Reclaimed (Powell Sanctuary #5)

Chapter 20

20

Isla

Steam billows out behind me from the bath. Cool air hits my ankles as I step out into the hall with only a towel wrapped tight across my breasts. Not that it matters after what we just finished. I’d prance around naked if the air wasn’t so chilly. I’m afraid my nipples might fall off if I drop this towel.

The door at the end of the hall is ajar, a gold light streaming out from the crack. The smile on my face freezes the second I step over the threshold, and it has nothing to do with how delicious Aiden looks lying in his bed. He has his left arm cocked, the bicep a tight ball and the back of his head resting on his hand in the pillows. The light gray duvet is bunched low on his hips. His adonis belt draws my attention for only a moment before I return my gaze to what’s in his hand.

My mouth dries suddenly because he’s reading one of my baby books. By the amount of pages in each hand, he’s been reading it for a while.

“Hey, how was your bath?” He smiles softly and tosses a bookmark into the crease.

“How long have you been reading that?” I climb onto my knees atop the bed, the knot of the towel secure in my fist.

“A few weeks now.” A blush stains his cheeks.

My mind works over the dates. He must have started reading it right after the secret was out. I lick my lips. “Anything interesting?”

“Probably nothing you don’t already know.”

“I actually haven’t been reading them as much as I should have.”

He lays his right arm flat against the bed. “Come here, starshine.”

I release the towel and wiggle my way beneath the blanket and into his arm. His smile sends warmth through me as he rolls me tight against his torso. My breasts smash against his bare chest, and the swell of my growing baby bump presses against his naked side.

“Did you know you’re not supposed to eat lunch meat without heating it up first?”

I wrinkle my nose. “No. But I don’t like the stuff anyway.”

“Good. It can contain a bacteria that’s dangerous to you and the baby.”

The news sends adrenaline into my system. Suddenly invested, I whisper, “What else?”

“It says here…” He draws his finger across the page and then pauses. “Wait. I just put it together. This is why you drink decaf.”

I sigh wistfully. “Yeah. That’s one rule I knew about, and after a quick internet search, it seemed like it’s best to avoid it all together.”

His blue eyes find mine from the corner of his eyes. “You’re going to be such a good mom,” he murmurs.

My heartrate ticks up. “Why?”

“Because you care. You’re already making sacrifices. I can only imagine how attentive you’ll be once the baby is here.”

I slip my hand beneath the duvet and settle it on my bump. “I’m just trying to do my best. We already have some odds stacked against us.”

“How so?”

“I’m not exactly wealthy. And I’m a stripper. I can only imagine what the other preschool moms will think.”

“Babe.” Aiden smiles. “You’re just proving my point.”

“I see nothing wrong with my concerns.”

“You’re about five years too early to be thinking about preschool moms.”

“Well maybe the nurses at the hospital will judge me.”

“Whitney will take care of them.” His soft, kind smile deflates my apprehension some.

“What if the baby doesn’t like having me as a mom?” My lower lip wobbles. “What if I embarrass them?”

Aiden grips my chin in his index finger and thumb. His gaze is serious. “Impossible.”

I study his lips, the thought of kissing him filling me with so much warmth that I lean forward and do just that. The feel of his tender kiss erases some of my irrational fears.

“What was that for?” he murmurs, eyes still closed.

“You’re being too nice.”

“I could be nicer, if that’s what it gets me.” One half of his lips tip up.

I scoot my pillow closer and lie back down with my head on his shoulder. “No, no. This is nice enough.”

Our attention returns to the book in Aiden’s hands. He flips the page.

“Have you felt any kicks yet? It says here by nineteen weeks you might be able to, but some women mistake them for gas.”

“How do you know I’m nineteen weeks?”

He taps his temple. “Math, starshine. I’ve been keeping count.”

I’m struck speechless by how attentive he is. It takes a moment for me to formulate a response. “I haven’t yet. At least none that I recognized as movement.”

“Week nineteen. Your baby is about the size of an heirloom tomato.” Aiden flips the book upside down on his torso and holds his hands in the air with his thumbs and index fingers forming a large circle. “About this big.”

“I sure feel like I’ve grown a lot more than that over the last five months.”

“You’re creating a new life. Your baby needs room to grow.”

“They sure do.”

Aiden crooks his elbow and tucks his left arm back behind his head. “Have you scheduled your twenty-week ultrasound?”

“It’s next Wednesday. I’ll have my visit with the doctor after.”

“Good. Are you going to find out the gender?”

“I think so. I need to know what clothes to stock up on.”

“What’s wrong with gender neutral?”

I frown. “It’s not the colors, Aiden. It’s about style. I need to know if I’m buying dresses and bows or tee shirts with little trucks on them. My baby will rock brown, green, and yellow.”

“I don’t doubt it. They’re going to rock brown, green, and yellow all over the place.” He makes a face. It takes me a minute to catch on that he’s joking about diapers, and I laugh so hard I snort.

