Girl Next Door: The Complete Series Read online

  Aidan chucked. “You may have to marry me. I think you’re one of the few women who’d rather see The Expendables II than The Notebook.”

  My head snapped up. “There’s an Expendables II? When’s it coming out?”

  He shook his head and chuckled, but he didn’t answer my question. I decided to Google it later.

  It was after I asked my question that my brain processed the first part of Aidan’s statement. I gaped at him for a second, then focused on my shoes, not the m-word. I figured he was joking and decided not to read anything into it. Still, he ought to know better than to bring up the m-word with a woman he was sleeping with, casual or not. Women, even me, could and would start getting ideas about white picket fences and happily-ever-after. Aidan had made it pretty clear from the get-go that was not our future.

  However, later that week, on Friday night, I promised Cat I was all hers. Between our work schedules and me hooking up with Aidan so often, I hadn’t had enough time with my bestie.

  Cat, Michael, Amy, and I were meeting for sushi, then drinks at our favorite hole-in-the-wall pub. It was our usual version of Girls’ Night Out. We had a blast as we pigged out on sushi. Michael and Cat giggled as I gave them the highlights of the night Aidan and I went skinny dipping. Amy gaped at first, then grinned when I told her about my bet with Aidan, and how I’d lost.

  After dinner, we moved to the pub. The conversation became more outrageous with each drink consumed. After vodka cranberry number four, I gave them the low down on the best bubble bath ever. I ordered another vodka cranberry after I finished my story. I needed to cool down.

  Michael spoke first. “Girlie, I think you should keep that one on the hook.”

  “I second that,” Cat chimed in.

  I rolled my eyes. “Did you both forget that Aidan is a friend with benefits? This ‘relationship’,” I made quote marks in the air as I spoke, “has an expiration date and very little emotional attachment.”

  Amy, who had been listening intently to my story and this exchange, piped up. “Did you, or did you not, say that he has spent every night with you since Monday?”

  I nodded.

  She continued, “And, haven’t you been spending time together doing stuff besides having sex?”

  Again, I nodded. “But,” I said, “he is a friend with benefits. The definition of friend is someone you like and hang out with.”

  Amy laughed. “Whatever. I think you’re in denial.”

  “Me, too,” piped in Michael.

  Cat just smirked and I knew she was thinking the same thing.

  Again, I rolled my eyes, then focused a glare on Amy. It was time to change the subject.

  “Forget about me. I wanna hear about the new flavor-of-the-month.”

  Amy regaled us with stories of her latest conquest. Cat explained how her new “manfriend” turned out to be a dud, and Michael and I laughed at their outlandish stories. Through our crazy conversation, we each had a round of shots, then another. By eleven o’clock, we were all giggling like a bunch of preteen girls and none of us were capable of driving home. This was nothing new, so we all decided to call cabs. I was pulling out my phone when Michael looked over my shoulder to the entrance of the pub.

  “Oh, my,” he breathed. “Hottie on your six, Nat.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and froze. What the hell was Aidan doing here?

  “I texted him from your phone, Nat,” Cat stated.

  Damn, I must have asked that question out loud.

  “Why in the hell did you text him?”

  Cat laughed, and it was pure evil. Oh, man, she was fucking with me. I narrowed my eyes at her. I was so gonna get even.

  I was distracted from my machinations by a hot, callused hand sliding under my hair to cup my neck. Aidan had been touching me so much this week that he had me conditioned to get turned on as soon as he laid a finger on me. My thighs clenched and my nipples got hard. This was not good. Aidan was well on his way to ruining me for other men.

  I tilted my head back and smiled at Aidan. “Sorry Cat bothered you.”

  Aidan raised his eyebrows and looked surprised. “You texted me, Nat.”

  “No, actually, Cat did. She used my phone. I’m sorry you got dragged out here. We were about to call cabs.”

  I glared at Cat. Then, I rolled my head back and looked up at Aidan. I was definitely feeling no pain, so he was a little fuzzy.

  Aidan grinned at me. “No problem. I can take you home.”

  “Ok,” I said. No use arguing, I wanted to go home with him anyway.

  I said good-bye to my girls and best guy, gave hugs and kisses, paid my tab, and tottered out the door, holding onto Aidan’s arm.

