The Pretend Girlfriend (37 page)

"That's from yesterday?" she asked, her lusty desires whisked away by growing concern.

"Uh, yeah. Hey, you shouldn't look at that. It's nothing," Aiden said, reaching to back turn the computer off. She batted his hand out of the way. His unwillingness to let her see just what it said unnerved her, but by then she couldn't contain her curiosity.

There was a headline above the picture, partly cut off from Aiden scrolling down the page. She prodded the up arrow on the keyboard a couple times, moving back up the page.

It read, "Billionaire Heir Assaults Photographer, Seen Leaving Empire State with Escort."

Escort? Gwen knew the word, It took her a second to realize its connotation regarding this picture.

"They think I'm some pricey hooker?" Gwen said.

Aiden tried pulling her closer, shifting his body so that it stood between her line of sight and the screen. "No, no, that's not it..."

She pushed away from him. This was not acceptable. If only Henry stood before her right at that moment so that she could wring his old neck.

"It's okay, Gwen, this will all blow over..."

"When? When will it be over? When we call it quits like your dad wants? Then he'll call off the vultures?" the volume of her voice surprised even her. She could tell that she was losing it, teetering right on the edge of a panic attack, extreme rage, something like that. And she also knew that this was exactly what Henry would want her to feel: trapped, with only one way out.

Aiden swooped in and hugged her close, pinning her arms between their bodies. She managed a few fitful, halfhearted punches and slaps to his chest, but he didn't let go.

"It's okay, it's fine," he whispered, stroking the back of her head, letting his fingers thread through her hair, "Come on, sit down. That's good, shh..."

He'd sat her down in his office chair (which was still warm from his fine butt, Gwen noticed) and knelt down in front of her.

"I'm not a child!" she said, trying to sound indignant at his method for calming her. Her sniffling didn't help matters. Nor did the fact that she did actually feel calmer.

"Of course you aren't," he said, catching her eyes with his. Eyes like those could melt the heart of even the most evil Disney queen, Gwen realized. No woman alive below the waist could withstand them. Such thoughts made Gwen cringe. She didn't like to wax poetic, especially so badly. But those eyes...

Managing to tear her gaze away, she saw the screen again. Not only was there a picture and a headline, but an article! Ignoring Aiden's protests, she scrolled through it quickly, eating up the words.

"It says here that guy is going to sue you!" she said. There were more details, speculation really, about why someone as young, handsome, and rich as Aiden Manning would hire a call girl, but Gwen did her best to focus on the other stuff.

"Let him try," Aiden replied.

Then an awful suspicion occurred to Gwen. Pulling up Google, she did a quick search of Aiden. The whole first page consisted of various gossip and trashy news sites, all talking about his newest... "rendezvous" was the most common terminology. Followed by the most alliterative, and not-at-all-amusing, "Billionaire Booty Call."

A number of the sites even linked to a video apparently shot by the helicopter that had ambushed them. Pulling it up, they watched about fifteen shaky seconds of Aiden pulling her over to the elevator.

"It's everywhere..." she breathed.

Everyone had to know about this by now. All her friends from college and high school. All her relatives. Even her internet-illiterate parents, probably. Gwen swallowed heavily, dreading to check for voicemails and missed calls on her cell. Burying her face in her hands, she pushed against her eyelids until bright splotches of color exploded against the blackness.

"Hey, come on, don't do that. You'll blind yourself," Aiden said, tugging gently at her wrists.

"So!?" Gwen replied, irritated at the petulance in her voice but unable to do anything about it.

"It's just that you have such beautiful eyes, and I would hate for anything to happen to them."

Gwen wondered why he couldn't have been like this, all caring and concerned, earlier on. They could have gotten to this real relationship point so much earlier. Huffing a sigh, she allowed him to pull her hands away. Her face had to be all red and ugly from rubbing, but Aiden didn't look away. No, he did something worse. He smiled. And it was such a warm, nice smile, too. Couldn't he just let her be angry and miserable? It felt so good!

Then he took her hands in his, their gazes colliding. "Gwen... There's something I wanted to ask you."

