Shaylee
We say goodbye to the other council members, and I’m still giggling when Aden walks with me out to the car. Calista is awesome. Anyone who can give Aden shit like that, and get away with it, is a star in my book. I had built the council up in my mind, so I was incredibly nervous when we walked into the building but to my relief, Calista and the others quickly made me feel comfortable. Unfortunately, I walked out feeling like I had as many questions as when I walked in.
Once I’m seated and buckled, Aden gets in and starts the car. “Are we going to meet with Fate? Was that your surprise?” It seems odd that he would choose that, considering his clear aversion to the woman.
Aden’s face twists with what appears to be…yes, he’s pouting. I bite back a chuckle at how ridiculous and, ok, adorable, he is. “No, Grady will get in touch with her and let me know.” It won’t be for a while anyway. We need to focus on training you and not on what will come after that.”
“Ok, so where are we going?” I notice that he isn’t heading back toward the training facility, but this is my first time down town, so I have no idea what he is planning.
Aden just smiles at me, his face a little smug. “If I tell you, it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
I give him an irritated scowl and face forward again. “That’s what people always say. But, hasn’t the surprise train already left the station by that point? I mean, it’s only a ‘surprise,’ if I don’t know about it in the first place. So, now I’m expecting it and just because I don’t know what it is, doesn’t mean it’s a surprise. It’s just…another secret you’re keeping from me.” When I see the hurt flash across his face, I know I took it too far and immediately feel guilty. I know it wasn’t his choice to keep me in the dark my whole life, but I have to admit that the wound it still a little raw. I need to let it go, and I shouldn’t have used it against him.
“That was uncalled for, Aden. I’m really sorry.” I turn back to him, reach over and lace our fingers together, giving his hand a tight squeeze. He returns the gesture and gives me a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “I promise, I’ll make it up to you.” I coo in a deliberately seductive voice.
He instantly perks up, looking at me from the corner of his eye. “Make it up to me how?” He asks innocently.
“It’s a surprise,” I scoff, infusing my voice with indignation. The effect is ruined when I can’t keep the grin off my face.
“Smart ass.”
“You know it.” Giving him a wink, I watch the scenery passing by, trying to figure out where he is taking me. To my (yes, I’m going to say it) surprise, he pulls into the parking lot of a small restaurant and parks the car. He comes around to my side and helps me out, a wide smile on his face, his dimple peeking out to make my panties wet. Damn dimple.
“Lunch?” I’m a little disappointed. After all the surprise talk, I guess I expected something more grandiose.
“Baby, would you shut it and let me do my thing, please?”
“Aden, if you tell me to shut it one more time, I’m—” Suddenly, I find myself in a crushing hug, Aden’s lips effectively ruining my tirade. As I melt into him, I realize I don’t care what I was saying anyway. My heart is pounding and my panties dampen with need as he kisses me hungrily. He presses me up against the car and I start to think, maybe we should just head back home.
“Shaylee!” I hear my name called out and jump away from Aden. Well, I attempt to put some space between us, but Aden keeps a tight hold on me and even though we aren’t in a lip lock anymore, I’m still plastered up against his body.
Craning my neck to see over Aden’s shoulder, I blanch when I see my grandparents waving and walking towards us. Heat infuses my face as the blood rushes back with a vengeance when I realize they most likely, saw us making out. I try a little harder to get out of Aden’s embrace, but he holds tight and buries his face in my neck, shaking with laughter. I just want to die.
“Aden, do you think you could stop mauling my granddaughter for a few minutes so that I can give her a hug?” Pop asks, his eyes twinkling and smothering his laughter with a cough. Aden gives me a squeeze then steps back with an unrepentant grin, allowing me to step into Pop’s open arms. He hugs just like my dad and I sigh in a moment of contentment, feeling a little closer to him.
Cerys hugs me tight as well, then loops one arm through mine, and uses the other to smack Aden in the chest, “Can’t you control yourself?” She shakes her head in mock disappointment, but I can see she’s fighting a grin. “You’re like a hormone ridden teenager.” Without waiting for an answer, she pulls me around and starts toward the entrance to the restaurant, leaving Aden and Pops laughing behind us.
