His Desire (6 page)

"I don’t care if it is or if it isn’t. I want to know.” He sounded like the angry Aaron of earlier.

Kylie considered lying, but knew he’d see right through it.

“I’m alone.”

“Good. I’d ask what you’re wearing but I don’t think my body can stand hearing the truth.”

“Aaron,” Kylie breathed while color crept over her body.

He laughed again. “I can almost picture you right now. Want to hear how?”

“No!” No, she didn’t need to hear how Aaron was imagining her. But she wanted to. During the daylight hours, she’d tried hard to push aside pictures of Aaron like she’d never seen him before. Naked. Touching her. Making love to her. Vulnerable. Yes, Aaron had been vulnerable when he’d loved her.

That wasn’t the Aaron she knew.

Another laugh. “Are you going to talk to me now?” he asked, rather than push the matter.

In spite of herself, she smiled. “Do I have a choice?” It was both easier and harder this way, with miles between them. Part of her was thrilled that she didn’t have to look into those blue eyes and try and explain her behavior last night. Aaron would know she was lying. How long before he guessed the truth.

She still was stinging from Mariah’s call earlier that afternoon. Mariah hadn’t been in the least bit upset over Aaron and Kylie’s indiscretion.

“I’m happy for you, honey.” Happy? That she’d slept with her boyfriend?

Kylie couldn’t imagine. If their roles were reversed, she’d be murderous.

“Oh and I have lots of news. First, I saw your little shop mentioned in some little New York rag.”

It had taken Kylie a moment to regroup. “My shop was mentioned in a New York paper? When?”

“Oh, I don’t quite remember. But let me tell you my news. Jean Claude has asked me to move in with him. I’m moving to Paris at the end of the month!

Can you believe it?”

Kylie’s spirits sank. She forgot all about the newspaper article. If Mariah was moving, Kylie was without a roommate at the end of the month. Which meant Kylie was moving as well because she couldn't afford the apartment without Mariah's help. Mariah’s parting words had made her wonder how much of the truth Aaron might know already. Mariah had told her to ‘go for it.’

“After all, honey, I know you’ve had a crush on him forever. Good for you for acting on it. I would have done it to you a long time ago.”

“Earth to Kylie…”

Kylie almost dropped the phone. She hoped that Aaron hadn’t guessed the truth about her feelings for him. And she prayed that Mariah would keep her mouth shut.

“Yes, I’m here, Aaron. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear what you said.”

“I asked how your day went?” Something was different in Aaron’s voice.

There was just enough of a strain to make her believe he was finding it as hard to make polite conversation.

She considered that. Aaron had never seemed like the type to feel uneasy.

He certainly had enough experience with love ’em and leave ’em not to feel guilty over a one-night affair.

The thought of being just another one-night stand for Aaron made her stomach do any uneasy flip.

“It was good.” Kylie paused for a second. She thought about ignoring the whole flower thing entirely, but she couldn’t. She’d actually been thrilled by the sassy brown Lily of the Valley arrangement. But the note had been enough to give her hope. She didn’t want to have hope with Aaron. Aaron was not the type of man for hope. Even in spite of Sarah’s belief that Aaron wanted something different with Kylie.

“Thank you for the flowers. They were beautiful.”

The silence that followed her words was so long that it only confirmed how difficult it was going to be to become friends again. She prayed that they hadn’t destroyed their friendship by giving into temptation.

“Kylie, look, I know that you don’t want to talk about this right now…”

“Aaron…”

“Just listen to me then. I won’t push you into anything, but I’m not going to pretend that I have regrets. I don’t. And I’m not going to pretend that I haven’t thought about us as more than friends for a long time. Since the beginning. Clearly, you need more time. I can understand that. Things got a little out of hand last night.”

Out of hand? Things had gotten way beyond out of hand.

“I never really meant for it to happen like that, but I don’t regret it.”

“How can you say that? You and Mariah were practically…” Kylie caught the words before they were out. What exactly would she be giving away by revealing the things she knew about Mariah and Aaron’s relationship. What did that make her?

