Daisy's Choice (A Tale of Three Hearts) (17 page)

“
Why? Weren’t you the one that told me life wasn’t a romance novel and that there was no love at first sight. You forgot? I didn’t. I think you said and I quote: I’m not some pirate or dark knight out to rescue the fair maiden.” She leveled her eyes on him again, daring him to deny it.

He didn't.

“
You wanted me to be damn sure that there were no illusions about what went down between us. You drew up a contract you evidently never read, just to be sure. And it was, Aiden. I knew it was just sex. So why would you hunt me for five years? Ego?”

“
Same reason you hid away from everyone. Because it was more than either of us bargained for.”

“
You want to know something?” she asked, taking the risk to appeal to his softer side. “On that boat, I
did
feel something for you. I saw how hard it was for you to believe in anything or anybody. It broke my heart. When I came back, Pete saw through me. He saw the lines I crossed and saw what I had become. It broke his heart. Do you understand what we did to each other? All of us paid a price. I know you aren't a monster, Aiden, but you aren’t my lover or jilted boyfriend. It's been five years. What are we doing here?”

He didn't answer. He didn't blink.

"I came to you for help that day. I thought we were friends. I was that naïve. I’m not anymore, Aiden. I grew up, thanks to you.” She ended with clenched teeth. “Do you know what it felt like to listen to that skank-ho laugh at how she duped me and how you both tricked us? Pete was out there destroyed because I trusted you. You told him about my baby, the abortion. I’ll never forgive you for that. Never!”

“
I’m sorry,” Aiden stammered. “I only said that at gun-point.”

“
Gun point?” Daisy blinked.

“
He came to my office and pulled a gun on me.”

“
He wouldn’t do that. You're lying again.”

“
He's no fucking saint. He did, Daisy. And the only reason he isn’t in jail or worse is because of how I feel about you.”

“
You’re lying, and if you are telling the truth, which I doubt because Pete would never do that, you drove him to it.”

He rose and approached her so quickly she had little time to escape. “I don’t give a fuck about Petie-boy and what he would or wouldn’t do! I’m telling you the truth because I have no use for lies. What you see with me Daisy is it. There's nothing between us now!”

“
Too little too late. You can’t go back and change what happened. I can’t either. What we did changed us though. We aren’t good people. That's why I stayed away from my father's funeral. He doesn't deserve the woman I am now.”

“
You are. You always were. That’s why you feel so much.” He moved in close and touched her hair. She stepped back and away from his touch. “Don’t, Aiden.”

He stepped in again. This time he didn’t touch her. But he was already too far in her space. She could feel the ‘want’ coming off him in magnetized waves, drawing her into his darkness.

“
Don’t go there,” she said, penned between him and the conference table. She looked up into his eyes, his face close. “I’m sorry you’re unhappy. I’m sorry you don’t believe in anything, but that’s as much compassion as I can give you. There’s nothing more,” she reasoned.

“
I say there is.” His gaze trained on her heaving cleavage. “Look at you. Look at what you’ve done to me.”

Daisy frowned. She leaned away from what was pending between them. Aiden seem to inhale her, draw in on her, and gain strength from it. All he did was make her weaker.

The timbre in his voice changed to a husky whisper as he withdrew but looked her over again. “I see you. Look at what you’ve accomplished. What you’ve done on your own. Daisy Johnson, all grown up, fine, sophisticated, serious. I can see it.” His eyes locked with hers once more. “Answer me. What life would you have if it weren’t for that night between us? I know you thought about it.
How those choices got us here
. Yes, we hurt each other, but you have the life you dreamed of because of me. Can I get a thank you, please?” He stroked his jaw, smiling.

Daisy rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “You seriously need to get over yourself.”

“
I need to get over you,” he whispered, turning cold in a flash. “I won’t. I’ve chased your ghost for five years. Five Years! And all the time you’ve been leaving breadcrumbs for me.”

“
I have not!”

“
Why California? Why a nail salon?”

“
It’s a body wellness spa! Not a nail salon!”

“
Why did you come back to Arizona? Tell me you didn’t feel it when you walked back into this hotel. The hotel where
we
started. You ran because of me. You
stayed
today because part of you wanted to see me.”

Daisy smirked. “It is possible, Aiden, that my running had nothing to do with you. That I have my own issues and none of them are centered on the great Aiden Keane! Because they’re mine, Aiden! I don’t owe you anything.”

The door opened behind her. Aiden backed away. He walked to the head of the table to take a seat as if he expected everyone’s arrival. She looked back in time to see Jeffrey enter with Donovan trailing behind. There was another man. Tall, wild untrimmed facial hair and clothes that looked slept in peppered his appearance. He wore a goofy grin over his sunburned face. This man and his seedy eyes gave her chills. Not just because of the wolfish grin he wore, but the folder he carried in his hand. Daisy stared at it, and her throat went dry as a desert.

She returned her gaze to Aiden. His elbow rested on the arm of his chair and the side of his face between his index finger and thumb. He watched her from his seat, his eyes now locked on her only as if she was the sole person in the room. Suddenly, she flushed under his intrusive stare. Suddenly, she felt trapped by the arrival of this man that clearly didn’t belong.

“
Daisy,” Aiden spoke, with a lover’s voice, “Meet Mr. Sterling.”

Daisy’s eyes finally returned to the man who brought in with him the smell of stale cigarettes. She could hear Aiden’s calculating coolness in his voice when he spoke again. “Mr. Sterling says you have secrets. He says he has information on you that’s worth a leprechaun’s pot of gold. Is there something I
need
to know?” Aiden’s Irish cadence wrapped around the last syllables of his voice and Daisy shivered all the way to her painted toes.

