Slowly, seemingly trying not to draw attention to what we both just experienced, she pulls away from me and straightens to a sitting position.
"Sorry, I guess I fell asleep," she murmurs, reaching for her shirt at the end of the bed.
Wanting to lighten the mood—and not wanting to acknowledge the fact that we very obviously just overstepped our clearly-defined friends-with-benefits boundaries—I force a grin onto my face. "There's that ego-boost again. Did I fuck you into a dick coma?"
She rolls her eyes, relaxing slightly, but still not entirely. I can read her thoughts from a mile away, and I know she's worried this is becoming too affectionate.
It takes me a second to figure out how to put her mind at ease, but when I do, it feels like the right thing to do. I could probably benefit from some distance, too.
"I'm going to be busier now with the fight coming up, so I probably won't see you as much," I tell her, standing and starting to pull on my own clothes.
At that, she really does relax. Like I've finally appeased her that last night didn't magically make me catch feelings. That we can keep going on as we have.
"You going to be okay without 24/7 access to Little Aiden?" I tease with a grin.
She shakes her head, a smile tugging at her lips. "I've never met a guy who felt comfortable calling his dick 'little.' Leave it to you to be arrogant enough to pull it off."
"I'd be happy to show you again just how ironic that nickname is," I murmur, reaching forward to fist my hand in the front of her shirt and pull her against my chest. When I start to run my lips along her neck, I feel a happy shiver run through her before she braces her hands on my hips.
"So cocky," she says, but she sounds breathless.
But then she pushes away and reaches for her pants on the floor. "I have to get going. I’m hoping I've got another assignment coming in tomorrow, so I have some editing I need to finish before that happens. I might be traveling this week, so the timing works out well for your fight camp." She shoots me a hesitant look before saying, "I'll just… see you when I see you, I guess."
I give her a stiff nod. I really want to kiss her goodbye, but something tells me that's not the kind of period I want to put on the end of this interaction.
So instead, I lean forward and quickly nip at her neck.
"Sounds good to me. I'll walk you out." Then I spin her toward the door and smack her ass.
And as I follow her out, reveling in the sound of her laugh, I let out a breath of relief that we're back on solid ground.
Not because I didn’t enjoy waking up with her in my arms, but because I finally feel like I’m in a comfortable friends stage with Dani, and the last thing I want to do is put any distance between us.
I want to keep her around for a little longer.
12
AIDEN
As it seems to be happening lately, it only takes me two days to start missing her enough to want to call her. And then another two days before I give into the urge and actually do it.
But when I call her, she declines it on the first ring. Which tells me she’s working. And if I wasn’t so stressed about the last time I saw her—and second-guessing the distance I think she was trying to put between us—it would be easy to fight the urge to call her again. I’d tell myself that I don’t do double texts, or double calls, because I don’t like pushing anyone to give me their attention. Except, I’m finding it harder and harder to care about how desperate I might seem.
Which means twenty minutes later, I’m walking into the dive bar and hoping Dani is ignoring my calls because she’s busy beating off drunk college students with a bat. Yet it only takes me a second to realize she’s not here.
Part of me wants to wish that's because the bar is empty and I could see it, but the truth is, the bar is packed. I know she's not here because I canfeelit.
But I'm not ready to analyze what that means, so even though I already have my answer, I still spend a minute stretching my neck and looking behind the bar and toward the entrance to the kitchen.
I sigh and start to leave the way I came in, but then the older woman behind the bar catches my eye, and I realize she's been watching me look around. And when she jerks her head toward the back, indicating I should meet her over there, I'm moving before I can even question it.
I give her a quick look-over as she steps through the Employees Only door ahead of me. She's a beautiful woman, with a no-nonsense air about her that tells me she's probably the owner—or at least the one that handles rowdy bar patrons around here. She's clearly older in age but only because I can see the deep smile lines around her eyes and mouth; right away I can tell she's been living a good—and likely exciting—life.
I can tell she's exactly the kind of woman my Dani would be drawn to.
"You Aiden?" she asks without preamble, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms over her chest.
I nod mutely.She knows who I am?