Final Call (The Call #2) (18 page)

I turn to him. “Why?
How could you hate this?”

He crosses the pod to
me and brushes the backs of his fingers down my cheeks. “I spent
the whole time thinking of you and how much you would have loved to
have seen it. I spent the whole time wondering what it would be
like to hold you in my arms and stare out at the city with you the
way we did at the top of the Eiffel Tower.”

I take a step to the
side, into his hold, and relax into the familiar way his arms wrap
around my waist from behind. “Now you can find out.”

His lips brush my
forehead. “Finally. I can finally take you to all the places I
thought I saw you in and do everything I wanted to all those years
ago. But most importantly, I can take you home at the end of every
single day and know you’re not going anywhere.”

I can’t bring myself to
respond to it. I don’t know if I’m ready for that, no matter how
natural it feels. It doesn’t matter that we’ve barely spent a night
apart the whole time we’ve been together—that’s a final thing I
can’t commit to. Not until the past is fully behind us.

“This is beautiful,” I
whisper, changing the direction of the conversation.

And it is. London,
stretched out before me, completely uninterrupted. Lights upon
lights in winding patterns of crazy interconnecting streets. I can
see everywhere. There’s Camden and Soho and Piccadilly. The
colorful lights of Piccadilly Circus are perhaps some of the
brightest I can see despite how small they are from our place in
the sky.

It’s beautiful. More
beautiful than I imagined it would be, and far more beautiful than
it would be had I seen all of this from the ground. The bird’s-eye
view is breathtaking.

“I haven’t been on this
since,” Aaron says softly into my ear, brushing his nose against my
cheek.

“Really? How many times
have you been here?”

“More than I care to
count. I could never come back on here though. I was always too
afraid it would make me think of you. It’s exactly why, whenever I
went to Paris, all I really did was work. I haven’t been up the
Tower since the day you left.”

I wet my lips. “Do you
think we’ll ever go back?”

Aaron spins me in his
arms and looks down at me, his eyes full of raw emotion that
reaches out and takes hold of every part of my body. “I will take
you anywhere you want to go, whenever you want to go. I can do
that, and I will. All you have to do is ask me, Dayton. I’ll never
say no to anything that will make you happy.”

“But Paris seems to be
both a blessing and a curse to our relationship.” I run my thumb
along his jaw, his stubble lightly scratching it. “Twice it’s made
us and twice it’s broken us.”

Aaron brings his hands
from my back to my face and tilts my head back so my eyes are on
his. He looks at me with a scary kind of certainty, the hold of his
gaze too strong to even consider looking away.

“Dayton, nothing can
break us. It can crack us, but it can’t break us. What you
feel—what I feel—is far too strong for anything to tear it apart.
If it weren’t, neither of us would be here. We would have been able
to walk away and forget everything we’ve shared. This isn’t two
people clinging on to the past and what might have been. This is
two people propelled into the here and now
because
of the
past, and it’s them looking to what could be in the future. There
isn’t a day that passes that I don’t think of my life with you. And
every thought makes me more determined to have it.” He covers my
mouth with his in a warm, honest kiss that sends tingles through my
body to my toes. “The next time we go to Paris, I promise you,
we’ll be leaving stronger than ever.”

I gaze at him with
wide, wet eyes. “You promise?” My words are a whisper.

“I promise. There’s a
reason they say the third time’s a charm.”

“Maybe we just needed a
couple of tries before we got it right.”

Aaron smiles, one that
lights up his whole face and brings a sparkle to his eyes. “And
this time, it won’t go wrong, sweetheart. I won’t let it.”

I squeeze my eyes shut
as he takes my mouth again and wish. I wish for him to be right. I
wish and hope that this time it won’t, that this time it will be
the kind of perfect we’ve been holding out for. The kind of perfect
little girls dream of after watching too many Disney movies and,
later, too many chick-flick movies where the guy always wins the
girl.

But the threat nudges
at the back of my mind, and I know that, if we have any chance of
making it this time, it’s going to cost me.

