I’m lost in my thoughts and it’s not until we leave campus and hit a residential street that I realize we’re walking to Aidan’s house.
Chapter 31
Amber
Aidan doesn’t speak until we’re about to walk up his front steps. “What happened in there?” he asks, his jaw still tight. He stops on his porch and turns to me. “They’re not going through with it, are they?”
“No. The professor gave me a quiz and they decided everything was okay after all.” I glance up at him and see the tension in his face finally release. “Was that your idea?”
“Yeah, kind of. I didn’t so much suggest it as tell them in no uncertain terms that if they thought you didn’t know the material, they should call you in and have you do some problems.”
I smile at him. “The Vice Provost said you were very forceful. I could even hear you out in the waiting room.”
Aidan sits down on top step and gestures for me to sit next to him. It’s not a wide area, but I leave a few inches between us, unsure of where things stand.
“I almost lost it,” he says. “I couldn’t believe they’d accuse you of cheating.” He runs a hand through his hair, and my eye is drawn to the dark stubble on his face. He must have rushed out without shaving this morning.
“Thank you,” I say softly. “For the tutoring, and for coming to my defense. If it hadn’t been you — if it had been someone else — I’m not sure they would have believed me.”
He jerks a shoulder angrily and shakes his head. “That’s bullshit. They need to have a better way of dealing with stuff like this.”
“That’s exactly what I said.” For the first time in several days, a small laugh surfaces.
Aidan smiles at me, warming me like the sun, but then his smile fades, and I know this is it. Either we talk things out, right now, or we’re done. Forever.
“Aidan—” I say.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “For going off on you that way. You’ve never given me any reason not to trust you. I just — I saw you with that guy and it made me crazy.”
I take a deep breath. A bit of anger flares, but I don’t want to get mad again. “That seems a little unfair,” I say, “considering how you are almost always surrounded by girls.”
“That’s —” Aidan breaks off. I know he was about to say that’s different. Instead he says, “You were holding his hand.”
I twist back from him and look at him with wide eyes. “I was not!” Then I remember. “I wasn’t holding his hand. I think I patted it for a moment. That was my roommate’s best friend, and he’s in love with her and was asking me for advice. There is nothing between us — less than nothing — except for having her in common.”
Aidan’s mouth opens, but it’s a long moment before he speaks. “Oh,” he says, then another long pause. “Shit. I really fucked up, didn’t I?”
“You kind of did,” I say, my voice softening. “You didn’t give me a chance to explain.”
Aidan blows out a breath and rakes his hand through his hair again. “I’m sorry. I was just — I thought you would come to the show. You didn’t even let me know how your test went.”
A flicker of hurt passes across his face and it’s my turn to feel bad. “I was going to,” I say, “but Eric was waiting for me right after the test, and I thought it would just be a few minutes.”
He searches my face for a moment, then starts to get up. “Do you want something to drink?”
“That’d be great,” I say.
He unlocks his front door and I follow him insid
e the quiet house. I set my bag down in the entry and we go into the kitchen.
“What would you like? Coffee? Soda?”
“Just water, thanks.”
Aidan gives me a glass of water and pours himself a Coke. “Okay, I’m going to be honest, and don’t get mad, just hear me out.”
I can’t help but flinch internally at his words. I’m not sure I can handle any more drama or surprises today, but he continues before I can say anything.
“This girl came up to me after the show Thursday night, right before I saw you with Eric, and she was hitting on me.”
My stomach draws back into its familiar knot. “Well, that’s nothing unusual.” I don’t quite manage to say it in a nice, neutral tone.
Aidan lets out a little laugh that’s not at all amused. “No, but — sorry for being crude — I haven’t gone this long without sex in years, and I was —”
“Wait, what?” I interrupt. “What are you talking about?”
He turns his full attention to me then, and I see a glimmer of the sexy bad-boy Aidan appear in his eyes. “I haven’t been with anyone since I met you that night at the club.”
My jaw literally drops open for a second before I snap it closed. “You’re serious?”
“Completely serious.” His eyes grow darker, his voice deeper. “I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”
My entire body starts to tingle, my nerves all coming to attention as his words sink in and fill me with an unexpected joy. “But you — I thought — all those girls…”
Aidan shrugs a shoulder. “The band,” he says, like that explains everything. Like he doesn’t realize he’s the most gorgeous man walking this earth.
“And you haven’t —”
He’s been leaning against the opposite counter in his narrow kitchen, and now he comes off of it and is right in front of me, almost but not quite touching me. “No, I haven’t,” he says, holding my gaze, looking deep into my eyes. “Not with any of them.”
He reaches out and collects a strand of my hair, starts winding it around his finger. He’s not touching me anywhere, just that lock of hair, yet my body starts to ignite. “You think I’m this horny with everyone?” he asks, mouth turned up into his sexy smirk.