Touched (The Untouched Trilogy #2)(16)
I hung up and walked out of my office. I was heading down the hall as I sent a quick text to April updating her on the latest and asking if she’d heard from Dane’s wife.
I wasn’t looking where I was going and bumped into Aiden, dropping my phone.
“Note to self. Don’t text and walk,” I said, as he passed the phone back to me.
“Everything okay?” Aiden asked.
“Yes, why wouldn’t it be?” I asked.
“I don’t know. You tell me. Who was on that call?”
“That’s none of your business Aiden.” I replied, and moved past him in search of Raina.
*****
I had a few more minutes before my meeting. I called April since she hadn’t returned my text.
She answered on the third ring. “Hello.”
“Hi, April. Did you get my text?”
“Yes, I was planning to call you later,” she replied.
“Are you okay? You don’t sound like yourself?”
“Yes, I’m fine. What’s up?”
“It can wait. Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
“Aria, it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“Well you can tell me anyway.”
She sighed. “It’s Blaine.”
“I thought things were going well with you two,” I said, confused.
“They were until his girlfriend appeared.”
“Girlfriend? I didn’t think he was dating anyone.”
“They were having issues when he and I met so she never came up in our conversations. Things sort of just grew into something with us. Then his girlfriend … well you know how it is when the other person senses that you’re no longer interested ...”
“So she reached out to try to fix things with him when she saw he was slipping away. So what does that mean for the two of you?”
“It means we’re pretty much done. He wants us to remain friends but he’s trying to work things out with her.”
“What the f*ck?”
“I know right. They’d been in a relationship for three years so I can understand that he wanted to exhaust every effort before throwing in the towel.”
“I’m sorry April.”
“Thanks but no harm; no foul. It was only a couple of months and knowing me, I would have found a way to end it anyway.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Over the next few weeks, I hadn’t heard a peep from Aiden. Going MIA was obviously his M.O. I should’ve been relieved and part of me was but the other part wondered. Why did he make such grand gestures and then nothing? His extended silence was for my own good I suppose; it allowed me to manage the disarray he’d left behind and oddly enough I was starting to heal, thanks in part to Kellan. He was escorting me to the gala that was to benefit the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was the first charity event in my new capacity as CEO.
I no longer wondered as much about Aiden but there were days when my thoughts of him lingered more than I cared for. Today was one of those days.
He was expected to attend the event this evening but there was a last minute modification to his schedule; therefore, his appearance was still in question. I hoped that whatever was keeping him away persisted. It’s sometimes easier to abstain when what you want to shy away from is nowhere in sight. That was especially true in regards to Aiden.
I’d prepared a short but heart-felt speech that I was quite anxious to deliver to the benefactors and other attendees. However, my preparation could very well be a moot point if Aiden graced us with his appearance. I didn’t want to be caught off guard so I’d asked Raina to check in with Brooklyn but she was unable to confirm his attendance. Guess only time would tell.
I jumped out of the shower and sat at the vanity to do something with my hair. After a few moments of lifting and sweeping it from one side to the other, I’d decided on a strawberry swirl; which would accentuate my neck given the cut of the dress I’d be wearing. I swept my hair to one side and tied it into a low ponytail, twisted it towards the end and folded it back against my head. I tugged on a few strands for light separation and pinned it into place then smoothed the fringed section and took a smaller section to twist and wrap around the larger fringed strand and secured it with bobby pins. I tucked the ends of the fringed section into a floral bun and I was done. I surveyed my work and smiled at my small feat.
I glanced at my phone and noticed that it was nearly time for us to leave. Kellan had slept in one of my guest rooms because the hotel in which he was booked had lost his reservation. When he arrived late last night he wasn’t in a position to coordinate with his company’s travel assistant so he’d called asking for hotel references and I’d offered to let him stay at my place.
We’d only shared a short kiss up to this point and as much as I thoroughly enjoyed sex, Kellan and I had yet to broach that area. Much to my surprise I enjoyed spending time with Kellan despite the absence of the physical and Virginia was apparently just as content. She’d barely made an appearance since Aiden. It would seem that both of us were learning to play it safe or maybe both of us only lusted for that one person that turned our worlds inside out.
Sex with Aiden had been intense; it was like receiving a concentrated dose of endorphins. When his skin touched mine, I completely lost all sense of self and gravitated to another place deep in my psyche, a place where he was the master and I was the student … and I didn’t resurface until he released me … and that release came in the form of orgasm after orgasm, each one more extreme than the last.