Chapter
Sixteen

I slip my hand into
Aaron’s and curl my other around his arm, leaning into his side. He
smiles down at me and kisses the top of my head, pulling me into
the hustle and bustle of Camden market.

It’s not the kind of
place I ever imagined him to go. With its endless stalls of vintage
clothing, designers no one knows, and knickknacks, it doesn’t fit
in with his M.O. Oxford Street? Yes. A thousand times, yes. Camden
market? Never.

There are people
everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I push myself right into Aaron
to avoid being shoved from every direction. He shakes my hands off
his arm and wraps it around my waist, curling me right into
him.

It doesn’t make a bit
of difference, but I definitely prefer it. The warmth from the sun
beating down on us is nothing compared to the warmth that emanates
from his body.

“You surprise me.”

Aaron leans down and
speaks over the various levels of chatter around us. “Why?”

“I was expecting you to
whisk me off to a ridiculously expensive store and force me into a
fitting room like you did in Italy.”

“Do you want me
to?”

“Hell no.” I laugh.
“Nice try though, Mr. Stone.”

“Perhaps. Although we
will be going somewhere later where I intend to spend a lot of
money on you.”

I look at him from the
corner of my eyes. “Where?”

“There’s no need to
sound so suspicious. I can guarantee it’s a place you’ll be
completely at home in.”

“Where?”

He taps my hip. “You’re
a little small without heels. Do you know that?”

I smack his stomach.
“Aaron! Don’t change the subject! And I am not short.”

His lips spread into a
grin. “I know, but you’re a good few inches shorter.”

“This isn’t the
conversation we’re having. I want to know where you’re taking me
later. And I want to know now.”

“Is that a demand, Miss
Black?”

“It’s a requirement I
know, Mr. Stone. Or I’m not walking another step.” I stop and put
some extra oomph into stamping my foot down.

Aaron chuckles quietly
and stands in front of me. I put my hands on my hips and stare him
down.

“God, you’re sexy when
you get that fire in your eyes,” he murmurs huskily, cupping my
chin.

“Don’t try and seduce
me.”

“I thought you didn’t
get seduced.”

I run my finger down
his chest. “Don’t play dumb with me, baby. Now tell me.”

His blue eyes bore into
mine for a long moment, and he sighs. “Come on. We’ll go now.”

That’s not telling
me.
Still, I let him link his fingers through mine and tug me
after him and back to the car. He pulls out his cell and informs
someone that we’ll be there early as we drive through the streets,
and I press myself against the window, trying to work out where
we’re going.

“Oxford Street?” I
squeak. “You said no Oxford Street.”

“Incorrect. I said no
ridiculously expensive store. This time,” he adds under his breath.
“The store I’m taking you to is here.”

I narrow my eyes and
grab my purse before slamming the car door. Aaron takes it from my
hand and throws it back into the car.

“You won’t need that,
Dayton.”

“I might want it.”

“Don’t be so fucking
difficult. You don’t need it. Want it or not. Now move your sexy
little ass or I’ll be forced to haul you down this street over my
shoulder.”

“Is that a demand?”

He spins me so
forcefully that I fall into his hard body. “You’re pushing it,
woman. Move. Now.”

I smirk. “I don’t know
where I’m going. Remember?”

“You’re sure earning
that spanking. I’ll tell you that much.” He flattens his hand on my
back and forces me forward. I smile to myself as he steers me to
wherever we’re going.

I take in each
storefront as we stroll down the iconic street. I recognize hardly
any of them—and I especially don’t recognize the one we stop in
front of.

But I do recognize what
it sells.

“You’re bringing me to
buy lingerie?”

Aaron places his mouth
by my ear. “And the whole store is yours for one hour.”

I raise an eyebrow.
“You think one hour in a lingerie store is enough? Oh, baby. You
have a lot to learn.”

He pushes the door open
and we step inside the empty store. One wall is covered in baby
dolls and chemises, one with bras and panties, and another holds a
doorway to a section at the back labeled “18+ only.”

Well, it doesn’t take a
genius to work out that that’s where the toys are.

