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“Ow,” I said, spinning. I didn’t even have time to focus before Aston had me pressed against his chest.
It was too close, too intimate. He had one arm around my waist, and he released my hand to run the other through my hair. It was almost a sweet gesture until I felt his fingers knot in the strands at the base of my neck, and he pulled.
“One week,” he said in a low growl, leaning down to my ear so no one else would hear. “You have one week, and then I want you back here. Understand?” His voice was gravelly and strange.
I’d never heard him sound like this. He was usually so aloof, but now his tone was filled with ire and danger and, oddly, something sensual and arousing. Suddenly, I felt trapped. I tried to pull away, but he was too strong. The way he held me prevented me from looking anywhere but at his poisonous green eyes. He’d never put his hands on me like this, and there was something unnervingly possessive about it. So why did my body respond by making heat shoot through my veins like I wanted him? It was so unexpected that I began to tremble, unsure what I could do to make this stop.
Aston seemed to realize how anxious I was and released me. He gave me one final, domineering glare before turning and getting back into the car. I watched the Town car continue to sit idle for several seconds before my legs managed to move again, and I stepped backward toward the sliding doors. I couldn’t see him through the black tinted windows, but his eerie, green-lantern eyes might as well have been glowing for how powerfully I could feel them still boring into me, daring me to react.
I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. It made it that much more important for me to appear unfazed now. I calmly turned and walked through the doors; then, as soon as I was out of view, I rushed through the crowd to get through security, wanting as much distance between Aston and me as fast as possible.
The Starbucks at the gate had a long line, but I had time before my flight.
“Grande quad toffee nut white mocha with coconut milk and caramel sauce,” I said when it was my turn. Should I have ordered something with about a thousand fewer calories? Sure. But after the encounter with Aston outside, I wanted something tasty to boost my mood.
It didn’t work, but it was still delicious.
I sat at the gate, waiting for the final twenty minutes to pass before boarding. I tried to scroll through social media to distract myself, but my mind wouldn’t shut up. What did my mom ever see in him? I knew that some people liked a more aggressive guy, especially in the bedroom. But I had the feeling, given how deeply in debt we’d always been trying to treat her cancer, that her attraction to him was more about his wallet than his personality.
The cost of chemo nearly made us homeless, and she had needed enough money for the hefty medical bills that never seemed to cease. I couldn’t even blame her for the decisions she made. She did what she had to do while dying and trying to provide for me.
But I just wish Aston hadn’t been the one she’d married and the one I got stuck with. He acted like I wasn’t there most of the time, only bothering to check in if he had a question about where his money was being spent, and even that was rare due to the sheer volume he had.
The soft voice of a gate attendant broke me from my cloud of thoughts as she announced the first group to start boarding. Pulling out my boarding pass, I started to tuck my phone into my pocket when it buzzed.
Please don’t be Aston. Please don’t be Aston.
Hunter: Fuck, I need you.
