Chapter Seven
That evening, comfortably ensconced in a soft leather chair in his hotel suite, Aidan stared blankly at the thank-you card. It was ten, and he had had one hell of a day. The war scenes, so crucial to the movie, were taking their toll physically. His exhaustion was bone deep, but he wouldn’t sleep unless he spoke to Beth.
He shook his head. All he had done was show her around the set, and she had taken time to write a lovely note, something no one else had ever done. It was so old-fashioned and polite, and so very like Beth. He was more touched than he cared to admit. He could just imagine her warring with herself about including her home phone number on the card. Hoping he wasn’t about to wake her, he placed the call.
Hello?” a soft voice murmured
“Did I wake you, luv?” Aidan smiled as her confusion clearing made it through the phone line.
“No, I was just—Aidan?”
“Yeah.” He curled more comfortably in his chair and took a quick sip of his whiskey.
“How are you? Did you have a nice day at work?” Bethany asked. He visualized her seated on her bed, her sheets raised to her chin in an unconscious desire for protection. The thought made him smile.
“That I did, luv, and it was hard work, but then I’m more than compensated for that.” Finishing off his whiskey, he placed the glass down.
“I’m sorry, did you need something?”
“No, I just wanted to thank you for the card.”
“You’re thanking me for the thank-you card?”
Aidan laughed. “A bit redundant, right? But it was very lovely of you to do that.”
“Well, you took time off from your only free day to show two fans around the set. I was very grateful,” she said primly, which seemed to tug at his lust even more.
“You allowed a virtual stranger to stay at your house, twice. I think we can call us, at very least, even.”
“Well, that seems fair, I guess. How can you hear after all that cannon fire? I would have a raging headache.”
Aidan smiled but attempted to change the subject. “Are we going to talk about the kiss, or do you want to pretend it didn’t happen?”
“Oh. Well, sure, if you want to talk about it, that’s fine with me.”
“Tell me something, luv, did you enjoy the kiss?”
“Wow, you don’t beat around the bush, do you? Of course, I did. You’re a great kisser, Mr. Shannon.”
Aidan grinned. “Why, thank you, Ms. Michaels. You are a very sweet kisser. You taste like candy and woman, a very nice combination.”
Aidan heard a light sigh from her side of the line. “Why do I feel like I am out of my league with you, Aidan? I mean, seriously out of my league—like I walked into an evening dress formal in sweatpants and a tuxedo T-shirt.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’m just a man.”
“Yeah, right.” She snorted.
“I don’t want you to think of me like other people do, Beth. I like it that you treat me like a regular bloke. It’s important to me.” And that was more truth than he normally shared with someone he hardly knew.
“I know how important it is to feel comfortable with people—to feel a connection. Aidan, I’m sorry, but where are you going with all this?”
“I want to kiss you more.”
“Really? I mean, I’m sure there are women lining down the block to…”
“You. I want to kiss you more.”
“Just kissing?”
“Of course not. But I want to start with more kissing.”
“You are so straightforward. It is rather startling. So, like serious kissing?”
“For now. I would never force you to do anything, luv.”
“That never occurred to me.”
Aidan grinned again. This woman delighted him. “So, serious kissing. Tongues, fondling, like that.”
“That’s more than kissing.”
He agreed. “It’s a kiss to build a dream on.”
“Seriously?”
Aidan smiled but tried to add as much seriousness as he could to his voice. “I think you’re beautiful, Beth. And I would love to spend more time kissing you.”
Bethany laughed, and he visualized her shaking her head at him. He enjoyed the sound as he raised his bare feet onto the coffee table.
“So, Beth, I’m not one for sweet words, and this might sound ruder than I intend it to sound, but I would like to be with you while I’m here in town. Sleep with you, understand?”
She was quiet for so long he was worried he had insulted her. And then her soft voice asked, “Why, Aidan? There must be hundreds of girls you could sleep with in town.”
