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“Was I close in any of my guesses last night?”
It took him a minute, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. Remembering my outrageous questions, he turned to me with a smile growing on his lips. By the time he looked at me, it had transformed his entire face.
His smile was just a little bit angled to the left, causing that eye to wink just a tiny little bit. It humanized his otherwise perfect face and added a boyish charm that made me smile back.
“That’s what all that nonsense was about?” Aiden asked, chuckling. “No, you were nowhere near close.”
That laugh was deep and husky. Soft but sure. He wasn’t laughing so anyone else could hear. It was a secret laugh shared with me alone. It made me feel special and my heart unexpectedly happy. It was all I could focus on.
“Last night, you mean, right?” Aiden asked, smiling.
Oh, thank the Goddess he’d clarified. I had become entranced with the sound of his laugh and couldn’t remember what he was responding to, just staring at him like a complete fool.
“Yeah.” I smiled through my discomposure.
He chuckled again. I felt that chuckle in my gut. It fluttered around in there before settling heavy and warm in my lower belly. I stared back into eyes as bright as the sky and as profoundly blue, and my breath halted. They still shined with his silent mirth.
What the shit is he doing to me?
“What rumors are there?”
Eek. I was supposed to be thinking of rumors while getting lost in his face, and his smile, and his laugh. His… everything. I had somehow leaned into him while staring straight at his face. I needed to get myself and my thoughts in order. It was becoming embarrassing.
I turned to straddle the root, facing Aiden and, lying back, I looked at the sky, pretended to settle into a story. It put us at a safe distance apart.
“Hmm… which one should I start with?” I hedged, trying to hide my embarrassment with teasing.
“How many are there?” He wore his crooked smile with those freaking dimples on display, making me feel like I’d won something, and I needed to swallow before I could answer.
“Oh, so, so many. Okay, which one…” I trailed off, running through my list of options. There really were so many. One claimed he died, a theory most people had gotten behind. Aiden clearly was not dead. Dead men didn’t sit there blinding me with their white teeth and dimples. And eyes and that smile. “You’re not dead so that one doesn’t apply…”
“Ha!” Aiden burst out. He grimaced at the sound but quickly resigned himself to it and sent me an awkward smile. It worked for him. “I have to hear that one.”
I sat up, smiling widely, loving that he was having fun with me. “That one’s for another day. It will require copious amounts of alcohol for me to tell the tale. It is cringe inducing. Not gross cringey. Way worse. I'll just leave it at that. And telling you won’t help me discover any of your deep, dark secrets. You’re clearly alive.”
“Is that what you’re interested in? My deepest and darkest?”
Did his voice get deeper?I was pretty sure his voice got deeper. He didn’t look upset. If anything, his eyes carried a dark promise of things I couldn’t begin to understand— but damn, I wanted to.
“I want,” I squeaked, coughing to dislodge the sound. “I want to know everything.”
Aiden’s smile only grew, his dimples even more prominent. “I want to know what has you unable to speak without alcohol.”
“Nope! It’s become my mission to learn everything about you. So, your wants can wait,” I quipped. “But you can probably just ask E.Z.. He seems to know all the rumors.”
I laughed, then blushed, remembering E.Z.’s antics from the night before. Just thinking about him made me feel all weird and tingly. E.Z. was flirty and forward, with a tendency to push buttons. I was starting to love it.
“I will just have to get you drunk sometime soon and hear this story firsthand.” Aiden’s smile turned playful, but his eyes darkened, making it seem naughty.
His smile lost its playfulness as he watched the red on my cheeks spread into my hairline. When his eyes caught mine again, I quickly grinned before looking away. It didn't matter. He could read the heat in my face just as easily from the side. My ears were burning with it, too.
I searched my brain for some rumor I could share, needing to change the subject. Aiden seemed open to the ‘why Aiden left’ game, so I would start there, with a rumor that wouldn’t offend him.
I didn’t think it was an appropriate time to bring up an incurable disease. Disease was never something to joke about, especially since the magic sickness had become more prevalent. It also didn’t make sense for Aiden to have that. There was no cure, and it was painful and grotesque, clearly not something he was afflicted with.
I also didn’t think he would want to hear about how he was captured as a sex slave by our neighboring country, Groshonia.
There was one that seemed safe. It always seemed silly, considering Aiden was a warrior. I looked him up and down. He had a compact, tight body, tall but not stocky. He’d filled out in his absence without bulking up. Maybe he could be a dancer. He glided as he walked versus the ogre that Elijah tried to imitate when he was mad, which was most of the time. He didn’t have the flare E.Z. exhibited, so it wasn’t a saunter. No, it was much too refined to call it that. He moved gracefully.
