Tending Their SECRET (22 page)

“Not gonna happen. Tonight or any
night.”

“What’s her name?”

“Ellie Gallagher,” Rodrigo yells, and I
wonder how he knows. Until I turn around and realize that he wasn’t
answering this chick, he was greeting Ellie herself as she walked
into the bar.

“Hi, Rod,” she responds, acting like it’s no
big deal that she just happened to walk into the same bar her dad
gave me a job at.

I take a moment to drink her in. She’s in
one of her new dresses. It’s got a black, high neck, with no
sleeves to speak of, and then a white skirt with black lace over
the top that ends just above her knees. White and black heels are
on her feet, and the bracelet I gave her is on her wrist. Her hair
is up in some kind of braided hairstyle that leaves her thick
bangs, and a few strands, hanging down. She’s gorgeous, and she’s
fierce. God, I’ve missed her.

“What are you doing here? Your dad didn’t
mention a visit.”

“I came to take Aiden home.”

“Honey, no one takes Aiden home,” the blonde
tells her. “We’ve all tried, and I doubt he’d make an exception for
you.”

Ellie gives her a sweet smile, and then
looks at me. “We can do this here, in front of everyone. Or we can
go somewhere and talk. Your choice.”

I nod. “Can I take my break, Rod?”

“Yeah. Sure. Take as long as you need. Nice
to see you, Ellie.”

“You too, but I’ll be back.
I heard that there’s a nice show happening soon. I
so
wouldn’t want to miss
Aiden taking his shirt off. It might be the only time I ever get to
see it, right?” she asks the blonde.

“Come on, El,” I tell her, motioning to the
door. I want to put my hand on her back, her arm, any part of her,
but I know I can’t.

I walk us a few blocks away to the beach.
She stops to take off her heels, and then walks next to me. I whip
off my shirt to put it on the sand so she can sit next to me.

“I don’t care about the dress, you
know.”

“Stella will. I don’t need her showing up
next.”

“You’ve already decided that you’re not
coming back with me? That’s just fucking great.”

I hear her tears before I turn to her, and
see them. “You don’t want me.”

“You’re all I want, Aiden.”

“What I did to Dave. It was…”

“Amazing?”

“You came here just to lie to me?”

“I’m not lying. I love the fact that you
were so serious about avenging me. What you did to him was exactly
what needed to be done.”

“I saw you hiding your face. While Nate was
holding you.”

“I’ve never been good with blood and gore.
You know that. I can punch, kick, shoot, or stab someone, but I
don’t like to look at the aftermath. I have to, because if I
didn’t, they might get up and kill me, but it grosses me out. I
wanted to jump up and down and cheer for you while you were hurting
Dave, but I couldn’t look.”

“I-I thought you were disgusted by me.”

“You should’ve stuck around and asked me. Or
better yet, maybe checked on me since I was forced to kiss and
touch that bastard.”

“I knew you’d go to Nate first.”

“Actually, if you hadn’t
gone after Dave, it would’ve been you I ran, too. I was waiting for
you to finish so I could ask you to hold me. And I could hold you.
But then you left, just like you always do. You left
me
again.”

“Nate took care of you, though, right?”

“Yes, but that’s not his job. He should just
be taking care of Jade, and himself. I’m guilty of relying on him
too much because I could talk to him about everything without
feeling embarrassed since he was victimized, too. And he knows he’s
guilty of using me to build himself up. He’s sorry, by the
way.”

“I hate that I’m jealous of my best
friend.”

“You have no reason to be
jealous. He could help me for the rest of my life—which he will if
I need him—but he’ll never be more than a friend to me. A brother.
I have plenty of them already, but he’s one I chose because he
loves my best friend more than his next breath, and because he
loves
you
like
that, too. In a different way than he loves Jade, thankfully, but
your bond is just as strong. Even if he had never helped me with
what I’ve gone through, he’d always be important to me because of
those two things.”

I reach out to run my finger over the
semi-colon on her foot. “These tattoos made me a little crazy. I
love what they represent for the two of you, but it hurt.”

