Page 22 of Wounded Fox
Thirty years!
A tinge of guilt hit me square in the chest at his words but I shoved it away. There was no time to feel guilty when I was lying in bed with the most perfect engagement ring on my finger and no clue how it got there.
Stupid wine.
Another reason to never drink again.
"Why did you propose?"And why the hell did I say yes?
Aaron dropped his arm and looked me right in the eye. "You really don't remember anything about last night?"
I flopped back and mimicked his position, except instead of looking at him, I stared up at the ceiling as I tried to piece together last night.
"I remember dinner. I remember agreeing to watch a movie and wanting to take a shower first. I remember the damn bat and coming back downstairs after my shower. I know I agreed to wine and popcorn. After that it gets a bit fuzzy."
Snippets were trying to break free but the picture as a whole was just out of reach. And what a shame that was. I've waited all these years to hear Aaron confess his love, and the one time he does, I can't remember it.
"Are you going to fill in the blanks for me?" I asked him. My mouth dropped open when he shook his head no. "What do you mean no?"
"It doesn't have the same meaning if I tell you what happened. There's a big difference between living it and hearing it."
"That might be true, but at the moment, I would take hearing it over not remembering at all."
Again, he shook his head no. He also grabbed my hand and started playing with the ring again.
"You didn't take it off and fling it at me."
Rolling onto my side, I propped my head up on my hand and looked down at him. "Is that what you expected me to do?"
Aaron mirrored my position so we were eye to eye. "Well, I didn't expect you not to remember. You only had two glasses of wine.”
I rotated my head with a groan so that I was facepalming myself. "I'm such a lightweight," I told him honestly.
"Had I known that, I would've stopped you after the first glass." Aaron laughed and I easily joined in with him because honestly, the situation was funny.
"It's fine. I'll probably remember after the pounding in my head goes away. Right now it hurts too much to think," I groaned. "I just need aspirin, a glass of water, and a hot shower. Maybe with you in it."
Aaron brushed his lips across my forehead and whispered, "I can help with two of those things.” I realized I said that last part out loud when he answered. “The third one will have to wait until after you remember."
"Does that mean . . .?" I took stock of my clothed body. It certainly didn't feel like I had sex for the first time in a decade and I did have clothes on but that didn’t mean anything. Granted, it had been so long since I used anything but my toys that I wasn't sure I would know what it felt like.
Aaron looked at me like he didn't understand what I was asking, so I waved my hand back and forth between the two of us. After a few seconds I could see the lightbulb go off behind Aaron's eyes.
"You mean did we celebrate our engagement once we got to bed?"
I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face. Instead, I growled out my answer. "Yes, that."
I knew I was in trouble when he leaned over and whispered across the shell of my ear sending a shiver throughout my whole body. "I can assure you if we had, there's no way you wouldn't remember."
My mouth fell open and I was left speechless as he climbed out of bed. "I'm going to go grab the aspirin and water. Then you can take a shower."
I watched Aaron walk away in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs and wondered how I didn't realize until that moment that he was practically naked in bed with me. I blamed it on the alcohol. There was no other explanation for my lack of attentiveness.
Closing my eyes, I waited for Aaron to come back with the medicine. I was just starting to fall back into slumber when I heard him clear his throat.
"I'm not sleeping,” I was quick to say.
Not exactly a convincing argument considering my eyes were closed. It took more effort than I cared to admit to open them the second time and was sad to see Aaron had found himself a shirt and gym shorts.
