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Goddamn, she’s got me.
Aria manages to win the match to an imaginary game my twin created to kick ass in—which makes her victory even better. He accuses me of cheating, but his words don’t last long when she reminds him of the origin story he spent twenty minutes explaining.
Now, she stands, smacks a kiss on my lips, and sways her delicious ass into my room to find her pants. I follow suit, putting on a high-collar peacoat and throwing my hair up into a ball cap to help hide it. Simple black jeans and a button-down underneath. Inconspicuous enough to seem unapproachable, but not a sore thumb in public.
“I gotta head back.” She emerges, still clad in my shirt she’s tied the side of to fit to her hourglass figure, the print of the tee popping against the brightness of her pants.
It’s like the damn thing was made for her.
“Can I?” I hold my phone up and snap a few pics when she nods. I send them to her before I close my phone and wrap an arm around her waist.
Ian drives us the long way back to her hotel. It’s still light out, so when we come to a stop at the side entrance, I pop my collar and slide out of the car to open her door. I follow closely up the walkway as she taps the keycard to allow us in. The elevator trip and the hallway to her room are way too short, too quiet after the night we had. And when she lets me into her room, it hits me.
She’s leaving.
I don’t want to go back to normal. I want her with me.
But I know better. She has no idea the life I lead, the lack of privacy, the hiding in public, paying others to get groceries and shit because it’s safer. Not sitting outside around a fucking fire because paps might be hiding in the bushes taking pictures. Or worse.
I should have never exposed her to that.
The sinking feeling in my gut just gets heavier the more I watch her spin to me and smile with those twinkling eyes.
“It’s not a fancy penthouse, but it’s a nice room.” She’s comparing this to what I have, but she has no idea that I’d take this in a heartbeat.
“It’s perfect, babe.” I smile for her despite the tension in my chest, and I hold a hand out for her. She easily steps into my embrace and wraps her arms around me underneath the coat.
Her closeness brings levity to me when I press a tender kiss to the crown of her head. Her chin rests against my chest, her brilliant smile coming into view.
“Don’t look at me like that.” I see the sparkle sticking in her eyes but smile anyways.
“Like what?” She feigns innocence, even though I know damn well she’s not, batting her lashes at me.
“Like I’m the one leaving when you’re the one that has sisters you need to get back to before they call the authorities on me.” Aria snorts and spins out of my arms to start putting shit back in a bag.
“You’re not wrong.” She shakes her head with a lift to the corner of her mouth, but the more she shoves shit into her bag, the more her smile fades.
“Babe …” I grab her hands when I notice them shaking and pull her to my chest.
“This is stupid. We just met.” Her voice shakes and her lip quivers, but she stands steady. She’s resolute and strong and for that I envy her.
“It’s not stupid.” Normally, I would prepare a whole speech. The ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ BS people like me have to say to get a move on in the night, to shake the roadies and groupies that want to hang on for dear life.
By now, I would have told her it’s silly. Catching feelings was never the intention here. That it was all a great time, but thattime has come to an end. I certainly wouldn’t have brought her back to her hotel, let alone walked her all the way to the door and risk being caught inside.
I open my mouth and nothing comes out. I try to shake it off, but I can’t steady the tremble in my hands. I’m speechless for the first time in a long time so I close my mouth. I don’t know what to do, but I do know that she deserves better than me. She deserves someone who can be honest with her from the grip and that’s just not fucking me.
Aria watches me flounder and takes it in a way that I don’t mean. My stomach sinks when she physically pushes from me to return to packing her shit.
I can’t take it, watching her leave, but I have to. It’s the only way to preserve this moment, to keep her life normal and separate from mine. She can walk away from this without losing something most people take for granted. Aria will be able to find someone else to love her and show her off to the world and it means the world to just them and not literally the entire planet.
One more time, I wrap my arms around her waist and press a kiss to her temple and allow the scent of tropical paradise to fill my nostrils.
“Text me when you think of me,” I whisper to Aria with a final kiss to the soft flesh behind her ear and I slip away from her. Out of her room without a backward glance. Away from the hotel and into the car that drives and drives.
Somewhere around the third circle back to the penthouse, I lose the coat and the hat as heat takes over me. Then on the way out of town when we can’t get back into the garage, I have Ian pull over so I can throw up in the loose gravel of a back country road when my stomach can’t handle the nerves.
We lose daylight, making it easier to lose a tail, but I can’t stomach the thought of going back to my apartment, or facingmy brother, so I tell Ian to take me to the only other place that brings me peace.
