Yeah, let me just finish up my drink, and we can go?” I ask.

“K, meet me back at the table when you’re ready to go, doll.” Trevor leans in my ear and whispers, “Give him your digits or I will kill you.” Before turning to go back to the table, Trevor smiles looking Aden up and down. “It was nice meeting you, Aden.”

“Nice meeting you, too.” When Trevor is out of earshot, Aden asks, “Gay bestie?”

“Yup!” I giggle. “The guy he’s with is his boyfriend, Adam. The one that was giving you shit eyes earlier is who they were attempting to set me up with tonight.”

“Trevor seems nice.”

“He’s the best.” We chat while we finish our drinks. I find out Aden has been a trainer at the gym for two years while he’s finishing college. He also goes to USM, but he’s two years older than I am. When I take the last sip of my drink, I place the glass down on the bar and look up at Aden. “I should go. They’re waiting for me,” I say not wanting to leave. On a whim, I stop a waitress who walks by and ask her for a pen. I grab a cocktail napkin and jot down my name and number. I fold it and slip it into the front pocket of Aden’s shirt. “Thanks for the dances.” I lean into his ear and whisper, “Goodnight, Aden Riley.” I turn and walk back to the table where Trevor and Adam are, never looking back, but swaying my hips the entire way.

Where did that come from? Aden exudes sex. It must be contagious. The past year I have felt, numb. He came out of nowhere, but everything about tonight felt so good. He brought the sex kitten in me back to the surface.

“Ready, boys?” I ask as I approach the table.

Trevor, Adam, and I head over to The Velvet Rope, the only decent gay club in the state. Ian, apparently found some chick once he realized it wasn’t going to happen with him and me. Shucks. Even though I didn’t want to say goodnight to Aden, I was excited to go to the next club. I love going to gay bars. It’s like walking into an alternate universe. Almost all the men are fit and many of them are gorgeous. For some reason in a gay club, half the men usually have their shirts off, which is fine by me! Gay or straight, eye candy is eye candy! Since it was just the three of us, I spent the night sandwiched between Adam and Trevor. As per usual, the three of us had a blast together. Trevor and I did shot after shot, Adam was the designated driver, and we all danced the night away. Trevor helped me stumble to my bed after some amazing diner grub at four a.m.

“Goodnight. I’ll call you to check on you tomorrow, babe,” he said tucking me in.

I think I said goodnight before I passed out, but it might have just been in my head.

*   *   *

I’m worthless the rest of the weekend. I have the headache to end all headaches most of Sunday. I study a little that night, but I end up mostly lying around groaning.
I will never drink again
, I think. I feel human again by Monday and hit the gym in the morning. After my class, I’m on my way out of the locker room and catch a glimpse of Aden across the room in a session with a client. Before he notices me, I look down and hurry out of the gym.

I work at the store after my classes that day. Since it’s a Monday, we’re low staffed. Trevor and I are the only two working until close. It’s so slow we end up goofing off most of the shift bouncing super balls through the store. It has a warehouse feel to it so we can bounce them high up into the ceiling. Oh, the things we do to pass the time. Finally, I decide I should do something constructive, since I’m being paid to be here after all.

Trevor takes one side of the store to rearrange and make the new displays while I start on the opposite side. There is a ladder connected to the wall that can be rolled around the store. No one has come into the store in hours, and Trevor and I are chatting freely.

“So, has he called?” he asks me.

“No, isn’t there a three-day grace period or something? I thought it was a standard rule. Anyway, I saw him at the gym today.”

I hear a gasp, and Trevor starts heading my way. “He goes to your gym?”

“He’s a trainer there.” I shrug. “I thought I told you that.”

“I knew it! With a body like that, I figured he had to be in some kind of fitness field. All the good ones are straight! It’s such a shame!”

“Yeah, right! After what I saw at the club, I’m pretty sure ninety percent of the sexy population is gay!”

“So, what did you say to Mr. Sexpot?” He’s snooping.

“Huh?” I arch an eyebrow confused.

“When you saw Aden at the gym! What did you say to him? You’re killin’ me!”

“I didn’t say anything. He was with a client. I don’t know. We made out at a club, drunk. I doubt he remembers me. Guys like that probably do that all the time.”

“When you meet a guy that fucktastic, and then you run into him somewhere, you say hello! You should have waited, said something! Smiled and waved!”

“Yeah, yeah, he has my number.” I wave him off. I’m standing on the ladder still putting something on the top shelf when Trevor leans under me looking up my dress. I look down at him. “Trevor, what are you doing? You’re gay, remember?”

“Yep, it’s just as I thought! Your vagina has cobwebs! That’s how long it has been since you’ve had sex!”

I lean down and smack him away before I yell at him, “My vagina does not have cobwebs! It may be a little dusty and maybe it has been like the Sahara Desert down there for the past year, but it does not have cobwebs, you ass!” I start to laugh at the absurdity of this conversation.

