The Rebel's Return (Red River) (12 page)

“And I’m the guy the bride just spoke about, the one who supposedly cheated on Natalia, and who is also supposedly going to go sleep with another woman tonight.”

He paused again for some gasps and whispers. He didn’t even dare turn to look at Nat, knowing she was probably ready to rip his spine out of his body.

Once the crowd settled down again, he cleared his throat and finally uttered the truth that he had held on to for ten years. “The truth is, when I was a teenager I was reckless and irresponsible. I made a lot of stupid mistakes. I hurt a lot of people, including Natalia. She was the first and only woman I’ve ever loved. And I let her down, but not in the way I led her or anyone else to believe. I knew I wasn’t good enough for her. And I loved her too much to stay here and ruin her life. So I lied to her and told her I slept with someone else, and I shattered her faith, and I belittled her ideals.” This time there wasn’t any noise from the audience. There was a gasp, but it was from the woman behind him on the stage.

He paused and turned to look at the woman he’d denied himself of for ten years, and it hit him then that he had finally done the right thing.

Love and triumph were shining in her eyes as she stood there.

He cleared his throat and was hit with the knowledge that he was just as big a sap as all three Manning brothers put together. And like they must have realized at some point along the way to marriage, it really didn’t matter as long as he ended up with the love of his life. “The truth is…I love this woman more than anything in the world. I strive to be a better man for her, and if she’ll have me back, I want to marry her and spend the rest of my life making up to her what I took away.”

Before he could second-guess himself, he was on one knee in front of the entire wedding, making a complete fool of himself. But Nat walked over to him, tears streaming down her face, and she kneeled down with him and then flung her arms around him. No one had ever held on to him so tightly, had ever believed in him so readily, and had ever loved him so completely. He pulled back slightly, framed her face with his hands and proceeded to kiss her. Hoots and whistles exploded in the background, and all he could think about was that he’d finally claimed the future he wanted, finally felt good enough to want this woman and have this woman.

Chapter Thirteen

Aiden walked out of the ballroom holding Natalia’s hand, feeling like he was a new man. He held the door open for her, and they were greeted by the cool fall evening air. They had barely spoken a word, but all he needed was to get her alone. He wanted the chance to explain everything, to have her all to himself, to make sure that she really forgave him.

“You cold?” he asked as they practically ran through the parking lot. He didn’t wait for her response and was already shrugging out of his suit jacket. She looked incredible tonight.
When Nat had walked into the ballroom, his entire body reacted to seeing her. Her dark hair was pulled into different twisty knot things and piled around her head, shiny with a few pieces framing her lovely face. Her lips were a deep red that accentuated her perfect, full mouth, and every now and then she’d smile at someone…and he’d smile. Her pale pink dress was low cut, revealing spectacular, creamy cleavage before flowing out gracefully in some kind of gauzy fabric. He’d wanted to dance with her, and he hated dancing. He wanted to hold her hand. He wanted to kiss her neck. God, how he’d missed this woman. No one had ever gotten under his skin like she had.

He placed his coat around her bare shoulders and was about to tug her into his arms when they were interrupted by
the sound of a siren followed seconds later by tire screeches and Dominic’s squad car squealing to a halt on a diagonal in front of them.

“What the hell?” Aiden said, pulling back. His question was answered with the sound of Dominic’s voice booming out of a megaphone.

“Omigod, I’m going to kill him,” Natalia whispered, resting her forehead on his chest.

“I think he’s going to kill me,” Aiden whispered, kissing the top of her head before the door swung open.

Natalia launched into a tirade in Italian, which he suspected was something along the lines of
what the hell are you doing
.

Dominic scowled. “I’m stopping you from being hurt by him a second time.”

“I’m not a child.”

“I’m not going to hurt her.”

“I want to speak with Aiden,” Dominic said, walking forward.

“Is that my best friend in the front of your car?” Natalia said, walking forward. Sure enough, Sabrina was sitting there, looking…weird…and gave them a wave.

“What? Never mind.”

“No, you never mind. Out of my way,” Nat said, pushing past her brother and going to sit in the front seat of the car. Before she sat down, she looked at him and mouthed “sorry.” He shrugged and gave her a reassuring smile. He was used to dealing with the overprotective Puccini men.

Once the cruiser’s door shut, Dominic turned to him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I take it you missed my display at the wedding? I’m trying to start over.”

Dominic crossed his arms in front of him. “You’re not starting over with Natalia. You’re not good enough for her. You’re going to hurt her all over again. She never got over you. She was a completely different person for a year after you left,” he said, hatred in every word.

Aiden winced. “It’s not what everyone thought.”