“Practically what? You said that yesterday as well? Mariah and I were just…”

“I don’t want to hear it.” She couldn’t stand to hear Aaron tell her about how he and Mariah were lovers. She’d heard enough of that from Mariah.

Aaron clearly didn’t like her reaction. But he was trying. Which should have been the biggest surprise of all. Aaron didn’t really have to try that hard with women. They mostly just fell into his bed.

Like you, her conscience reminded her.

“Okay, you don’t want to talk about Mariah right now either. Look, maybe it would be best if we didn’t really have this conversation until you’ve had time to figure out what you want to talk about,” Aaron told her in a clipped voice.

Kylie didn’t say anything. She was pretty sure that time was not going to be the answer in this case. She never wanted to have this conversation with Aaron.

“Look,” he said with a sigh. “I’ll be back home in two weeks. We can talk about it then.”

Kylie remembered that today was Aaron’s first day on the new job. She felt guilty about not remembering that sooner. She’d been so busy trying to avoid having this conversation with him that she hadn’t thought about what he had to face today on very little sleep.

“You’re right. We can talk about this some other time. I’m sorry. I completely forgot that today was your first day at the new job. How did that go?”

Aaron groaned and she felt even guiltier.

“That bad?”

“Oh yeah. The place is a mess. Its not going to be easy getting it back to profitability.”

For the next half hour, Kylie listened while Aaron told her all about Shelby Advertising’s problems.

“So, how do you like living in Oklahoma?” she asked, hoping to change Aaron’s bad mood.

Aaron had been giving her such a hard time about coming to her senses finally and moving to Texas that when she’d first heard about the move to Oklahoma and had gotten over the empty feeling at losing him, the irony of the situation was not lost on her.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? Well, don’t get too comfortable with it. It’s temporary.”

“What do you mean? I thought you were taking over the controls there permanently?” From the little that Aaron had said about the move, Kylie knew that he wasn’t pleased about it, but for Aaron, the job was the most important thing. Getting ahead meant everything.

“I mean, I don’t plan on taking up citizenship here. One year, Kylie. That’s all you get to tease me about this so I suggest you enjoy it.”

“Have you tried the restaurants I told you about?” On his first trip to Oklahoma City, she’d given Aaron a list of places to eat. Among them were some very famous Oklahoma Sooner hangouts.

“Oh yeah, and thanks for that, by the way. Thanks to you, I just about got beat up. You didn’t tell me that ‘Longhorn’ is a dirty word here?”

“Sorry, but you are in their territory now, Aaron. You should know better.

They can pick a Longhorn fan a mile away.”

Aaron told her about his first hand encounters with his university rivals.

While she listened, she closed her eyes and occasionally mumbled a response. She hadn’t exactly slept all that much after all.

“Kylie? Hey there, sleepyhead. Hang up the phone.” For a second she’d forgotten that she’d left Aaron telling her about his run in at the restaurant.

Kylie lay on her side, the phone propped up against the pillow next to her ear. Somehow, she’d fallen asleep.

“What?”

“You’re snoring.”

“I don’t snore,” she told him with a yawn.

“Uh-huh. Did Jeff tell you that? Because I remember it differently.” She was wide-awake at that comment. She made a strangled sound while trying to think of a good come back when Aaron stopped her.

“Never mind. Hang up the phone, baby. Get some sleep.”

Kylie did as he suggested because she couldn’t get her voice to cooperate enough to tell him again that she wasn’t one of his women. But the truth was she liked the way it sounded. And that realization kept her awake for the rest of the night.

Two weeks. He’d just survived two of the longest weeks in his life and through it all, the only thing that had kept him in Oklahoma City was the fact that he didn’t know how to move on from where he’d left things with Kylie. He didn’t want to be her friend. He didn’t care how much she wanted that; Aaron knew that he couldn’t go back to that because he wanted more from her than just her friendship.

But Kylie wasn’t acting true-to-form with him anymore. Every single time he talked to her, she sounded as nervous as a cat and he didn’t know what to make of it. That wasn’t Kylie. So what did that mean?

