Chapter Thirty-Seven
Weeks pass and with each passing day, I wander deeper into Aiden’s maze.
It’s not bad. It’s just… surreal.
Everyone has demons. Aiden’s are just darker and meaner.
It takes a lot to get used to his mindfuckery and manipulative streak. It takes a lot to see past the façade and into his true image.
For one, Aiden is the jealous type. When we sit for lunch, his teammates try to keep all contact to a minimum. All except for the three horsemen — especially Xander. I swear he doesn’t have any sense of self-preservation.
The three of them are actually fun to hang out with. They’re the only people around Aiden who aren’t scared of him and who don’t bow down to his royal decrees like the rest of RES.
Aiden carries my books as we get out of the library. A few students stop and murmur about us in the hallway, but I’m starting to get used to the attention.
His phone vibrates and since he has his hands filled with books, I sigh and retrieve it from his back pocket for him. “I can carry my own books, you know.”
He arches a teasing eyebrow. “If you do, you won’t touch me inappropriately at school like now.”
“Stop it.” I remove my hand from his trousers with heated cheeks. It’s a jab at me because last week after practice, I snuck with him to a dark corner near the locker rooms. At that time, I only meant to kiss him. That kiss ended up with me against the wall and him pounding inside me and muffling my screams with a hand to my mouth.
My body tingles in remembrance. There’s something about having sex with him. It’s never enough.
His lips quirk in that infuriating smile. “What? You’re thinking about it.”
I shake my head and my eyes fall on the screen of his phone. What the…?
It’s locked but since it’s a text, I’m able to see it.
Jaxon: Thanks for the tickets, son. Go, Gunners.
It can be a different Jaxon who also loves Arsenal and is thanking Aiden for the tickets.
But it’s very unlikely.
I stop at the corner of the hallway and thrust the phone in Aiden’s face. “Since when are you communicating with Uncle behind my back?”
“You make it sound like some sort of a conspiracy.”
“Are you telling me it isn’t?”
“It isn’t. He loves Arsenal, and I have backstage tickets.”
I narrow my eyes. “Stop trying to take my family away.”
“I’m only being a good sport so he’d approve of me.”
Uncle approves of him all right. While Aunt is still sceptical and continues reminding me that my studies come first, Uncle is all over Aiden whenever he drives me home. He even invites him for dinners and breakfasts with us.
And since Aiden is opportunistic, he jumps all over any invitation he gets. If I’m not lying to myself, I’d admit that having him in my space is fun.
Kim says he’s making an effort for me, and maybe she’s right.
I’m just scared that if I let go completely, he’ll swallow me whole.
That’s why I haven’t attempted to make what we have official.
We’re exclusive, but we’re not really dating in the conventional term.
“You’re incurable,” I huff.
Still holding the books, Aiden backs me up so my shoulder blades hit the wall. He lowers his head until his warm breath draws shivers on my skin. His voice is low and raspy when he says, “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to have you, sweetheart.”
“Nothing?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
The thought should be scary, but I’m feeling anything but scared right now. I tiptoe and plant a chaste kiss on his cheek. Before he can deepen it, I duck and escape.
There’s no way I’d let him kiss me in the school’s hallways.
I’m giggling as I run down the hall. My head collides against a torso. I fall on my arse and pain explodes in my hipbone.
Ow.
Adam looks down at me with a glare. “Watch where you’re going.”
He throws one last malicious stare before he stalks off.
I stand up and dust off my skirt just in time for Aiden to catch up with me.
One look at me and his playful expression disappears. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” If Aiden knows, he’ll do something unpredictable and I really don’t want any trouble now.
Not when both of us need a clean record to get into Cambridge and Oxford.
“By the way,” he says. “You still haven’t come to one of my games.”
He keeps reminding me of that fact. It’s silly, really, but I want to keep some things from him. Like not going to his games. Not following him back on Instagram — although I stalk it all the time.
I feel like those little things will keep me dependant.
I check my watch. “I have an appointment with my doctor.”
He narrows his eyes. “I’ll pick you up after practice.”
I suppress a nervous smile and nod. Today, we’re watching the Champions League game in his house with the guys.
Kim agreed to join us, and I hugged her until she called me a creep.
It’s the first time I’m going to Aiden’s house.
He’s always eating at my house, sneaking into my room, and spending nights in my bed when Aunt and Uncle are caught up in work.
What’s so hard about going to his palace-like house and meeting his father, the mighty Jonathan King?
Nothing… right?