“If you weren’t so intent on keeping your
body free of tats, we could’ve done what Nate and Jade did.”

“What did they do?”

“They went and got
romantic
matching
tattoos. And Jade got something to honor ours, too.”

“She did? I always thought that she must
feel the same way I was feeling. That she was just hiding it
better.”

“Jade knows without a doubt that Nate loves
her. He barely even registers when another woman is in the room
with him if it’s not her. They also have more sex than half the
population combined, so she’s pretty confident in that area,
too.”

“I know you love me. I never questioned
that.”

“So it just doesn’t matter to you.”

“What? Of course it does.”

“That’s why you keep leaving me.”

“Ellie, no. It’s my own issues that make me
leave.”

“If I was enough for you, you wouldn’t go.
You’d stay and fight for me. For us.”

She
is
enough. She’s everything. How do I
make her understand that now, after I’ve walked away from her so
many times? What can I do to prove once and for all that I’m all in
with her? That I’ll never leave her again? I just don’t know. I can
say the words, but they won’t be enough. I’ve said them before, but
then I walked away. Again.

“Since you didn’t respond to what I just
said, it’s time for me to go. You can work at the bar for as long
as you want to,” she tells me as she stands up. I stand up,
too.

“I thought you were coming back to see the
show.”

“I was just being a bitch about that. I
didn’t like that woman thinking I wasn’t hot enough for you. I
figured you’d kiss me or something in front of her once I talked
some sense into you.”

“Ellie.”

“Goodbye, Aiden.”

“Marry me.”

She stops in her tracks and turns back to
me. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do. I have a ring. Not here, because it’s
too special to just carry around. But I have it.”

“Why are you asking me now?”

“I need to do something to
prove to you that you’re enough for me, you’re
it
for me. You’re The One. You’ve
seen yourself listed like that in my phone, and it’s the truth.
I’ve said words to you—so many words. Ones that were romantic and
made you cry. And ones that hurt you, and hurt me. Words are
powerful, but they’re not enough. Let me put my ring on your
finger, and claim you for the world to see. Let me be your husband,
and stay by your side forever.”

“Hawk,” she says, covering her mouth with
her hands.

I drop to my knees, and
stay there. One knee isn’t enough for her. “Please do me the honor
of being my wife, Elletra Gallagher. I’m a stupid, jealous,
bastard, and I’ve fucked up more than any one man has a right to.
But I love you. I will
always
love you. I promise to not just say the words, but
to show you. Every second of every day for the rest of our
lives.”

With the wind blowing her loose hair into
her face, and her eyes shining with tears, Ellie finally smiles at
me. A real smile, full of love and promise. “Yes, Aiden Ford. I
will marry you. Just know that if you ever try to leave me again,
I’m tying you to our bed until you come to your senses.”

“You can tie me to our bed, anytime, Doll.
I’m never leaving you again, though, so you’ll have to get used to
that. You know, having me stay to fight with you may not be as
great as you think.”

“The make-up sex will be.”

“Oh yeah. Definitely.”

* * *

Ellie

When we finally make it back to the
bar—after some PG rated kissing on the beach—Aiden tells Rod that
he needs his bag from the safe. I don’t miss the glares I get when
he holds up our linked hands to kiss mine before going into the
office. I just smile in return.

When they come back out, Aiden has one hand
closed. “Is that my ring?”

“It is,” he tells me, opening his hand and
making my jaw drop.

The ring has a giant cabochon stone in the
middle. It’s a gorgeous shade of blue, and I can’t believe he
remembered that it’s my favorite stone. The band is platinum, and
covered in rows of sapphires in various different shades of blue.
It’s like looking at the ocean we just left.

“It’s gorgeous,” I say, holding out my hand.
“You remembered the cabochon.”

“I remember everything you’ve ever told
me.”

He places the ring on my
finger, and it takes me a moment to notice that the entire bar has
gone silent. I don’t blame them. They’ve been seeing Aiden turn
down women every night, and then I just walk in and get a ring.
An
amazing
, one of
a kind, ring.

