Hard to Handle (Love in the Balance 2)

Only one way to find out.

Sadie moved the hand not clasped in his from his shoulder and rested it over his heart. “I do wish you’d reconsider your stance on premarital physical relations.” She tilted her chin down and peered up at him through her lashes.

Aiden’s muscles went taut and his hand squeezed hers hard before he realized it and eased up on the pressure crushing her fingers. Sadie lips arched into a dirty-girl grin. She had his attention. And while she’d never taken teasing this far before, she felt herself ease into familiar territory. She was a good flirt. And she hadn’t even dialed it up halfway.

Sadie walked her fingers up Aiden’s suit and let them trickle down his open collar, brushing the flesh at the bottom of his neck with her nails. “Imagine,” she said, leaning close to his chest and smelling his skin, “what we could spend the evening doing if you changed your mind.”

Aiden came to a halt and Sadie lifted her eyes, flitting her lashes again. His jaw was set, eyes dark, nostrils flared. He looked like he might devour her, and Sadie got a little thrill low in her belly at the thought. As if he just realized they were standing stock-still in the center of the dance floor, Aiden began moving with her against him again.

Sadie bit her lip to hold in the triumphant giggle. Instead of a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, she had a pair of pitchfork-holding twins on her back. And they were both chanting the same tawdry suggestion.

Sadie lowered her voice and pressed her body against Aiden’s, going in for the kill.

“What do you say?” she asked in her sultriest voice. “Would you like to take me to bed tonight?”

Chapter 13

Aiden needed a drink. A big one. One the size of the bucket of Gatorade football players dumped over the coach’s head after a game. Though he doubted iced-down sports drink would cool the heat slowly consuming him, even if he poured it in his pants.

Sadie made him an offer he wasn’t sure he could refuse.

And why would I?

Great question.

Ever since Harmony cheated on him with Daniel, Aiden hadn’t exactly been looking. Then he met Sadie. And after last year—losing his mom, ruining what he and Sadie had together, and learning he was completely unsuccessful at getting over the blonde in his arms now—Aiden decided not to get involved with a woman until he was serious.

Serious, serious.

It wasn’t a pact he’d taken lightly. Lord knows he’d had the opportunity over the last year to go to bed with a woman—even casually—but he had zero desire to satisfy his body’s impulses.

Since his mother’s diagnosis, Aiden’s life had stopped being his own and had become one of service to others. It was why he’d moved to Oregon. And why he’d moved in with his dad. And why he’d taken the job at the factory temporarily. But now Aiden was slowly reclaiming himself. He’d found the part of him that wanted things just to want them. The idea of saving himself until marriage was probably unfashionable and archaic, but dammit, that’s what he wanted. Or maybe that’s what he told himself so he wouldn’t get involved with a woman at all.

Aiden probably never would have considered marriage again—would’ve probably been more against it than Sadie claimed to be. He’d been burned as badly as she had. He knew how she felt. He also knew how he felt.

He loved her.

Sadie was the only woman he trusted to walk down the aisle at his side and not betray him. He could trust her. He’d always trusted her. He still trusted her. It wasn’t just love; Aiden had sunk like he was wearing a pair of cinder block shoes. He was a fool if he believed the whole marriage thing would work with anyone but this woman.

All he had to do was get her on board.

Aiden looked into Sadie’s cinnamon-colored eyes, long lashes sweeping over them as she attempted to seduce him. A slow smile curved his mouth. Sadie was trying to get her way. A common theme. He wanted what she was offering, but he had terms.

Terms including a ceremony and the key phrase I do.

But this wasn’t a game. Not any longer. If he was being honest with himself, hadn’t he been making plans since Sadie reentered his life to include her in his future? When he pictured himself moving out of Dad’s house, hadn’t he imagined buying a place big enough for a family? In two years, hadn’t he pictured celebrating with Sadie on the day he closed the deal and owned all five Axle’s stores?

And in the wee, small hours of the morning, when Aiden lay awake in bed, his mind too busy to allow sleep, didn’t the family he envisioned feature a little girl with Sadie’s cherubic face and fair hair?