Made For Us (14 page)

He was definitely getting in deep here. Now that the storm was over and reality was waiting for them on the other side of the door, he wasn’t sure how they were going to move forward from this spot—this one perfect spot.

“I wonder if the phones are working yet,” she said quietly. Lifting up her head, Zoe saw that it was after two in the afternoon. “We probably should get up and see what needs our immediate attention.” As if on cue, Baron barked from the other side of the door.

“I’m guessing the dog, for starters.”

Sitting up, Zoe looked over her shoulder at him.

He couldn’t speak. Her hair was a tangled mess, her lips were red and swollen, and she had a sleepy, sexy look about her that made him want to pull her back down beside him and say that the rest of the world could just go away because he had everything he needed right here.

“I’m kinda sorry the storm is over,” she said.

“Why is that?”

“You never did let me light the candles.”

Rolling his eyes, he pulled her back down playfully and kissed her thoroughly on the lips. “Hurricanes are not the time for candlelight,” he said when he finally let her up. “They are a fire hazard and completely unnecessary when you have a generator.”

Zoe stood and walked toward the bathroom. “Ugh! For once can you not be so damn practical?” There was laughter in her voice as she said it, but her frustration was definitely there.

Yeah, she certainly wasn’t the first person to point that out to him. He didn’t see the point in doing impractical things for fun. That didn’t necessarily make him a bad guy, did it?

The next thing he knew, he heard the shower running and knew Zoe would be stepping beneath the spray any second. The caveman instinct was back and he wanted to go in there with her and have her again. Unfortunately, his practical side prevailed and he decided it was time to go take a look outside.

Reluctantly, he rose from the bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and grabbed a T-shirt. Out in the living room, he motioned for Baron to follow. He opened the front door, stepped out onto his entryway, and looked at the property. Some trees were down, but they were on the edge of the property and weren’t a threat to anything. The main house and the garage didn’t seem to have any obvious issues, nor did his truck.

Baron was dancing around at his feet and Aidan figured now would be a good time to let the dog actually go outside rather than here in the apartment. Again. Together they walked down the stairs and Aidan stood back and let the dog do his business. For a moment he wondered if the dog would wander off like he had the day of the storm, but Baron trotted back over and looked up at Aidan for approval.

“Good boy,” he said, kneeling to pat his soft little head and rub him a little behind his ears. Maybe someday, when he was more settled, he and Zoe could get a little dog like this one. He shook his head—where had
that
crazy thought come from? It was probably just as well the storm was over and he could get some space away from Zoe. She was getting under his skin, and he really had to keep his head on straight. He patted Baron one more time, stood up, and led him back up the stairs.

Back inside, he saw Zoe wrapped in a towel, walking back into the bedroom.

“We’ve got phone service!” she called out.

“That’s great!” He chuckled at her enthusiasm.

“As soon as I’m dressed, I am going to have my phone glued to my ear for the rest of the day!”

“Don’t forget, not everyone may have returned to work or have access to their office or even have phone service,” he warned. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

At that moment Zoe came waltzing into the room fully dressed and walked right by him with a serene smile on her face. “You are not going to ruin this for me,” she sang. “I’m going to make my calls and some progress and you, Captain Negativo, will have to deal with me doing the ‘I told you so’ dance.”

“Is it a naked dance?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows. “Because I can completely get on board with that.”

“Such a guy,” she muttered and reached for her phone.

Aidan left her to her business while he took his turn in the shower. He was anxious to go back to the construction site, but he wasn’t going to leave without making sure that Zoe was all right.

He was just stepping under the shower when he heard his phone ring, so he hoped that whoever it was could wait fifteen minutes. The hot spray felt heavenly and he had a feeling he was going to have a long day. Well, what was left of the day.

