Page 7 of Pillowtalk

Aaron

It had been a long time since Aaron had felt flustered over a woman’s touch, yet the very small moment he’d spent holding Kennedy’s hands had pushed all those dormant embers to the surface with a vengeance. His amusement at her mistake was pushed aside with the shock that a complete stranger could make him feel so much with so little physical contact. He hadn’t even had the excuse that it had been a while—he’d literally just cleaned up from a morning with one of his occasional female companions.

He shook his head for what felt like the millionth time since the encounter and straightened from his crouch. Hooking up a tricky Wi-Fi service was second nature, so that it barely took any concentration at all anymore, which was unfortunate because he could really use the distraction. Even if he wanted to pursue Kennedy—and for a brief moment, he really had considered it—the idea was shot to hell the moment he realized who she was. Jared would spend his afterlife terrorizing Aaron just for the thoughts he had toward the girl Jared spent the end of his days madly in love with. Aaron was grateful that he’d found out early enough that most of the attraction to Kennedy was physical, which was easily stifled and pushed aside. Still, he was amused and surprisingly aroused by the deafening tone of her accusatory voice, and then equally impressed by the quick apology that followed. He sensed a strong and humble woman, two qualities he was currently looking for.

He let out an amused huff at himself for his thoughts straying once more and bent over his laptop to plug in the cord. The battery was nearly dead from a late night of Netflixing with Natalie. She’d requested a binge-watch of one of her drama shows that Aaron found out ten minutes in that she wasnotwatching for the plot. He’d fallen asleep around the time the fourth shirtless man appeared on-screen, but was rewarded when she woke him up around five in the morning.

As fun as it was to spend time with Natalie while they were both in town, it was never a permanent thing. She had several different “lovers,” as her job required her to travel too much and she often got lonely, and while Aaron was never too keen on that idea, he was never jealous or possessive. Natalie wasn’t the one he was searching for—and as more time passed, he feared he’d never find the elusive woman he was destined to spend his life with.

He knelt on the cushioned carpet in front of his laptop to test the Wi-Fi hookup. To think, it had only been in the past year that he’d been looking for a more stable relationship, and he was already discouraged by the lack of choices. His sporadic love life had never felt unfulfilled until his former best friend passed. Suddenly L.A., a slew of women, and a monotonous career weren’t enough, and moving back home was his way of wiping the slate clean.

“Ugh, I’m sorry, Aaron,” Chelsea said, coming into the room with a set of jangling keys. “Grant’s teacher called again, and I’m just going to go pick him up. Dan’s down the road at the Palmers’, and I’m pretty sure Kennedy is sleeping off that long train ride in her room. You okay here for a bit?”

He nodded, ignoring the buildup of nervous energy running under his skin at the thought of only the attractive woman upstairs for potential company.

“I’m about finished,” he told Chelsea, clicking over to his browser. “I was gonna check the service in other rooms, make sure it’s good, but if—”

“Oh, that’d be great.” Chelsea reached up and hurriedly fixed the colorful scarf wrapped around her head. “Kennedy’s on the top floor, but you can probably just check it out in the halls, yeah? You’re the best, Aaron. Thanks!” And she disappeared before Aaron could get another word in. He pushed away a grin at her antics, remembering that was how every Porter was.Was.After Jared’s passing, Chelsea was the only Porter alive, and she was now a Tea.

The rush of sorrow in his chest gave Aaron a much-needed reminder that while Kennedy was beautiful and intriguing, she was not his. Surely the guilt would outweigh any budding feelings. Setting his jaw, he firmly decided that Kennedy, like Natalie, was not the woman he was looking for, either.

—

“Damn it.”

Aaron let out the hushed curse yet again and reached out to examine the cable box. He’d always prided himself on being able to see the problem when everything looked just fine, but his twenty-minute job was speedily approaching the hour mark, and there was still no wireless connection available in any room at the B&B.

On the verge of losing his cool and tossing the box against the wall, he set it down on a table on the second-floor landing and blew out a steadying breath, shaking his head at the unknown problem.

“Checked the power boxes,” he said under his breath, listing off the things he’d done already to solve the mystery of the missing signal. His grumbling was answered by a soft giggle that had him flicking his gaze over his shoulder.

Kennedy stood on the bottommost step of the staircase leading up to her room, her hand pressed gently to her mouth as a shade of pink sprouted on her cheeks. Aaron couldn’t help the grin that spread across his lips, his grip sliding from the wall he was leaning against.

“Hey,” he said in greeting, internally cringing at the word falling so awkwardly off his tongue.

“Hi.” Her hand fell to her pocket, and she slipped two fingers inside. Aaron could see her jeans moving to the beat of his scattered pulse as she tapped her hip. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation.”

Her smile was playful, teasing in a way that seemed to come very naturally to her despite the fact their initial meeting had seemed to more or less embarrass her. Aaron had to stop the tempting thoughts of how much he enjoyed that playfulness in a woman, before they took complete control over him.

“Interrupt all you like,” he told her, turning away from her distracting curves and focusing on the task he was there to do. “You’re probably saving this cable box’s life.”

That soft, musical giggle floated to his ears once more, and he exhaled a little longer to try to calm the rushing warmth running under his skin.

“The lack of connection has been surprisingly nice,” she said. “I spent the last twenty minutes with a manuscript and no temptation to be distracted.”

Manuscript?Aaron turned a curious brow toward her. Kennedy’s eyes hurriedly made their way to his face from what he assumed was the butt of his jeans. He tried everything in his power to pop the ballooned ego he could feel filling his mind.

She shook her head, her loose brown hair waving around her face. “I’m an editor,” she clarified, putting on a relaxed smile. “I spend a lot of my time reading and trying to avoid clicking over to the Internet every time I hit a page break.”

Aaron chuckled. “Are the books you’re editing that boring?”

“No,” she quickly corrected. “No, it’s not that at all. I love reading, especially my clients’ work. But it’s also my job. Don’t you get tired of…whatever it is you do?”

He laughed again, nodding at her point. While Lyra Valley hadn’t given him much opportunity to work, when he was doing it day in and out in L.A. he’d often felt the same way—loved it, even while it was occasionally wearisome.

“Is that why you’re here?” he asked, pushing up the lid of his laptop and trying once again to find a connection. “A place with fewer distractions?”

Her eyes distinctly fell down his frame, and while Aaron never felt the need to flex to impress for a woman before, his muscles locked as her gaze roamed over his arms.

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