Her mind quickly assessed the situation. Aiden, kneeling down on the floor, holding her hands, looking at her with those perfect eyes. Her pulse skyrocketed.

"Yes... I mean, what is it?" she said.

Aiden took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and let it out slowly. Then he looked down at the floor, apparently unable to meet her eyes. Gathering himself, he brought his gaze back up to match hers.

He's so nervous!
Gwen thought, barely able to contain herself.

"I know this hasn't been easy for you, but I can't tell you how much of a help you've been. To me and the company, that is. I just hate putting you into this situation. Henry isn't going to give up..."

Gwen's excitement began fermenting into anxiety. This was going south faster than a Canadian in winter. Why would he bring up his father, now of all times?

"What? What is it?" Gwen said.

"I wanted to give you this chance... This get out of jail free card..." his mouth twisted at the dated metaphor. Gwen knew she had a lot of work to do on him to bring him up to speed on pop culture. "Just tell me right now. No hard feelings, nothing."

"Are you asking me whether I want to break up with you?" Gwen asked, starting from the chair and yanking her hands from his.

Despite the venom in her words, Aiden stayed down on his knees. However, even those incredible eyes of his couldn't save him from her wrath.

"That's one way of putting it, I guess," he continued, "Tell me now. You can get out of this and go on with..."

She slapped him, considerably harder than she intended. His head whipped to the side. Red welts appeared on his cheek, matching perfectly to her fingers.

He seemed more shocked than hurt. He worked his jaw and probed gingerly at the still-rising beet-red marks.

Her hand smarted, and she forced herself to not try and massage the pain away.

Instantly, she regretted it, wanting to drop to her knees and apologize and kiss the marks away. Her anger, however, vetoed that option.

"Why would you ask me something like that?" Her eyes throbbed, tears collecting in the corners, ready to spill down her cheeks.

"I thought..." he started.

"Clearly you didn't! Yes, it's hard to be with you under circumstances like these. Do I wish your father would leave us alone? Yes, of course! Do I understand what I'm getting into here?" she paused, considering the question, "...Probably! Do I want to leave you because it might be easier?" The question hung in the air by a thread, ready to fall and crush them beneath its weight.

Just as Aiden opened his mouth, Gwen answered, "No. No I don't. And I won't. And do you know why?"

Again, she didn't give him the chance to answer. She dropped to her knees in front of him, kicking his office chair out of the way. She kissed him hard on the mouth. "Because I'm in love with you, you handsome, stupid man. God, you're so lucky you're so good looking..."

They looked into each other's eyes. Gwen thought she saw understanding in his.

"So," he began, pausing to see if she was going to cut him off again, and continuing when she didn't, "What did you think I was going to ask?" He smiled, the expression so innocent even the devil might have believed it. But not Gwen.

"You!" she said, lifting her hand for a second slap. A playful one, this time.

Except Aiden intercepted her hand, locking his fingers around her wrist. He pushed her down to the floor. The shirt rode up so that her naked bottom touched the cold surface, making her hiss. Aiden cut that off with another kiss.

All her struggles stopped when he put his hand on her thigh. It began a slow, teasing journey up her leg.

"Oh..." she said, her formerly rigid body relaxing.

"Hey, I don’t think this belongs to you," Aiden said, tugging at the bottom of the shirt when his fingers reached it.

She let her lips graze his neck, running up it so that she could nibble at his earlobe for a moment. "If you want it so badly, why don’t you take it back?" She finished by blowing gently into his ear, and a wicked smile spread across her face when his skin knitted into tight patches of goosebumps.

"Granted," he said after a deep swallow, "It does look good on you. A touch large, perhaps. It’s just that I can’t stop thinking about what’s hidden beneath it..." He undid the bottom button, popping it out with the tip of his thumb. The shirt opened wider, revealing a more generous portion of her thighs.

A spirit of mischief possessing her, Gwen giggled and slipped away from his grasp before he reached the next button. With some distance between them, she waggled her bare toes at him invitingly. "I thought you were going to take it back?"

Aiden’s eyes glinted. "And here I was, thinking you wanted me to." His hand snaked out across the floor, snatching at her toes before she pulled them back with a shriek.

