Chapter 38

(\*Aaron\*) 

I watch from the corner of my eye as Rylan reaches a hand up to touch the necklace I bought her. This is the third time she has done that since we entered the building and got on the elevator. I know she is nervous to meet Charlie, and I am just as nervous as she is, but for a very different reason. 

My girlfriend is about to meet someone who could very well be her long-lost sister. If my theory is correct, then tonight will be very interesting indeed. I will stay by Rylan’s side all evening to make sure she is having a good time. 

“Hey, look at me.” I say to Rylan as I turn her to face me.  

Her blue eyes meet mine, and I see more than just nervousness on her face. There is a glimmer of anger and something else. Why is she angry at me?  

“You are angry. Why?” 

She scoffs at me. “Are you really that dense, Aaron? You want me to meet the woman you slept with in London. The very woman who painted that very erotic painting of you. Why would I not be angry?”  

I sigh and step back. Now I am angry that no matter what I say to her about what didn’t happen in London, she won’t believe me. I thought she believed me, but now I know she doesn’t. 

“Alright, I thought you believed me and were fine with meeting her. Now I know that I was wrong, and you will never trust me. We can leave.”  

Rylan frowns. “I do trust you.”  

“No, you don’t. Not completely, at least. If you did, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all. I get it. My past is full of sex with random women. Charlie was never one of them. Despite what that fucking painting alludes to, I never slept with her. Is this how it will go every time a woman from my past shows up? Did I or didn’t I fuck her?”  

“Can you blame me for wondering?”  

“Yes, I can, Rylan. Because you knew about my past, and you still pursued me. You knew all about my whorish ways for years. I honestly thought you were with me because you loved me for who I am. My past is just that, in the past. Can you live with that, or will we continue to have issues like this?”  

“My feelings are just as valid as yours, Aaron.”  

“I am not saying that they are not, but what I am saying is that you being angry and jealous about something that never fucking happened is pissing me off. I did nothing wrong here. All I wanted was for my girlfriend, the woman I love, by the way, to meet someone who has become a good friend of mine.”  

Rylan looks away from me. 

I suddenly feel like a selfish jackass. With a heavy sigh, I turn away from her to face the doors. We have three more floors to go until we reach the gallery. I am tempted to push the lobby button and just go home. 

The night started great, but quickly went downhill the minute we got in the elevator, and I opened my big mouth.  

“Aaron,” Rylan whispers my name like a plea. 

I glance over at her with a questioning look on my face. “Rylan.” 

“The idea of meeting someone whom you slept with is hard for me. I saw that painting, and I feel the way I do for a reason. It was intimate and erotic, like you two were lovers. You telling me that nothing happened is very hard to believe. Not with what I saw in that painting.”  

Then there is nothing more to say here. She doesn’t trust my word. There is no going forward from here, if that is the case. 

“Well then, I guess we are at a stalemate. I am telling you the truth, and you don’t believe me. There is only one other person who can confirm my story.” I give an ironic laugh. “At this point, I doubt you will believe her, either.” 

“Aaron, I want to believe you. Part of me even understands that it happened before we were a couple and that I should not be jealous or angry about it. However, I can’t get past what I saw with my own eyes in that painting.”  

With an angry growl, I slam my hand on the emergency stop button, then spin to face her. This is it. It is time to lay all my cards on the table once again. 

“The intimacy you saw was not at all how you interpreted it. I told you that when I showed you the painting. I should have just kept that fucking painting in the box it came in and never showed it to you. Had I known it would have caused this much drama, I would have.”  

Rylan looks at me, blinking back tears. My heart hurts that I am making her cry, but I don’t stop. She needs to hear this and understand it. 

“When Charlie asked if she could paint me, I declined at first. Then she told me to think of the one woman that I want most in my life. When I did what she asked, she smiled and said that whoever that woman was, she was a very lucky lady. Then she told me to think of what I wanted to do to that woman. So, I did.”  

I paused to look at Rylan. Her eyes are narrowed at me like she wants to pick another fight. I sigh, then continue to tell her what I thought about while Charlie painted me. Something I tried to tell her the night I revealed the painting to her.  

“The entire time she painted me, I talked about you. All I thought about was you. The look on my face in that painting was me thinking about stripping you naked, licking every inch of your body, then sinking into you as I made love to you for the first time.”  

I watch as her eyes widen in surprise. 

“Then, when Charlie was done painting for the day, I went into the bathroom as she cleaned up. I rubbed one out, thinking of you and only you. This went on for three days. She would ask me to think of you; we would talk about you as she painted, then I rubbed one out in the shower while thinking of you. Believe me or not, that is the truth.”  

With that, I pulled the stop button and turned my back on her.  

“If that is the truth, then she must be a saint for not taking advantage of your heightened sexual state. I am finding that hard to believe. No woman in her right mind would pass that up if given the chance.”  

I say nothing as the elevator ascends to the top floor of the building. When the doors open, I hold my hand out for Rylan to take it. Relief floods me when she does. With one last look at her, I step out of the elevator and into the gallery.  

Rylan squeezes my hand as we walk into the crowd. There are people in flashy clothes everywhere. I know from what Charlie told me that there are two other artists on display tonight. I scan the crowd for the three other familiar faces and smile when I find Quinn and Annie.  

Quinn is standing behind Annie, where she is sitting on a bar stool next to a small round table. She raises her hand in the air as she spots us and waves us over. Rylan is already tugging on my hand to lead me there. 

