Chapter 30

(Aaron) 

I watch as Rylan just stares at me after I tell her that while I was posing for Charlie, all I thought of was her. It was her I saw standing in front of me, not Charlie. It was only ever her. 

The look on her face clearly tells me that she doesn’t believe me, so I grab her hand and lead her out of the pool room. I take her to my office so that I can show her what I mean. There is a box in my desk drawer that I intended to share with her at some point later in our relationship, but I feel there is a need for it today. 

“Why are we in here, Aaron? What lies are you going to tell me now?” 

“Do you really think so little of me, Rylan?” I ask as I pull the box out of the drawer. 

“I didn’t until you fed me all that bullshit about not sleeping with Charlie.” 

“It is the truth, whether you believe it or not. Here, look through this box. In there are all my keepsakes.” 

She sits on the sofa, then takes the box from me. I can tell she is reluctant to stay and do as I ask, but I am happy that she is. In that box are all the little things I have secretly collected over the years. Everything in there is about her.

“I know that right now you don’t have a lot of trust and faith in me after seeing that painting and hearing about Charlie. All I can ask is that you look through that box and then tell me what you think.” 

Rylan stares at me for a moment, then glances down at the box in her hand. It is an antique wooden box with her initials intricately carved in a mass of flowers and butterflies on the lid. I found a woodworking booth on one of my trips back home. I commissioned him to make this so I could keep all that stuff safer than in the old shoe box I was storing it in.

When she looks up at me, there is a shimmer of tears in her eyes. She opens her mouth to say something but closes it, then opens the box. A small gasp of surprise leaves her lips as she finds the picture of her under the lid.

“What is all this, Aaron?” 

“Look through it, and you tell me. I am going to leave you in here while I finish cleaning up outside. When you are done, come find me.” 

“Aaron...” 

I walk to her and place a soft kiss on the top of her head, then I leave her alone in my office. There were several ways tonight could have gone. I was hoping that she would have reacted differently, but given my history with women, I am not surprised she reacted this way.

Now I just have to prove to her that I only have eyes for her. Maybe tonight should be the night I tell her that I love her. I have loved her for years but have been too damaged to accept that she is what I need.

Rylan is all I have needed for years. 

After leaving Rylan in my office, I walk outside to where my grill is to gather up all my grilling tools so that I can clean them. When I am done cleaning, I head up to my room to change into some lounge pants and a black t-shirt. I leave my feet bare, then make my way back downstairs to check in on my girlfriend. 

It still gives me a little jolt to call her that. 

After all these years of wanting her but knowing that she deserves better, she still deserves better than me. I am too selfish to walk away from her completely. My heart beats for her alone. 

Rylan is mine, and no one else will ever have her now that we have crossed that line from friends to lovers.

With a heavy heart, I make my way back to my office. Rylan is sitting in the middle of my office, cross-legged on the floor. All around her are my keepsakes. 

Pictures of her, solo and group shots, and just small things that reminded me of her over the years. To some, it could all be considered creepy, but to me, it was always my way of keeping a bit of her with me when I kept pushing her away. I look at what she is holding in her hand as she glances up at me when I enter the room. 

A small smile tugs at my lips. 

It is a photo taken shortly after she joined our unit. Someone, I think it was Kimiko, had the idea of playing a game of soccer to pass the time. In that picture, Rylan is sweaty, sexy as hell, and smiling proudly as she had just scored the winning goal for our team. I took that picture from Mac when he got the film developed.

“Have you been collecting this stuff all these years?” 

“Pretty much since that game. I have added more over the years, little trinkets here and there, and, of course, the pictures.” I walk over to her so I can see what she has pulled out of the box. 

All around her are my mementos of time I spent with her or around her with other people. Articles from medical journals that were written about her achievements. Group photos from events we attended over the years. I particularly love the pictures from Quinn and Annie’s wedding. 

The dress she wore drove me crazy all through the wedding. I was a fool to turn her down when she propositioned me later that night. I did so to save her from my darkness. As it turns out, that was a wasted effort on my part. 

So much wasted time. 

I can never get back that time with her, but I can and will do everything I can to make up for it. 

“You kept this?” She puts the picture down, then picks up a tattered red ribbon. “How did you even get it after that party?” 

The ribbon was worn in her hair during an officer’s party. It was a wild night, and at some point, during the festivities, it fell out of her hair. I found it on the floor and slipped it into my pocket. 

“I found it on the floor after you left. It still smelled like your shampoo, so I kept it.” 

“Aaron ...” 

I reach down and pull her up off the floor. Once she is standing, I pull her flush against me, then tilt her chin up so she can see my eyes more clearly. “It was yours, so I kept it to remind me of how you looked that night. How you smiled, laughed, and danced in that carefree nature.” 

Rylan stares into my eyes for a long time before she nods her head. I assume she has made a decision, since she wraps her arms around my neck. My heart flutters in my chest when I see those damn tears again. 

“If you promise me that you didn’t sleep with Charlie, then I will believe you. We were not together then, and I slept with ...” 

I don’t let her finish that sentence and silence her with a soft kiss.

“Rylan, you are the only woman to have this.” I move one of her hands from around my neck and place it over my heart. “You have owned me, Rylan, since the day you strutted into that camp all those years ago. I was just too stuck in my own head to let you in.” 