We spend several hours with Cerys and Pops, and I’m in heaven getting to know them, but mostly hearing all the stories they have to tell me about my dad. Between the easy conversation and Aden’s arm across the back of my chair, softly kneading my muscles, I find myself truly relaxing for the first time since my birthday.
Eventually, we call it a night and, with promises for future visits, we part. On the way home, my mind is absorbed in all the things we talked about tonight, and a thought occurs to me.
“Aden, was my dad killed by one of the Fallen?”
Aden sighs, “Yes.” His fingers tighten on the steering wheel and my stomach twists in fear.
“I don’t understand. You told me that whatever was suppressing my magic, extended to my father so that he couldn’t be detected either.”
“It does, baby. Well, in his case, it cloaks it rather than suppresses it. That’s one of the reasons we are at a loss. We aren’t sure how they found out about you and your dad.” He blows out a frustrated breath, “For that matter, we don’t know how they were able to best him. Your dad was one of the best on the Mie'Lorvor we had before he met your mom and took a leave of absence.”
“So, if they knew my dad was Fae, they had to know about me.” I observe.
“That’s the logical conclusion, yes. But, I never detected their presence around you while I was there.” His tone turns wary when he alludes to his unexpected departure from my life. He doesn’t seem sure whether to expect a fight, and honestly, until this moment, I couldn’t have told you what I would do. But, the past is behind me and I want to look to my future with Aden. I’m trying to get beyond my fear that he will find an excuse to leave me again. Right now, he has no intention of ever going, but what if, someday down the line, he gets bored of me, or meets someone else? The thoughts cause pain to knife through my chest, so I quickly shake them away and focus on our conversation.
“Were you replaced? We didn’t have anyone who was consistently around, like you were.”
Aden shakes his head and scratches his chin, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Not really . . . I mean, they sent Guard members to check on you from time to time, but without any indication that you were in danger or had been detected, they came and went before you ever noticed them. They would have reported any indication otherwise, and it wasn’t until the day I got back that it became obvious that you were being watched.”
Confusion fills my mind and I want to pepper him with more questions. But the relaxation I felt earlier has dissipated with our discussion and I can tell that Aden doesn’t really have the answers I am looking for. He must sense my troubled thoughts, because he reaches over and takes my hand, bringing it to his mouth, sweetly kissing it. I settle back into my seat and we spend the rest of the ride in silence.
I flop down onto the mat, a sweaty mess and try to calm my rapidly beating heart. We’d done a wide range of activities from training on the clinch, grappling, work on the heavy and speed bag, while throwing some Maui Tai into the mix. Last, we mixed magic in with it all, and now, I am exhausted, like bone-deep tired.
For the last week, Aden pushed me harder every time it seemed that I had mastered something. I was excelling fast, and he wanted to keep the momentum and get me trained as quickly as possible. The only positive was that, after we were done, he would run me a hot bath and then use his magical hands to work out the knots and kinks all over my body. In fact, he made it his mission not to miss one spot and, by the time he finished, I was sated in more ways than one. I’d almost blurted out that I loved him a few times, but something was holding me back; fear, I guess.
Aden plops down next to me and I’m distracted from my musings. His magnificent body is covered in a sheen of sweat, but, to my great annoyance, he’s not even a little winded. However, my annoyance is over shadowed by the sight of his muscles, particularly that delicious v dipping into his pants, a v that I very much enjoy running my tongue along.
Get your mind out of his pants, Shaylee.
Right. Concentrate on something else, come up with a topic of conversation.
“I’m going to set you up with Laila for some sparring time next week,” he speaks up.
I turn my head to peer at him. “Laila?”
“Yeah, she’ll work with you outside first, and then, when you’ve got a handle on everything, she’ll bring you back inside to feel what it’s like to truly fight with limitations. Basically, we don’t want you to accidentally demolish the building.” His voice is laced with amusement, but I’m stuck on the fact that he is pushing me off onto Laila.