“I’m just trying to look out for you. I heard this one girl’s vagina closed up from lack of use. Another girl I knew had to get Xanax for her lady parts because they were depressed. These things need to be used regularly, Brynn. I’m just saying you don’t want to have to put your vagina on Xanax.”

“Shut up!” I yell through giggles. “My vagina is just fine! Don’t you have some pants you should be folding? You sure seem to have a lot of vagina knowledge for a gay guy!”

“Just trying to look out for you, baby girl.”

Well, he may be crazy but at least Trevor makes me laugh. We finish redoing the window displays together and close up after having only a few customers all night.

*   *   *

I go two weeks without running into Aden again at the gym. He has not called, shocker. I’m surprised, however, when I hear my name called as I walk out of the gym to the parking lot. A moment later, Aden walks out behind me.

“Brynn, hey!” he says as he comes through the door.

“Hey,” I say, guarded. He hasn’t called me in the two weeks since I gave him my number. I have never put myself out there like that before. To be honest, I had brushed it off by this point, not expecting anything to come of it.

“I just wanted to apologize for not calling. I lost your number.” Interesting, but do I believe him? He ‘lost’ my number? Convenient. “My shirt went to the dry cleaners with the napkin still in the pocket. I could have kicked myself when I realized it.” Getting better, but I don’t know if I’m totally convinced yet.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” I smile at him before turning back around to flee to my car.

A giant hand grabs my arm, halting me in place before I can ascend the two stairs down to the lot. Against my better judgment, I turn back around to face him. “I had fun with you that night. I would really like to go out sometime.” His touch on my arm is searing hot. I’m hot and sweaty with my blood still pumping from the hour-long class I just finished. He looks perfect in his black swishy pants and his tight work t-shirt. I swear I can actually hear the fibers of the shirt screaming from the strain of his muscles.

“I had fun too. I just figured…”

“I know! I should have called. I would have. I meant to,” he rambles. “Let me take you out this week?” He seems sincere.

After a short pause, I agree. “I guess that would be okay. What did you have in mind?”

“What day are you free?”

“I don’t work Friday. I’m free after classes.”

“I’ll pick you up after class Friday then. I’m not working so we could spend the day together.”

“Okay, that should be all right. I will be free around lunch time.” I smile. “Give me your phone.”

He reaches in his back pocket producing his phone. I call my own phone from it and save my number in his phone.

“Now you have my number. If I see you in a few weeks, and you tell me you lost my number…I’m not going to believe you.”

“Trust me, that won’t be an issue.”

“Well, I guess I’ll see you Friday.” He smiles and I notice his eyes crinkle. He’s one of those people who smiles with their eyes. His whole face lights up. God is he hot. I swoon as I walk to my car.

I can’t wait to get to work that afternoon to tell Trevor about my encounter with Aden. He was ecstatic and went singing and dancing around the store something about clearing out the cobwebs. Ass.

On Thursday, Aden text me for my address and asked what would be a good time to pick me up the next day. Friday around noon, I hear a motorcycle pull into the parking lot. Holy crap, I forgot he has a motorcycle. I have never been on one before, and I feel a pit in my stomach at the thought. Part of that could just be butterflies at the thought of seeing Aden again. A moment later, I hear the buzzer. I let Aden in and meet him at my front door.

When I open the door, he’s standing there in faded, low-rise jeans, a tight Red Sox t-shirt, and baseball cap. There is something incredibly sexy about a man who looks good in a hat. He’s leaning against the doorframe with a lazy smile on his face. I’m so glad I put on jean shorts and a lacy pink tank top—a skirt and a crotch rocket would not have mixed very well.

“Hey, are you ready to go?” he asks.

“Hi, come on in. I’ll just be a minute. I have to grab my purse,” I say walking toward my bedroom. “Make yourself at home. I’ll be right back.” When I get in my bedroom, I go to grab my purse and realize I’m not going to have anywhere to put it if we’re getting on a motorcycle. I pull out all the essentials, IDs, money, Chap Stick, and put them in different pockets. I throw a hair tie around my wrist just in case. When I emerge from my bedroom, Aden is sitting at one corner of the couch, legs spread, one arm on the armrest and the other along the back of the couch. I walk over to him. “Sorry, I’m ready to go now.”

“I thought you went to get your purse?”

“I heard your motorcycle and figured a purse was a bad idea. I put the essentials in my pockets.”

He reaches for my right hand spinning me before pulling me onto his lap. This forwardness would normally freak me out, but I think I would probably let him do anything he wants at this point, as long as he keeps touching me. Before I can get a word out, he crashes his lips to mine. When the kiss starts, I’m cradled on his lap. By the time I find the willpower to pull myself away from him, I have somehow turned and am straddling him.

“We should go,” I say breathlessly.