“Ugh,” I groan, covering my eyes. “I’m not ready for that.”

Aiden turns his head on the pillow and laughs lightly. “It won’t be so bad.”

“How would you know?”

“You think I haven’t changed a few dirty diapers in my time? When Ollie was a baby, I bent his legs back to wipe his butt and he fired mustard-yellow poop across the wall like a little BB gun.”

His story makes me snort again.

“So you’re saying I can call you when I need an extra pair of hands?”

His eyes seem to flash. “Keep me on speed dial, starshine.”

Aiden tucks his bookmark back into the book and rolls over to place it on his bedside table. Just like when we were staying in my house, the two of us have been sleeping together in his bed. This is just the first night he’s left the book out after he’s read it. Seeing it on his side, clearly more than a piece of decoration, sends my stomach swooping with emotion.

The click of the lamp plunges us into darkness. Aiden’s skin against mine is warm and thrilling. I splay my palm on his chest. His heart thunders beneath my hand.

“Are you nervous?” The darkness requires a soft murmur.

Aiden quietly hums a laugh. “This is another first.”

“Because we’re naked?”

“I’ve never slept with anyone. Not in my bed. Not naked. Not just sleeping. Only with you.” The raspy confession lingers after he’s finished.

A thrill races through me. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“How did you stay a virgin for so long?”

“Well, starshine.” He rolls into me and kisses me long and sweet. “I didn’t find anyone worthy of having sex with.”

My heart enters into a free-fall. “I mean, I know the mechanics, Aiden. I’m asking why.”

He kisses the tip of my nose and falls back onto his back. “I know. It’s not exactly warm pillow talk material.”

“I don’t need every conversation sanitized. I’m capable of listening to some raw truths.”

“Do you have some raw truths?”

I prop myself up on an elbow in my pillow. “I haven’t spoken to my parents since I moved out after high school, but a part of me still wants to name this baby after my dad if it’s a boy.”

His thumb skates across my cheekbone in the dark. “That’s a pretty raw truth.”

“Your turn.”

“From the ages of zero to nine, I grew up with loving parents. Not only did they love me, but it was obvious even to my childish eyes how much they loved each other. I remember that last summer my dad and I were building a deck. I mean, I was denting the wood every time I missed a nail, but you get the picture. He let me help.”

His chest rises and sinks with a slow, deep breath. “My mom was hanging freshly washed sheets on the line. Dad, god was he ever a goner, he looked over at my mom and just stared. I remember he stared for a long time so I asked him, “Dad, how do I get a wife someday?” And he said, “You wait, Aiden. I want you to wait for the one who makes you feel like you’re invincible. Because if you do it right, you’ll only have to find her once.”

Aiden clears his throat. “I didn’t know what the hell he meant at that age, and I don’t know why he said it, but I looked up to him so I took those words to heart. Two months later they were both killed in a car accident on their way home from dinner.”

Sorrow tightens my throat. “I’m so sorry.”

Aiden speaks his raw truths into the darkness. “I was sent to live with my dad’s brother. And for about a month, I thought it would be okay. He seemed nice. At least, he pretended to be.”

I find his forearm atop the duvet and grab his wrist. “You don’t have to tell me anything else.”

He flips our hands and laces his fingers firm with mine. The tight grip holds me to him like a lifeline. The pillow rustles as he turns his face to mine in the dark. “I want to,” he rasps.

I wrap my arm around his waist, anchoring him to me as he continues.

“He was a drunk. Spent nearly every night at the bar and more often than not, he brought home a woman. The house was small and in poor condition, so I could hear them through the walls. Sometimes they’d still be there in the morning and the way he’d look at them was so unlike any expression I ever saw on my father’s face. I was confused.”

His swallow is loud in the silence.

“For three years, I endured the scraps of food and the worn-out clothes. I later learned he used my parents’ estate to support his drinking problem while I went without. One morning, I walked out on my way to school and found him hurting one of the women he brought home. And I snapped. Got right in the middle of it and while she was able to crawl away, I took the brunt of his attack.”

“Aiden,” I gasp, covering my mouth too slow to dampen the sound.

“I never went back. Skipped school that day and started walking. By the time Nancy found me, I could hardly see, my eyes were so swollen. As I grew up, and hormones kicked in, I tried. Believe me, I tried to have a normal experience but I was always held back by the fear that I didn’t want to grow up to be just like him. I wanted to be like my dad.”

“You are nothing like that man. I hope you know that.”

“I do now.” He squeezes my hand. “I built it up into such a big thing in my head that the few times I tried, I couldn’t even get hard. After a while, I stopped trying.”

Emotion clogs my throat as I think of the broken little boy who grew up and just wanted what his parents had, but was too afraid to find it.

“But not with you.” He kisses my knuckles. “You broke the spell.”