Page 54 of Small-Town Secrets
Did he still want me in his bed?
"I was upset earlier because you seemed to think I might hurt the twins," he explained.
Seriously? That was why he'd left like that?
"I get that. I just... I need you to understand that I'd never lay a hand on you or the children." He got up from the couch again and approached me. I didn't back away. I saw no reason to. This moment, I wasn't scared. I smelled Aaron's alpha pheromones in the air, but it wasn't aggression that I sensed. At least not aggression towardme. Aaron presented no danger to me or my children, but to those who wanted to harm us.
"I lied to you," I said, because I didn't understand why Aaron wasn't angry with me. This all felt surreal. Too good to be true.
"I would have lied too if I'd been in your place. You were only doing what you thought was best for your kids. Our kids. Damn, that feels weird to say."
Aaron stood so close to me now I could have kissed him. I wanted to, anyway. Just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Aaron was smiling at me. He looked so handsome like that I wanted to get him naked and postpone the rest of our talk to the next morning.
But I had to be a grown-up here, not a horny teenager.
"You said you didn't want kids," I reminded him, because if he was going to walk out on the twins a few days, weeks or even years down the road, I needed to know now. They didn't deserve losing another dad. "If all you want is me but not them, that's—"
"No," Aaron cut me off before I could even finish the sentence. "I said I didn't want kids because I never thought I'd have any. I dated another alpha for a really long time." He shook his head. "Everything's different now. Honestly I think it's going to take me a while to process it all, but I already know I'm not going to run from my responsibilities." He rested his hand on the nape of my neck, making my skin tingle where he touched. "If you want me in your lives, I'm never going to leave you. That much I promise."
I looked into his eyes and he held my gaze. It was hard to believe, but he was actually being serious about all of this.
And I wasn't dreaming either. That was the weirdest part.
"We don't have to tell the boys right away if you don't want to," Aaron said, but I was hardly hearing the words he was speaking. All I could focus on were his lips as they formed the words. I got that Aaron wasn't leaving me, or the boys. That was the important part. We could work out all the details later, right?
"You know what I want to do right now?"
Aaron shot me a questioning look. Silly Aaron. Did he really not know?
I grabbed his shirt, pulled him closer and kissed him. It took him less than a second to respond, plunging his tongue into my mouth like it was his right. If he had been anyone else, that display of dominance might have driven me away, but he was Aaron, and if he wanted to claim me, he was more than welcome to. His hands slid down my sides, came to rest first on my hips and then on my ass. I gave an appreciative murmur, the only sound I could make with his lips on mine.
Aaron didn't seem to care that I wasn't being very articulate; he got my meaning regardless. Maybe he could guess what I wanted by the way I dug my fingers into the fabric of his jeans, pressing our groins together. He was getting hard.
Perfect.
A pleasant shiver ran down my spine when I felt his erection against my thigh. I wasn't a teenager anymore, but I still wanted him just as much as I had back then, and the idea that I couldhavehim? Positively made my head spin. Especially now that I wasn't keeping any more secrets from him. It was all out on the table. I had nothing left to hide.
Well. Almost nothing.
There was one last thing, and once we made it to Aaron's bedroom and closed the door behind us, I decided I was going to be totally open with the alpha before me from here on out.
"Wait a second," I told Aaron when he moved to turn out the lights. I saw questions in his eyes when he looked at me, but he didn't voice them. I forced a smile on my face and took off my long-sleeved shirt.
A second passed and then another.
Aaron simply stared at me as I discarded my shirt in a corner of the room. I'd expected that he would react that way, but it was still unnerving. As much as I avoided looking at myself, Iknewwhat I looked like. Fine scars ran down the lengths of my arms. Jagged lines interspersed with small burns that had been caused by cigarette butts. Some of the damage extended to my chest, but most of it was concentrated on my arms. I wish I could say that I remembered how I got every single one of these scars, but I didn't. Some of them were Howard's fault. Like the jagged scar on my upper left shoulder where he'd hit me with a coffee mug he 'hadn't been aiming at me' that one time. Many of my scars were older, though, going back to my stepfather, who'd also thought I was either a nuisance or a punching bag.
Sometimes I wondered if Howard saw my skin and figured that he didn't have to treat me well because I was already ruined anyway.
Now I only wondered what Aaron saw when he looked at me.
I guessed he might be shocked or disgusted, but what he actually said blew my mind. "Have you ever thought about getting tattoos?" he asked.
"A tattoo? What the hell are you talking about?"
He rubbed the back of his neck as if suddenly afraid he'd said something stupid. "It's just that Jake is covering up one of his scars with a tattoo so I thought... something like that might help you feel better about yourself. It's not that I need you to do that or anything. I really don't care." His voice took on a darker tone as he spoke on. "I'm not upset by your scars. I'm upset how much I want to punch the garbage humans that did that to you."
I don't condone violence. I told my kids all the time that they shouldn't use their fists to solve their problems, and yet, hearing Aaron talk about wanting to punch the fuckers who hurt me warmed my heart. "It's okay." I tried another smile and this one came a little more easily. "I'm over it. I really just want to move forward." I grabbed Aaron's arm and led him to the bed with me. It was weird to be this casually half-naked around him, but good too.
