Chapter Ten

Aiden had experienced more than his fair share of sexual encounters. Usually, if all went according to plan, he left the woman smiling, sometimes gasping for more. But crying?

‘Shit, Mel, what is it? What’s wrong?’

Her head was buried against his neck and he was still supporting her body with legs that were starting to buckle. Slowly, carefully, he slid her down so her feet were resting on the floor. Then he took her head in his hands and forced her to look at him.

‘Was I too rough? I don’t know what came over me. One minute I was looking at you, the next I couldn’t wait to get inside you.’ Gently he traced a thumb down her cheek, wiping away the trail of tears. ‘Finesse went out of the window. I’m so damn sorry.’ He’d never felt like a greater jackass in his life.

‘No, I’m okay,’ she gulped, standing back and hitching her dress back over her perfect breasts.

‘So this is your usual reaction to stupendous sex, is it? Tears?’

She sniffed, giving him a watery smile. ‘I’ve never had stupendous sex before, so I’m not entirely sure if this is usual or not.’

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry with her. After zipping himself up he took her hand and pulled her towards the bed, sitting down next to her. ‘Come on, Mel. Sorry, Melanie. Tell me what’s wrong. Much as my ego would love it, I know damn well those aren’t tears of joy because of the great sex you’ve just had.’

‘I guess you should call me Mel, now we’ve had sex.’

He cursed softly. ‘I repeat. Tell me what’s wrong.’

Hazel eyes that swum with tears finally found his. ‘I … oh God.’ She started to cry all over again.

He held her close, rubbing his hand up and down her arm, trying to soothe when actually he had no idea how to do that. ‘It’s okay,’ he murmured. ‘It’s okay.’

Finally she stopped crying, shaking her head at him as she pulled away. ‘No, it’s not okay. It’s a long way from okay. I’m so stupid. I’ve just had sex with you. Now I’ll want to have sex with you again. Shit, shit, shit.’

Bewildered, he stared at her. ‘How on earth can the thought of repeating that again, and please God, again and again after that, be anything other than bloody wonderful?’

‘Because you’re you, damn it.’

She stood and walked to the bathroom to blow her nose. He was left reeling, feeling as if he’d driven into a wall at a hundred miles an hour.

‘What’s wrong with me?’ he was forced to ask when she reappeared, her cheeks no longer wet but her nose slightly red and her hair, thanks to his rough handling, lying in a mess of brown curls around her face. Bedraggled, yet utterly charming.

‘You slept with the bunny boiler, just because she was there. That’s what’s wrong.’

‘I told you, that was a mistake.’

‘And this isn’t?’ Her voice had risen so much she was almost screaming at him.

‘No,’ he replied firmly, shaking his head to add further emphasis. ‘We’ve got a connection. You can’t deny that. You’re the only woman I’ve ever really talked to. The only one I’ve told about my father.’

She sighed and perched onto the bed, making sure she left a great gap between them. ‘Well, I’m pleased for you, because when you’ve finished with the counselling, and the bonus sex, you’ll be in a better place.’ Her lips curved into a sad smile. ‘I, on the other hand, will be back where I was after Carlos left me. Nursing another broken heart and needing counselling myself.’

‘It doesn’t have to end that way,’ he countered, narrowing the gap between them by gripping onto her hand. ‘It doesn’t have to end.’

He didn’t know who was the more shocked by his statement, him or her. Could he actually manage a real relationship? One that involved more than parties and lots of sex?

‘Tell me, Aiden, what’s your longest relationship been?’

The fact that he had to think, and trawl through too many faces while he did the thinking, shamed him. ‘Two months. It doesn’t mean I’m incapable though,’ he added firmly. ‘I just haven’t found the right woman yet.’

‘Do you really think there’s the remotest chance I might be the right woman?’ she asked incredulously. While he was working out his answer – yes, possibly, I don’t know but I’d like to find out – she stalked towards the mirror. ‘God, I look like a woman who’s just … who’s …’

‘Been thoroughly pleasured,’ he replied softly, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. ‘Against the wall, I might add. You look rumpled and incredibly sexy and I find myself wanting you all over again.’

Her eyes met his in the mirror and she started to laugh and shake her head at the same time. ‘You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?’

He turned her towards him and stared deeply into her watery eyes. ‘Come on, Mel. Let’s just see where this takes us, eh?’

When she said nothing, just bowed her head and buried it in his shirt, he sighed. ‘You know after talking to Frank, I reckon you and I have more in common than you think.’

‘I bet. I can often be found squeezing into a fast car and screaming round a racetrack.’ Her words were muffled against his chest. ‘And afterwards, when I climb out, all these men chase after me, dressed in only a G-string, thrusting their phone numbers into my hand.’

He bent to kiss the top of her head. ‘Very funny. I meant that after your parents died, you must have gone through a terrible time. Frank told me how you would stay at university during the holidays because you had no home to go to.’

‘Frank talks too much.’ Her head rose from its resting place on his shirt front. ‘How does that make us similar?’

Instantly Aiden wished he’d kept his mouth shut. How could he admit to this lovely, stable, secure, together woman how sad and pathetically lonely he’d once been? To distract her, he started pulling the pins out from her hair so it fell over her shoulders. It didn’t tumble, or cascade, like it did on the shampoo adverts. Instead it straggled wonkily around her face.

‘What are you doing?’ She grabbed at his hand, pulling it away. ‘That move might work with your usual women, but it doesn’t work with me and especially not with my hair.’ She huffed and started to pat the unruly strands down. ‘God, I bet I resemble a raccoon after it’s pushed its paw in an electric socket.’

