“Like Dax?”
Aiden nods. “Like Dax, Tom, Ben, and Frank…they did what they had to, good and bad, to survive. To build a life.” There’s pride in his tone and concern too. Does he think that’s still driving them? A need to escape the streets?
“You admire them.”
“We all had different starts, and yet we’ve all made it here, to this moment. I admire that.”
We finally circle around to the entrance. Aiden nods at the keypad and gestures for me to open the door. A test. I input the number and the door clicks. He swings it open, and we step inside. He shuts it; the heavythunkhides us from the rest of the world.
I tug the elevator gates open. Aiden boards last and keys in the apartment code, lowering our bags to the floor and flexing his fingers.
“You should try on all your new clothes. You didn’t even check they fit before we left,” he admonishes.
I snort, thinking of the rush to grab anything with my size on it before Lafferty could get her claws any deeper. into him “I was a little distracted, Aiden.”
He hums and grins. “Jealous, Tiger?”
No point in denying it. “Sickeningly so,” I grumble.
He reaches out and rubs the crease between my brows. “Why are you mad about it?”
“Why are you so happy about it?” I counter.
Aiden’s laughter fills the elevator. “Because,my fierce little tiger, now I know how much you care.” He leans in and kisses me gently. His hands cup my face, pulling me in to deepen the kiss. It’s perfectuntil he flicks my nose as he pulls away.
“You already know I care,” I grumble, rubbing away the sting.
“Maybe, but you’ve just shown me that you consider me yours. You don’t just like me, or love me, or want me…I’m already yours. I’m allowed to enjoy that just a little, right?”
I can’t help it; my cheeks heat and my lips arch into a smile before I can check myself.
“Interesting way to look at it. I always considered jealousy a weakness, a fault in a person’s character.”
Aiden huffs. “Jealousy is as natural as love, or hate, or any other emotion.”
“My grandmother would say that jealousy is just another name for insecurity.”
His brows arch. “Did Lafferty make you feel insecure?”
I think about it. “No, she made me feel disrespected. I’d just told her we were together, and she tries to paw at you. Clear disrespect.” Aiden eyes me knowingly. “Fine, I also didn’t like that you let her touch you. So sure…I was a little jealous and maybe a pinch insecure.” As soon as the words are out, I realise how hypocritical I’m being. I do the same with Dax. I let him touch me, kiss me…more. So how is that any different to Lafferty’s hands on Aiden? Do I even get to be jealous of other women if I’m involved with more than one man?
The elevator opens. Aiden dumps all our bags on the floor of the apartment and then tugs me back inside. It’s my turn to eye him. What is he thinking? Where are we going?
“Do you remember a morning about…oooh eight weeks ago? You were atButchers and Bakers,and the mill vans had arrived for delivery.”
The question catches me off guard. “Sounds like any morning…why? Hang on, eight weeks ago?” Aiden hasn’t known me for eight weeks.
Aiden conveniently ignores my inferred question and rushesto explain. “You came running out of the service doors so fast that you tripped on one of the empty sacks that had slipped too low in your arms…”
I remember it. I went flying. In the second it took for my foot to catch and my body to surge forward, I’d been convinced I’d break my nose or smash my skull on the paving. Except I didn’t fall. Gordy caught me. “How could you even know that?”
“That driver…Gordon Franklin Brown.” Aiden speaks in short, sharp bursts—like spitting out poison rather than saying a name.
“Gordy,” I correct. Even I hadn’t known his full name, so why does Aiden?
“He caught you, checked for injuries, dusted you off and then kissed your forehead.”
My cheeks flare with heat. “How do you—?”
