Love Me? The Trust Me? Trilogy (25 page)

"Do you think someone is playing a prank on us?" I say.

He looks at the red ribbon around its neck, and there's a note attached. Aiden shakes his head. "This is getting weird." He opens the typed note.

Just for you, Jeni <3

He hands it to me, and I read the note.

"She must have taken my key card."

Aiden quickly pulls out his phone. "Mike, can we get the security footage up here from the parking garage facing the elevators? Excellent, can you bring it up here as soon as possible please? We've had an unexpected visitor. Yes, we're both fine. See you soon." He hangs up the phone.

"This is a bit scary."

He kisses my forehead. "Mike is coming up. You might want to change." He slowly looks me up and down staring at my black, lacy, see-through negligee.

I put on my robe, wrapping the string around my stomach tightly and walk back out into the living room where Aiden is scrutinizing the teddy bear.

"Find anything else?"

"Yeah, this eye looks a little strange." He pulls it hard, and the eye comes out. There's a miniature video recorder attached to it.

"Oh, hell no!" He throws it to the floor and stomps on it. "This is
fucked
up!"

The elevator chimes and Mike comes in with the footage from the camera outside the parking garage elevator. Aiden shows Mike what he found hidden in the teddy bear. Mike looks at me curiously while I stand in the background with my arms wrapped around myself. This is crazy. Now someone is trying to spy on us. What the hell? This Josie girl must be completely nuts.

Mike puts the DVD into the laptop. Aiden fast-forwards. We see various people coming and going.

"Stop, pause it there. Who. Is. That?" Aiden asks.

We move the tape along a little farther, and a dark shadow walks up to the elevator. The person is wearing all black, including a hoodie, and has sunglasses on to cover their face. The figure could be either a man or woman.

"Nothing, we have nothing." Aiden runs his fingers through his hair then he starts to pace. We continue to watch as the figure puts the teddy bear in the elevator and then runs away.

"I don't like this," I say.

Aiden rushes over to me while I still stand in the background.

"Baby, you have nothing to be afraid of. I'm here, and I won't let anything happen to you."

"I know, but why is she doing this?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know, but it has to stop, now. Mike, can you take this to the police station and report it for me? I'm going to the security company to change our scanner over with different key cards. Jeni, now do you see why you can't lose your card?"

He's making me feel like an errant child, being told off by an angry parent. I let it slide; I know he's only worried about me.

"Jeni, get dressed. We're going out."

I put on some jeans and a polo shirt. They're always so comfortable. I walk out into the living room. Mike has gone, and Aiden is looking around.

"I think everything else is fine. I can't see anything out of place."

I walk up to him.

"I need to get dressed. I'll just be a minute." He kisses me on the forehead before walking to the bedroom.

I take a moment while I let it truly sink in that someone is watching us. Not us, me. Someone is watching me. The feeling of anxiety deepens when I start to remember the time in the bath when I felt as though someone was watching me. Maybe I wasn't dreaming it after all.

"I'm ready," Aiden announces as he walks back toward me. "You alright?"

"Yes, the quicker we change the scanner, the better I'll feel."

We head down to the parking garage, get into the Aston Martin, and drive through the city to the security company. We rush, hoping that they're still open. The owner is at the door and about to turn the closed sign.

"Could you please help us? We're desperate," Aiden announces. "I'll make it worth your while."

The man huffs and opens the door. "You'd better; my wife will kill me for closing late again."

He looks me up and down, and instantly I feel like he's a sleaze ball.

"I'm looking for a replacement panel and swipe cards for the elevator in my building. I need to be able to render the cards useless, because one was stolen. I'll need new ones, so that the old cards can't be used. Is this possible?"

"You can re-program the cards you already have, using the old panel. It's like changing the password on your computer. You have to do each card individually, which will make the stolen card ineffective. If the stolen card is used after the reprogramming, they won't be able to access the elevator with that card. I'll give you the cheat sheet on how to do it yourself if you're interested."

"Yes, thanks. I'll need two new swipe cards, one to replace the stolen one and one for my mother."

"Oh, how sweet," the shop owner says. "I'll go out the back to get them."

Aiden looks at me and sighs with relief. The man comes back and hands us the cheat sheet and two new swipe cards.

