Here Comes The Bride (13 page)

"Aidan…I –"

I put my finger over her lips.

"Shhh," I opened my eyes and looked into hers. She furrowed her brow. I moved my fingers to rub away the crease lines. "Don’t tell me it was wrong or it was a mistake or that it can’t happen again."

"But I was the one that said this shouldn’t happen and then –"

"So what?" Anger started to replace aggravation. How could she still be so concerned about having sex with her husband?
I dropped my head to her shoulder. "We’re married, live together, sleep in the same bed, and have no other sexual partners. I would say sex with each other was going to happen. To be honest, I’ve wanted it for awhile, was definitely hoping it would happen and do not want to go back to not having sex with you." I looked into her eyes, gauging her reaction. I couldn’t believe that she looked surprised.

"I
’m a hypocrite," she groaned, rolling onto her stomach.

"I’m not complaining." I kissed her back.

"Of course you aren’t," She laughed, attempting to pull away from my kisses. "This just complicates the situation even more." She huffed.

Grabbing her shoulder, I
rolled her over to her back, again. Like before, she covered her chest. Taking hold of her wrists, I pulled them away from her chest.

"Don’t." Leaning down, I kissed between her breasts.

"Will you stop it," She groaned.

"Nope," I looked up and grinned before covering her mouth with mine.

She tried to pull away. Grasping her wrists firmly, I placed them on either side of her head and straddled her thighs.

"What are you going to do now?" I grinned.

"I hate you," she growled, but the smile at the corner of her mouth gave her away.

"Keep telling yourself that, hypocrite." I raised an eyebrow.

"You suck," she tried not to smile again. It was a losing battle.

"Are you propositioning me?" I leaned down and took her bottom lip into my mouth, sucking gently before releasing it with a large smile.

"Don’t you have to get ready for work or something?"

"Unfortunately."

I let go of her wrists and climbed off the bed, walking nude to the bathroom.

"Feel free to join me in the shower," I shouted over my shoulder entering the bathroom. I left the doors open behind me.

Standing under the hot water, I almost started pacing, hoping she would join me. If she had, I would’ve not only loved it, but it would’ve told me that she was okay with what we shared. I knew she was nervous and worried about how sex would affect our ‘arranged’ relationship, but she just didn’t seem to get that I really did care about her. It’s wasn’t just an arrangement for me anymore, it was a part of my life. She had become more than just a need, I wanted her.

I waited a few more minutes for her to show up before
I climbed out of the shower. I toweled off and shaved before returning to the bedroom. The room was empty and so was the bed. I sighed and ran my hands through my hair.

Once dressed, I headed down to the kitchen. There was no sign of her.

"Good morning, Rachel."

"Good morning
, Mr. Iverson," she smiled brightly.

"Have you seen Lilli?"

"No sir. Not this morning. Is everything okay?" I could see the genuine concern on her face.

"No, no, everything is fine.
I just want to tell her good bye is all." I forced as smile. I wanted to say good bye, but also wanted to reassure her she wasn’t a hypocrite.

I glanced into a few rooms on my
way to the front door, bur still didn’t find her. Grabbing my coat and bag, I went out to the waiting car, speeding away to work.

I was in the middle of thinking about Lilli
, straddled over my lap in the library, when my phone buzzed.

"Mr. Iverson?"

"Yes, Amy?"

Quickly
, I thought of Viola waving the rubber dildo at Lilli’s bachelorette party. That worked.

"Mrs. Iverson is on the phone." Excitement coursed through my veins. I picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Aidan, dear." Disappointment flooded
through me, it was Aunt Anne. My balls instantly shriveled. I loved my aunt, but she's so stuck up it literally nauseates me sometimes.

"Yes, how can I help you this afternoon?"

"I was hoping to find out when you would be having your dinner party?"

See
, this is what I mean. There is no dinner party planned, but the ‘proper’ thing to do would be to plan one since we are back from the honeymoon.

"Actually, we haven’t really had a lot of time to set the date for it yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as –"

"Oh dear boy, do you need some help? Or does your wife need some assistance? I’m sure she’s not familiar with our traditions." Now, she was insulting Lilli.

"No, she has it under control, but thank you. I’ll let her know you’ve offered your assistance." We quickly made pleasant goodbyes and hung up.

I had both hands in my hair, gripping tightly, when I flashed to Lilli yanking on it last night. As if on cue, James burst through my office door.

"Come on
, dearest cousin of mine, we’re going out to lunch!" He leaned, palms down, onto my desk in front of me with a large smile.

"I can’t, I have –"

"Oh, Christ, Aidan, you can spare an hour or two. Come on! Oscar and Dixon are going to meet us in twenty minutes." He straightened and looked at me expectantly.

"Fine," I sighed and walked around my desk. I stopped at Amy’s desk to go over a few quick things before leaving with James.

As we stood waiting for the car to pull up to the curb, I caught sight of a girl with long brown hair. I knew it wasn’t Lilli, but it brought on another round of dirty thoughts.

"Well, well, well…" James chuckled.

"What?" I glared.

"Someone’s definitely less frustrated," he chuckled, again.

"I don’t know what you are –"

"You got laid, didn’t you?" James grinned mischievously.

"What?" My eyes felt like they would escape from my lids at any moment.

The car pulled up and we climbed in.

"It’s about damn time." He relaxed back into the seat. "So, did you get yourself a mistress or were you finally able to persuade the Missus to put out?" He raised his brow.

"I’m not discussing this with you." I shook my head.