The thing was, she did want him to catch her. Certain, unmentionable parts of her body cried out at this denial, this postponed pleasure. But she also loved that look in his eyes, the one that told her that for once he was willing to chase her.

So she gave him a sly shrug, that big shirt of his rustling against her skin, and said, "Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. You’ll just have to catch me to find out! Until then, your shirt is mine."

With that, she shot up and bolted for the open door, her bare feet slapping against the cold floor.

Aiden pushed off from the floor, his biceps flexing so nicely, and went after her. She made it to the doorway before his arms snagged her around the waist and lifted her up. She flailed against him, both of them laughing as he walked her back into the office.

"Got you," he said as he sat down in the office chair, his arms trapping her against him.

It didn’t take long for her continued struggles to have their effect, what with her body rubbing against his so much. She sucked her lip in between her teeth and let it out slowly, her body all tingly as he hardened against her bottom. She wriggled said bottom against him some more, enjoying the way he sucked in his breaths when she did.

"What are you going to do with me?" she asked, letting her head loll back against his bare shoulder so he could kiss her neck. She had a few things in mind. Well, one thing, really. Just multiple ways (read: positions) to go about it.

Aiden’s arms loosened about her as he went to task, popping the rest of the buttons out of place, slowly revealing more and more of Gwen’s naked body. His progress slowed as she writhed against him, unable to help herself. Her thighs rubbed together against the building heat between them.

The final button came out, letting the two halves of the billowy shirt fall away. Aiden’s hand ran up her bared stomach, the tips of his fingers tickling so nicely, until he cupped her breasts, the tips stiffening in anticipation of his touch. They touched her there for only a moment before continuing up so that he could pull the shirt down her arms, exposing the top portion of her back.

"Well," Aiden began in between a series of kisses that ran along her shoulders, "I think you need to answer for your crimes." She felt his lips twist into a wicked grin.

"What...?" she began, the word turning into a squeal as Aiden used those strong arms of his to lay her across his lap, the hardness of his desire pressing against her stomach through his boxer shorts.

With a few deft movements, he used his shirt to bind her arms. Tingles of excitement, of anticipation and wonder ran up her back. No guy had ever done anything like this with her before.

"Please don’t!" she said, continuing the charade as he swept the shirt up off her bottom. "I won’t steal again."

“Not after this, you won’t,” Aiden said, unable to resist a brief caressing of her flesh that made her want to forgo the foreplay and get to the main event.

He spanked her lightly at first, as though tentative. It still stung, and she hissed through her teeth.

They became harder soon enough, though. Her body went rigid each time his merciless palm snapped against one of her cheeks. The stinging intensified, burning hot, then cold. And then numbness.

"I think you’ve had enough," he said, trying to smooth the welts on her bottom down with one flattened, suddenly gentle hand. He pulled the knot binding her arms loose.

"I don’t," Gwen replied, shrugging out of the shirt. She stood before him, letting his hungry eyes devour her naked body. He couldn’t hold back any longer, starting up from the chair and pulling her bare form tight against his. In the throes of his desire, he forgot gentleness when his hands again slipped down to her reddened bottom and gave it several appreciative, if painful, squeezes.

They kissed, his mouth soon slipping from hers to run up and down her throat, then along her collar bone. She burned for him.

"No more teasing," she pleaded.

Aiden leaned back, his eyes smoldering as he took in her flushed face. "No, I think we’ve had enough," he agreed.

Quickly, he went and grabbed some protection and returned. She smiled at the way his anticipation made him clumsy, his hands trembling. She helped him with it, gasping at how hot, how firm, he felt against her fingers as she rolled it down his length. Inside, she quivered.

He took her on the chair, sitting into it heavily and then pulling her down onto him.

"Aiden!" she gasped as they joined together, her body crying out in the sweet release of fulfilled lust.

She rolled her hips against him, delighted in the way he filled her over and over. They lost themselves in it, Aiden letting the warmth of his mouth travel over her skin. It engulfed first the tip of one breast, then the other, leaving the sensitive flesh there reddened and taut when he moved on. His hands massaged her bottom, the sting of the welts he’d given her melding with the heat of their entwined bodies.