"This is going to cost you, ya know?"

Urgh. I knew this guy was a sleaze ball.

"How's five thousand dollars sound?" Aiden asks, shocking the sleaze ball and myself.

"I was thinking more like forty bucks, but sure, five thousand sounds good to me."

He writes a check and hands it to him.

"Thank you, I appreciate that you kept the shop open for us."

"Anytime you want to come back and keep me open is fine with me. I just made more money than I made all day."

Aiden picks up the cheat sheet and the two new swipe cards and ushers me out of the building.

"Thank you, please come back again soon," the sleaze ball calls out.

***

We arrive back at the apartment, and he studies the cheat sheet, word for word. He takes out his card and punches some numbers into the control panel. He swipes the card, the elevator chimes, and the door closes to go up to our apartment.

"Guess we won't know if that worked until Mike gets back," Aiden says as the doors open to our apartment. We walk in and go straight to the kitchen to start on dinner again. He turns the tap on and is putting the water into the pot when his phone rings.

"Hey, Mike ... it's not working? Perfect, I'll be right down."

He hands me the pot.
Guess I'm cooking tonight.
Walking to the elevator, he gets in and goes down to the parking garage while I put the water on the stove to boil. I start to chop an onion, and as I do, tears well in my eyes.

"Stupid onions."

Eventually Mike and Aiden come back to the apartment with the new cards programmed and the system now tested and working properly.

"All done," Aiden calls out to me.

I walk from the kitchen to greet them. They both look at me.

Aiden rushes to my side. "Baby, what's wrong?" He takes me in his arms.

I laugh when I realize they think I'm crying. "No, nothing. It's the onions. I've been cutting onions; that's all. I'm fine."

Aiden and Mike chuckle.

"No more stalkers then?" I ask.

"Nope, we're all safe." Aiden says.

"Mike, do you want to stay for dinner? We have plenty."

"No, thank you, Miss Taylor. It's very kind of you to ask."

"Anytime, Mike."

He walks to the elevator. "Would you like me to give the swipe card to your mother, Mr. O'Connell?"

"Yeah, sure, here it is. Can you please make sure to tell her not to misplace it?" He looks straight at me. I shrug and raise my eyebrows. Mike leaves, and it's the two of us, alone at last.

I walk to the kitchen and put the pasta into the boiling water. Aiden comes into the kitchen and wraps his arms around me from behind, pulling me into a bear hug, resting his head on my shoulder.

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," he whispers into my ear. I turn my head to kiss him.

"I don't plan on going anywhere. You don't have to worry."

"No, really, Jeni, you're my life, my oxygen. I can't breathe without you. You never have to worry about feeling safe because you are. I won't let anything happen to you, ever. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you." He leans in and kisses me passionately. His words make me tingle all over. The electricity surges between us as those pesky butterflies return. I know he'll keep me safe. I know because he's in love with me as much as I'm in love with him, and I'd do anything for him.

I finish preparing dinner and he lets go of me so I can dish up. I take the plates to the table, and Aiden brings over some wine glasses.

"Thought you only drank wine on special occasions?"

"This is a special occasion. We are now in a stalker-free apartment. I think that calls for a celebration," he chirps. I raise my glass, and we clink them together.

"We should get away this weekend, unwind a little. It's been a stressful few days, so I think we should use the birthday present you gave me. What do you think?"

"I'd love to."

Chapter 18

We
get home from work and start to pack for our romantic weekend getaway to the sea side cottage that I gave him for his birthday. I'm not sure what to pack so I pack everything. Romantic negligees, a bikini, clothing, underwear, my pill packets—very important since we don't need a repeat of an unplanned pregnancy, even though the pills failed me last time. I drag my massively overstuffed luggage to the living room.

"Are you sure you're going to need all that?"

"I don't know what I'll need, so I brought everything."

He gets up, walks over to my luggage, and lifts it up. "This weighs a ton, Jeni."

I shrug.

"If you're ready, we should hit the road." He grabs both bags and heads to the elevator.

We step in, ready for our weekend adventure. We load the bags into the Aston Martin. He turns on the radio, and Bon Jovi's "Thank You for Loving Me" is playing. I turn the volume up and he looks at me with a smirk.