There is tension between us still, so I just let her pull me across the room to our friends. Right now, all I want to do is find a quiet place to talk to my girlfriend until she believes everything I said in the elevator. However, I know that isn’t going to happen now that we are here.  

“Ahh, there you are. This place is buzzing with activity.” Quinn says when we stop at their table. 

I look around at all the people milling about. Some are looking at the artwork on the walls or the sculptures on the ground or on plinths for everyone to see. Others are just standing around talking and drinking expensive champagne. All the while, soft music streams from hidden speakers. 

“Hey there,” Annora smiles at me as I lean in to press a kiss to her cheek. “How have you been?”  

There is concern in her eyes when I lean back. It is sweet of her to worry about me. I give her a smile but shake my head to indicate to her that I don’t want to talk about that here.  

“We can catch up later.”  

“Alright. Rylan, come with me to find the ladies’ room, please.”  

I watch as Annie slides off the bar stool and the two women link arms before they walk off. I only look away once they are out of sight. When I look back at Quinn, there is a questioning look on his face.  

“You two seem... off tonight.” 

“She doesn’t believe that I never slept with Charlie.”  

“Then I will have to talk to her,” Charlie says from behind me. 

(\*Rylan\*) 

The minute I spotted Annora, some of the tension in my shoulders eased a bit. When she asked me to accompany her to the ladies’ room, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I have never wanted to get away from someone as fast as I did Aaron. 

Our conversation in the elevator is running through my head as I walk next to Annie on our way to the restroom. 

My inability to believe Aaron about Charlie is going to be a problem. No, it already is a problem. One that is on me, not him. 

He made a very valid point—well, several actually, but the jealousy issue is the one that stuck with me the most.  

I knew how he was, and I still pursued him. I was relentless in my pursuit, and now I can’t seem to handle the thought of him with other women. Jealousy is not something that I am used to, and I really don’t like it at all.  

“So, how have you been?” Annora asks when we walk into the restroom. There is a smile on her face as she asks. “How are things going with you and Aaron?”  

I hesitate, which causes her to look at me with concern before she walks into one of the bathroom stalls. I look under the other two stalls to see if there is anyone else in here with us. When I see that we are alone, I let out a heavy sigh.  

“How did you get past Quinn’s history with all those women he was with?”  

Annora is silent for a moment, then just when I think she isn’t going to answer me, she speaks softly. 

“He is more than his past. It bothered me a lot at first, especially with Dionne being all up in our faces.” She stops talking, and I hear the toilet flush. She comes out of the stall a minute later. “Why are you asking me this?”  

One thing comes to mind as soon as she asks that question. One woman, to be exact. Charlie. 

“Once Dionne was out of the picture, did things get easier?”  

“Yes, it did, but now and then, I still get a tad jealous. I mean, have you ever really just looked at Quinn? What is going on with you and Aaron?'“  

“Has Quinn told you anything about the women Aaron met in London?”  

“Charlotte. Yes, Quinn told me what Aaron told him. This is her showing, too. Why?” Annora lowers herself onto one of the lounge chairs in the small waiting room. “Is there more to their friendship than what he told Quinn?”  

Friendship? 

Really? 

That is the story Aaron told his best friend? If he told Quinn that he didn’t sleep with Charlie, then that means that he was telling me the truth. Now I feel like an insecure and jealous harpy. 

“Is this about the sexy painting I have heard about?” Annora asks me as she rubs her belly. 

I look at her in complete surprise. Well, what was I expecting here? Quinn is his best friend, after all. I nod my head, then walk over to sit next to her.  

“It was very, and I mean very, seductive.” I describe the painting to her in as much detail as possible. 

I can feel my skin flushing with arousal as I envision the painting again for what feels like the hundredth time since the night he showed it to me. If he thought of me like he said, then I can understand the need to self-satisfy the way he did. 

“Holy shit, that sounds extremely hot. I wonder if I can get her to paint Quinn like that,” Annora says with a laugh.  

“I jumped to conclusions, Annie. The way he described Charlie made me jealous. Then he showed me that painting. Anyone that looks at it will think what I did. That the artist was painting her lover. It was just so... “  

“Sexually intimate?” 

“Yes, and I didn’t believe him when he told me that they never slept together. He claims that she showed up to his room as agreed on in the bet made with her husband, and all they did was talk. Have you ever known Aaron spend hours just talking to a woman he wanted to sleep with?” I put heaving emphasis on ‘talking’.  

Annora tilts her head like she is thinking. “Honestly, I can’t really answer that. When I met him, we were only eighteen. What I can tell you is that I have never known Aaron to lie. Not to anyone but himself, anyway. By that, I mean that he pushed you away and denied how he felt about you.”  

She reaches for my hand and smiles at me.  

“If you love him like you say you do, then you need to trust him.”  

“I trust him with my life.”  

“But do you trust him with your heart, Rylan? That is what you are afraid of, isn’t it? That after all this time you guys are finally together, and you are afraid of getting your heart broken.”  

That is exactly what I am afraid of, so I only nod my head.  

“When Hurricane Quinn came back into my life, that was what I feared too. My love for him scared me. His past made me jealous, too. One day, I decided to just take a leap of faith. We loved each other and already had a daughter. Can you take that same leap of faith with Aaron?”  

Take a leap of faith in the man I have loved for years. Go all in and accept his past for what it is. In the past, like he tells me it is. 

Can I trust him not to break my heart?