He decided to be honest since she kept bringing it up. “Sure, hundreds if not more. The problem is that I’m not sure they would taste as good as you do.”
Beth was quiet again. He could imagine her weighing his proposal and struggling with her morality.
Aidan stood and sighed. A girl like Beth deserved fairy tales and ever after. Unfortunately, he did not have that to give. Honesty might not help get her into bed, but he felt compelled nonetheless. “Look, sweetheart, I am not offering a true romance, understand? I just recently signed my divorce papers. My life is not happy right now. I just thought we could help each other keep the loneliness at bay while I’m filming.”
Aidan sat back down and waited for her response. It annoyed him how very much he wanted her to say yes to his proposition.
“You are asking me to have a short term affair with you? To basically keep your bed warm while you’re here?” Bethany asked, her voice sounding a bit heated.
“That is what I’m offering, luv. You don’t have to answer now, but—” Aidan began.
“I want to do it, Aidan,” Bethany interrupted, “but I have two conditions.”
Aidan sighed. Of course, she had conditions, why hadn’t he expected that? All women want something, after all. But he had a feeling she would be worth some jewelry or a first-class trip somewhere.
“What are they, luv?”
“I want this to be between you and me. I’m not going to tell anyone, not even my friend Michelle.”
Aidan’s jaw dropped in shock. Most women would love to show him off to their friends, like some prize. His ex-wife, Paula, waltzed him around like a show pony. He expected, at the very least, to go around town clearly indicating they were an item. Aidan got up to pour himself another bit of whiskey. Would she continually surprise him?
“The other condition is that we don’t do a lot of sharing.”
“But, Beth, my plan is for us to do plenty of sharing,” Aidan murmured seductively.
Beth sucked in her breath, and he knew instinctively that they would be amazing bed partners.
“No, not that kind of sharing,” she said, “I mean I don’t want to talk a lot.”
“You’re becoming more like my fantasy every minute,” Aidan teased. “But seriously, why don’t you want to talk a lot? I feel that you and I would get on quite well in and out of bed.”
“I feel that way too, but I don’t enjoy talking about my life, or myself, and I have to know that you will respect my wishes. This is important to me, Aidan.”
“Sweetheart, if those are your only requests, then you have a deal.” The pain he saw etched on her face that night as she cried in her dreams was a secret. He’d get her to talk about her past; most people found comfort in sharing their personal pain. He was pretty sure she would tell him sooner than later about her life.
“Will we be sleeping together?” Bethany asked.
“As often as I can make that possible, yes.”
He could sense her blushing from across the line. “No, I mean sleeping.”
“Are you asking if I’m going to leave after we make love?”
“Yes.”
“No, Beth. I don’t like sleeping alone.”
Bethany was quiet for a minute, and then she whispered, “This is going to be fun, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely, luv.” Her sexy little voice brought his full erection to legendary status. “Now, go back to sleep, we’ll talk in the morning.” As Aidan hung up, he had the distinct feeling he was in for more trouble than he could handle with this small-town girl. Sighing, he got up to take a cold shower.
****
Bethany whistled softly as she sat in her darkened room. Aidan made her feel restless and excited. With one sexy look, he had created tension in her that her most recent boyfriend, Mike, couldn’t have hoped to duplicate. But Mike had been a mediocre boyfriend at best. He had been obsessed with work as he concentrated on moving up the ladder in an insurance company.
Mike had constantly criticized her when she read books on writing, saying, “You should focus on your career and quit dreaming of being an author.” In the end, he had been so seldom in her life that when she broke it off, her life barely changed. Now she had a chance to dance with a bad boy, and she meant to perfect every step.
The following day, Bethany was shelving books in the chemistry section—or rather, removing all the Henry Miller and Judy Blume books from the chemistry section—when she sensed someone’s presence behind her.
“Are you ready for me?” came the voice that had haunted her all night.
