AllFreeNovel
Share Us
YES, DAD
IVY
Iwas wet.
Completely soaked.
It had to rain today of all days. Maybe the weather reflected my emotions.
My finger pressed on the doorbell, wishing my brother would hurry. Wet puddle formed around my feet, cold water dripping down the tips of my dark hair, trailing down my face. I knew the mascara I had applied in the morning was ruined, my eyes puffy and red.
“Hayden!” I sniffled, running a hand through my face and pressing the doorbell again and again. “Hurry, please!”
Stupid. I was so stupid. Maybe I deserved it for being such a naïve idiot.
Rain kept pattering around the porch, wetting the freshly cut grass. The scent of wet earth and grass gave me comfort as I stood outside my brother’s house in San Diego. He had told me he would be here, hopefully with Zara, his fiancée, my best friend and Princess of Azmia, who was very pregnant. They were getting married in a couple of months in Azmia, and wanted to visit and meet their friends and family.
I needed to hug my elder brother and hear him curse about stupid boys and coddle me like he always did whenever I was sad. I wanted to hear him talk about his work as a Navy Seal, about Azmia, and his life as a soon-to-be-Prince. Very fitting with our last name.
“Hayden!” I cried out, my voice thick. “Open up. Finally, I thought you’d—oh.”
My lips parted as I came face to face with chiseled abs, water sluicing over each contour of the muscles. Rain muffled into the surrounding as I trailed my eyes over the chiseled chest, my mouth going dry. Licking my lips, I raised my eyes from strong collarbones, lick-worthy-adam-apple, to sharp jaw, inviting lips tovery familiarthundering grey colored orbs.
“Petal,” he whispered, his eyes roving over my face, calling me with the nickname he had been using since he met me.
My eyes flickered down to the white towel wrapped around his waist, staying far too longer on the perfect vee of his hipbones. The short trail of dark hair leading under the towel made me curious, creating an odd twinge of need between my legs and making my cheeks warm.
He is your brother’s best friend, Ivy. Get your head out of those dirty fantasies.
But I couldn’t. I had been crushing on his symmetrical face since the day he piggy backed me home and stayed with me until Hayden bandaged my bruised knee.
“Aiden.” I licked my lips, my throat dry. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“I missed you…” His eyes softened before he noticed my soaked clothes and wrapped his large, warm hand around my arm, dragging me in. “Come inside, you will get cold.”
I shivered, not from the cold, but from his touch as it singed through my skin. His eyes clouded when mine travelled through the muscles of his body—how the deltoids of his back clenched and unclenched when he pulled my suitcase inside. In just a towel.
I may or may not have checked out his ass, too.
With flaming cheeks, I looked away at the empty hallway filled with our picture frames on the wall. “Where’s Hayden? I thought he would be home by now.”
“He didn’t tell you?” He said, his body closer to mine. “Zara got a flu so they will arrive next month.”
I frowned, “Is Zara okay?”
“If it was serious, I’d know, Petal. Don’t worry about it.” Of course, he’d know. Besides being Hayden’s best friend, he was a brilliant psychiatrist who helped a lot of soldiers and Navy Seal officers going through PTSD or more.
But hearing I won’t be able to meet my brother for a few more weeks made me sad. I tried to hide my disappointment and crossed my arms.
His stormy eyes fell on my chest, and he cleared his throat. “Stay here. I will bring you a towel.”
He walked past me, straight towards the room, keeping the door ajar. I looked down at myself and cringed in horror. My nude bra was visible through the thin cotton top I had worn that morning, my cold nipples poking through the wet fabric.
I tried to cover them as much as I could with my long hair when Aiden came back, handing me the towel, his tall height looming over me. He had changed into a black tee—boo—and grey sweatpants, his feet bare. There was something odd about seeing him like that, with his damp hair sleeked back and the dim light creating shadows on his sharp face.
When I was young and he was in high school, I had always seen him wearing pants and shirts. After a couple of years, when I was in high school and he was busy with his work as a therapist, I rarely saw him in anything but crisp shirts and suits that stretched over his broad shoulders and pants that covered his long legs.
Aiden stepped closer, his hands gently patting my wet hair with a dry towel. He smelled so good. Of musky, sweet cologne and something sharp. I wanted to step closer and bury my face in his chest, take a long sniff and hug him.