“So what? What wasn’t what everyone thought?”

“I never cheated on her. I set it up. The entire thing.”

Dominic didn’t say anything, just stared at him with his dark-eyed, mean sonofabitch stare. “Why? Why would I believe that? Why would you do that?”

“Did you want me with her? Cheater or not?”

Dominic shrugged. “No.”

Aiden shoved his hands into his pockets. “What would you have said? Would you have wanted me with Nat, or would you have still told me to stay away from her?”

Dominic didn’t say anything, just shifted his feet.

“Exactly. Bottom line was that I was out of control and my life was heading nowhere. You didn’t want me to screw up Nat’s life, and I agreed with you. I may have been screwed up, but I loved her, and I didn’t want to be responsible for messing up her life. I knew she wouldn’t let me go, so I made it up. I made it up so that she’d be so pissed at me she’d let me go.”

Dominic stared at him a long time. “I…assumed the worst about you because you’d gotten into some really dangerous stuff, and I was worried about her.”

“I know. You had every right to be worried. I was out of control, and I shouldn’t have been around her.”

Dominic jammed his hands in his hair. “I know you loved her. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?”

“I’m sorry for all these years…thinking you were an ass, thinking you weren’t good enough for her. I’m sorry for interfering and basically forcing you to break up with her.”

“Don’t be sorry. If she’d been my sister, I would’ve done the same thing. If you hadn’t forced me out of town, I never would have changed. I never would’ve made something of myself.”

Dominic gave him a short nod. “Thanks for saying that.”

“It’s the truth.”

“So…what was the display at the wedding?”

Aiden grinned. “We’re getting married.”

Dominic’s face went white. “What?”

Aiden nodded. “Yeah. Nat and Francesca were having a catfight back stage.”

Dominic whipped his head in the direction of the car. “What?”

Aiden nodded. “You missed a lot. Hope it was worth it.”

His friend’s face flushed slightly and turned back to him. “What happened?”

“Well, I’d say Francesca finally had what was coming to her. Anyway, I had to intervene because she was trying to humiliate Nat. I went up on stage, confessed, and proposed in front of about four hundred people. I think we were the crowd favorite.”

Dominic smiled “You’re sure about this? Like, there’s no coming back for you if you run. I’ll hunt you down if you hurt her again.”

Aiden actually laughed, because he knew he wouldn’t be running out of here again. “I know, man. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll do everything to make her happy.”

“She never got over you. That douche that cheated on her broke her spirit. She was so mad at herself, so embarrassed. And then our brat cousin had to rub it in. Nat has been through a lot. She deserves a happy life. If you can give that to her, then you have my blessing.”

There was an odd lump in his throat. He stared at the cop—the man that had been his best friend for years—and felt at peace. He hated the guy he’d become, and he’d hated that he’d ruined relationships. He hated thinking that people thought the worst of him.

“Damn straight. You should know what you’re getting into,” he said, slowing his step. “You go down this road with her, and you gotta know what you’re committing to. I know my little sister. She wants the whole package, or she’d rather be by herself. She wants a guy she can depend on. She wants a guy who’s in it for the long haul. She wants a true marriage—not just screwing around. She wants kids. She wants a house.”

“I want to give her everything.”

Dominic shoved his index finger in his direction. “Man, you better.”

He grinned. “I will. There’s never been anyone for me but Nat. How about you? How’s your life going? You like being a cop?” He’d never been good at small talk, but he’d missed his best friend.

Dominic shrugged. “It’s good. I’m pretty good.”

“Any woman in your life?”

He groaned. “Not any worth speaking of.”

He tilted his head toward the car. “What about Sabrina? I believe she’s sitting in the front of your car.”

He ran his hands down the front of his face. “I can’t date my little sister’s best friend.”

“Ah, man, you know she always had a thing for you.”

He made some kind of choked noise. “There’s too much history there.”

“I didn’t know that,” he said. That must have been after he’d left Red River.

His friend shrugged. “Nothing really. Who cares? It’s over now. I’m enjoying being a bachelor.”

“No one enjoys being a bachelor. That’s just what we tell ourselves so we don’t have to go through the painful process of getting our heads out of our asses.”

Dominic’s laugh made him smile. Just like old times.

…

“We’re here again?” she asked as Aiden led her up the steps to the house they’d always snuck into when they were dating. He gave her an adorable half grin. The dimple appeared. Tonight, she was going to kiss that dimple again.

He held the door open for her, and she immediately walked into the front room. There were still lanterns, and she stood in the middle of the room as Aiden lit a fire. “How many times did you climb through that window?” she said aloud, thinking of how young they’d been. He would always climb through the window and then walk through the house and open the front door for her.