He’d gotten just desperate enough to call Mariah and ask her what was up with Kylie.

After a ten-minute discussion about herself, Mariah told him one little piece of information that could be something or it could mean nothing at all.

Mariah was moving to Paris to live with her current soon-to-be ex-boyfriend.

Secretly, Aaron was thrilled. He’d gotten rid of her without the scene that he’d been expecting.

Mariah had let it slip that Kylie would be moving as well.

“Why would Kylie be moving? Where’s she going?”

It surprised Aaron that Mariah hadn’t seemed all that upset about his having slept with her friend and roommate at first. But then he finally realized Mariah just assumed, as Kylie had apparently, that it was his way of getting even. He wondered again, what all Mariah had told her roommate about their relationship. Clearly, she’d embellished a lot.

“She’s not going anywhere, silly. She just has to find an apartment she can afford. With my half of the rent gone, Kylie can’t keep the place. God only knows where she’ll end up on the money she makes at the store.”

Aaron hadn’t listened much after that point. Mostly because Mariah was busy talking about her latest photo shoot and he had just had one brilliant idea.

An idea that would need just the right amount of finesse on his part to get Kylie to agree to it.

He’d called to leave a message on her cell phone because Kylie was still dodging his calls when possible. He told her that he would be heading back the following morning and that he would call her so they could get together.

Aaron had almost forgotten the silver locket he’d found in his bed the morning after she’d spent the night with him.

He had brought it with him, mostly because he liked remembering it on her—that night. Hell, he liked remembering everything about that night. The way she’d felt beneath him. The way her body responded to his touch.

He’d talked to her several times but never once mentioned the locket and Kylie hadn’t either.

He knew it was a gift from a favorite aunt but apparently she either didn’t remember where she’d lost it or she was too embarrassed to say so. Either way it was important to her. Kylie wasn’t much on talking about her family.

He could remember on one hand the number of times she’d even mentioned them to him.

He suspected she was embarrassed by her humble upbringing. From Mariah he’d discovered that Kylie’s family was dirt poor. She’d worked her way through the university and paid for her education all by herself. Kylie hadn’t taken any government help. He admired her for that.

Her childhood was worlds apart from his. Aaron’s family was wealthy and one of the first families to settle in Austin years ago. His great grandfather had made a fortune in real estate developments. A business that his grandfather and his father had also been successful at. As the only son amongst the three children born to Margaret and Edward Winters, Aaron didn’t fit the tradition. And he had no interest in real estate. Eventually his father accepted Aaron’s decision, but only after he’d made his first billion, retired and moved to Florida after Aaron’s oldest sister had given birth to their first grandchild.

Now his father’s life consisted of golf and swanky parties as well as periodic trips to visit his growing number of grandchildren scattered everywhere from Florida to California. Thankfully, none of Aaron’s sisters had remained in Texas. It was bad enough having to tolerate their meddling from hundreds of miles away. Living close would have been sheer torture.

Aaron took the locket out of his pocket once the plane was airborne. The clasp had broken in God only knew what way. He’d sent it out to be repaired. He turned it over in his hand. Kylie never wore any other necklace but this. Had she given up on ever finding it again? He couldn’t wait to see her expression when he put it on her. He’d planned on waiting to call her until later that day, but instead he liked the idea of stopping by before she went into the office. He could almost picture her now. Fresh out of bed and ready to return. Aaron glanced around at the few other passengers who slept mostly. The flight was an early one. He hoped no one noticed that he wasn’t anywhere close to sleepy. And the awakening evidence of his arousal at picturing Kylie in bed was not the easiest to disguise at thirty thousand feet.

* * * *

Aaron. Aaron was the problem. Had been from the start. Especially now.

Kylie glanced at Sarah and tried to send a message to her to keep her mouth shut. She did, but she couldn’t keep from laughing at Kylie’s dilemma.

“Jeff, now is not the time to discuss this.” Kylie rolled her eyes in Sarah’s direction. There wasn’t really a good time to discuss this but she knew she couldn’t keep putting Jeff off forever.