  Aidan was grinning by the time he helped me into the truck.

  “How much did you drink, Natalie?

  I was struggling with my seatbelt and missed his grin widening when I replied, “Five vodka cranberries and two shooters called something nipples, or screaming orgasms. I can’t remember the name, I just remember it had something to do with sex, or boobs, or something.”

  I finally got my belt buckled as Aidan opened the driver side door to his Dodge pickup. He was chuckling and still wearing a shit-eating grin. I looked around and suddenly noticed how cluttered the cab was. Fast food wrappers, empty soda bottles, papers, pens, and assorted odds and ends were everywhere.

  “When’s the last time you cleaned out your truck, 1999 or something?” I shoved a pile of trash under my seat with my feet. “I hope you didn’t pick up girls in this thing. I may find one of them lost in the garbage piles behind the seat.”

  What can I say, alcohol encourages freedom of speech. Thankfully, Aidan found inebriated bluntness amusing rather than rude.

  He chuckled and answered, “This is my company truck. I take it to work sites and the office. My brother, Patrick, also drives it a lot. Unfortunately, he’s a slob.”

  I looked around me again. “No kidding,” I said.

  I was pretty quiet the rest of the way home, enjoying my buzz and the company. Aidan pulled into his garage and shut off the truck.

  The seatbelt was a lot less hassle going off than when I put it on. Aidan helped me out of the truck. I noticed a gorgeous deep blue Chevy Malibu. I loved American muscle, but I wasn’t so obsessed that I could tell the exact year model, but I was pretty sure it was late 1960’s.

  “Nice wheels,” I said.

  Aidan, again, looked surprised. “You know cars?”

  I lifted my hand and waggled it back and forth in a so-so motion.

  “I can tell make and model and general year range, but I wouldn’t trust me under the hood.” I swayed and ran the tips of my fingers across the front fender.

  “This Malibu is sweet. It’s a late 1960’s model, right?” I asked.

  Aidan was watching me intently, his eyes melting from hazel to gold. Oh, man, he was hot, and he was getting even hotter. Apparently, he liked that I was interested in cars, a lot.

  Suddenly, he was in my space, gripping my hips and backing me toward the car.

  “It’s a 1968 Chevy Malibu. Patrick and I worked on it together.”

  My ass bumped the front end, then he lifted me and planted me on the hood. My denim mini skirt rode up my hips and Aidan stepped between my legs. I was torn between excitement and concern about scratching the paint. When Aidan’s hands gripped my ass and pulled me to his front, I forgot about the car. My head tilted back as he leaned forward and our faces were almost touching. I blinked slowly. I lifted my hand and traced Aidan’s cheekbone with a fingertip. The bones in his face were sharply defined and, honestly, his bone structure was gorgeous.

  “You’re gorgeous,” I said. Again, the alcohol had destroyed the filter between my brain and my mouth, so I was just blurting out whatever I thought, willy nilly.

  Aidan’s eyes brightened and his mouth was on mine. I felt as though he was going to devour me, his kiss was so intense. It was as though he wanted to eat me alive. I returned the feeling. The k
iss went from hot to completely out of control.

  My hands were up his t-shirt and gliding over the smooth skin of his back. Aidan pulled away and yanked the shirt off. I nuzzled his neck, my lips and tongue tasting his skin. Suddenly, Aidan tugged me to my feet and hauled me into the house.

  “Why are we stopping?” I muttered in a daze.

  He pulled me through the kitchen to the living room, stopping in front of the couch.

  “We’re not. The car’s too short to fuck you on the hood. Plus, I don’t want to scratch the paint.”

  If I hadn’t been in a fog of lust, I would found his and my similar thoughts amusing. My mind stopped working completely when Aidan grabbed the hem of my shirt, whipped it over my head, and then made short work of removing my miniskirt. I was left standing in a matching deep purple bra and panties (I like my underwear to match, so sue me) and a pair of fuck-me strappy sandals with a four inch stiletto heel. If it was possible, the look on his face when he saw my underwear turned me on even more.