He smiled, helping to rearrange her hair into some semblance of order. ‘Actually, you look pretty damn adorable.’

Mel distanced herself from Aiden’s twinkling grey eyes and enticing body and went to sit back on the bed. The man was an absolute master of dodging the hard question, but she was pretty certain that before he’d messed up her hair he’d been about to tell her something important. ‘Why do you think you and I are so similar then?’

He gave her a slight, oh we’re sticking with this conversation are we, smile and leant back against the wall, arms casually crossed over his chest. ‘I just meant that with being away at boarding school so much of the time, I also have some experience of missing a home life.’

Suddenly his answers to her next questions took on a huge importance. It was a real test of his claim that he wanted a relationship and not just a sexual romp. Would he tell her the truth, or evade again, as he just had? ‘Is that the boarding school you went to, the one on the phone? Is that why they wanted to talk to you?’

‘Oh, no.’ He slipped one hand casually into his pocket. ‘That was just some family matter.’

Okay, so he wasn’t going to tell her about his son. Perhaps she could understand that was too private. ‘At least you had a home to go back to in the holidays, didn’t you?’

‘Of course.’

His cool, flip tone was starting to grate. ‘You say you didn’t have much of a relationship with you father but how about your mother. Did she make a fuss of you?’

His eyes flickered, but whatever emotion lay in there, he clearly wasn’t going to reveal. Instead he pulled her to her feet and began to kiss her. Gently this time, his lips soft against hers, as if determined to show her there was another side to him. ‘I can think of far better things to do than talk about my childhood.’

Mel knew she should tell him he’d had his chance and he’d blown it. How could she though, when her body was under such a delicious onslaught? So she threaded her hands through his luxuriously thick hair and melted under his caress.

She’d worry about everything tomorrow. Tonight was for living.

The following morning Mel woke to find she was alone in the bed. Beside her, in place of Aiden, was an indentation in the pillow, a lingering smell of aftershave and a hastily scribbled note. Duty calls. Gone to the gym. See you in Shanghai! A xx

Disappointment crashed through her and she fell back against the pillows. Come on Mel, let’s just see where this takes us … clearly the only place this was taking her was another notch on his flipping bedpost.

What the blazes had she done? Aside from drinking too much and behaving totally irrationally, that is. It didn’t matter that she’d already decided it could only ever be a one-night stand. The fact that he’d already beaten her to that decision, snuck off without even having the decency to look her in the eye and tell her that, made her so flaming angry. Then again, she’d known who he was and had sex with him anyway, so perhaps the anger should be directed at herself.

A tear crept down her face and she swiped at it. If only anger was the only emotion she was experiencing. If only she didn’t feel so hurt, so betrayed. So utterly disappointed that he hadn’t hung around to say goodbye.

Or to ask for a repeat performance.

The phone by the side of her bed sprang into life and she grabbed at it, welcoming the distraction.

‘Melanie Hunt.’

‘Sally O’Neil. Remember me? We used to be friends, as well as work colleagues. That was before you spent most of last night canoodling with Aiden Foster and then disappeared without a trace. Only a few moments before Aiden himself, I might add.’

Mel sighed, staring up at the ceiling. ‘Do you believe in coincidences?’

‘Nope.’

‘Then I guess you’d better come to my room for a full breakdown.’

‘Whoopee!’

Sally must have had a room down the same corridor because Mel barely had time to shrug on a robe before Sally was hammering on her door.

‘Is that Sluts R Us? Open up!’

Hell’s bells. Mel flung the door open and dragged her friend inside. ‘Don’t go yelling that in the corridor,’ she hissed under her breath.

Sally just laughed. ‘Relax, nobody’s around and even if they were, they would hardly believe I was talking to you.’ Holding onto both her arms, Sally studied her. ‘Yes, you definitely had sex last night. From the looks of it, fabulous, earth shattering sex.’

‘Okay, okay.’ Mel wriggled out of her friend’s grasp and headed for the coffee machine. ‘If you want me to talk about this, first I need caffeine.’

‘Wow, he didn’t let you sleep at all, did he?’

‘I … we …’ She slid onto the nearest chair. ‘No, we didn’t get much sleep, and I’m really out of practice with all of this. The sex, the sleepless night and the talking about it afterwards.’

‘Well, welcome back to the land of the living. Don’t worry, it’s like riding a bike.’ She giggled at her innuendo. ‘You never forget how to do it.’

Mel ignored her friend and took a slug of coffee. ‘There are some parts I want to forget.’

‘Come on, not every sexual encounter ends in heartbreak, you know. Loads of people manage to have a good, healthy sex life without ever involving their emotions.’ She squeezed her hand. ‘How have you left things?’

Mel handed Sally the note. ‘I woke up to this. Obviously the whole thing was a huge mistake. I guess we’ll have to talk about it after the race.’

‘After the race? Aren’t you flying out on Wednesday?’

‘I am, but Aiden needs to focus and I don’t want whatever happened between us to be a distraction. With failing to finish in the first race and only a fourth place last time, he needs to get his head in the right place. Frankly, if he’s going to stand a chance of winning the championship he really, really needs to start winning.’

As her words finally ran out, Mel became aware her cheeks were stinging with warmth and her chest rising and falling. She glanced quickly over at Sally only to find her staring back, wide-eyed. Obviously her rather passionate outburst had just given away far more than she’d wanted to.

For while it was perfectly true that loads of people managed to have sex without involving their hearts, Mel wasn’t one of them.