And for the first time, I hope so too.
CHAPTER24
Rose
It’s been a week since the funeral. Time seems to slip through my fingers like sand. The days blur, almost all the same but so wildly different from what they were before.
Aiden and his brothers are all still grieving. They had time to prepare themselves for what was coming, since their mother had been in a vegetative state for months, so some part of them had already grieved her loss.
It’s not easier because of that. Just shorter, rougher. It hurts, I can tell. I see it in Aiden’s face.
Finn parties too hard. I know Aiden doesn’t approve, but the others seem to think that letting it out of his system is best for now. I’m not sure what to think. I can see how much Finn is hurting, how much of his behavior is driven by pain.
For the first time, I care about what happens to someone outside of just Aiden. I care because of Aiden. I care because I want his family to be safe, not just for them—for him.
And Aiden?
Things are good between us.
I’m not sure I would ever have expected this. I’m getting used to being in his house. I don’t miss the last step on the staircase. I don’t forget where to put books back in the library. I remember where to replace the knives in the kitchen.
I’m used to waking up next to Aiden in the morning and looking at his dark hair, his blue eyes when he wakes up. Blue like the morning sky.
I’m getting used to expecting the sex at night.
It’s intense, enough to wear us out and send us to sleep. It’s hot, sweaty, sometimes dirty. I’m getting more of what I never really looked for before.
I’m getting used to my clothes smelling like Aiden. I know how he likes his coffee, know the sugar he buys and where he keeps it.
I’ve seen the side of my soon-to-be-husband that he keeps closed off from most other people, and it makes everything seem more real. Our relationship, the impending wedding—it feels more true than it did before, more honest. Not just a business arrangement, but something else.
Aiden is still busy with the mafia. That won’t go away, I know that much. But he’s making time to be around, not like when he’d disappear for almost the entire day. He comes to me as much as he can, in more ways than one.
It’s like he’s making up for the time we missed out on, the days we would have spent together before Dmitri destroyed everything. Before the betrayal that rocked our worlds and the losses that changed us.
It’s strange to me sometimes, when I think about how far we’ve come since our first reunion back at the restaurant.
But still, I can’t help but be grateful for the change.
On Wednesday, I’m sitting in the library reading a romance novel by one of my favorite authors. Aiden already has a massive collection of books in his library, but ever since I admitted to him that I have a weakness for romance, he’s taken to buying me paperbacks and stocking the shelves with those as well.
I’m curled up on the large, plush chair near the desk, my legs tucked up on the seat cushion, when Aiden strides into the room. I look up at him, my entire body going on alert.
His presence has always had an effect on me, but now that things have changed between us, I feel like it’s even more intense. I’m aware of him in a way that feels almost supernatural, as if I can sense him before he even steps into a room.
Heat flashes through me like it always does as he looks over at me, our gazes locking. If I thought fucking him as many times as we have by now would get him out of my system, I was dead wrong. If anything, knowing how intense and good it can be between us only makes me crave that with him more.
Aiden walks closer to stand a few feet away from me, leaning lightly against his desk. He tilts his head when he looks at me, like he’s committing me to memory so he can paint me, and the intensity of his focus sends a shiver of pleasure up my spine.
“Would you like to go to the ballet? I’ll be attending this weekend with my brothers, and Jamie and Tristan.”
I blink, surprised. “Ballet? Your brothers?”
I can’t really fathom the image of a bunch of Irish mafia men at the ballet. That might be judgmental of me, but having met all of them, I still can’t fathom it.
Maybe they’re all hiding secrets.
Aiden laughs, as if he’s guessed the exact direction my thoughts just took. “Violet is dancing. She’s known us for years. She’s practically an honorary sister.”