"Then that’s a yes to Lilli finally putting out." He smirked.

"I never said –"

"You didn’t have to. If it w
ere a mistress, you would still be stressed and acting over-dramatic." I was about to argue but he continued. "I know you. So, that means you and the wife are finally having sex." The car pulled up to a curb and stopped for us to get out. "And, shall I just say…" he climbed out and I followed, "It’s about fucking time!" He slapped his hand to my shoulder.

"What’s about fucking time?" Dixon’s boisterous voice came out of nowhere.

"Golden boy got himself some action." James smiled widely. I cringed at what Dixon was going to say.

"It’s about fucking time." Dixon laughed.

"What?" I looked at Dixon shocked.

"Hell
, dude, if you didn’t get laid soon, I was going to personally offer my services."

James alm
ost ran into the door after Dixon's comment.

"Dude, seriously, did you have to go there?" James shook his head.

"Who is going where?" Oscar questioned. He leaned against the wall at the entrance of the restaurant.

"Oh, Aidan finally got laid and Dixon considered servicing Aidan," James blurted like it was just normal lunch conversation.

Oscar raised an eyebrow at me.

"You would choose Dixon over me?" He laughed. "I’m insulted."

"Jesus, when did you all become homos?" James turned and looked at us.

"You’re just jealous because you can’t have me."
I laughed. "We’re related and that’s just wrong." Dixon and Oscar burst into laughter as we sat at our private table.

"So, Lilli or another woman?" Oscar asked, sitting back and crossing his legs. Dixon
scowled.

"I’m not discussing this." I picked up the menu.

"Well, that means Lilli." Dixon laughed. I shot him a look. "Sorry," he shrugged. "All I can tell you is don’t fucking hurt her." His face was serious; his eyes showing that he meant what he said.

"I wouldn’t hurt her, Dixon, not intentionally." I took a deep breath. "I’m pretty sure it won’t happen again."

"It has to," James blurted. I gave him a curious look. "You have to have a kid. Remember?"

I eyeballed James for a few minutes. He was acting strange. The waitress appeared for our drink orders and pulled my attention away from him.

"Did you suck so bad she won’t let you near her again or had it been so long you came in like two minutes?" Dixon laughed after our waitress left for our drinks.

I chuckled and shook my head.

"Look, it happened, but I can already feel the tension coming off of her in waves. I’m pretty sure the next few days will be filled with avoidance." I rolled my neck to release the tension building.

"Have you ever thought about treating her like a wife
, or even a girlfriend?" Oscar raised his brow.

"Huh?"

"Jesus, Aidan, you are so clueless when it comes to women!" Dixon laughed out.

"Have you ever taken her on a date, got
ten her flowers, shit like that?" James asked over his water glass.

"No, I guess…well
, I guess things were just so quick –"

"Look, I’m not trying to promote that you scam on my best friend for sex, so if that’s what this is, I will fuck you up and then fuck you two up for helping him out!" Dixon was in serious mode again.

"I’m not trying to help him –"

"Dixon, I told you, I’m not trying to hurt her, fuck her over, or even use her. Yes, we have an arrangement, but I do care about her. She’s a great person and we’re married, living together, sleeping in the same bed,
and not having sex with anyone else. So, what’s wrong with having sex with each other? Especially when we’ll have to eventually discuss having a kid."

"You have to discuss it?" James interrupted. "You told everyone it was already being taken care of," James hissed so low I don’t know if Oscar and Dixon could hear him.

"It is being taken care of, just back off." I quietly growled.

"She’s my best friend and I know her pretty well." Dixon hesitated as he tried to read my face. "I don’t know if I should be telling you this or not."

"Dixon, I honestly don’t want her to think it was a mistake or that she’s a hypocrite."

"A hypocrite?" Dixon growled. "You called her a –"

"No!" I interrupted him. "That’s what she called herself and I don’t want her to think like that."

"Fine," he grumbled. "You need to
show her that you care about her, that you want to be with her. Prove to her that you’re not trying to get into her pants because of the arrangement. Understand?

I nodded. "I guess you’re right."

"He’s more than right. Aidan, treat her like a person, not just a sex toy or a sexual frustration outlet. She is more than that. At least I hope she is." Oscar sat back as the waitress placed our drinks on the table.

"
She better fucking be." Dixon growled in my direction.

"Of course she’s more than that, but I don’t suppose she realizes." I sat back with everything swimming around in my head. I’d been so focused on the arrangement and my sexual frustration it had been impossible for me to even think about treating her like a friend, a wife, or even a girlfriend. I needed to correct that, because no matter what these three dickheads thought
they knew, I felt strongly for Lilli.

As the waitress took our food order
, my thoughts from this morning came back to me and realization dawned. ‘I don’t think I can go back to not being with her’, I hadn’t just meant it about sex. It had only been a few months, but I didn’t think I could be without her; without Lilli in my life.

"Aidan?" I glanced quickly at James. "Are you going to order or what?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lilli

What did I do? Oh God! I am such a weak hypocrite!

I ran unyielding on the treadmill, all while mentally scolding my behavior. My legs were already wobbly, but I needed a way to work out my frustration. Not only did I attack him on the couch last night and then let him take me in bed, I didn’t do one damn thing to stop him this morning. My common sense was mentally beating down my cocky and well satisfied lady part. Hell
, my Va-jay-jay was doing back flips.

When my legs couldn’t take anymore, I went back to the bedroom. Aidan
should be gone by now, so I didn’t have to worry about an uncomfortable run in.