  Between the alcohol and the hormones, my inhibitions were nil. I shoved my panties down to my ankles, unhooked my bra, and kicked them both over to form a pile with my skirt and shirt. In nothing but my shoes, I moved into Aidan and tore the buckle and button on his jeans, shoving them and his underwear to the floor. He sat on the couch and removed his boots, socks, and the jeans I’d unbuttoned. As soon as he leaned back, very naked and very hot, I dropped to my knees on the carpet and proceeded to put my mouth and hands wherever I wanted, which was pretty much everywhere on his body.

  When I took him in my mouth, using my tongue and strong suction, he cursed and buried his hands in my hair. Usually, I could take or leave oral sex, from my partner or done to my partner, but with Aidan, I got into it. Probably because he never seemed to expect it or demand it. When I felt like taking him in my mouth, his obvious enjoyment made me hotter. That, and the fact that Aidan was a firm believer in reciprocity and seemed to think that any job worth doing was a job worth doing well. I could tell he was getting close as his thigh muscles became rock hard under my hands and his hips shifted with my movements. I moved faster, using my hand and sucking harder, but Aidan wasn’t having any of it. He jerked me up into his lap and then twisted us so I was under him on the couch and his mouth was on my nipple.

  “Hey!” I exclaimed. “I wasn’t done.”

  Aidan released my breast and muttered, “If you want to suck me off, do it later. Right now, I want to ride you.”

  “Okay.” That sounded good to me, too, so I wasn’t going to bicker.

  Aidan’s hand slid down between my legs. I shifted my hips and spread my legs wider when he cupped me, using my body to ask for more. He smiled and gave it to me. I rode his fingers, panting into his mouth, until I was almost to the edge.

  When Aidan pulled his hand away, I growled low in my throat. Now was not the time for teasing. I was about to share this with him, when I felt his cock exactly where I needed it. He slid into me and I gasped and arched my back. He felt huge and my body was struggling to adjust. Always the considerate lover, Aidan started slowly at first, then moved harder and faster, until I was moving under him, with him, gripping his torso with my thighs.

  “More,” I whispered.

  Aidan didn’t respond verbally. He grasped one of my legs, lifted it, and hooked it over his shoulder. With my calf on his shoulder, he was going deeper and hitting a spot inside of me that felt so good it almost hurt, but in the best possible way. Immediately, I felt the rushing tingles in my legs and lower back. I was going to come, and it was going to be amazing. I stared into Aidan’s eyes as the first wave hit me. As the orgasm overwhelmed me, our gazes stayed locked. I whimpered as my climax continued and Aidan ground against me. I realized he was coming, too, and I watched his face tighten and it was beautiful.

  As my body shivered in the aftermath, Aidan lowered my leg to his waist, leaned down, and tucked his face into my neck. His lips drifted across my neck and his hand lazily stroked my hip. I felt stickiness between my legs and froze.

  “Um, Aidan…did we forget something, as in a rubber?” I asked. I was on the pill, but we’d still been using condoms.

  He grunted and pulled back to look down at me.

  “You’re on the pill, right?”

  I nodded. “Still, there are things you or I could catch that do worse things than create a rug monkey.”

  Aidan smiled. “I get checked out at my yearly physical once a year, which was last month, my tests were clean and I haven’t slept with anyone since then.”

  I traced his collarbone, keeping my eyes on my finger. “I went for a blood test the week after I caught Jack trying to stick his tongue down Cat’s throat. I wasn’t sure if she was the first woman he’d tried that with, and I wanted to be safe. All my tests came back negative.”

  “Look at me, Nat,” he said.

  I lifted my eyes to his.

  “Since you’re on the pill, I’d prefer not to have anything between us. Do you have a problem with that?”

  I bit my lip and shook my head.

  He kissed me lightly. “Good.” He wrapped my legs around his waist and said, “Hold on.”

  “Why?” I asked. Still, I gripped him with my thighs and wrapped my arms around his neck.

  Aidan sat up with me, then pushed himself to his feet. I may have been short, but I had pretty decent muscles, so I weighed more than I looked. My tummy tightened at this show of strength. It was sexy to feel his muscles shifting under my hands and legs, and that he did all this without a grunt or becoming out of breath.

  “Where are we going?”

  He cupped my ass and headed toward the stairs. “We’re going to take a bath, then you can finish what you started earlier.”

