shoulder as if playing. “It has been a long day. How about we go to my place and order pizza or cook one of the frozen Irish stews I made last week?”
He opened the passenger side door of my Jeep and grasped my elbow to help me in. “I vote the stew.”
My legs were still weak and my head hurting, so I didn’t object to his shutting my door and walking around my vehicle to jump into the driver’s seat. I didn’t even complain when he dug into my purse for my keys.
He tugged on my hair as if we were dating and then started the car to drive leisurely down the alleyway.
“Kurt—” I started.
He planted a hand on my knee. It felt really odd to have his hand on my leg. I barely knew the guy, even if he was Aiden’s friend and colleague. “You go ahead and relax, sweetheart. I’ll order pizza if you don’t want to warm up the stew. But you know I love your Irish stew almost as much as your lasagna.”
I frowned. Was he thinking there might be a bug in the car?
He caught my gaze and nodded.
I struggled to stay in the moment and not freak out again. “I think I’d rather have the stew. We can make a salad and open a bottle of wine. What do you say?”
He patted my leg. “I’d say I’m lucky to be dating you.”
Chapter 26
Kurt parked the Jeep in my driveway, and I jumped out, numbly heading around the edge of the garage and toward the front porch. There was only a wisp of sound, and a male body slammed Kurt against the side of the garage. I screamed and scrambled into my purse for my gun before I recognized Aiden as the attacker. He held Kurt against the wall with an arm across his friend’s neck. “Go inside and lock the door. Your house is secure,” Aiden snapped.
I froze. The mask of civility had been stripped completely away from Aiden. His eyes blazed a furious blue, and every muscle in his body was rock solid and rigid.
“Now,” he barked.
I jumped and all but fled into my cottage to lock the door.
My whole body shaking now, I hitched inside my cottage. Okay. No way was Aiden killing Kurt. Probably. Either way, it was silent outside. Where had they gone? I risked a peek through the front window and didn’t see either man.
Fine. My suit was bugging me, so I went to my bedroom and changed into cutoff shorts and a white tank top. My feet were done after being in heels all day, even though they’d been fairly comfortable. So I walked barefoot back into the kitchen and pulled out one of the bags containing frozen Irish stew I’d made a week before. Then I heated up the oven, tossed a salad, and opened a bottle of Cabernet.
I was on my second glass, and the stew was nicely cooking when Aiden made his way inside by using his key. Leaning against the counter, my glass in my hand, I studied him. No bruises, no ripped clothing. Just pure pissed-off male. My heart rate that had finally calmed now shot into attack range again. “Is Kurt dead?” I quipped.
Aiden didn’t smile. His full lips didn’t even twitch.
I sighed. We hadn’t lived in each other’s space enough for me to know how to handle him in this kind of mood—in fact, I’d never seen him in this mood.
Yet, this was Aiden, and I was safe with him. Unlike Kurt. I hoped Kurt wasn’t bleeding in my petunias. “Are you hungry?” I asked.
Aiden’s eyes flared a rare indigo.
I swallowed, and my heart rate accelerated more with a sense of feminine anticipation I would never be able to describe to my sisters. There weren’t any decent descriptions.
So when he started moving toward me, all I could do was freeze on the spot. When he reached me, he shut off the oven, took my wine glass, and drank the entire volume down before setting it to the side.
My breath just gave up. Lungs done. Air over.
He reached for my nape, tangled his long fingers in my hair, and tilted my head to the side. Then he kissed me. I knew the correct term was ‘kiss,’ but it was so much more than that. Heat, fire, danger and more than a hint of anger consumed us both. He went deep and full, taking as much as giving.
I kissed him back, instantly drawn