Once he was out and dry and dressed, he walked back into the living room and heard Zoe talking to someone he assumed was her landlord. Part of him wanted to take the phone from her and talk to the person himself—demand that they find a place for Zoe immediately and reimburse her for all of the things she had lost—but he knew that was being unreasonable. In the short amount of time they had known one another, Aidan had learned that one of the things that made her craziest was when he took control away from her, so he resisted the urge. There was an order that things needed to be done in, and this was something that Zoe had to handle herself.

Grabbing a can of soda from the refrigerator, he contemplated where he needed to begin. Did he stand here and wait for Zoe to be done with her calls? Did he put a call in to one of his foremen and see if anyone had been out to the site? That seemed liked the perfect place to start and it would guarantee him a way of having at least a clue of what he was going to be walking into.

He picked his own phone up from the kitchen counter and remembered his missed call. Running his finger across the screen, he saw that the call was from Darcy. She was probably just seeing if he had service on his phone again, he thought, and wanted to give him an update. Darcy felt the need to let everyone know exactly what was going on at all times. Hitting the voice mail button, Aidan leaned against the counter and listened.

And froze. Everything inside of him went numb right before he felt like he was going to be sick. Hitting the delete button, he ran across the room for his shoes, quickly slid them on, and found his keys.

Zoe noticed Aidan’s frantic movements as she was hanging up the phone. “Aidan? Are you all right? What’s wrong?”

“I have to go,” he said distractedly.

“Why? What happened?” She immediately stood and went in search of her own shoes, fully intending to go with him.

“I…I can’t… I have to go.” He was searching for something else but couldn’t seem to remember what it was.

“Aidan, you’re scaring me. Who was on the phone?”

But he was already at the door and stepping out. He turned and looked at her briefly, his eyes barely reaching hers. “Zoe…I’m…I’m sorry.”

And then he was gone.

* * *

For a full minute Zoe was too stunned to speak. Who was on the phone? She was scared and worried for him. One minute they were both fine, relaxed, and seemingly taking care of business, and now he’d left her there without a car or any indication of when he’d be back!

“Okay, deep breaths,” she said to herself. “Maybe there was a family emergency.” While that seemed like the most logical explanation, it would have been nice if Aidan had just said that as he was sprinting out the door, instead of just offering a mumbled apology. Who did that?

While it wasn’t an ideal situation, Zoe knew she had more than enough to keep her busy until Aidan came back. She had a list of phone calls to make and had to start figuring out how to regroup from all of the things that had happened thanks to the storm. Baron seemed as surprised as Zoe when Aidan stormed out—he was standing by the door whining, so Zoe went over, picked him up, and brought him to sit on the sofa with her. At least he would keep her company while she waited for Aidan.

The next call she had to make was to the management company to see if they could give her another house on the beach, with a reasonable rent, and right away.

She wasn’t holding out much hope on that one. After all, she was probably not going to be the only person in need of a new home. But it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

And she did still have this apartment to stay in—thanks to Aidan.

When they had arrived here two days ago, Zoe felt the apartment was small. Aidan was a force to be reckoned with and he was larger than life—at least to her. Over the past two days, they had been too consumed with the present and in enjoying one another to think about much else.

Now, with him gone, the apartment felt bigger but emptier. She took a minute to let the woman in her simply relive every look, every touch, every amazing moment they had shared.

When Aidan had arrived at her house and demanded that she leave, there had been no realistic possibility of things progressing romantically with him. Far from it. As usual, he had been bossy and demanding and had made her mad. That was who they had become, who she had become comfortable with. And when they continued to argue after their arrival here, Zoe had simply resigned herself to being attracted to a man who ticked her off and who wasn’t attracted to her.

Boy, had she been wrong on that one.

From the moment Aidan had first kissed her, she had been lost. The man kissed better than her every fantasy, and the way he touched her and made love to her still had her body tingling. She had imagined Aidan would be just as controlling in the bedroom as he was everywhere else, but she had been mistaken in that as well. Never before in her life had a man done so much to ensure her pleasure.