  My legs tightened around his waist and I felt my special place quiver. I was pretty sure this would be another almost sleepless night. I was also pretty sure I didn’t care.

  The next morning I woke up on a groan. I was definitely hung over. It wasn’t exactly the hang over from hell, but it still wasn’t pretty. I lay in the bed, cataloguing various aches and the desert that was once my mouth. I wasn’t sure what had woken me, but I was very sure I would be going back to sleep immediately. I closed my eyes and burrowed deeper into the mattress. I sighed with contentment, letting myself drift away. The sound of the doorbell, followed by a loud pounding on the front door, had my eyes popping open, much to my chagrin. Oh, the light was not a good thing.

  The next thing that came to mind was that Jack was making another unannounced visit. I was in no shape to deal with him. Just as I thought this, I realized I wasn’t in my own room, in my own bed. Jack wouldn’t know the first thing about me being here. I also realized that Aidan was nowhere to be found. I waited a few seconds to see if he would open the door. The pounding continued and no Aidan. Groaning, I threw back the covers and dragged myself out of the bed. I stumbled to Aidan’s dresser, dug around until I found a pair of boxer briefs shoved in the back of a drawer. I was already wearing a huge tee that belonged to Aidan, and I yanked the boxer briefs up. They were a little baggy but they stayed on.

  The jerk at the door was now alternating between leaning on the doorbell and beating on the door. I glanced at the clock before I headed out of the bedroom. It wasn’t even nine a.m. on a Saturday. Who the hell showed up unannounced on a Saturday? I stumbled to the stairs at the end of the hall, managed to make it down the steps without breaking my neck, and made my way to the front door. I was too tired, cranky, and hung over to think to check the peephole, or I would have known better than to open it.

  I threw the door open and winced at the bright sunlight. Standing there, fist raised, was a bright-eyed, and sexily dressed, Ms. Endless Legs, a.k.a Anya. Her eyebrows went up as her hand unclenched and went to her side. She looked me over with an expression of shock. Oh, I was not in the mood to deal with this.

  I leaned against the door jamb and crossed my arms across my chest.

  “Yes?” I drawled.
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br />   Ms. Endless Legs actually had the gall to look me over and look disapproving. I was already prepared to slam the door in her face and she hadn’t even spoken.

  “Is Aidan here?” she asked.

  “No.”

  She waited a beat. “Do you know when he’ll be back?”

  “No.”

  She stuck out her hand. “I’m Anya. And you are?”

  I was raised with manners, so I couldn’t ignore the hand, even though I wanted to. I shook her hand briefly. “I’m Natalie York. I live next door.”

  She looked surprised, but also not too bitchy, which made me wonder if she was really as bad as Aidan had led me to believe. “Well,” she began, “I just wanted to drop by and let him know I wouldn’t need his help moving out of Patrick’s apartment. We worked things out.”

  Her smile seemed pretty sincere and sweet.

  I smiled back. “I’ll be sure to tell him.”

  She hesitated but spoke anyway. “I hate to pry, but how long have you and Aidan been seeing each other?”

  This turn was making me a little wary. “A little over a week.”

  Anya smiled and laughed a little. “Wow, Aidan works fast. Well, I hope I see you around, Nat. You seem nicer than the other women he’s dated. Maybe we’ll be sisters-in-law.” She paused. “It was nice to meet you, Nat. Bye.”

  Anya turned and strutted down the walk. She opened her car door, looked back at me, and waved. I watched her climb in and drive off before I shut the front door. I moved slowly to Aidan’s living room, gathered my clothes and purse. I wrote Aidan a short note, telling him I would see him later, and went out the back door, locking it behind me. I crept out his back yard and to my back gate. I used my spare key, which was hidden on the bottom of the mat. Literally, I kept the key attached to the underside of the door mat. I knew most people might leave a key under a mat, but mine was attached to the mat. I figured most would-be thieves wouldn’t bother to flip the mat completely over and inspect the bottom. So far, I seemed to have been right.

  So, I unlocked my back door and went into the house. Though I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go back to bed, I knew there was no way I could go back to sleep now. I started a pot of coffee, but decided to shower while it brewed. I also threw back a couple of over-the-counter pain meds.