“Why aren’t you going to continue training me?” Has he tired of me already? Panic begins to course through my veins and I am faced with the realization that he is the reason I’m so grounded and accepting of this new reality. I’m afraid that, without him, I would lose the battle with my nerves and lose my freaking mind.
“I’ll keep training you; I just won’t be sparring with you.” His tone is matter of fact, oblivious to the cautious fear seeping into mine.
“Is that normal?” Maybe this is what everybody does; maybe he isn’t trying to distance himself from me. “To split the training between two teachers?”
Aden shrugs, “Well, no. But I think it’s best for you. I won’t be able to push you like she will.” I want to keep my mouth shut, to play it cool, and not let on that I’m terrified he is going to disappear again.
Get a grip, would you? You’re strong enough to handle whatever life throws at you.
My inner pep talk makes me feel a little better, but I lose the battle to remain silent.
“Why not? Why is it best for me?”
Aden finally turns his head, his green eyes surveying me, probably trying to see beyond the forced subtlety in my questions.
“I don’t want to hurt you, baby.”
“Excuse me?” Indignation heightens my volume, but I instantly lower my voice when I realize it. “You think I couldn’t take you on?” My question clearly amuses the hell out of Aden because he starts laughing, the sound coming from deep in his belly.
Without answering my question, Aden jumps up and reaches a hand out to help me up. I don’t like the disadvantage my current position puts me in, so I grip his hand and let him pull me up. He drops a quick kiss on my nose, then lifts his chin to the locker room door, and gives my arm a little tug, indicating that he wants to continue this discussion in private.
We enter the wide room that reminds me of the club house at a baseball stadium. It is a wide rectangle, each wall lined with tall, and somewhat wide, wooden lockers, though each sports a full length door, so they are more like closest. Benches sit a few feet back from them, following the same pattern around the room. But, a big difference with this space, is that the center has two little “conversation nooks”. Each has two comfy couches, facing each other, and they are flanked by overstuffed, reading chairs, and creating a sort of semi-circle in either side. There are also three full size bathrooms at each end of the room, for students and trainers who don’t live at the facility.
The room is empty, but Aden continues walking, pulling me into one of the bathrooms and shutting the door behind us. It’s a decent sized space, but Aden crowds me up against the countertop, just to the right of the door, his face level with mine.
“Baby, I have no doubt that eventually, you’ll be able to hold your own with me. But even then, I won’t spar with you.”
Now, I’m just so perplexed. I frown, “I don’t understand. Have you done this with any of your other students?”
Aden’s eyes roam my face, pausing on my mouth, and his tongue darts out to wet his lips. I just barely catch the groan that wants to escape, my eyes riveted to his mouth. It’s ridiculous how hot he can make me with the slightest action. I just want to fuse us together and sink into his kiss.
He lifts his eyes and stares deeply into mine, the emerald darkening to a mossy green. “No.”
I’m so caught up in the lust sparking in me, that for a millisecond, I’m not sure what he is saying no to. No, he won’t kiss me? I inwardly snort at the thought. Yeah right.
Then, I remember the question. “Why haven’t you done this with anyone else?”
Aden grabs my hip and lifts me onto the counter, settling himself in the v between my thighs. Our faces are perfectly aligned now and his eyes bore into mine.
“Because I wasn’t in love with any of them.”
I gasp in shock, my mind completely lost to anything but those words. He loves me? Relief pours through me and I feel freer, like I’ve shed a heavy coat and can bask in the beautiful breeze.
I’m about to get sappy. Are you ready?
The breeze is his love.
I warned you.
My thoughts clear and Aden is still watching me intently. I don’t see any fear or uncertainty in his eyes, and I realize he’s confident that I return his feelings.
What the hell, let’s just lay it all out there.
I place a hand on each of his cheeks and kiss the tip of his nose, each eyelid, and finally I place a sweet kiss on his mouth.
“I love you too.”