Looking toward the door longingly, she wished he were here right now. If he were, she would do whatever she could to reciprocate all of the ways that Aidan had put her first, pleasured her on so many levels. There was time for that later, she supposed, but it still would have been nice to be able to do it right now.

“Not a bad way to procrastinate,” she said, reaching for the phone again.

Two hours later, her head was pounding and her stomach was growling, but she’d made some progress. Thanks to her landlord and the management company, claims were already in the works on the house, which made it easier dealing with her own insurance company. It wasn’t going to be a quick process, but there was no doubt that she’d be receiving some sort of compensation. While it would be impossible to replace her personal items, at least she’d have the money to replace her clothes and furnishings and electronics.

As expected, no one could promise her a place to live right away. Living in this in-law apartment was far from hardship, however. The commute to work was longer than from her old place, but it wasn’t impossible. That reminded her she needed to put a call in to Martha. Looking at her watch, Zoe wondered why Aidan hadn’t called her. She hoped he was all right and that his family was okay.

Checking some items off her list, Zoe pulled up Martha’s cell phone number. She knew her boss wouldn’t be in the office this soon and figured her cell was the most logical place to start.

“Hey, Martha, it’s Zoe!” she said when her boss answered.

“Zoe! You’re the first to call in. How are you? How did you do with your first hurricane?”

As much as it pained Zoe to have to repeat the story again, she spent the next fifteen minutes telling Martha all about the house and her losses, but left out the fact that Aidan was the one who had convinced her to leave. She simply said that a friend had come and talked her into it.

“Well, it’s lucky for you that you did!” Martha cried. “Oh, Zoe, I…I don’t even know what to say! I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. If you need some time off—”

“No, no, no,” she protested. “I don’t need anything like that. Let me know when you’re ready to open the office again. Do you have any idea when that might be?”

“Not before tomorrow,” Martha said, “and maybe not until the day after. We have to see how much storm damage there is. I’ll give you a call as soon as I know, okay?”

They hung up, and Zoe realized that she had nothing to do but wait. There was still a ton of food in the house so she made herself a sandwich and stared at her phone like it was a ticking time bomb. The urge to call Aidan was nearly overwhelming. The only thing stopping her was that she didn’t know if he’d be annoyed if she called him. Maybe he’d feel like she was checking up on him, which she was, and then think that she was one of those smothering girlfriends.

Wait, was she even his girlfriend? What exactly were they? They hadn’t talked about their relationship at all, and now Zoe had to sit and wonder whether these last two days were just about killing time or if they were actually going to continue with it. Well, damn. That took some of the afterglow away. What if all Aidan had been doing was killing time there with her?

Sitting back down at the kitchen table, Zoe started to think back through their conversations. He had been rather quick to make it clear that if she stayed here temporarily, that it wouldn’t be with him. She groaned at the memory. “And there I was so blinded by the glow of a few good orgasms that I didn’t even notice how adamant he was on that or bother to question it. Idiot.”

With her appetite gone, she tossed her sandwich out and went and grabbed some ibuprofen to help with the headache that was threatening. She was restless and unsure of what to do with herself. She hadn’t really left the apartment in days. Maybe that was contributing to her overall ill feeling. Looking over at Baron, she decided that maybe a walk would do them both some good. Grabbing his leash, she called him over and couldn’t help but smile when he enthusiastically pranced over. “Obviously you’re not feeling the same level of desertion that I’m feeling,” she said as she attached the leash and straightened. “For a while there, I thought you had completely written me off.”

Baron barked.

Zoe couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s good to see that we’re still friends.” Opening the door, she already felt a little bit lighter. The fresh air, the sunshine…it was having the desired effect.

They walked the property and then down to the end of the block and back before Zoe was ready to be back inside. She realized midwalk that she hadn’t brought her phone and now she was obsessing about whether she had missed any calls—like from the management company, Martha, or Aidan.