Mr. Sterling started down the table; he gave Daisy a sly smirk as he passed. She watched with mounting horror as he approached Aiden with a folder and her fears, her irrational fears, consumed her.

“
Wait!” she shouted, before Aiden accepted the folder. “Wait,” Daisy repeated. “Tell everybody to leave. Just me and you, Aiden.”

He accepted the folder anyway.

“
You open that folder Aiden and I will close doors you don’t even know exist. I escaped you for five years. That wasn’t an accident, sweetie. You’re right. I knew you were looking for me. I knew this day would come. I planned for it. So I’ll do it again. I’ll walk out right now.” She pointed to the door behind her. “Do you hear me? Just me and you now. Send everybody out. This is my life, damn it!”

“
Danielle?” Jeffrey said, making a move toward her.

Daisy whirled on him, stopping him in his tracks. “Go!” she said and tears escaped despite her desire to stay strong. “Jeffrey, I’ll meet you at the plane. Let me handle him. I’m fine.”

“
Yes, Jeffrey, let Daisy handle me,” Aiden said narrowing his eyes on the man and the affection he showed her. He tossed the folder on the conference desk, and Daisy could breathe again. She exhaled a sigh of relief as the other men walked out––except the investigator. He got in closer to Aiden, lapping at his chapped lips. “Mr. Keane, about my money.”

“
Donovan will take care of it. Get the fuck out,” Aiden snapped, shooting him a murderous glare. The man nodded respectfully and made a quick exit. Daisy paced, with her arms folded. She looked back to Aiden, then away again.

Think... think... think.

She had to keep him away. Permanently. Make him let go. Keep him from looking in that folder. Janette once told her that the quickest way to get rid of a man was to give him what he chased. That was key. Aiden wasn't in love with her. He was in love with the idea of her. He survived off the chase.

She looked back and found his arrogance infuriating. He loved being Aiden Keane. The man wasn’t a father on purpose. He surely wouldn’t want Amy. Maybe she should confess and let him be the one to run. But there was Pete. If he wasn’t the father, then she’d have to bring Amy into Pete’s life. How could she do that after her lies?

She walked to the doors of the conference room and locked them. Aiden watched her, amused. She wondered what he thought he’d get out of this. She stepped toward him and considered the other choice. What if he became more obsessed because of Amy? What if he wanted to take her daughter away from her?

What if…

“
You said you wanted to talk,” Daisy said.

“
Yes, I do. Let’s start with that,” he said, pointing at the folder. “What’s in it, Daisy? What scares you now?”

“
Forget the folder for a second. Let’s be honest with each other. You don’t fool me, Aiden, and… um, that’s what scares you, right? Some Kentucky backwater little country girl came to your town and turned the big bad wolf out.” She smiled, tossing her hair, completely aware of the way his eyes went from her breasts to her hips. “That’s what all of this is about. Tell me what’s this really about. A bruised ego? Pride? That whore can’t keep you entertained anymore?”

“
I have other whores for that,” he said coolly and stood once more. “You think this is about my cock?” He shook his head at her. “Years of searching for you, so I can fuck you? Daisy, come now. You’re a big girl. Look at me. Tell me what you see. Tell me what it is I really want.”

She crossed her arms.

“
Nights of wondering if you were dead or alive and just wanting to know that you were simply okay. Guilt so bad I… well I did feel guilty. I felt a lot because of you, Daisy.”

“
Try humility.”

“
Teach me,” he countered.

“
Save it,” she said with an eye-roll. She tried to turn from him but he caught her by the elbow and snatched her to him.

“
It’s true,” he said in her ear. “You changed me, and I want to go back. All the way back to when I hurt you, when I set you up. Back to when I first saw you.”

She looked up at him and frowned.

“
Oh yes. I saw you way before you became my lucky charm for the night.”

“
You’re crazy.”

“
Among other things.” He leaned in, his breath warming the inside channel of her ear. “I want to take it all away and go after you the old-fashion way. I want to buy you pretty things; take you places you never imagined. But I can’t, can I? So what choice do I have, Daisy? Give me an option. Punish me if you have to, but give me something.”

She shook him off and felt his fingers in her hair. She just couldn’t escape him. He blocked her at every angle and continued to search her face as he spoke to her. “I wanted to play the game. I never thought any of it through. But I had five years to remember and live off of one night. To wonder if—”

Daisy’s eyes lifted from the folder to him. She stopped her retreat and took a step toward him, close. He looked at her curiously, not completely sold. “Okay, let’s go back to that night when you told me about your father.” She touched his chest. “It showed me that little boy inside of you. Where is he? Scared little Aiden Keane and his golden coin.”

“
Don’t mock me, Daisy,” he said, removing her hand.

“
You like to be teased. It’s all about the chase for you.” She traced his rigidly set jaw line. “Tell me the truth. Don’t you want to be free of me? If I haunt you like you say I do, don’t you want to be free of this obsession of yours that makes you weak? That’s not Aiden Keane, buyer of souls and believer in nothing.”

“
I believe in you.”

“
Do you trust me, Aiden?” she whispered, running her open palms over his chest.

“
No,” he said softly.

She slipped her arms around his waist and pushed up against him, her nipples brushing the front of his chest. She moistened her lips, staring into the clear green of his eyes. “Trust me, Aiden. What’s in that folder is a bunch of business that belongs to me. Things I had to do to survive that I don't want anyone to know. Especially you baby."