The Wall of Winnipeg and Me - Mariana Zapata Page 0,182

Aiden anywhere.

It was the way he held his broad shoulders, those long legs that carried that confident stride, and the cocky way he held his head that said more than enough. The way his arms rested at his sides and that thick neck confirmed The Wall of Winnipeg was really here.

Aiden was here.

I didn’t know why, and honestly, I wasn’t even wondering why. I couldn’t have cared.

Aiden had come.

I sucked in a breath and got to my feet, the biggest smile I’d ever made making my cheeks instantly ache.

Those brown irises raked across the room. Some part of me was fully aware that everyone within a twenty-foot parameter was focused in on him. Sure, there were quite a good amount of male models around the convention hall, but none of them were Aiden, or anywhere even remotely close to him. I hadn’t bothered giving any of the models more than a quick, curious glance, which said everything there was to know about my feelings for the big guy. Men with great bodies were awesome, sure. Friendly guys who knew how attractive they were and liked flaunting it and flirting with their fans were a magical thing.

But Aiden wasn’t smiles and coyness. He didn’t know or care that he was unforgettable. He had a confidence that went deeper than that of a man who liked what he saw in the mirror; Aiden valued the skills he’d developed through hard work. He believed in every inch of himself. He cared about what he could do and pushed himself to be better than he was the day before, not any of the external crap so many other people valued so much.

And all that manliness, that self-confident swagger and the mentality that ‘good’ was never enough, had just settled its attention on me standing there with a grin that more than likely made me look like a lunatic.

I’d swear on my life, my heart was on the verge of exploding with joy and surprise. I was probably trembling a little bit too in restrained energy and downright shock. Here was this man who valued his time, who hadn’t taken anything close to a vacation or allowed himself to be distracted from his ultimate goal in all the time I’d known him.

Yet he was here.

“Holy mother…” I barely heard the woman at the booth next to mine stutter loudly before I dropped to my hands and knees, crawled under the table, and popped back up on the other side to find those large, size-thirteen feet heading in my direction.

He raised his eyebrows at me, the corners of his mouth pulling up when we finally stood feet apart. “Hi.”

I was going to burst. I was going to freaking burst inside. “I’m about to hug you,” I warned him in what sounded like a gasp, clenching my hands at my sides. “I’m about to hug the shit out of you, and I’m sorry I’m not sorry.”

Those thick eyebrows seemed to climb up his forehead an inch higher, his cheek ticking in this strange way that made him seem a little embarrassed. “Why are you saying that like I should be scared?”

The ‘scared’ was barely out of his mouth when I threw my arms around his neck. Screw a friendly body hug. I went for that thick neck I had a feeling I could dangle off of without making him pull a single one of his thousand muscles. My face went straight to between his pecs, burying itself there, cradling my face like the hardest and best-looking boobs in the universe.

The joy made me shiver. “You came,” I muttered into the soft material of his hoodie. About eighteen different emotions clogged my throat. “I don’t know why you’re here, and why it’s freezing outside and you’re only wearing this jacket instead of a coat like a normal human being, but I’m so happy to see you, you have no idea.”

I had goose bumps, freaking goose bumps as I squeezed my arms around him, burying my face a little deeper into the crevice between his pectorals.

“Stop talking,” Aiden muttered as two big arms swallowed my back whole. And then, he was hugging me. His biceps cradled my ribs as he pulled me into him, up to the tips of my toes. Our fronts seared together.

Tears clouded my eyes, but I closed them and gave Aiden one more squeeze before slowly sinking back to my heels. Gazing up at that handsome, severe face, I had to bite the insides of