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His eyes flashed with relief and something warm...genuine.
She withheld a snort. Wishful thinking was what had all but destroyed her the first time around. She wouldn’t go through it a second time.
The only one who’d get to experience that kind of pain now was Aiden. He deserved to feel even a smidgen of her past heartache, along with its humiliating aftertaste.
“I’m glad,” he said at last.
“Me too.”
Knock. Knock.
He crossed his arms. “That will be your clothes.”
Her chair scraped back as she stood. “That will be Bernard.”
She didn’t expect Aiden to stand up, too, then stride toward the door and swing it open. She hurried over. The last thing she wanted was for Bernard to be intimidated by Aiden.
She was a little bit relieved to find a security guard standing beside her housemate. But of course Bernard wouldn’t have known the pin number for the private elevator.
She smiled warmly. “Bernard, hi!”
He smiled warmly back. “Luna, I was starting to get worried about you.” He looked her up and down, his smile fading at seeing her wrapped in a bedsheet. “Are you okay?”
She felt Aiden’s burning stare swing between her and the other man. It was enough ammunition for her to crack the door open wider and say, “Of course! Why don’t you come in?”
He stepped inside, her bag in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. “If you’re sure.”
She put her arms around his neck and stepped in close for a hug. “Of course I’m sure.” She stepped back and turned a big, fake smile Aiden’s way, all too aware he was bristling. A delicious shiver went through her from her toes to her head and back again. “Only if Aiden doesn’t mind?”
“Why should I mind?” he asked with a scowl he didn’t bother to hide. “It will give me a chance to find out more about the woman I had in my bed last night.”’
Bernard’s face blanched, his green eyes glittering. “When you said there were things you needed to do, Luna, I wasn’t expecting...that.”
She sucked in a breath at Aiden’s audacity, then put a hand on Bernard’s shoulder, doing her best to reassure him. “I’m a grown woman, Bernard. I can make my own choices.”
“And I offered you the world!” he bit out.
She dropped her hand and stepped back. She’d thought he’d accepted they wouldn’t be more than friends after the mile high debacle. Clearly it’d been a mistake bringing him here. She glanced at Aiden. Or perhaps not. Aiden didn’t like this one bit, either. They were on his turf and going by his flashing eyes and flared nostrils he was clearly territorial.
“Well...thank you for the clothes,” she said, her voice detached. It was pointless trying to make him feel better when it was clear he wasn’t in a conciliatory mood.
“That’s all you’ve got to say?” Bernard asked. He dropped her bag next to her feet. “I thought you were better than this,” he added, sweeping out a hand.
Aiden stepped close and put a loose arm around her shoulders. “Who needs the world when a penthouse suite with a lover on tap is available twenty-four-seven—right, snufflecake?”
Snufflecake?
She sent him a scathing look, while inside a part of her laughed at his dry sense of humor. “Right.” She shrugged off his arm, all too quickly yearning for his possessive touch even as she stepped away from him and clasped Bernard’s free hand.
“I appreciate you bringing my clothes. I’ll be in touch, okay.”
Bernard looked from her to Aiden and back again. “If you say so,” he said stiffly. He handed her the bottle of wine. “You might as well celebrate with this.” Then stepping away from her, he pivoted and strode out the door without a backward glance.
Aiden shut the door, then turned to her and said smugly, “May the better man win.”
