Touched (The Untouched Trilogy #2)(49)

“So you’ve been depriving me of your skills all this time?” I asked.

“I can’t agree with that, Princess. The skills that keep you interested are never hidden from you.”

“So you think it’s the sex that keeps me here?” I asked, teasingly.

“Hmmmm…yeah,” he replied, laughing.

“It feels so good to laugh with you again. I didn’t think this would ever happen,” I said.

“I knew it would. I knew it wouldn’t be easy and I didn’t know how long we’d be apart, but I always knew we’d find our way back,” he said.

“I’m curious. Why did your family go along with the Aiden Wyatt charade?” I asked.

“It was an attempt to appease me. I haven’t been as eager to take on this role as my father would have liked. We bump heads over it … always have.”

“Then why do it?” I asked.

“I do what is expected of me Aria,” he said, his tone impassive.

“Even if it makes you miserable?” I asked.

“What makes you think I’m miserable?”

“You just don’t seem to enjoy it. And if you fight your father on it, it’s pretty evident, to me at least, that you don’t want it.”

“It’s not that simple Aria.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t really go to school for those degrees due to any passion for either of them. I thought that maybe, just maybe, if my father saw that I had a noble profession, that I was helping people, actually making a difference in their lives, that he would release me from what he thought of as my family obligation. It didn’t work out that way. He saw something in me at a very early age and he harnessed it. He wanted me to take the reins of the company one day. The f*cked part of this is that you’re right, I don’t enjoy this, but I’m good at it. Even more so than he; he even said as much.”

He’s sacrificing himself for his family. I didn’t know whether to hug him or cry for him. I could sense he didn’t want to say anymore.

“You’re delaying the inevitable. You’re not going to win,” he taunted.

“You’ve been so accommodating with me and my family so I wanted to do a little something nice for you.”

“Whatever Aria. I won because I’m the better player. Admit it.”

“Never,” I replied, and made my last move, the one that ended it all.

“Check mate,” he said, tossing my queen aside.

“When did you know you wanted this with me? Was it after the ballet?” I asked.

“I knew I was in trouble long before that,” he said.

“Trouble? Me? I think you have that confused, but I’ll bite. When?”

“The night I took you to Seducente.”

I didn’t quite know how to take that. “Are you saying that my submission –”

“No, it was actually when we came back to your place afterwards ... when we were in the bath together.”

That night had opened my eyes to quite a few things, about him and myself.

“It was the first time you let your guard down. You gave me a glimpse of you. But I later got the sense that you regretted that. Did you?”

“Yes, I did. It was confusing for me. I couldn’t figure out why I was so comfortable with you.”

“I was comfortable with you also. And I knew you had a genuine interest in me. It wasn’t for my money or my family, just me. Even now, you’re interested in the person behind the name. That doesn’t happen very often.”

He sounded remorseful. I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be him, even for a day. I saw the look in his eyes and for the first time I could see why he wanted to escape the Raine name. I felt bad for him. “You were and still are an enigma.”

“Oh I am?” he asked.

“Yes, you are and you know it,” I replied.

“I could say the same of you,” he said.

“Perhaps, but that’s a mode of protection for me, as I can now see that it is for you,” I said.

“I know what you’ve been through; I know why you felt the need to protect yourself from me. But you don’t have to do that anymore,” he said.

“Watching Mom slowly slip away everyday ... it caused me to make a lot of poor decisions, I guess.”

“All of those decisions made you who you are. I like who you are.”

“Why are you so good with me?”

“It’s easy. You’re every man’s fantasy of what a woman should be.”

I wasn’t whole. I was broken. And looking into his eyes, I knew that he realized that just as much as I did. But for some reason he still wanted me.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN

We were at my condo. It was my first time back in my place since the funeral. I showed the girls to their rooms and was surprised to see that they had been decorated to fit their temperament and the closets and drawers were filled. This was Aiden’s touch. He really did think of everything.

He was still in Boston despite my repeated attempts to alleviate his concerns. He had put off his responsibilities long enough to console me. When we left the penthouse, I could see the worry in his eyes. He didn’t think I was ready. And to be honest I was worried as well. How was I going to become the person that I needed to be for my sisters while I also provided the comfort that we all needed? He agreed to allow us some time alone to get settled before he came over.