Billy & The Beast (Ever After, New York #3) - Eli Easton Page 0,29

I don’t want to see you hurt. It sounds like he’s got a lot of money and people like that—well, he might not stay in Ever After. How old is he again?”

“Thirty, I think. And, like I told you, because of his accident I think he intends to stay here. He’s not really up for a wild and crazy life of adventure.” Like he used to have. I kept that last bit to myself. She didn’t need to know about Seb Montgomery, the tabloid playboy, or she’d really be worried.

But that made me think. Would Aaron be staying in Ever After? When we’d talked about the accident today, he’d implied he couldn’t leave even if he wanted to. Something about repercussions.

What was that about?

That evening I helped my mom with the dishes and left her watching a Fourth of July concert on TV. I went into my room, shutting the door. I got on my computer and spent a few hours looking for more information on the Montgomerys and the car accident.

I didn’t learn much that I hadn’t known before. But I found a new report on the accident from the LA Times that had more detail than others I’d read. It had the time of the accident, quotes about it from the police—a Detective Simmons—and photos of the car being pulled out of the ravine. God—the sight of it made me feel sick. But there was nothing that equated to repercussions, no mention of damage to other people or private property.

But maybe the repercussions had been in Aaron’s life. Maybe he’d been dumped by a girlfriend. Or boyfriend, my brain helpfully reminded me. Or maybe it had to do with his work. His father had died not that long before. Maybe Aaron’s accident had affected their company or some other career Aaron was pursuing. Maybe he’d had big plans for his life that had been ruined.

I decided I wasn’t going to learn anything more from Google. I’d have to wait for Aaron to tell me, if he ever did.

Besides, it was bringing me down to think about the accident, and we’d had such a great day. I put that worry decisively aside.

I lay in my bed, eyes closed, and thought about Aaron. I thought about the way his thick brown hair reddened to auburn in the sunlight, about the thrill I got every time he smiled, about the way he’d treated me like a friend today instead of an employee.

I’d caught him looking at me a few times. At my chest, my face, my lips. I wasn’t the most sexually experienced person in the world, but I was pretty sure he was attracted to me too.

I lay there daydreaming about him kissing me in the lounge chair while we were watching the movie. I imagined what his arms would feel like around me, imagined the hard press of his cock against my hip. That thought was such a turn-on, I had to take myself in hand. I came with Aaron’s imaginary tongue deep in my mouth.

Christ, my crush had just gone nuclear, hadn’t it? It was like Frankenstein’s monster. It had been struck by lightning today and was now animated and ready to demand a life of its own.

But what if he never acted on his attraction? What if he didn’t want that and never would? Ugh. Wanting someone was a kind of hell. It occurred to me that my mom’s warning tonight had come too late.

My heart was already on the line.

Chapter 13

Billy

After the Fourth of July, my relationship with Aaron went from twilight to full sun. I went from being the little kid with my nose pressed against the glass outside the window to having a seat at the table. Was I thrilled at this change in status? Hell yes.

That next Monday, Aaron stopped for a moment when he came out to walk Jack in the woods. I was weeding in the front beds, where an army of unwelcome shoots had grown tall overnight. He commented on how hot the day was, and how it must be tough to work outside in such heat. At first I thought he was just making small talk and I demurred—dummy that I am. “Oh, I don’t mind the heat.”

Fortunately, Aaron plowed on and said if I wanted to take a swim after I finished, to cool off, I was welcome to. Of course, I enthusiastically agreed.

I usually knocked off around four. That day, after I put my tools away, I