Page 66 of The Cinderella Secret
“Don’t go in there. Come home with me.”
“Aiden!” she protested, even as she burrowed deeper into his coat. “Don’t ask me that.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” he demanded. “Why should I have to let you go again?”
“Because if you ask me, I’ll say yes. And we both know that’s a bad idea. At least until we settle the DevEntier matter.” With her ear to his chest she had no trouble discerning his growl of discontent.
“And what about after? What then?”
Ella was silent.
“I don’t want you to go in there,” he said, his voice quiet. “He yells at you.”
Ella chuckled. “No, he yells at you. He’s never yelled at me.”
He heaved a breath that sounded like relief. “Why doesn’t he like me? What did I ever do to him?”
“He was very concerned for my safety.”
“That’s ridiculous. I would never...” He stopped and she felt his hold on her shift slightly. “It’s not us, is it? Jackson and Evan and me, I mean. It’s Randall and Owen. My uncles.”
“Probably,” agreed Ella. “He didn’t say. He’s just very clear that your family is not to be trusted.”
Aiden sighed. “It’s been fifteen years since they died. How do they find ways to keep screwing us from beyond the grave?”
Ella looked up at him in surprise. She had assumed that her uncle’s hatred of the Deveraux was somewhat overblown from insults long past. She hadn’t expected Aiden to agree. “They were really that bad?”
“They were horrible fucking people. From peeing on the Christmas tree in front of the mayor, to sexually harassing anyone—and I do mean anyone—within a ten-foot radius, to physically abusing my cousin. They were grade-A assholes who literally no one alive misses.”
“Oh,” said Ella, feeling an enormous swell of sympathy for Evan. “That’s horrible,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry. Is Evan OK?”
“He has a very nice therapist who is apparently some sort of miracle worker. I need to ask Jackson where her office is so I can send her a giant Christmas basket. But anyway, I guess if your uncle knew my uncles, then yeah, I shouldn’t be surprised that he hates me.”
“I’ll make him like you,” said Ella, with more confidence than she felt.
“Mm,” he said.
She looked up at him. How could she not have known instantly that he was Number Nine? His jaw was right there. On the other hand, she hadn’t spent a lot of time looking at him from this angle previously.
“You’d better go,” he said. “The longer you stand here, the harder it will be for me to let go.”
“You really are a romantic.”
“No, just freezing.”
Ella laughed and stood on tip-toe to kiss him. He let go and she walked across the street. She tried not to look back but couldn’t help it when she got to the door of her building. He waited until she was all the way inside.
She slipped inside the apartment and slid off the total fuck-me pumps that Aiden’s person had procured for her. They were going on her NSFW shelf. No one in a professional situation would take her seriously in those shoes. But the emerald green silk top was probably going into standard rotation. She tip-toed into her room and did a double-take. In the gloom of half-morning, it looked like someone was in her bed. She gingerly moved the covers, assuming it was Lilly, and then realized it was just pillows and a shirt mushed together to look like someone. She put on her usual sleep tank-top, rearranged the pillows, and climbed into bed. Her eyes felt as though they had barely been closed when she felt someone bouncing on the bed.
“Ah!” She struggled to sit upright and found Lilly snuggling into bed next to her.
“I put pillows in your bed,” whispered Lilly. “Where did you sneak out to? You were gone all night! Was it a boy? Ooh! Was it that guy from the elevator? The really nice one. Because if it wasn’t, you should seriously consider that.”
Ella stared at her little cousin who was taller than she was. “Go back to bed, Lilly. I’m tired.”
“Just answer the question! Was it the Aiden guy?”
“Yes, sort of. At least mostly.”