Her lower lip quivers as a single tear slips down her cheek. I gently squeeze her hand as I stare into her beautiful blue eyes. With my free hand, I cupped her cheek and wiped the tears away.

“I will do anything to prove to you that I am all in with you.” 

She moves my hand off her face and places it over her heart. “This is yours too. It has always been. Even when I tried to move on, you have always been there, stamped across my heart.” 

“I love you.” We say it in unison. 

A breath of silence hangs in the air for a heartbeat before I lean down and gently kiss her lips. I keep the kiss light and tender. Soon it spins out of control and into the fiery passion that is all-consuming.

Rylan pulls away, grabs my hand, and then pulls me out of my office.

“Where are you taking me, my love?” I ask her once we were in the hallway. 

Her steps falter, and she spins around to look at me with shock on her face. “Say it again?” 

“What?” I frown. 

“Call me that again, Aaron.” 

I pull her closer to me, then kiss her lips softly. “You are my heart, my love.” 

She smiles at me, then gives me a smirk before she grabs my hand and continues to lead me to wherever she wants to go. I will gladly follow this woman anywhere. Although I am a tad worried after our earlier fight. 

When she pulls me back into the poolroom, I raise an eyebrow. I didn’t think she would want to see that painting again. She was quite angry with me and at what she saw. 

“Rylan, what are you up to?” 

“I want to recreate that scene.” She points at the painting. “I want to see that look on your face directed at only me this time. So, strip. Now.”

Oh my.

“Wait, I will be right back.”

She rushed from the room. While she is gone, I pull my shirt over my head. I cleared the chaise lounge for the show that was about to begin. When that is done, I calmly wait for Rylan to return.

(Rylan) 

I left Aaron in the poolroom to go fetch the black silk sheet off his bed. To me, that will make recreating that sexy as sin painting much better. I can honestly say that this Charlie woman is an incredibly talented artist.

She captured the very essence of the man I am madly in love with. Sex and sin are all rolled into one. The desire in his eyes angered me at first when I thought it was for her and not me. It hurt to think about them getting all sweaty together after the painting was finished. 

Part of me understands that I have no real right to be angry if he did sleep with Charlie. I was actively flirting with Heath and had a one-night stand with him while I was trying to get over Aaron. Yet the part that loves him was hurt just seeing that painting and what I thought it represented. 

Knowing he didn’t sleep with her makes me feel better about our future and more secure in his commitment to me. His need for total transparency is making me feel like we actually have a chance to make this relationship work. I know that goes both ways, so I will be an open book with him from now on. Not that I have any secrets, anyway. 

I pause in the hallway on my way back to the poolroom and place a hand over my heart as I smile widely. He told me that I was the woman who had ever captured his heart. Knowing Aaron, I believe him, and that makes me deliriously happy. 

When he told me he loved me, I wanted to yell that it was about time he admitted it out loud. 

With a laugh, I rush down the hall and to the stairs. By the time I make it back to the poolroom, I am very eager to get the rest of this evening started. I want that look of desire from the painting only for me. 

I come to a stop just inside the doorway. My heart flutters in my chest at the sight in front of me. Aaron has his back to the doorway, and his torso is bare for my eyes to devour. He is drool-worthy, and he is all mine. 

Those broad shoulders, narrow waist, and all those sexy muscles. Then there is all that ink. The tattoo on his back is a testament to his inner turmoil. The darkness is at war with the light. I love it. 

“Like what you see?” His voice is husky, and it sends shivers of desire straight to my core. 

When he turns to face me, I can feel the heat rushing to my face. He has his hands in the pockets of his lounge pants, which has caused them to pull low on his hips. I can see the v-line of his abs, and all I want to do is lick my way down all those hard muscles until I reach the waistline of his pants, then remove them so I can continue my way to his very impressive cock. 

His soft laugh makes me grip the silk sheet to keep from rushing to him and jumping him right now. I have a plan in my head, and his sexy ass will not distract me from it. Not until I am good and ready for stage two, at least. 

Hot sex on that chaise lounge is my final goal. 

I throw the sheet at him after he takes a step toward me. “Strip naked, then I want you on that chaise lounge with nothing but that sheet covering you. Just like it was in that painting.” 

“As you wish, my love.” 

He walks over to the lounger, then proceeds to do exactly as I asked. My breath hitches as he strips his pants off. All those toned muscles are rippling as he bends down to remove his pants. When he straightens back up, he sends a sultry look over his shoulders.

My panties are already soaked with my desire for this man, and I feel that if he keeps sending me those looks, I may go up in flames. I am starting to rethink this plan of mine, so I turn my back on him. If I keep watching, I may cave in and give in to the need that is rapidly rising within me. 

I hear the whisper of the silk sheet as he settles on the soft lounger. Knowing that he is naked beneath that sheet makes my pulse race in anticipation. My body craves this man just as much as my heart does.

“You can turn around now, Rylan.” His voice is low and darkly seductive.

Oh boy, I am in trouble, and I haven’t even turned around yet. The dark seduction in his voice swirls around me and heats my blood. Shivers of desire coil deep within me as I turn around to face him.

If the phrase sexy as sin needed an image to go with it, it would be what I am seeing right now. 

Aaron Carter is all mine to do with, as I wish.

I intend to do a lot right now.