After lighting the fire, he stood, wiping his hands down the front of his suit pants, clearly not caring that they now had dust on them. He walked over to her, and her heart beat erratically. God, he was so beautiful. And he was hers. The boy she had always believed in was now the man she’d always wanted.

“I spoke with Sabrina yesterday,” he said.

“Really? She never even answered any of my texts or calls!”

He grinned. “I was making arrangements to get this house, and I told her if she blabbed to you, she wouldn’t be your maid of honor.”

She swallowed a laugh. This was all happening. It was real. “As in for us?”

He nodded. “Can you think of a more perfect place for us? Jake and Quinn can do the renovation. Just think of the history here.”

A part of her felt like tonight was too good to be true. Had he actually proposed in front of everyone? Had he really said he’d lied to her ten years ago? “I feel like all of this is a dream,” she whispered.

“Look at me,” he said when she avoided eye contact.

She shifted her gaze to him, and her breath caught. His features were taught, angry even. He bent his knees and lowered himself to her eye level. “I. Never. Cheated. On. You. I lied.”

She blinked back tears. “But I remember exactly what you said. You told me you were sorry, but you couldn’t wait around for me, and you needed a girlfriend that would put out.”

He ran his hand over his jaw and swore under his breath. “I lied.” Suddenly his hands were on her face, and he tilted her head up. “Look at me, when I say this. I loved you like I never loved anyone else. I would have waited for you. I would have waited forever if it meant that I got to spend every day of my life with you.” Then he lowered his head and captured her mouth under his and proceeded to kiss her like a starving man. The hard wall of his chest crushed her breasts against him. She clutched his biceps as her knees gave out. He kissed the same and yet different. He was bolder, harder, but still so unbelievably tender. He still had the amazing ability to make her feel wild and safe at the same time.

His fingers fisted her hair gently as his tongue claimed her mouth, and he claimed her soul, just as he’d done so many years ago. She kissed him back with everything she was, with the knowledge that something had happened years ago, that he was the man she thought he was.

“I never cheated on you. I swear on everything I am, on everything I have, I never, ever cheated.”

Tears stung the back of her eyes as she stared into his, seeing the truth there. “I can’t believe you did that. All these years, Aiden.”

He ran his hands down his face and gave a rough sigh. “I was messed up, Nat. I was a train wreck, and I would have taken you down with me. You didn’t need to be with an angry kid with a DUI under his belt at seventeen. My life with my dad was a mess. Then Dom and…” He shrugged and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “It was like it became the perfect way out for me. He told me to leave you the hell alone. Dylan was already talking about leaving town together. What the hell was I supposed to do? You came from this perfect family. You were this perfect, happy, smart girl, and I didn’t want to ruin your life. What would I have been able to offer you?”

“I would have stood by you.”

“I know. That’s why I left.”

“All these years,” she whispered, shaking her head. “All these years I thought about you and missed you, and I hated myself for so long. I kept thinking if only we’d slept together, I would have kept you—”

“No. No way. You were principled. You had your beliefs, and even though I didn’t exactly share them…” He gave her a lopsided grin. “It was one of the things I loved most about you. How many young people can actually do that? How many times were we so close?”

Her face filled with heat at the memories, as they flooded her senses and flashed through her mind. So close. So many times she’d wanted to give in to the delicious pleasure she knew he was capable of giving her. “Well, I blamed myself for a long time. I never got over you,” she finally admitted.

He didn’t say anything for a long while. “Neither did I.”

“You never had anyone serious back in Toronto?” She almost didn’t want to know, but a part of her did, because it meant he’d been just as miserable as she.

“Nope. I didn’t want that. You were the girl I was going to marry. You were the woman I envisioned raising a family with. No one else made the cut,” he whispered gruffly, his hand coming out to frame her cheek. She wasn’t able to breathe anymore because of his words. This was her dream come true, better than anything she could have imagined.

His other hand framed the other side of her face, and then she was pulled into him. The kiss was slow at first, gentle, as though this were a new beginning for them because the truth was out now. She knew he was the man she always thought he was. Her belief in him hadn’t been for nothing. Her instincts had been right. She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. He groaned against her mouth and then lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He walked, holding her until her back was against the wall. And then his mouth was on the tender, delicious spot under her ear, until he moved, trailing kisses down her neck. And then his hands were on the back of her dress, and seconds later he peeled it off her, pulling back slightly to look at her. His gaze was dark, possessive, and she trembled as she waited for his hands and mouth to be on her exposed skin.

“Even hotter than I remembered,” he said as he filled his hands with her breasts. She whimpered against his mouth and then fumbled with his shirt.