“Certainly not, I’m working,” Bethany said as she turned around and delivered her most imposing “librarian” frown at Aidan.
He smiled and gently rubbed the back of one finger down her face. “I can see you’re working, sweetheart. You know what else I see? I see no one in the library right now but you and me.”
“Be that as it may—” Bethany began, in full lecture mode.
Aidan appeared disinclined to listen, as he stopped her comment with his mouth. His kiss was slow and darkly seductive as he wrapped her snugly in his arms. He pressed her against the wall, and paused as he murmured, “Like the sweetest candy.” Then he licked her lips and went back to his kiss.
Dear God in heaven, he was a good kisser. Bethany clung to him as she surrendered herself to his darkly seductive will. His greatest gift as a kisser was that he didn’t only employ his mouth and tongue when his lips met hers but rubbed his body against hers as he made love to her mouth. His kiss made a promise that his body would deliver, of that there was no doubt.
“Well, Beth, I think we’ll get on just fine, don’t you?” Aidan murmured.
“What?” Beth asked. Where was that buzzing sound coming from? Oh my God, was it her ears? Had he kissed her so strongly that her ears were buzzing?
Aidan smiled, and she thought she heard the words “what a darling,” but the buzzing was affecting her capacity to hear.
“Beth?” Aidan asked, pulling her chin upward to look at him. “Did you hear me, luv?”
“Sorry, no. I think you kissed my ability to hear away.”
Aidan laughed, gave her a big hug, and said, “There’s a party tonight for the cast. Would you like to come?”
“Aidan,” she said, attempting to remove herself from his firm embrace and enticing scent. Her subtle give me some space hint was ignored, as he brought his warm body back into alignment with hers. He placed a warm hand on her bottom and began to nibble on her neck. Oh God. She was melting.
“I really meant it when I said I wanted this to be between the two of us,” she said weakly, as she attempted to remove his kneading hand from her bottom.
“I know you did, luv. But what you have to understand is that no one there will care a whit who you are, and I would really like you to be there.” Aidan placed a stinging kiss under her ear and then licked away the mark.
“All right, I’ll go to your party,” Bethany said in a daze. Good Lord, she acquiesced quickly. Her head was swimming. What in blazes was going on? She was having a distinctly chemical reaction to this man’s kisses. “But let’s not stay long, okay?”
Aidan looked at her, his eyes filled with promise. “No, luv, we’ll only stay as long as we wish. I need to be inside you, and I won’t have patience for much frivolous chatter.”
Aidan kissed her goodbye, and Bethany spent the rest of the day in a haze, so much so that Michelle became worried about her health.
“You must be sick, honey, you never act like this.”
Bethany sighed, Michelle was right. She was half falling in love with Aidan. She could not let that happen. Once the movie was done, she would be old news, and Aidan would be after someone new. He had said as much. He hadn’t lied, nor tried to deceive her or romance her into thinking this relationship was anything more than two lonely people spending a short time together. This experience was far removed from anything she had ever contemplated. She was taking a leap, and there was a huge chance she could be hurt, but she had to try to experience what life offered her. After all, she knew how short life could be, and she would not have regrets.
Right now, life was recommending that she engage in a hot affair. It all seemed so naughty, something Bethany would never do. But she felt so brazen in Aidan’s arms, so very not prim and proper. That thought lightened her spirits and made her grin. Bethany Michaels, slut extraordinaire.
At the end of the workday, Michelle advised Bethany to drink plenty of water and said if she didn’t feel better after the weekend, she should stay home. “The library can survive a few days without you.”
Bethany cringed, and waved to her friend as she walked to her car. She hated to lie to Michelle, but this was too private even for best friends. How would it look anyway, trying to explain that she was about to embark on a short-term sexual affair with a movie star?
Bethany was halfway home when she practically screamed out loud. What could she possibly wear to a Hollywood party? Quickly grabbing her cell phone, she maneuvered her car to the side and dialed Aidan.