The bright colors
assault my senses and a streak of excitement fizzles through my
body. Lingerie shopping is my favorite thing ever, but in a store
I’ve never been in? This is a whole new level of heaven.

“Go wild,” Aaron
whispers in my ear, lightly squeezing my ass.

I walk to the wall of
bras and trail my fingers across a few different styles. T-shirt,
balconette, push-up… There’s lace and frills and trims, and oh,
God. I can’t.

I turn back to Aaron
and shake my head.

He raises his eyebrows.
“I’m not taking no for an answer.”

I shake my head again.
“I can’t. I don’t know if you realize how financially destructive I
am in this environment.”

He walks to me and
pulls me close. “It doesn’t matter. One day, everything I own will
be yours, so you might as well spend it now.”

My breath catches. “You
have to get me to move in with you before anything remotely close
to that happens.”

He smirks and puts his
hands on my shoulders. He turns me so I’m facing the underwear
again. “For the record, I like that turquoise bra with the black
lace. And the matching panties. They have my mind spinning with all
the ways I could take you out of them.” His lips brush my earlobe.
“Just in case you were so inclined.”

I look at the set he’s
picked out and my heart flutters a little. So it’s pretty. Really
pretty, actually. And it would look good on me. And it would
replace the turquoise set I have to throw out.

I make a sound
somewhere between excitement and defeat and hold my hand out. “Get
me a basket.”

Aaron releases me and
hands me one. I skim through the hangers until I find one in my
size and grab the bottoms to match. I prod Aaron in the chest.

“You better make it
good, Mr. Stone. Real fucking good.”

My hair flicks over my
shoulder as I turn away from him again and peruse the underwear.
Damn him. He knows how to work me and manipulate me into doing what
he wants. Not that I need much convincing in a store like this, but
I’d really rather be handing over my card at the end of it.

Soon enough, I’ve
exhausted the bra-and-panties section and I’m swapping baskets with
Aaron. He hands me an empty one with a smug smirk curving his lips
and takes the full one. He sets it on a chair next to the register
and combs through it.

“What are you doing?” I
pause, holding a red basque in front of me.

“You didn’t think I’d
let you buy anything without prior approval, did you?”

I raise an eyebrow.
“Well, don’t let me stop you from combing through my choice of
underwear yet again.”

He laughs at my subtle
dig. “Dayton?”

My eyes find his.

“Put that in the
basket.”

I check the tag. “It’s
a lot of money for something that will just come off.”

His eyes darken. “That
one won’t be coming off.”

A quiet cough comes
from beside him, and I flick my eyes to the woman behind the
register. She’s in her mid-forties, at a guess, and there’s a light
flush on her cheeks.

“Mr. and Mrs. Stone.
Can I help you at all?” Her crisp British accent doesn’t betray her
embarrassment at having walked in on our conversation.

My eyebrows take up
residence somewhere behind my hairline.
Mrs. Stone?

“We’re not married,” I
correct her politely. “Much to Mr. Stone’s chagrin.”

He gives me a look that
says I’ll regret that later.

“Oh, I’m ever so
sorry.” She places a hand on her chest. “That’s what one gets for
assuming.”

“It’s okay.” I smile.
“I doubt you’ll be the last to.”

She returns my smile.
“Can I help you in any way?”

“Hmm…” My eyes find the
tiny strings I saw Aaron eying contemplatively earlier. I pick up
the white one beneath a matching basque and show her it. “Do you
have this in any other colors?”

Aaron clears his throat
and shifts when I look at him.

“We do. They’re just
over here.” She waves me over and shows me a section of the wall
with the exact pair of panties in an array of colors.

“Well,” I say, glancing
back at Aaron and grabbing a couple of them, “would you look at
that?”

***

“I warned you.”

“Do I look like I’m
remotely bothered about the amount of money that just cost me? I
love spoiling you.”

“Aaron, you and I both
know that lingerie isn’t exactly spoiling me. You get far more
pleasure from it than I do.”

He pulls my feet onto
his lap and massages them. “But in the end, we both get the
pleasure, so does it really matter?”

I lean my head against
the seat and smile. “I suppose not.”