"This should be our song."

He lets out a small laugh. "You want Bon Jovi to be the band for our song?"

"Hell yeah. The lyrics are beautiful."

"You can't put hell yeah and beautiful in the same sentence, baby," he says with a grin while the chorus plays.

"What do you say? Do you like it?"

"I say thank you for loving me."

"So that's a yes?"

"That's a yes."

"Yay, we have a song."

We start the drive; the sun starts to set as we pull into a little takeout shop to get some dinner. We set off again, toward the sea side cottage. We arrive and the sun is set as we exit the car. My hair moves in the gentle breeze blowing in from the sea. It smells fresh, like salt water mixed with seaweed. I love that smell. Aiden takes the luggage, and I take our dinner and we head inside our romantic little seaside cottage. We get the keys from the letter box and then open the door to a quaint little two-story, very modern, nautical-themed cottage. It smells like freshly baked cookies. He puts the bags down next to the sofa and turns on the lights.
Wow
, everything is white, the ceiling, the walls, the rugs on the floor, the appliances, everything. The floors are a whitewashed wood. There are shells and nets on the wall, but it doesn't look tacky. It's artistic and romantic.

We walk up the stairs into the master bedroom. The floor is carpeted in a soft blue color, with a monster, king-sized four-poster bed with a white net canopy draped over the top. All the windows have white shutters, which open to a view of the sea.

We walk downstairs to the sofa area. There's a huge double glass sliding door that opens to a deck that has a table and chairs.

"This place is fantastic."

"I know. I did good, right?"

"You did very well." He pulls me into an embrace and kisses me softly.

"We should have dinner before it gets cold."

I walk over to the cupboards and search for plates to serve our soggy burgers and fries. We eat our dinner on the deck. It's a beautiful night. The sound of waves crashing against the shore is calming and washes away the past few weeks of drama.

"It was a great idea to get away this weekend. Thank you for the gift."

"I'm glad you like it. This place is so relaxing. I can see ourselves spending the whole time on the beach reading."

"If I have anything to do with it, we'll be up in that bedroom,
not
reading." He raises his eyebrows.

I giggle, and we finish eating. We take our plates inside, and he takes our luggage upstairs to the main bedroom. He comes back down with something in his hand.

"What have you got there, Mr. O'Connell?"

"It's a surprise." He holds out his hand, which contains a black piece of silky material. I look at him strangely.

"It's what you packed. I just found it." He hands me the silky material. I take it from him and it unravels into a very small, very see-through negligee.

I grin at him.

"I think you should put that on right now, baby."

I dry my wet hands with a tea towel and proceed to take off my jeans, followed by my top. He moves in closer while I stand there in my underwear. He pulls me close, moving his hands to my back to undo my bra; it falls to the floor, freeing my breasts. His eyebrow rises as I kick my jeans across the floor. He slides the negligee over my head. Slowly his eyes slide down taking in the curves of my body.

"Jenifer Taylor, you're an amazingly beautiful woman." He runs his hands down my body sensuously. I lean in to kiss him, but before I reach him, he picks me up and whisks me up stairs to the bedroom. He lays me softly onto the bed and quickly slides off his shirt and shorts. Then he lies naked on the bed next to me. I take off my panties, and as I go to take off my negligee, he stops me.

"Leave that on." He moves on top of me and kisses me feverishly. His hands run along my body, heating me with every touch, his mouth on my lips as his tongue wildly caresses mine. He places his large erection at my entrance, and without any foreplay, he thrusts inside me. I moan loudly, as I'm so tight. He starts to slowly move within me.

"Oh, Jeni," he murmurs then he kisses my neck slowly. He pushes farther and farther into me until he's completely buried inside me. I moan when he kisses me passionately. He slowly moves back out and back in again, and I feel myself loosening with his thrusts. My hands tighten around his bare back and he starts to move faster, letting me become acclimatized to his size. My hands move to fist in his hair. His lips push against mine as he takes my bottom lip in between his teeth, biting it softly. I quiver with want as he moves quicker, taking his lips to my neck, kissing and sucking. He brings his lips back to mine, kissing me forcefully.