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His body is impossibly tense now, and his fingers have actually tangled a bit in my hair, but I’m so concerned with the way he swells against my tongue that I barely feel any of it. I work my fist in tandem with my mouth, hearing his stuttered groan before I feel the warm splash against the back of my throat. I try to focus on the sounds he’s making, the way his body shakes beneath me, closing my eyes as I swallow everything he gives me. The way he goes boneless afterward is intensely satisfying, and it makes my watery eyes and my lack of breath when I pull away from him all worth it. He looks dazed as he stares up at the ceiling, hardly even moving when I crawl up his body to drape myself across his chest.
“Good morning,” I tease.
Aiden blows out a breath. “Alarm clocks are going to seem incredibly lackluster now.”
“Job security,” I laugh, enjoying my little running joke. I lean in to kiss him, and Aiden doesn’t seem put out at all that I just had him in my mouth, pulling me in to deepen the kiss. I give him a softer peck after. “I do have to get out of here though. You cost me my shower.”
“I’d like to say that I feel bad, but...”
I grin. “Yeah, I’d hate to make a liar out of you.”
“I’ll return the favor later.”
“Oh, absolutely. I have a mental orgasm tally. Don’t worry.”
“Wow, no pressure or anything.”
My smile hitches up another notch, and I give him one last kiss. “I’m supposed to get my car from the shop after class, so I’ll pick Sophie up from the restaurant later, okay?”
“They fixed it?”
“Apparently the check engine light isnotsomething you just ignore and hope it goes away.”
“I really could take you to class, you know,” he insists.
It’s a conversation we’ve had a few times since my old clunkergave out on me, and I roll my eyes now just like I have every other time.
“I might be the only person in this house that doesn’t hold a grudge against public transportation.”
He pinches my ass, and I yelp. “I’m glad it’s fixed, at least.”
“My slightly less-broken hunk of junk and I will be perfectly fine to come get Sophie after class.”
“She’ll be anxiously waiting for you to save her, I’m sure,” he snorts.
I roll away from him, feeling his eyes on me but not hating the attention, and I cast another look back at him before I head into the bathroom to do a rush job of getting ready. “Maybe today she’ll give your pancakes another chance?”
I laugh as I close the bathroom door behind me, hearing him grumbling the whole way.
—
The rest of my day doesn’t go as well as my morning.
The wake-up call I’d given Aiden hadn’t officially made me late leaving the house, but since I left later than usual, the traffic jam my bus got stuck in following an accidentdefinitelymade me late. Between the missed assignment this week and being almost thirty minutes late to my first lab, my instructor had a few choice words to say about getting my head in the game. It colored my entire day, throwing me off in a way that had me dropping things I shouldn’t and charting things incorrectly—making all sorts of errors I wouldn’t normally make had I not been so rattled.
I’m exhausted by the time I leave campus, my ride back to San Diego seeming much longer than usual. Picking up the car helps— but the hefty bill certainly doesn’t. Hell, before becoming Sophie’s nanny, this same bill would have meant eating microwave ramen for a week or two.
I’m trying to pull myself out of my gloomy mood by blasting Taylor Swift’s entire discography on the drive to the restaurant, but even my Spotify seems to be against me today, playing entirely too muchevermoreand not nearly enoughRed.It’s like the universewantsme to cry today.
Fickle bitch, I’m telling you.
I’ve been to Aiden’s restaurant to pick up Sophie a few times now since our first interview, and while the hostess doesn’t side-eye me as much about my body spray anymore, she seems to have an opinion on my shoes, if the way she looks at my worn Chucks every single time I step through the doors is any indication. I don’t even acknowledge her tonight, giving her a dismissive wave as I head straight for the kitchen. I have to pass through the bar area to get there, but I’ve developed a good routine of moving around the bartenders while staying out of their way as I push through the double doors that lead into the kitchen area.
Now, I’m fully aware that I’m not in the best of moods right now, but I can’t pretend that seeing Aiden in fullexecutive chefmode—barking orders to the other chefs and peeking over their shoulders with a discerning look all while wearing that jacket that I shouldn’t probably be so attracted to—helps a little. He doesn’t notice me at first, too busy criticizing the braising of some meat sitting in a pan that’s out of my view.
Sophie is perched on her usual stool in a safe corner near the sinks, waving when she catches sight of me and setting her Switch on the counter before hopping down from her seat. “Can we go home?” She casts a wary glance toward her dad. “Dad is in a bad mood.”
It’s like we’re linked or something.
