Alarm

I went from warm to hot in a matter of seconds. My thighs and ass clenched involuntarily as I took in a breath and held it. He wasn’t grinding into me or anything, but it was still very, very noticeable.

Morning wood.

Like spooning, it was something I’d heard a lot about but never really experienced. When Zach had slept over, he’d always been up before I was. He also wasn’t one for cuddling in bed, so it had simply never been an issue.

Is that what it was? An issue?

As I closed my eyes, my mind went a little wild. I couldn’t help but have thoughts of him waking, shoving my pajama bottoms down my legs, and pushing inside of me. I could almost feel him kissing my neck as he rocked into me slowly.

The thought made me wonder if he would even be that way—slow and gentle, the same way all my past lovers had been. It didn’t seem to fit, and my fantasy quickly switched to him rolling me to my stomach and pounding into me from behind.

I could feel sweat beginning to collect behind my neck and under my breasts. I really had to get out of this position before he woke up. Well, before the rest of him woke up.

He didn’t make it easy.

The man had a death grip on me. Trying to move his arm off of me was darn near impossible. He just wouldn’t budge. I ended up slithering out from under him, nearly getting my head trapped in the crook of his elbow in the process. Eventually, I fell on my knees at the edge of the bed.

Aiden’s face scrunched for a moment as he reached out his hand at the empty mattress. He rolled to his stomach and rubbed his head against the pillow before letting out a long sigh. I remained motionless for a moment until I was sure he was completely asleep, and then I tiptoed over to my suitcase, grabbed some clean clothes, and made my way to the bathroom. I spent a little extra time on my hair. The humidity wasn’t doing anything for my curls, and I had been fighting frizz since I had arrived. It was a good distraction.

He was still sleeping when I was done, so I headed off to the kitchen to make coffee. Rain was coming down in sheets, darkening the sand and blocking out the sound of the waves. After the first cup was empty, I decided he wasn’t going to wake up any time soon and that I should just find my own breakfast.

Going through someone else’s refrigerator was a little nerve-wracking. I wasn’t sure if it was as much of a guest faux pas as it was to check out someone’s medicine cabinet, but it had to be up there on the questionable etiquette list. It seemed better than going through the cupboards though, so I just made quick work of finding the carton of eggs and some milk.

Scrambled eggs and toast were actually a more elaborate breakfast than I usually made for myself at home but seemed sparse after a couple of days of Aiden’s cooking. It didn’t taste as good as his, either.

I ate and watched the rain come down, had another cup of coffee, rinsed off my dishes before placing them in the dishwasher, and then sat down at the kitchen table to stare at the rainy beach some more.

Aiden continued to sleep most of the morning. I peeked in on him a couple of times and could only assume he’d been up really late. With the rain pouring down even harder, I couldn’t walk along the beach, so I sat at the kitchen table and looked out at the grey sky. Even with the bad weather, it was still beautiful.

I ended up turning my phone back on and playing games. I was down to about a quarter of my battery’s power but still considered checking my email. If I were being honest with myself, I would have admitted that I was afraid to check it. I really didn’t think giving such short vacation notice would get me fired, but I was also pretty sure Chia Head would have something to say about it. However, Mom’s comments about not doing anything rash were echoing in my head.

I played more games. I looked in on Aiden and then made another pot of coffee.

The phone beeped to tell me I was down to twenty percent, so I switched it back off and listened to the wind howl. I picked up Aiden’s red baseball cap and fingered the worn inside edge, wondering how long he had had it and if he had ever worn it the right way before placing it back on the kitchen table. Eventually I had to acknowledge that I was running out of options to keep myself occupied.

Boredom got the better of me. Though I felt a little sneaky about it, I started wandering from room to room, just to see what was there. I hadn’t had any kind of house tour, but I didn’t think it w

ould take long to just peek inside the rooms I hadn’t been in yet.

On the other side of the living room was a short hallway with three doors. The first two doors were open, and I found a bathroom behind one and Aiden’s weight room behind the other. I recognized the treadmill and a weight bench with a lot of dumbbells lined up in a rack, but there were a couple of machines I couldn’t identify. One had a bar running through the middle of it and heavy weights lying beside it, and the other was tall with a barbell at the bottom and handgrips up at the top. There was also a mat on the floor and a free-standing punching bag.

If I hadn’t noticed from his physique, this room definitely put him in the serious bodybuilder class.

The door to the last room was closed, and I was pretty hesitant to open it. I was prying—there wasn’t another name for what I was doing—and that was ultimately rude. Still, I didn’t know what else to do with myself while I waited for Aiden to wake up.

Maybe he already had.

I silently slipped back to the master bedroom and looked in. Aiden was on his back and snoring slightly. He didn’t look like he’d be waking up anytime soon.

I went back to the closed door and placed my hand on the knob.

I shouldn’t be doing this. All the other doors were open, so why would he keep this one closed unless it was to hide something behind it? What could he have in there? Did he hide his drugs in this room? Weapons? A dead body?

Alarm!

There was only one way to find out. With a deep breath, I turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Boxes.