“You asked her to marry you?” the blonde
from earlier asks.

I can’t help myself. I know I should, but I
just can’t. “Yep. He’s going home with me, too.”

“Be nice, Doll,” Aiden whispers in my ear,
giving it a little nip.

I smack him. “That
was
me being nice. She’s
still standing.”

“True.”

“You’re staying for the show, right?” Rod
asks him.

“Of course,” Aiden says, looking at me. “You
gonna play with me, El?”

“I could probably be persuaded. I do have to
run an errand, though.”

“We’ve got two hours until we normally
start. Is that enough time?”

“Should be.”

“Get going then. On your ‘secret’
errand.”

“You’ll like it, Hawk.”

“Tease.”

“You know it.”

We kiss goodbye, keeping things going for
longer than we probably should. I don’t want to let him go now that
he’s officially promised me forever. A small part of me is still
scared, but I know he meant what he said about showing me he means
it.

“Go,” he says, smacking my ass. “Before I
drag you to the storeroom, and neither of us makes it behind the
bar in two hours.

I salute him before dodging his arms again.
“Yes, sir.”

Aiden

I hear the whistles before I see her, and
then I turn and nearly drop the glass I was drying. Ellie’s
“errand” apparently involved some clothes shopping. Or more
accurately, some lingerie shopping. She’s got on a black satin bra
that has straps crossing down below what it’s covering, and she
paired it with black leather shorts. Incredibly tiny shorts. Her
ass is practically hanging out, and those lacy boots that go to her
knees aren’t helping the drool factor in the room. The giant ring I
put on her finger isn’t deterring the looks, either.

She ignores them all as she swings her long,
loose hair around for my benefit alone. Her eyes never leave mine
as she steps on a stool, using it to hop onto the bar. When she
spins around, I step between her legs and kiss the fuck out of
her.

“Hi,” she says when we come up for air. “Did
you miss me?”

“You know I missed you, but are you trying
to cause every man in the city to have a heart attack?”

“Nope. Just trying to compete with you once
you take your shirt off.”

“Since most of the women in here are looking
at you like they might be curious, I think you’ve succeeded.”

“I bought something else. But that’s just
for you to see. Later.”

“I think we might have time for a
quickie.”

She pushes me away. “It’s been too long for
either of us to be satisfied with a quickie. It would only make
things worse.”

“You’re right,” I tell her, groaning.

“I know. Now will you please help me down so
we can play?”

“Yes, but what are we playing?”

“Body shots. Just us, licking and sucking
while they all watch.”

“Holy shit. You want that?”

“I think I
need
it. To be watched on
my own terms, with the one man I trust to join me. I couldn’t ever
do it all in public, but I can do this. If that’s okay.”

“You know whatever you want is okay. Same
rules as always. If you feel even a little uncomfortable, you stop,
and we just throw around some bottles like I’ve been doing.”

She nods, and I lift her off the bar,
pulling her into my arms for a long hug. Once I let go, she reaches
for my shirt, pulling it up and over my head. She runs her nails
over my abs as she licks her lips, and I nearly blow my load right
then and there.

“Ready to play, Hawk?”

“Game on, Doll.”

She smiles before licking across my
collarbone. I didn’t even see her pick up the salt, but she’s
flipping the shaker over the line her tongue just made, and then
reaching for the bottle of tequila. The crowd has started to
realize what she’s doing, and they go a little wild. Truth be told,
I’m feeling a little wild at the moment, too. I pick up a lime and
dribble it over the biceps on my left arm. She pours her shot, and
hands it to me, nodding.

When we played this way before, we were
alone, but I don’t care about the crowd. As far as I’m concerned,
the only difference between then and now was that when we were
alone, clothes came off. More than just my shirt, or hers. Our
clothes will stay on in this bar, but it won’t be any less erotic.
I know that, and so does my cock. This is going to be both amazing,
and excruciating at the same time, and I’ll love every minute of
it.